You can create stripes on cakes using a striped cake comb but if you're looking for a quicker and
easier way to achieve beautiful stripes I've got you covered! In this tutorial I'll share
five striped cake hacks all requiring minimal tools and ingredients and minimal practice. For
this first technique all you need are two piping bags or three if you want three colours. Cut the
ends off together so that they're all the same size, however wide you want your stripes to be.
Fill the piping bags with buttercream or whatever frosting you want to use like whipped cream or
meringue buttercream. Hold your first piping bag against the side of the cake resting down
on the cake board and squeeze the bag to push the frosting out as you spin the cake on the turntable
to pipe a strip of frosting all around the cake. Switch colours and pipe another strip on top,
aiming to pipe it so that it's immediately above the first strip with no gaps in between. Continue
alternating colours and the final colour should go up above the top edge of the cake and that
will prevent indents or air pockets and also give your cake a flat top instead of a domed
top. Use a cake comb to smooth the frosting and as you scrape around the cake again and again your
stripes will get neater and neater and neater. If piping and smoothing stripes makes you nervous
this next technique will give you a lot more control over your stripes.
You can make your own striped stencil with parchment paper, a ruler, a pencil and scissors.
After you frost your cake put it in the fridge for at least an hour.
Cut your parchment into strips and I'm using the width of a ruler to draw my lines
and to cut pieces of equal widths. Glide your scissors along or cut with snipping motions,
aiming for smooth straight lines because that will give you smooth straight stripes on your cake.
When your cake is cold take it out of the fridge and press the parchment strips onto the frosting.
Since the frosting is cold it will be firm and the parchment won't damage the frosting and the
pressure from your fingers won't leave indents in the frosting. The frosting will have set so
it won't be sticky anymore but after a few minutes out of the fridge some condensation will start to
form on the frosting and that will act as glue to attach the parchment paper. Now make your paint,
thinning out buttercream with milk to make it more of a paintable consistency. You only need
a tiny amount for this. Add colour and I love gels because they're so concentrated but for
just a few spoonfuls of buttercream you only need a teeny tiny bit of gel so instead of squeezing
out a drop you can dip a toothpick into the bottle and drag that through the buttercream to tint it.
You can use just one colour or several to make different colours of stripes going around the
cake or to blend the colours within each stripe, which i'll show you in a minute. I'm mixing pink
with orange and red to make shades of pink, peach and coral. Next you'll need a sponge or a paper
towel. Dip it into a colour and wipe most of the buttercream off so that there's just a thin layer
left. Then dab it against the cake into one of the gaps between parchment paper strips, holding the
parchment strips in place so that the buttercream paint only covers the stripe of exposed cake.
If you have a lot of buttercream on the sponge you'll leave globs of it on the cake
and you'll also be more likely to pull the parchment strips away with your sponge.
Using just a small amount of buttercream on your sponge means you'll transfer colour to the cake
without leaving dramatically raised texture behind. Instead of a sponge
you can use a paper towel, scrunching it up and dipping it into coloured buttercream and then
wiping most of the buttercream off before dabbing the paper towel against the cake.
Dip and dab, dip and dab, alternating colours between stripes or within each stripe to blend
the colours together. When you've covered up all of the gaps between the strips of parchment paper,
peel the parchment off and voila! You'll leave neat stripes behind with colourful texture.
Use sprinkles to create stripes by pouring a sprinkle mix into a bowl or cup and taking
out only the sprinkles you want to use. Tiny sprinkles will take you forever and
huge sprinkles will bulge out of the cake so these sizes are my favorite to use for this.
Press the sprinkles into the frosting on the cake. I like to do this after the frosting sets because
if you've just frosted a cake as you push the sprinkles in with just a tiny bit of pressure
the sprinkles will sink straight into the frosting and can easily get buried in it
but after the frosting has set you have to push quite firmly to attach the sprinkles and that
means the sprinkles will sit visibly on the surface of the frosting. This is really easy
because you don't need any tools at all and I love the texture that the sprinkles add to the cake.
To create ruffle stripes you'll need two petal piping tips so that you can pipe two colours.
If you want three colours you'll need three tips. Put each piping tip in a piping bag and fill the
piping bag with coloured buttercream or whatever frosting you're using and push the frosting down
to the tip of the piping bag. Outline your stripes on your crumb coated cake with the straight edge
of a cake comb. Spread frosting onto the top of the cake and smooth it and then use your cake comb
to scrape around the cake to take off the frosting that's sticking out over the sides of the cake
so that the sides of the cake are straight. Hold your piping tip facing down with the wide end
of the piping tip pressed against the cake and start wiggling the bag from side to side as you
gradually lift it up the side of the cake, using those lines you indented in the crumb coat to
keep the ruffles directly over each other and that will make your ruffle stripes straight and even.
Switch piping bags to the next colour and repeat the process beside the first stripe, going right
up to the edges of those first ruffles and up to the next line you indented on the other side.
If the crumb coat has set before you do this it's easiest because if you make a
mistake you can scrape it off the cake without damaging the crumb coat frosting on the cake.
I chill my cakes for about an hour in the fridge after crumb coating but before
applying the final coat of frosting and that's why. Continue all the way around the cake and at
the top of each ruffle finish it off in the same direction so for this cake I'm piping towards
the right and then swiping away so that all of the ruffles match.
When you finish the cake you'll have ruffled stripes that add both colour and texture to
the cake. Carving striped patterns is fun and unique and everyone will ask how you did it! After
frosting your cake chill it in the freezer for 15 minutes before spreading another color of frosting
on top and smooth that, too. Freeze for another 15 minutes and then use clay modelling tools to
carve the frosting. You can buy these on Amazon and my favorites are this one for small dots,
this one for large dots and this one for lines. Dip your tool into hot water, tap the water off to
leave the tool dry but warm and then twist it into the frosting to scoop out a circle to make a dot.
As soon as you see the colour underneath coming off onto your tool you know you've gone through
the top layer of frosting so the dot will be the color of the frosting underneath.
This is a quick and also satisfying and therapeutic way to create stripes!
I love watching the carving come to life. I have an online course on Buttercream Carving and I've
put a discount code in the video description. I hope you've seen a striped cake hack that you'd
like to try. If you want to use a striped cake comb instead I have a very detailed tutorial
on Four Secrets for Perfect Stripes and you can watch that by clicking up here. Visit my
online cake school for hundreds of cake designs and techniques. Thank you so much for watching!