Hi! In this tutorial I'm going to show you how to use acetate to decorate your
cakes with six very different designs. For all of these designs we're going to
decorate onto the acetate and then transfer the design to the cake and
there are three benefits of this technique: Firstly, it's easier to pipe or
spread decorations onto a flat surface instead of the side of a cake. Secondly,
some designs are impossible to apply to the side of a cake because of gravity
and I'll show you one of these designs later in the tutorial. Finally and most
importantly, when you decorate with acetate the decorations can lie flat and
smooth against the cake instead of parts of the decoration sticking out from the
frosting. I'll start with a quick introduction to acetate. You can buy it
at craft or baking shops or on Amazon and if you can find a roll of acetate
that works best because it curves around the cake easily and stays in place. Just
make sure it's at least as tall as the cakes you decorate. You can rinse it and
reuse it so it's a good investment and there are so many possibilities with it!
In Part 1 of this tutorial I shared a technique to assemble cakes
using acetate to create perfectly even straight layers for naked cakes,
semi-naked cakes or just to provide a neat foundation for your decorations and
I'll put the link for that tutorial in the video description below.
Acetate is better than parchment for these techniques because it's much
sturdier so your design won't buckle and crease and get distorted. I've put the
link to the extra tall roll I use in the description below. Ok! For all of these
techniques except the last one you'll need a crumb coated cake to start with,
with the sides as vertical as possible so that the cake is the same width at
the bottom and the top and the design will line up straight on the cake. Wrap
your acetate around the cake and cut it an inch or two beyond where the ends
meet to allow room for frosting on the cake, which will make the circumference a
little bit bigger. Then put the cake in the fridge. Now for the decorating
techniques! For the first five techniques we're going to apply a design to the
acetate and then transfer it onto the sides of a cake. The
first technique is a quick and simple way to achieve this marbled look, which
is stunning on its own or it can be dressed up with more details like this.
Choose the color and mix at least three shades of the same colour by dividing the
buttercream into bowls and tinting one bowl to be your darkest colour and then
adding different amounts of that buttercream to each of the other bowls
of white buttercream to make lighter shades. Spread your acetate out on the
counter and spread little dabs of the coloured buttercream all over it using
little arc motions to spread it on and swiping your offset spatula off at the
end of the arc so that it doesn't pull the acetate up with it.
What you can see on the acetate will eventually be pressed against the side
of the cake so it doesn't matter what this upward facing part looks like. It's
the buttercream pressed down against the acetate that will be visible. You want to
cover the whole piece of acetate with buttercream and by spreading it on with
this motion you're blending the colors pressed against the acetate very
slightly to get a natural veining effect but not blurring the colors together
completely. The reason for doing this on acetate rather than straight onto a cake
is exactly what you can see here: when you spread the buttercream to apply it,
it blends together as you spread and you want a more distinct division of the
colors for a marbled effect and that's what's being created underneath the
buttercream so by using the acetate to flip this design around, we're going to
make that other side visible. After covering the acetate, spread the
buttercream to make sure it's an even thickness and double check that the
buttercream goes all the way up to the edges and corners of the acetate. Now
take your crumb coated cake out of the fridge and because it's cold it will be
firm and hold its shape when you apply pressure to it next. Lift the acetate up
and rest the bottom edge on the cake board so that the design will go right
down to the bottom of the cake and angle it upwards so that it presses against
the side of the cake and if you've used a roll of acetate rather than a sheet it
will wrap around the cake for you. Line it up, adjusting a section at a time to
make sure the bottom of the acetate is resting on the cake board and press the
sides gently to attach them to the crumb coat of the cake. You can use your hands
for this or a fondant smoother and you need to apply a bit of pressure so that
the acetate design is pressed against the cake so that it
sticks to it. Where the two ends of the acetate meet or overlap, press on the
join to flatten the buttercream underneath the acetate as much as
possible, scraping off any buttercream that oozes out and we'll tidy up the join
later. If you're enjoying this tutorial please click the thumbs up button and
subscribe to my channel to see a new cake decorating tutorial every week! Put your
cake back in the fridge for at least 30 minutes or the freezer for at least 15
minutes to chill and set the frosting design. When the cake is cold, take it out
of the fridge and peel off the acetate to reveal the marble frosting underneath!
Dip a metal frosting smoother into hot water and dry it off and then scrape
around the cake which will smooth out any bumps in the frosting and most
usefully it will also smooth out the seam in the frosting, where the two ends
of acetate joined. Use the hot frosting smoother to scrape gently upwards,
scraping off any excess buttercream to leave a smooth join flush with the rest
of the frosting design. You'll probably have some air pockets in the frosting,
where air was trapped underneath the buttercream design and the buttercream
wasn't pushed all the way down flat against the acetate and you can fill
those in with any leftover buttercream, spreading it on and smoothing it with a
frosting scraper to fill in the hole. The top edge will be messy so use a sharp
knife to trim it, slicing the blade through the frosting just above the
crumb coat to leave a small lip of marbled frosting around to the top of
the cake. Now spread a few dollops of different shades of coloured buttercream
around the top of the cake and then smooth it with your offset spatula and
the colors will blend together but if they blend together too much, just add a
bit more of the lightest or darkest colour to make the different shades more
obvious. Once the top is smooth, use a frosting smoother to smooth the sides
and tidy up the top edge like you would on a cake with normal frosting. And there
it is! Ok, next we're going to use a cookie cutter to make this ombre polka
dot pattern. Mix a few shades of whatever colour you want to use for the polka dots
and then spread those colors onto a sheet of acetate. The acetate should be
taped onto a baking tray or a cutting board or any other flat surface that you
can lift up in a minute. You don't have to do ombre of course, you could just do
one colour or you could make three separate
blocks of colour if you wanted the colours of the polka dots to be different but
not blended together in an ombre design. Spread the buttercream so that it's all
the same thickness and then put it in the fridge to chill it for about 20
minutes or you can put it in the freezer for 10 minutes. When the frosting has
chilled and set, use a cookie cutter to cut out shapes. Of course you can use any
shaped cookie cutter for this. I'm going to show you a way I tried that didn't
work so that you don't waste your time trying it too. I planned on outlining the
polka dots on this piece of acetate, scraping off the rest of the frosting
and then spreading the background frosting color onto this piece too, but
it's way too much work to scrape off all of the excess buttercream so instead I
recommend cutting the circles out of this buttercream and then transferring
them onto a clean sheet of acetate which will hold your final design. Cut out rows
of circles and place them in the same position on the clean acetate so that
the ombre matches up. When you cut out a circle, check the underside to see which
side is lighter so that you place it the right way onto the clean acetate.
Press down gently to attach it to the acetate. I'm starting with my middle row
of polka dots, cutting them out of the buttercream in a straight line so that
they'll all be the same shade of orange and placing them onto the clean acetate
in a row, spacing them equally along the sheet. Of course for this technique I
could have used a lot less frosting on a smaller piece of acetate just to get the
polka dots I needed. Now that I know this is a better way to cut out the shapes I
know for next time and so do you! Remember that the side of the polka dots
that you can see is going to be pressed against the cake so the side that will
be visible is facing down and that's the side that will have the ombre colouring
whereas this side that we can see here has been spread and smeared around to
smooth and level it so the colours are almost completely blended. That's why
it's important to cut the circles out in rows because then you know they'll be
the same colour on the downwards facing side even though you can't see it at the
moment. As you work you'll notice that the buttercream gets softer as it warms
up, which makes it easier to cut through and to stick onto the clean acetate with
just a tiny bit of pressure to secure each polka dot but if you notice that
the shapes are distorting as you lift them up or press them down,
put the tray of buttercream back in the fridge or freezer for a few minutes to
firm it up. Ok! There we have the polka dot pattern and I'm going to put this
back in the fridge for a few minutes to make sure the polka dots are cold and
firm before continuing and meanwhile I'm mixing my next colour of buttercream, this
deep burgundy which will surround the polka dots. When the polka dots are cold,
spread the buttercream all over them, covering up the entire piece of acetate
all the way up to the edges and corners and completely covering up the polka
dots. Aim for the same thickness of buttercream all over. Now immediately
apply the acetate to your cake while the buttercream on the acetate is still soft
and pliable. Take your cake out of the fridge and the cake and crumb coat will
be cold and firm so they'll hold their shape for this part. Lift the acetate up,
remembering which is the top and the bottom if you want the ombre to go in a
certain direction, and angle the acetate downwards so that the bottom edge rests
on the cake board. Lift the top edge upwards until the acetate is pressed
against the side of the cake and then wrap the acetate around the cake, always
paying attention to that bottom edge to make sure it's sitting on the cake board
and adjust the acetate as you need to to line it up, pressing a section at a time
against the cake to attach the design to the crumb coat. You can use a fondant
smoother if you have one but don't apply too much pressure or you'll squeeze the
buttercream out from underneath or above the acetate and distort the pattern. You
can see that this end of my acetate is sloping up the cake and I should have
adjusted it at this point but I didn't notice it until watching the footage
later. Oh well! You can see from my mistake that if you don't make sure the
acetate sits down on the cake board all the way around the cake, part of the
design will slope upwards! Put the cake back in the fridge for at least 30
minutes or 15 minutes in the freezer to chill and set the frosting and then peel
the acetate off carefully, pulling it off with the excess buttercream from the
join of the two ends of the acetate. Use a sharp knife to cut off the top of the
design, whatever is sticking up above the top of the cake, but leave a little bit
sticking up over the top so that you can fill that in with more frosting to cover
the top of the cake, smoothing that with your offset spatula or a frosting
smoother the way you normally would and next
we'll tidy up the sides of the cake. Acetate wrapped cakes rarely look
perfect when you peel the acetate off; you have to do a few touch-ups to fix
air pockets and smudges before they look fantastic.
Dip a metal frosting smooth it into hot water, dry it off and then scrape around
the cake a few times which smoothes any bumps in the frosting and takes off the
excess buttercream from the top edge of the cake, where you've just spread it on.
For the join of the two ends of the pattern, use your hot frosting smoother
to scrape upwards to scrape off the uneven buttercream where the two ends of
the acetate met. Now that the surface of the buttercream is smooth we're going to
fill in any air pockets by spreading on more buttercream using either orange or
burgundy, depending on where the hole is and then smooth over that section again
with a frosting smoother. Even if there's an air pocket right on the edge
of an orange polka dot, you can still use burgundy buttercream to fill that in.
It's fine, just scrape over it a few times to take
all of the burgundy off the polka dot. Tidy up the top edge and if you have any
smudges of colour on your cake like here, where some orange buttercream got onto
the acetate where it shouldn't have, you can gently gouge that bit out of the
frosting and fill in the hole with the right colour and then smooth over it.
Here's the finished polka dot cake! To create vertical stripes on cakes, tape
your acetate onto an upside-down baking tray and spread buttercream all over it.
The edge that's taped down will be the top of the cake and the acetate should
be at least an inch taller so that you have space for the tape and you'll cut
that frosting off at the end. Imprint stripe grooves with a striped cake comb,
chill the frosting, and then spread the next colour all over the acetate, covering
up the first stripes. I have a full tutorial on vertical stripes including
different styles and troubleshooting tips so this is just a quick outline but
if you want more details you can watch that one by clicking the link in the top
of the screen or in the description below this video.
Lift the acetate up, line it up against the side of the cake, press it against
the crumb coat all around the cake, chill it again and peel off the acetate.
Do any touch-ups like filling in air pockets, smoothing the seam where the
two ends of the acetate met, and trimming the top and then cover the top of the
cake with frosting and add any details or decorations you like! Turn any design
into a cake by taping acetate over the top of the design and tracing it with
buttercream. Use a piping bag fitted with a small round tip like a number four or
just cut a tiny bit off the end of a piping bag so that there's just a small
hole for the buttercream to come out of. Work your way across the design colour by
colour to trace as much as you want to replicate. I have a full tutorial on this
cake if you want more step-by-step instructions and you can watch it by
clicking the link on the top of the screen or in the video description below.
When you finish piping the design, chill the acetate in the fridge for 20 minutes
or in the freezer for 10 minutes. Pipe or spread another colour of buttercream
over the top, going right up to the edges of the acetate and spread it to
smooth over the top so that it's all the same thickness. Lift the acetate up and
wrap it around a chilled and crumb coated cake, pressing it against the
sides of the cake with your hands or a fondant smoother and then chill the cake
again to set the frosting. Peel off the acetate, trim the top of the frosting,
dip a metal frosting smooth it into hot water and scrape around the cake to
smooth out any bumps and then add details like buttercream borders,
buttercream shading and sprinkles! You don't have to use buttercream for these
techniques, you can also use melted chocolate. For this cake I'm using Candy
Melts but you can use white chocolate tinted with colours instead. Melt the
chocolate or candy melts at 50% power in the microwave for one minute at a time,
stirring after each time so that you don't overheat it and then pour it
into zip-lock bags. Cut the corners off and drizzle over acetate, creating
whatever design you like. Here I'm piping these squiggly circles by making
circular motions with my wrist, overlapping different colours and going
right up to the edges of the acetate but not completely covering the whole
surface so that you'll still be able to see the frosting underneath the design
at the end. Doing this with chocolate or candy melts is fun because you would
never be able to pipe this kind of design on to the side of a cake
because of gravity but with acetate you can drizzle and then lift it to transfer
it onto a vertical surface. Lift the acetate up and wrap it around your
chilled and frosted cake using the same method as with buttercream, lining the
acetate up straight against the side of the cake by resting the bottom edge of
the acetate down on the cake board and wrapping it around, pressing it gently
against the cake to attach it. Chill the cake again and then peel off the acetate
and voila! I show every step of decorating this cake and adding the
final touches in a full tutorial and you can watch it by clicking the link at the
top of the screen or in the video description below. This final technique
is a bit different to the previous ones. Frost your cake and chill it to set the
frosting and meanwhile, spread buttercream onto acetate to create
shapes to stick onto the sides of the cake. This will give the illusion of
fondant but with the taste of buttercream! Smooth the buttercream as
much as you can with your offset spatula or a frosting smoother. In the final step
of this technique I'll show you how different the effect is depending on how
thick the buttercream is. Chill the buttercream you've spread onto the
acetate until it's firm, about 20 minutes in the fridge or 10 minutes in the
freezer, and then press a cookie cutter into it which I'm doing here for just
the balloon part of a hot-air balloon. If you want a smaller version of the shape
you can use a sharp knife to trim it to size like this. You can also use a knife
to freehand shapes like I'm doing here for the basket of the balloon. Scrape off
the excess buttercream from around the shape you've cut out, not worrying about
getting the acetate completely clean because we're going to take the shapes
off it next but you just need room to get to the shape. The buttercream will
have warmed up and softened by now so chill it again in the fridge for a few
minutes until it sets and then use an offset spatula to carefully lift up the
shapes, sliding the spatula underneath the shapes and separating them from the
acetate. The underside will have air pockets but the top will be nice and
smooth and that's the part we're going to display. You can use your finger to
smooth the edge of the shape if it's a bit jagged and you can leave the shapes
like this or you can paint on some details. I'm using gel food colours to
paint on some lines and adding some shadowing by smudging the lines. This is
just gel but you can mix it with vodka or a clear
extract like lemon extract if you want to thin it out to make the colour softer
or to cover larger areas of the shape. Chill the shape again if it warms up
during this process, otherwise the warmth of your hand when you touch it will
leave an indent in the shape or smudge the buttercream. Then when the
buttercream shapes are cold, take your cake out of the fridge and
spread on a bit of fresh buttercream where you want your shape to go. Lift the
shape up and press it firmly against the cake to attach it. If your buttercream
shape is quite thick like this one it will stay flat and only the middle
section will be attached to the cake with the frosting you've just spread on.
Chill the cake until two hours before you serve it and then leave it at room
temperature and it will be fine but this technique obviously won't work if you
want to display the cake in a hot place like outside in sunlight because the
heat will melt the buttercream and the shape will slide off the cake. This pink
balloon is much thinner than the teal balloon so when I press it against the
cake it curves around and molds to the shape of the frosting so if you want
your shape to do this instead of staying straight, make sure you spread your
buttercream thinly before cutting out your shape and leave it for a few
minutes at room temperature before applying it to the side of the cake so
that it starts to soften a little bit. I love this buttercream shape technique
and I'll be doing more experimenting with it soon so stay tuned for some fun
designs coming up! Remember to like this video by clicking the thumbs up button
and subscribe to my channel for a new cake decorating tutorial every week!