Hi Bold Bakers!
I have received a lot of requests for simple cake decorating techniques, and as you can
imagine, I have tons of them.
They’re going to yield you amazing results for wedding cakes, for Mothers’ Day, for
any celebration, and all you need is a head of celery.
So let’s get baking.
In this video, we’re going to go step by step.
But I’m going to use homemade fondant, and homemade buttercream.
Now the recipes for these can be found on my website in a brand new section called,
“Bold Baking Basics.”
In there, I’m going to have step-by-step instructions of how you can easily make these
at home yourself.
But we’re going to get started by making our madeira cake.
So to make our cake, I’m using my stand mixer, but you can also use a hand-mixer,
and you can even do it by hand as well.
In here, we’re going to add in some room-temperature butter.
It has to be nice and soft so you can cream it well.
And of course, keep your butter paper to grease our tins later.
I’m going to turn the machine on and loosen up this butter before we add in the sugar.
There you go, it just needs a few minutes.
It’s already at room temperature, so it’s nice and soft.
Now we’re going to go in and add our sugar.
Then, turn your machine on back to medium-high speed, and we’re going to cream these two
ingredients really well together.
So a Victoria Sponge, also known as a Madeira cake, is one of the first recipes you learn
as a kid in Ireland, because you use it to make buns, just like cupcakes, and it’s
like your basic cake, a little like in America, where you have yellow cake and white cake.
This is our basic cake, and it’s absolutely delicious.
There you go.
Once you see that your butter and sugar has gotten really light and fluffy, and just this
pale in color, now it’s time to add in your eggs.
So in here I’ve got my eggs that are already whisked up, because it makes it easier for
them to go into the cake and then we’re going to turn the machine back on, to like
a medium-high speed, and very slowly add in our egg, bit by bit, until it’s all gone.
While you’re adding in your egg, if it looks like your mix is curdling, add in a little
bit of flour to bring it back together again.
Once all your eggs are in there, we’re going to add in our dry ingredients, which is our
flour and our baking powder.
Now you want to give them a mix up beforehand, to make sure the baking powder gets really
well incorporated into the flour.
And then we’re going to turn our machine back on, at a slow speed, because you don’t
want to mix in the flour too hard, and then just gently fold it in.
Mix just until the flour is in there and then stop.
Our flour is in there, so our cake is done.
So we’re going to take it off the machine, and then we’re going to divide it between
our two cake tins.
For our cake, I’m using two six-inch tins.
I like to use six inches because you get a really high cake.
I get a lot of questions on where do I get my tins, and I’m going to put a link actually,
on my website, of where you can buy them directly.
Make sure you always butter and line your cake tins.
Divide your cake as easily as you can, and then spread it out flat on top.
Okay, nice and fast cake, easy-peasy, ready for the oven.
Our timer has gone off, and I can smell our cakes, so I’m pretty sure they’re done.
I know by looking at these cakes that they’re done.
You can always tell by pressing the cake on top, and the cake will be nice and firm underneath.
And you can also see they are beautiful golden brown, and they’ve pulled away from the
edges of the tin.
It is always easiest to decorate a cake when it is not fresh out of the oven.
It’s best to use day-old cake.
So I made these yesterday, so they’re going to be easy to decorate.
So our cakes are looking really good.
They look nice and even, but if there are any little bits of lumps or bumps, run a serrated
knife, along the top, and just give yourself that flat, level surface.
Now for each of my cakes, I’m going to cut them in half, so I can have four layers.
Go nice and slow, and just keep it as level as you can.
It is homemade after all, so it’s going to be a little bit rustic.
There you go—gorgeous.
Okay, now we’re going to move onto the other one.
Do the same thing if it’s a little bit lumpy and bumpy.
We have all of our layers for our cake, and I’m going to put it on my turntable, and
we’re going to start to frost it.
So a little sneaky trick about cake decorating, if you don’t already know, you always use
the top as the bottom so you can get a nice, flat edge.
So for our frosting, I am using my buttercream frosting recipe, which can be found on my
website.
This guy turns out every single time the exact same, so in case you have any trouble with
buttercream frosting, you gotta try this recipe.
So I do have this little turntable because I find that it really helps me decorate a
cake evenly, but if you don’t have one, don’t worry about it; you can always just
use a chopping board.
Spread out a thin layer of your buttercream frosting between your cake.
Then just continue with the other layers adding your buttercream as you go.
When spreading on your buttercream, make sure it’s room temperature so it’s easy to
spread.
Now just like the bottom of our cake is actually our top, the top of our cake, is going to
our bottom, because as you can see, the bottom of a cake is always really flat, so you wanna
save this guy for the very top of your cake, so you get a really lovely, flat top.
This layer of buttercream is actually just going to be a thin layer of buttercream, and
it’s called your crumb layer.
It’s just to pick up any of your loose crumbs.
So we just do this crumb layer to pick up all those guys.
As you’re decorating, always duck down, take a little look at your cake, and see how
you’re getting on.
If it’s a little bit wobbly, sometimes it can lean a little bit, don’t worry about
it.
Like, push it back over, make it stand up straight.
It’s your cake.
Don’t freak out.
Take it all in your stride and believe me, it’ll work out perfectly in the end.
Okay, there you go, that’s it.
That’s our crumb layer done.
So I’m going to place this guy in the fridge, and let the crumb layer go cold, and then
we can do another layer on top in a few minutes.
So it’s been about half an hour, and our crumb layer has set.
So I’m going to go ahead and do another layer of buttercream on top of this to cover
any of the patches we’ve got left.
The best tip I can give you while you’re decorating your cake is just try and do it
as fast as you can, in one big swoop.
The less you go around with your spatula, the better.
Okay, perfect.
Now remember, because we’re going to put fondant over this, you don’t have to worry
about every little lump and bump.
If it’s a little bit showing, that’s totally fine.
Now I’m going to pop this guy in the fridge and let it go cold, while we roll out our
fondant.
While our buttercream is setting, we are going to roll out our fondant.
This is homemade fondant, and I also have marshmallow fondant, which I think is super
easy to make.
So you can choose whichever one you prefer to do.
To roll out your fondant, you want a generous layer of your icing sugar on your table.
It just makes it much easier to roll out.
We are going to roll it out big enough to cover whatever cake you’re making, as long
as it goes over the top, and all the way down the sides.
I really like to make homemade fondant, and I’ll tell you why, because when you go to
decorate a cake with store-bought fondant, it’s never enough, and you have to buy two
or three packs.
And it is expensive.
So honestly, try to make it yourself at home, and it is really easy.
Roll it out as evenly as you can and move it around the table.
Make sure it’s not sticking.
If you find that your fondant is pulling back as you’re rolling, just put a little bit
more pressure on your rolling pin.
Once you’ve gotten your fondant the size that you want it, take it very gently, roll
it on your rolling pin, like this—don’t worry, it won’t rip—and we’re going
to lay it over our cake, very gently, and get it all the way down the sides.
Just use the backs of your hands, and just go around the edges of the cake, and smooth
out all those creases.
Okay, so we’re all the way down to the end of the cake, and with a little paring knife,
we are just going to go around, and cut away the excess fondant.
Don’t cut too close to the cake, because you want to leave yourself a little bit of
fondant to work with, just in case.
Now if you have one of these, they’re great for smoothing out your cake, but you can still
also use your hands if you don’t have one of these.
So now it’s time to put on our roses on our cake, and you will not believe how I do
it.
So to make our roses, this is a really fun part.
I learned this trick a few weeks ago, and what we’re going to do is have one bowl
of green food dye, one bowl of pink food dye, or red food dye, whatever color you want your
roses, two little sponges—I cut up a makeup sponge, but you can also use a clean household
sponge—and it could not be possible without a head of celery.
So let me show you what we’re going to do.
With a serrated knife, cut into your head of celery.
Can you see what this is?
This is going to be the imprint for our rose.
Can you believe that?
Look at all of the different layers.
It looks just like a rose.
Okay, stay with me, because I’ve got a trick for the leaves.
Take two stalks that have already been cut off the top, and put a band around them, and
they’re going to hold them in place, and this is going to make our leaf imprint.
Once you cut your celery, you’ll notice that it gets kind of wet, so dab it on a piece
of paper, and get rid of that moisture.
And then when you’ve done that, take your little sponge, go straight into your food
dye, and then bat it on top of your celery.
The more food dye you put on, the stronger your color is going to be.
Okay, we’re going to take our stamp, and go straight onto our cake.
And what I like to do is kind of roll back and forth, because it’s a round cake, and
just make sure you get all of the stamp there.
Gorgeous!
Look at that.
This is so crazy; I just think that this is so much fun, and an easy way to get a beautiful
result.
So I’m going to do a few more roses.
Go up and down, do them on top, wherever you want.
And then for your leaves, same deal.
Get off any moisture on your tissue, blot on your green food dye, and just place them
in and around the roses.
Do your stamps kind of fast, because you don’t want your ink to bleed on your fondant.
Don’t let cake decorating be a daunting task.
Make it fun, and you can create designs just like this one.
So it’s important that a cake doesn’t only look good, but it tastes great too.
And when you make your own fondant, buttercream, and cake, you really can’t go wrong.
Oh, this is yummy!
I hope you enjoyed this video, and if you haven’t already done so, don’t forget
to tap that Subscribe button.
I’ll see you back here next Thursday for more Bigger Bolder Baking.