The Contemporary Buttercream Bible (36 page)

buttercreams in an individual piping bag and cut a

hole at the tip. Starting from the edge of the cake

and working downwards, with steady pressure on

your

piping

bag,

pipe

medium

size

counter-clockwise loops with spaces in the middle,

making sure that each loop is overlapping (B).

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B

3 Repeat the same process to create the next

vertical line of clockwise crochet stitches (C).

Continue until the stitches cover the whole cake.

You can change the colour to add variety.

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C

4 To finish off the top edge of the cake, pipe a

crochet line as described in the first variation

crochet tutorial (D).

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D

Tip

Because the whole cake is very textured do

not add too many floral embellishments, as

you want to focus more on the crochet design

rather than the flowers.

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To create this cake…

• 20 × 10cm (8 × 4in) round cake (bottom tier), 15

× 18cm (6 × 7in) round cake (middle tier), 10 ×

10cm (4 × 4in) round cake (top tier)

• 2.8–3.5kg (6lb 4oz–7lb 11oz) buttercream

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• Dowel rods

• Paste colours: biege (Sugarflair Caramel), green

(Sugarflair Gooseberry), brown (Sugarflair Dark

Brown), burgundy (Sugarflair Burgundy), grey

(Sugarflair Liquorice), white (Sugarflair Super

White), dark yellow (Sugarflair Autumn Leaf)

• Scraper or ruler

• Piping bags

• Scissors

• Leaf nozzle (Wilton 352)

• Cake stand or covered cake board

Crumb coat, dowel and stack the cakes (see

Buttercream Basics) and place on a stand or

covered board. Cover and smooth the cakes using

900g–1kg (2lb–2lb 4oz) of plain buttercream (see

Covering Cakes in Buttercream Basics). Colour the

remaining buttercream in the following quantities:

200–300g (7–101⁄ oz) beige, 100–200g (31

2

⁄2–7oz)

each of green and brown, 600–700g (1lb 5oz–1lb

9oz) burgundy, 150–200g (51⁄2–7oz) grey, 50–100g

(13⁄ –31

4

⁄2oz) white and 700–800g (1lb 9oz–1lb 12oz)

dark yellow. Refer to the photograph and follow the

tutorial to pipe the crochet in dark yellow,

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burgundy, grey and white. Finish the top edge of

each cake and the bottom with a row of crochet

following the first variation tutorial. Pipe a

sunflower at the base of the top tier with beige

buttercream (see Sunflower and Leaves in Piping

Flowers), and complete its centre with dots of green

and brown.

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Writing

Think of a personalized cake given your own special

touch with a heartfelt written message – you’d love

to be able to do it, but you’re worried that you’ll

ruin your otherwise beautifully decorated cake. Of

all the skills to master, piped writing seems to be

the most daunting. But never fear! We have lots of

suggestions to help. You can learn to pipe the words

freestyle or with a little help from some small tools

– ideal for those whose handwriting suffers from

artistic shortcomings (or is nearly illegible).

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Direct Piping

This approach is for those who scribble confidently

and write legibly. With this technique, you will

write the words by directly piping the buttercream

on to the cake. Given the right grip and proper

pressure on the piping bag, you will be able to

achieve perfect handwriting.

EFFECTS OF NOZZLES

In the column below we used five different kinds of

nozzles to write one word – LOVE – but this is just

a fraction of the range of nozzles that you can use.

You can see that on changing the nozzle, the overall

effect of the word will change, giving different

character to the cake.

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DIFFERENT WRITING STYLES

Below we have also shown just a few of the many

styles of writing that you might want to use. Again,

the style you choose will have an effect on the

overall impression the cake gives – from zany to

romantic. All the examples in the column below

were piped with a writing nozzle.

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You will need…

• Buttercream

• Piping bags

• Scissors

• Writing nozzle 0-3 (optional)

You can either use a writing nozzle or just cut a

small hole at the tip of your piping bag to write your words. When you write, make sure that the tip of

your nozzle or your piping bag lightly touches the

surface of your cake so that the buttercream does

not curl. Ideally, hold your piping bag straight and

make sure you squeeze it with even pressure, from

the beginning of a word to the end, so the thickness

will be the same throughout. It is also helpful to rest your wrist very gently on the corner of the cake or

use your other hand to support your dominant hand

while writing, so it is not too shaky. It is a good idea to use a cocktail stick (toothpick) to mark the

surface of the cake with a couple of dots to show

yourself where to start and finish, or use the pattern transfer technique (see Pattern Transfer).

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Tip

Another trick for better freehand writing that we

use is to measure the width of the space

where we are going to write and draft the

words on paper first. Then we can check that

the words will fit into that space before we pipe

on the cake.

Painting

This technique can be both easy and tricky at the

same time. Easy because the writing tool is a

paintbrush, which means you will have enough

tolerance to outline, paint and then go back over to

improve your handwriting. But it can be tricky