The Contemporary Buttercream Bible (38 page)

on a cake. With buttercream you can express

anything you want to say – how cool, and at the

same time sweet, is that? The following tutorial

combines all the writing techniques we have

described in this chapter and shows you how to put

them together to make the stunning graffiti cake

below. All the words on the cake mean ‘love’.

1 Using your ruler or scraper, mark a bottom

border.

Using

various

colours

of

tinted

buttercream, pipe different colour squares (see

Crochet in Textile Effects).

2 Start with the stencilling technique (see

Embossing or Stencilling) as you need ample space

to do this (A). Make sure to use thinned

buttercream.

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A

3 Next use some embossers (see Embossing or

Stencilling) to make an impression and then pipe

over it.

4 Lastly, you can write other words or patterns

using freehand piping or painting (see Direct Piping

in Pattern Transfer and Painting) as you can easily

adjust the size of your lettering to fit into the spaces that are left. You can also fill empty spaces by

piping simple shapes.

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Tip

If you are going to use stencilling and

embossing always do these two techniques

first, before you do any other piping, because

you need to be certain that you have sufficient

space to fit the stencils and patterns on the

cake.

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To create this cake…

• 20 × 25cm (8 × 10in) square cake (bottom tier),

15 × 13cm (6 × 5in) square cake (top tier)

• 2.3–3kg (5lb 2oz–6lb 8oz) buttercream

• Dowel rods

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• Paste colours: red (Sugarflair Ruby), pink

(Sugarflair Pink), dusky pink (Sugarflair Dusky

Pink), burgundy (Sugarflair Burgundy), black

(Sugarflair Liquorice)

• Scraper or ruler

• Piping bags

• Scissors

• Embossers and stencils

• Palette knife

• Small round tip paintbrush

• Black food colouring gel/paste

• Water, rejuvenating alcohol, vodka or lemon juice

• Paint palette

• Writing nozzle 0-3 (optional)

• 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:

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200–300g (7–101⁄2oz) each of red, pink, dusky pink

and burgundy, 300–400g (101⁄2–14oz) of black and

another 300–400g (101⁄2–14oz) of black again, but

this time slightly thinned. Refer to the photograph

and pipe the crochet borders in red, pink, blue and

dusky pink and burgundy (see Crochet in Textile

Effects). Add the words and patterns following the

tutorial, using the black and thinned black

buttercream and the black food colouring gel/paste.

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Beyond

Buttercream

Just when you thought that sweets and candies

were only for kids… In this chapter we will prove to

you just how pretty those colourful treats are,

especially when arranged cleverly on your cake.

Everyday food, such as fruit loop cereal or a bag of

humbugs can have a transforming effect. They

create perfect accents, making them a double treat!

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Embellishment Choices

Colourful candies, chocolates, and so many other

edible sweeties would make lovely adornments to

your cake. Choose sweets that either complement or

make a good contrast to the colour of your tinted

buttercream. Round shaped sweets can be lovely

when put in the middle of a flower, will make great

borders, and can be arranged to create shapes or

words. Just remember that some things, like

cookies and marshmallows, if left exposed for a few

days will become stale or dry. Here is a selection of our favourite embellishments. Whatever you choose

make sure to pipe a blob of buttercream to stick

them to your cake.

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Rice Paper

This one is something that can be done in a flash!

As we like to say, ‘imagination is your only

limitation’. All you have to do is get the perfect

picture in your head, and go out and find it. You

may take photos of real life, or simply search the

web. Be aware of copyright issues if you want to use

a photograph that was taken by someone else. Send

off your image to a specialist supplier to be printed on an edible material like rice paper or icing sheet

and stick it on to the cake. Voila!

1 Once you have had your image printed on to

either rice paper or hardened icing sheet, decide on

its position on your cake, trim it to size (A) and peel off any backing paper (B).

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A

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B

2 Pipe a small amount of buttercream on to the

surface of the cake to act as ‘glue’, and spread

evenly with a palette knife (C) before sticking on the pattern (D).

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C

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D

3 To make the butterfly look more interesting, give

it a slight fold in the middle before sticking it onto the cake (E). Don’t try this with an icing sheet – it only works with rice paper.

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