- [Instructor] Decorating cakes can be really easy.
You don't have to shell out a lot of money
to make something that looks really fun and beautiful.
And to prove it, we're going to show you
five easy cake decorating techniques
to make you look like a total pro.
(upbeat music)
Starting with our crumb coat.
This is basically just a layer of frosting
to tighten up our canvas.
You're going to want to coat your cake evenly,
but it definitely doesn't have to be perfect,
because we're just gonna cover this up anyway.
You might notice your cake is starting to lean,
but that's okay.
Just nudge it around until it's straight.
When you add your last layer,
make sure you turn it upside down
so that the top of the cake is nice and flat.
Once you're built up,
just finish covering your cake in buttercream.
You can do this with or without a piping bag.
Doesn't matter, as long as you get your cake fully coated.
When you're done,
let it chill in the fridge vefore you start decorating.
For the shag cake,
you'll need a grass piping tip that looks like this.
You're going to add this to a piping bag,
and then you're going to add
one color of buttercream frosting.
You'll need at least four different colors for this design,
and they can be whatever you choose.
Our inspiration for this cake was the Mystery Machine
from "Scooby-Doo."
Starting with your first color,
put your piping bag right up against the cake.
Push down, applying even pressure to the piping bag
and pull straight out while releasing.
You're trying to create clusters of grass,
so just build each one
in almost a stacking triangular pattern.
It's okay if your first few aren't the best.
The grass may not be greener on the other side,
but it'll definitely be easier to make
by the time you get over there.
If you do happen to mess up like we did here, no worries.
Just put your piping bag right up over the space
and try again.
This is a really easy technique because your imperfections
just look like they're part of the cake.
Move on to the other colors as you see fit,
and create whatever pattern you like.
There's no real rhyme or reason here.
We're just kind of filling it in where we see fit,
and you can switch your colors whenever you want to.
There you have it, folks.
Your finished shag cake.
It's so simple and easy.
You can really get creative
and experiment with the designs on this cake.
It's very easy to customize,
and we absolutely recommend you try it.
Let's try a watercolor technique next.
Start with a crumb coat that's already been chilled.
Add a second layer of buttercream frosting
before you start decorating.
This time,
the second coat is going to be visible under our watercolor,
so be a little bit more precious with it
than you were with the crumb coat.
You're going to need two different colors for this design.
Starting with your first color,
use an offset spatula swipe dollops of buttercream
all over your cake.
Try to offset each swipe.
If you have any cracks or imperfections in your bottom coat,
cover them up with dabs of colored buttercream.
Add your second color of buttercream in those empty spaces.
We don't want any swatch to be too close to the other.
You're going to use light pressure
to slowly blend the swatches of buttercream together.
Let it build up on your tool.
This will help the colors blend
and really just keep smoothing it from here.
It's up to you what you want it to look like.
The more you smooth, the more colors are going to blend,
so if you want something bright and striking,
we'd say less is more.
You could always add more swipes of color as you go.
(mellow music)
Just repeat the same steps from the top
and then smooth to your heart's desire.
Think of the motion up here as nice sweeping curves.
This cake is giving us
a little bit of spring the winter time,
so here's how we're going to complete the look.
We combined our remaining buttercream inside a piping bag,
and we're going to use that to create a ribbon border.
Now apply even pressure to your piping bag
and move in a very subtle circular motion,
and then top it off with some flowers.
No rhyme or reason here.
Just do what makes you happy.
(upbeat music)
Topping off your cake with flowers is usually a safe bet,
and those flowers look so good.
Let's take a break from crumb coats
and talk flower piping techniques.
To make some beautiful buttercream roses,
you're going to need this petal piping tip.
Add that to your piping bag
and then fill it with red buttercream frosting.
Now this is called a flower nail.
It's just a very handy tool
that's going to make it really easy to sculpt our roses.
First, place a dab of buttercream on the nail
and place a square of parchment paper on top.
Touch the wide end of the tip to the base of the flower nail
and the narrow end should point up
and angle slightly inward.
Squeeze the bag and rotate the nail.
Use even pressure to squeeze out the next petal.
Touch the tip to the base of the center bud
and rotate the nail as you squeeze,
creating ribbons that wrap halfway around.
Make sure each new petal overlaps the one before it.
And there you have it, buttercream roses.
But you know what?
We're feeling festive, so let's do some poinsettias next.
The only thing you'll need different
is this leaf piping tip.
Create leaves by squeezing hard at the base
and then release the pressure as you pull out.
Poinsettias have five leaves at the bottom
and another five stacked on top.
To really sell it, we're going to add gold sprinkles
right in the center of our leaves.
Perfect.
Now we're just going to put all of our flowers
on a baking sheet
and transfer them to the fridge to chill.
To complete this technique,
we used this basket weave piping tip
and filled our piping bag with white buttercream.
But hey, dealer's choice.
You'll need a second coat of buttercream on your cake
before you start decorating,
and when you're ready, take your piping bag
and use even pressure to pipe out
one long strip straight down.
Now do a shorter horizontal strip over that.
Keep making this horizontal strips all the way down,
leaving an empty space about the size of the piping tip
in between each strip.
Now make your next vertical strip down,
covering one edge of those horizontal strips.
Start your next set of horizontal stripes
by burying the piping tip under the previous vertical line.
Now it's just repeating the pattern from here.
Keep creating your lines and stripes
until you've completely covered your cake.
Now you could stop right here.
If you've never decorated a cake before,
this is way beyond impressive,
but take it up a notch
and bring back those poinsettias and roses
that we made earlier
and decorate the top of your cake with flowers.
Now, that looks great.
For these empty spaces,
we're going to bring back our leaf piping tip
filled with green buttercream.
We're going to create some leaves in there
using the same technique we used to create our poinsettias.
Just squeeze hard at the base
and release pressure as you pull out.
Now that is an awesome cake.
It feels very festive because of the colors that we used,
but you can recreate this technique for any occasion
in any color that you like,
and it's going to look great, guaranteed.
Now let's finish up with an easy approach to a geode cake.
Add a second layer of buttercream on top of your crumb coat.
Ours is blue and we saved some of that blue frosting
to use to decorate with later.
This is our rock candy that we're going to use
for our geode pattern,
and this is blue food coloring and vodka,
which we'll use to dye our candy.
Using a small serrated knife, carve out a space in the cake
where your rock candy will sit.
You can make this whichever size you prefer.
Just clean out the space so it's a bit more even,
but it doesn't have to be perfect,
because we're going to use that extra buttercream we saved
to cover this back up.
Once that's re-coated, it's time to add our rock candy.
Just cover up any space that you see
and press down firm
to make sure the rock candy sits in your frosting wall.
Now for that vodka and food coloring mixture,
take a little bit
and paint it on the innermost wall of the rock candy.
This is going to give your cake more depth.
You'll need to chill this
for about 20 minutes before doing anything else.
To jazz it up a little,
we're going to add gold leaf around the edges.
All of these cakes can be easily customized
to match your style,
and the techniques will get easier and easier
the more you try them.
For more cake decorating techniques,
check out our other Tasty video,
"Five Beautiful Ways to Decorate a Cake."
For more delicious baking content,
follow Fluff Cups on Instagram.
If you try any of these techniques at home,
make sure you tag us on all your recreations.
(upbeat music)
- [Man] Oh, yes!