Hey everyone and welcome back to my channel Cakes by MK. In today's video
i'm going to be showing you guys how to use wafer paper to turn your cake into a modern
abstract piece of art. If you're new to my channel welcome and if you enjoy this video
please give it a thumbs up below because it really helps with the youtube algorithm which means
more people get to see my videos. Apart from that let's get right into this video
so the first thing i'm doing is making my paint that i'm going to use to color my wafer paper
so what i've got here is a bowl with some water in it and then i'm
simply going to add a few drops of gel color to my water and mix that together
i'm using pink gel color but you guys can go ahead and use whichever color you like
now once that's done and you've got a really thin watery paint then it's
time to prepare our wafer paper. Now you want to make sure the surface you're
working on is really dry because wafer paper is really sensitive to moisture
so what i've got here are some sheets of wafer paper, so wafer paper has a rough side and a smooth
side, you can't see it that well on camera but the side that you want to paint on is the smooth side
so what i'm doing first is making some wafer paper triangles by cutting the wafer paper into three
strips and then cutting those strips further to create nine rough triangles all together. You
really don't need to worry about being super neat and you can get creative and make other shapes too
now you don't want to be too rough with your wafer paper like i am here otherwise you may
rip it like i have. Wafer paper can rip quite easily so yeah you just want to be gentle with it
now once you've got all your cutouts ready to go then you want to prepare something to place your
wafer paper on to dry after you've painted them. So two methods i like are one just to grab some
long cylindrical objects and use them to shape your wafer paper on or two which is my preferred
option is using a bunch of bubble wrap which you can kind of crinkle up and then place your wafer
paper on top of. The reason i like this method is because you can change the shape of the bubble
wrap really easily to suit how you want your wafer paper to kind of sit on it after it's been painted
so once everything is ready to go then you want to start painting your wafer paper. Now you only want
to paint a really thin layer on the wafer paper otherwise if you use too much of the paint then
it's going to dissolve your wafer paper which you really don't want and you don't need to be
super neat too, i actually prefer painting roughly on my wafer paper on purpose because i like the
character that it brings to your wafer paper once it's dried. Now once you're done painting then you
want to really gently start shaping your wafer paper. There are so many different ways you can
do this, you can create soft rounded patterns or sharper edged patterns, it's really up to
you and then you just want to place it onto your bubble wrap or whatever you're using to hold the
shape of your wafer paper and then just repeat the process with the rest of your wafer paper
when it comes to shaping the wafer paper i like to shape them all a little differently so that
i've got more of a variety to work with in the end. So with this one here i've kind of pinched
it in the middle which creates this nice kind of sharp edge on one side which i really like
because the wafer paper is super delicate sometimes it doesn't sit the way you want it to so
i'm just adjusting the bubble wrap here so that i've got the shape that i want
now once all my smaller pieces of wafer paper were done i went ahead and created
some larger pieces by cutting some bigger triangles out of wafer paper
and then went ahead and did the same thing that i did with the smaller pieces
so i lightly painted them and then shaped them the way that i wanted
it can be a little tricky dealing with larger pieces of wet wafer paper so
just remember to be gentle so you don't rip the wafer paper
and then once that's all done you're left with these pretty pieces of colored wafer paper which
now need to be left to dry. Now once they're dry you can't shape them again so i'm just doing one
last adjustment of my bubble wrap here so that the wafer paper dries into the shapes that i
want. So they usually take a couple of hours to dry but i prefer to leave them overnight
now once the pieces of wafer paper have dried they should just easily
release from whatever you've placed them on and they'll be
quite firm now too so you can't kind of bend them or reshape them anymore
now our wafer paper is technically ready but it's nice to kind of amp them up a little
so what i'm doing next is i'm going to add a bit of a golden shimmer to my wafer paper
and to do this i'm combining some round sprinkles with about half a teaspoon of lustre dust
you don't need to be precise with the measurements and then i'm just giving that a really good mix
now next i'm grabbing a piece of my wafer paper and i'm moving the edges around
in the sprinkle mixture and this creates a really beautiful soft shine on the wafer paper
i'm just adding a little more luster dust here because i felt like the shine wasn't
bright enough and then i'm moving the edges of the wafer paper again in the mixture
i really love the soft gold effect on the wafer paper i think it's super elegant and
classy and i love using the sprinkle mixture technique too because i find that i use way
less lustre dust than say if i just used a brush to add the luster dust to my wafer paper
now once that's all done we are left with these gorgeous pieces
of wafer paper ready to decorate our cake with
so i've got a rustic two-tier buttercream cake here which i've created some texture
on and i'm going to go ahead and start placing my wafer paper on my cake
now there's a few ways that you can do this, if your buttercream is soft like mine is at
the moment i'm just gently pressing the wafer paper against the cake and it sticks right on
but if your buttercream is cold and firm or if you're using a fondant or ganache cake then
you can use piping gel, water or buttercream to help your wafer paper stick to your cake
now i thought i was done with my cake but i have a serious problem where i just don't know where
to stop so i went ahead and removed some of my pieces of wafer paper and reapplied them
in a way that i was happy with
and that is it my modern very trendy abstract cake is all done
so that is it guys that is how you create a beautiful modern trendy looking cake using
wafer paper. If you want to know how to store your wafer paper you know before you go ahead and put
it onto your cake you can definitely make them in advance then all you need to do is just pop
them into an airtight container once they've dried up and just pop it in a cool dry place. Now when it
comes to placing your cake into the fridge it's preferred that you don't place your cake with
wafer paper into the fridge because wafer paper is sensitive to humidity but you know if you really
need to place your cake into the fridge you know once wafer paper dries it's pretty stable so you
should be okay. Now in terms of how long the wafer paper will last once you put it onto your cake
as long as you don't keep your cake you know under you know really humid conditions or you know under
direct sunlight your cake will be absolutely fine for at least a few days so your wafer paper is
not going to kind of melt or anything like that particularly if you use the method that i showed
you today where you kind of wait for your wafer paper to dry you know for over kind of 24 hours
or so but if you want to be kind of you know 100% sure that your wafer paper is going to last
on your cake especially if you're doing it on a buttercream cake so you've got that kind of extra
moisture coming through from the buttercream then i would recommend placing your wafer paper onto your
cake just before you know you're going to take it to your venue or give it to your you know client
so yeah that's basically it so i hope you guys enjoyed this video please give it a thumbs up
below if you did. Thanks again for watching Cakes by MK and i will see you guys in the next video