Cake Decorating Tutorial // Blush Ruffles & Gold Sequins

Hello Darlings!

Back when I shared my kitchen reveal, you all got to see a sneak peek at an amazingly gorgeous cake that just so happened to be sitting on my counter.  I promised I would share a tutorial on how you could diy the cake yourself and the long awaited (and much requested!) tutorial is finally here!

Having never decorated a cake like this before, I brought in the experts to show you how it’s done!  To create this gorgeous tiered ruffle cake with gold sequins, I collaborated with my friend Stephanie (fun fact: we used to be horseback riding lesson buddies!) as well as her friend Sara.

I hope you all love this tutorial!  Make sure to leave a comment and let me know if you try to diy your own cake!

Supplies:

– two small stacked cakes: a 6” cake and a 4” (find my chocolate & vanilla cake recipes here!)
– buttercream icing (find my buttercream recipe here!)
– fondant
– corn starch
– pink gel food colouring
– a foam mat
– a ball roller
– tooth picks
– edible gold dust
– vodka or lemon extract
– small paint brush
– rolling pin
– optional: fondant smoothers, a pasta roller, a rotary cutter

Directions:

1. Start with two small stacked cakes. One that uses 6” rounds and one that uses 4” rounds.

2. Grab a large ball of fondant and add a few drops of pink food colouring. Kneed the fondant until colour has been completely worked through. If the colour isn’t vibrant enough, continue to add small amounts of food colouring, completely working it in before adding more.

3. Prepare your counter top for rolling your fondant by dusting it with a thin layer of corn starch. Roll out your fondant to create a thin, even layer. Use a small pin to pop any bubbles as you go.

4. Brush your iced cakes with a tiny amount of water to give the fondant something to stick to. Place the fondant over your cake and slowly begin smoothing out the top edges.  Make sure to continue pulling out the bottom as you go to insure no wrinkles or creases.

5. Using a rotary cutter or sharp knife cut off the excess fondant. Set extra fondant aside and cover with plastic wrap to use later for creating your ruffles.

6. Repeat process with second cake.

Time to add some sequins!

7. Using a brush, paint your small cake with thin layer of piping gel.

8. Begin grabbing small handfuls of sprinkles and pressing them into the piping gel.  For easy clean-up, position the cake inside a baking sheet to keep all the excess sprinkles contained.

9. Once the cake is completely covered in sprinkles, move the cake into the fridge for 15 minutes to let everything set.

10. Mix together a small amount of edible gold dust along with lemon extract or vodka.  With a paintbrush, carefully brush the gold liquid over top of your sprinkles, making sure to completely cover the entire cake.

11. Once finished painting, set your small cake back into the fridge to set.

Begin adding your ruffles!

12. Take a small handful of the pink fondant you set aside earlier and roll it into a long thin oval. Run the fondant through a pasta roller a few times (we preferred a level 3 thickness using the Kitchen Aid pasta roller) or carefully continue rolling out by hand until it becomes very thin.

13. Using a ruler, cut your fondant lengthwise into 1″ wide strips.

14. Grab one of your fondant strips and using a ball roller, gently press along one side of the strip to create a ruffle.  Here’s a quick little video to help you better visualize the process!

15. Dip a small paintbrush in water and brush it onto your fondant covered cake in the area you wish to begin your ruffle rose.

16. Start pressing the ruffled fondant strips into the moistened fondant on your cake.  Working from the centre out, slowly swirl the ruffles around itself.

17. Use tooth picks to hold the ruffles in place until they are dry enough to hold their shape.

18. Continue adding more ruffled fondant strips, twirling each layer of ruffles around the last layer until the entire cake is covered in the fondant ruffles.  Once the ruffles begin drying out and can hold their shape, remove the toothpicks.

19. Stack the gold cake on top of the blush cake using a bit of buttercream to secure it.  Top with  flowers (either your favourite fresh flowers or gum paste ones!) to finish it off.

You are done!  Take a minute to bask in the beauty of all your hard work!

 

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