I absolutely love the details on this cake, from the pretty piping to the spooky sprinkles and a touch of sparkle created with this gold shimmer dust. It would be so stunning on any Halloween party table! And it’s delicious too – underneath all that pretty piping is my favorite black velvet cake recipe.

JOANN has an incredible selection of Halloween food crafting items like sprinkles, molds, cake pans, toppers, and really everything you could need to spook up your party table. It’s really a one-stop shop for all things Halloween though – from frightening home decor to the perfect fabric for any costume. I couldn’t stop myself from grabbing some extras like these skull shaped ice cube molds and this pretty pumpkin scented candle. 

Lambeth Cake Tips for Success

If you’ve never made one before, a Lambeth cake may look a little intimidating. Since the style involves over-piping (aka you can never pipe too many details), it ends up being a really forgiving design. Here are some of my best tips to set you up for success: 

Start with a chilled cake. Before you pipe any details, make sure that your smooth buttercream finish is nice and chilled (firm to the touch). This helps keep the buttercream finish intact while you pipe on top and will help any piping set quickly because of the cold surface. 

Place a larger cake circle underneath. Since you’ll be piping details onto the bottom border of the cake, it will save you a lot of stress to make sure the cake is sitting on a cake circle that’s larger than the cake and any piping. This way you can just lift the whole cake off of the turntable while keeping all the piping perfect. For example, since my cake layers are 6-inches in diameter, I decorated my cake on an 8-inch cake circle for easy transfer. 

Plan out your piping. It’s not enough to know what kinds of designs you want to pipe on a Lambeth cake. You have to know where to pipe them. This is where a template comes in handy, and I’ll show you how to make the most simple template ever in this tutorial below. 

Create the ideal buttercream consistency. Piping looks its best when you’re using buttercream that is the right consistency. Not so thick that there are crinkly edges, but not so thin that you can’t see detail and the designs are drooping. You want a stiff consistency buttercream, and this post will show you how to create it with my American buttercream recipe. 

Here’s a video tutorial that will walk you through how to create this Halloween Lambeth Cake from start to finish. Give it a watch before you read through the detailed steps below!

If you love cake decorating tutorial videos like this one, be sure to check out my YouTube channel! I’ve got a growing collection of recipes, decorating tutorials, and Cake Basics over there. Hit the subscribe button on my page so you never miss a new video.

You Will Need

• 6-inch cake that’s been frosted smooth and chilled
• 8-inch cake circle to decorate on
• 6-inch cake pan (for tracing)
• Wax or parchment paper
• Pencil
• Scissors
• Toothpick
• 2 ¼ inch round cookie cutter 
• Scotch tape
• 1 batch (3 Cups) of vanilla buttercream 
• Bowls and spoons for color mixing
• Wilton Color Right Performance Food Coloring
• 2 Tablespoons Black cocoa powder or regular cocoa powder
• Cake turntable
• Wilton tips 104, 4B, and 32
• Piping bags
• STIR Halloween Sprinkle Mixes
• STIR Edible Shimmer Dust in Gold 

Step 1: Make the Lambeth Template + Mark the Cake

The Lambeth technique is all about symmetry. The best way to keep your piping symmetrical is to make a template to mark out equal sized sections on your cake. To make the template, flip a cake pan (the same size as your cake layers) upside down onto a piece of parchment paper. Trace around it with a pencil and cut out the circle. Flipping the pan upside down and tracing around the lip helps account for the frosting on the sides of the cake when measuring the true diameter.

After cutting out your parchment paper circle, fold it in half three times to create 8 equal-sized sections.

Place the template on top of the chilled cake and mark each crease with a toothpick (a). Find a round glass or cookie cutter that’s the same diameter as the sections in your template and place a piece of scotch tape across the middle to create a half circle (b). This will help you line it up with the top of your cake as you press it into the sides (c) to indicate where each garland will go.

Step 2: Mix the Color Palette

Divide the 3 Cups of buttercream equally amongst three separate bowls and mix in the color gels of your choosing. I used the Wilton Color Right Performance Food Coloring set to custom mix these colors. In the first bowl, I mixed in 5 drops of Orange. In the second bowl, 5 drops of Pink and 2 drops of Blue to create a warm purple tone.

To create the black color in the last bowl, I first mixed in 2 Tablespoons of black cocoa powder to create a dark brown color, then mixed in 3 drops of Black. This way, I didn’t have to use nearly as much food coloring. If you don’t have access to black cocoa powder, you can use regular cocoa powder instead but note that you’ll need to use a few more drops of Black. 

Step 3: Prepare the Piping Bags

Fit two piping bags with Wilton Tip 104 and add half of the black buttercream into one and half of the purple buttercream into another. Fit two piping bags with Wilton Tip 4B and add the rest of the black buttercream and the rest of the purple buttercream. Fit one piping bag with Wilton Tip 32 and add the orange buttercream. 

Step 4: Create the Bottom Border

Starting at the bottom edge of the cake, pipe a shell border with Wilton Tip 4B using the black buttercream. To pipe a shell border, hold the bag at a 45 degree angle and squeeze the piping bag until the buttercream fans out and forces the tip upward (a). Gradually relax pressure as you lower the tip and pull the bag toward you to create a tail (b). Pipe the next shell directly onto the tail of the first (c).

Continue piping shells all the way around the bottom edge of the cake, until you reach the very first shell you piped.Using the same technique, pipe a smaller shell border on top of the first using Wilton Tip 32 and the orange buttercream.

Place purple eyeball sprinkles onto the shell border as accents. I placed mine directly below where each of the indented semi-circles from the template connected.

Step 5: Create the Ruffle Garlands + Accents 

Onto each of the semi-circle indents you created in Step 1, use the black buttercream-filled piping bag fitted with Wilton Tip 104 to create the ruffle garland. To create a ruffle, hold the piping bag at a 45 degree angle to the surface of the cake with the skinny end of the tip facing away from the cake (a). Squeeze the bag as you move your hand slightly up and down to create the ruffle texture as you pipe (b). Release pressure on the bag once you’ve ended the ruffle where you desire (c).

Continue piping black ruffles along the semi-circle indents until you reach the first one you piped.

Using the piping bag filled with purple buttercream and fitted with Wilton Tip 104, pipe a second set of purple ruffles directly onto each black ruffle.

Use the orange piping bag fitted with Wilton Tip 32 to pipe a small shell with the tail pointed upwards where each of the ruffle sets connect. Place a black spider sprinkle onto the top of the middle shell.

Pipe a purple star about an inch beneath each space where the ruffles connect using Wilton tip 4B. Place a skull sprinkle on top of each star. Gently press a pumpkin sprinkle about ½ inch beneath each skull-topped purple star.

Step 6: Decorate the Top of the Cake 

On the top edge of the cake, pipe a shell border with Wilton Tip 32 and the orange buttercream. Pipe another shell border directly next to it using Wilton Tip 4B and the purple buttercream.

Place skull sprinkles in between the two shell borders.

Use the black piping bag fitted with Wilton Tip 4B to pipe swirls next to the purple shell border and place an orange eyeball sprinkle on top of each swirl.

Step 7: Spray with Shimmer Dust 

For a little extra shine on all this pretty piping, I spritzed this Gold Edible Shimmer Dust all over the cake. It gives a really subtle finish of gold luster and was really fun to use! I want to top every cake with this stuff now.

And there you have it! The perfect Halloween showstopper cake for your party table, regardless of the average age on your guest list. Even if you’re not throwing a Halloween party this year, it’s a really fun cake design to whip up this spooky season!

I hope you love making this colorful, vintage-inspired Halloween lambeth cake as much as I did! If you do end up making one, let me know how it went in the comments below + be sure to tag @sugarandsparrowco and @joann_stores on Instagram to show us. We’d love to see what you create!   

Disclaimer: I was compensated by JOANN for my work of creating this project, styling, filming, photographing, and writing about their products. As always, all opinions are honest and my own. Thank you for supporting brands that support Sugar & Sparrow.

The post Vintage Halloween Lambeth Cake Tutorial appeared first on Sugar & Sparrow.

He’s still talking about this cake one week post-birthday party, so I think it met his little creative brief. I was a little worried that the colorful buildings would take away from the “blue” part of the theme but he didn’t seem to mind. 

Here are all the details about this cake: 

1. Ombrè Buttercream. I started with a blue ombrè buttercream finish (see this tutorial for how to create that) using three different intensities of AmeriColor Sky Blue.
2. City Buildings. I tinted some fondant (I used 7 different colors, but it would work with any color variety) and rolled each color out to about ⅛ inch, then hand-cut the buildings with an x-acto knife and a ruler. I taped a piece of wax paper around a large can of shortening and placed each building on it to dry with a slight curve. This way I knew where each building would go on the final cake and they’d conform to the curve of the cake. Once the buildings were dry, I drew on some simple windows with an edible art pen. 
3. Clouds. I used Wilton tip 10 to pipe some vanilla buttercream into cloud formations. They’re basically just clusters of dots.
4. Baymax topper. I found a Disney Infinity Baymax figurine on eBay (it was a lot cheaper there!) to top this cake. I absolutely love topping character cakes with toys because they get something to play with afterwards. The first thing Theo did after blowing out the candles on his cake was grab the Baymax toy, lick the frosting off, and fly the toy all around the backyard. They’ve been inseparable ever since!
5. Candles. I finished the look with three of these tall blue birthday candles.

Here’s an Instagram Reel I posted that shows the assembly!

In keeping with the subtle Big Hero 6 theme for this birthday party, I also whipped up some Baymax oreos by dipping the cookies in white chocolate melts. I piped the Baymax eyes with black candy melts and Wilton Tip 3. They were delicious! 

My kids are my absolute favorite people to throw parties for and it’s so fun that Theo is now able to express his creative ideas. I’ll make him whatever cake he can imagine!

The post Baymax Birthday Cake appeared first on Sugar & Sparrow.

This cake was extremely therapeutic to make and I just love how it turned out! It would be so cute for a baby shower, for a friend who loves tapestry, or simply because you need a fun piping project. 

It only took 5 colors (plus white) and 6 piping tips – Wilton Tip 3 (x3), 5, 10, and 233. You can use any round tip sizes to recreate the look and I do recommend having a little size variety to break up the pattern. Aside from the shag piping along the bottom of the cake, you’ll basically be doing the same piping technique over and over again: a braiding motion that ends up looking like knitting. 

What Kind of Buttercream to Use

Technically, you can use any kind of buttercream that is easy to pipe and will hold color well. My go-to is this vanilla buttercream, which is an American buttercream recipe. It’s super easy to color and pipe using a medium consistency. If meringue based buttercream or something else is your go-to, feel free to pair it with this tutorial!  

You Will Need

• A chilled, crumb coated cake (mine is three 6” layers)
• 3-4 Cups of vanilla buttercream (about 1.25 batches)
• Cake turntable
• Toothpick
• Food color gels of your choice 
• Bowls and spoons for color mixing
• Wilton Tip 233
• Wilton Tip 3 (x3)
• Wilton Tip 5
• Wilton Tip 10
• Piping bags

Step 1: Color the Buttercream + Prepare the Piping Bags

To create this exact color palette, divide the buttercream evenly between six bowls and set one aside since it will be kept uncolored. The colors I used for the remaining five bowls are as follows: AmeriColor Tulip Red, Egg Yellow, Wedgewood, Dusty Rose, and Peach (with just a hint of Dusty Rose added). 

Fit one piping bag with Wilton Tip 233 (the shag tip) and fill it with half of the white/uncolored buttercream. Fit another bag with Wilton Tip 5 and fill it with the other half of the white buttercream. Prepare the rest of the piping bags with the remaining tips and fill them with the colors of your choice. I used Wilton Tip 10 with the Tulip Red buttercream, Tip 5 with the coral orange buttercream, and the rest of the colors with Tip 3. 

Step 2: Mark the Sections

Place your chilled, crumb coated cake on the turntable. Either use the bottom layer of the cake that peeks through the crumb coat as a marker or use a toothpick to mark the bottom third of the cake by holding it in one place while you rotate the turntable. This is where the shag piping will go. 

Continue rotating the turntable as you mark random, wavy portions on the top two thirds of the cake. These will create the sections where each color will go, so feel free to mark a lot of them. The bigger the section, the more you’ll have to fill in with one color. 

Step 3: Add the Shag Piping

Hold the bag fitted with Tip 233 pointed at the line that marks the bottom third of the cake. Hovering about ⅛ inch from the surface, put pressure on the bag as you draw it down quickly to create long pieces of shag all around the bottom third of the cake. 

If you have some patchy areas, you can always go over them again with more shag. You really cannot add too much here. 

When you’re finished adding the shag piping around the bottom third of the cake, use the other white/uncolored bag fitted with Tip 5 to pipe a braided border along the top of the shag.

For the braided technique, simply criss cross the buttercream diagonally to create little overlapping x’s. Step 4 of this buttercream sweater cake tutorial shows the technique in detail (look at technique 2, aka the middle row). 

Step 4: Fill in the Sections with Knitted Buttercream

Using that same braided technique, fill in each of the wavy sections with different buttercream colors. It helps to follow the wave formations while you pipe instead of trying to keep every line straight. 

Tip 10 will give you the chunkiest braids. Be sure to place them sparingly since they stand out so much. 

Step 5: Decorate the Top of the Cake

Once you’re finished filling in all the wavy sections around the sides of the cake, fill in the top of the cake using the same piping techniques. 

And voila! A woven tapestry cake that will turn all the heads! The textures going on here are just so eye-catching and the process of creating the cake is honestly so therapeutic. So much easier than it looks! 

I’d love to see this cake design in more color palettes and I’m sure you couldn’t go wrong with whatever colors you choose. Let me know if you make it in the comments below and feel free to tag @sugarandsparrowco on Instagram to show me! I love to see what you create.

The post Woven Tapestry Cake Tutorial appeared first on Sugar & Sparrow.

While rustic swirls are easy to create, they do require a little bit of strategy. The first time I tried this look, I found myself spending way too much time trying to perfect each and every swirl. Turns out that in order to get that carefree look, you have to let loose a little bit. Once you get to the point of wild abandon, your cake will look amazing! 

This technique works with any kind of frosting and color scheme, but I really love it with chocolate buttercream. The texture of the swirls makes a chocolate cake just look extra delicious. Here’s a quick video I whipped up of the technique so you can see it in action before you read the step-by-step below. 

If you love cake decorating tutorial videos like this one, be sure to check out my YouTube channel! I’ve got a growing collection of recipes, decorating tutorials, and Cake Basics over there. Hit the subscribe button on my page so you never miss a new video.

You Will Need:

• One 6-inch or 8-inch layer cake that’s been crumb coated and chilled
• 3 Cups of frosting (here’s the chocolate buttercream I used)
• Cake turntable
• Icing smoother
• Angled icing spatula 

Step 1: Frost the Cake

Start with your chilled, crumb coated cake on the turntable. Add a few scoops of buttercream to the top of the cake and smooth it down with your angled icing spatula until it’s nice and level. 

Next, add buttercream to the sides of the cake and glide your icing smoother over them while turning the turntable to create level sides. Fill in any gaps in the finish with more buttercream and continue smoothing until the sides are level.

Don’t worry about achieving a super smooth finish – the goal here is to make the sides look straight and even. 

Step 2: Create the Rustic Textures

Immediately after frosting the cake, swipe your angled icing spatula through the buttercream to create the rustic texture all over the sides. Remember, we’re going for a perfectly imperfect look, so try not to overthink this part. 

I like to use a combination of quick swipes, C-Shapes, and S-shapes for my rustic swirls. You can always re-texture some areas that you’re not entirely satisfied with. 

Step 3: Decorate the Top

When you’re satisfied with the texture on the sides of the cake, continue those same techniques on top of the cake until it’s all filled in with beautiful rustic swirls. 

And that’s it! You can keep the cake as-is or continue decorating by adding fun birthday candles, fresh (edible) flowers, sprinkles, or whatever you’d like! However you choose to decorate (or not), your cake is going to look downright delicious with all that texture. 

I hope you have the best time with this classic cake decorating technique! If you found this tutorial helpful, be sure to tag @sugarandsparrowco on Instagram to show me. I love to see what you create!

The post How to Frost a Cake with Rustic Texture appeared first on Sugar & Sparrow.

This daisy cake design would make the sweetest birthday party cake (just imagine it with cute birthday candles on top!) or the centerpiece for any special gathering. I’m thinking of Mother’s Day, a picnic in the park, a Sunday brunch, or any happy event on your calendar. You can use any of my cake recipes as the base of the cake and any light colored buttercream for the topping. Here are some of my suggestions, but feel free to use your favorite type of buttercream that’s pipeable and easy to color: 

• Vanilla Buttercream
• Vegan Vanilla Buttercream
• White Chocolate Buttercream
• Cream Cheese Buttercream
• Lavender Buttercream (it’s white if you don’t add the lavender color gel!)

The best part about this daisy cake is that the technique for piping the flowers is so easy. All you need is Wilton Tip 104 for the petals and Tip 10 for the centers. Watch this quick video tutorial to see how it’s done: 

If you’re into cake decorating videos like this one, be sure to check out my YouTube channel for further learning! I’m always rolling out new videos, so click the subscribe button while you’re there to ensure you never miss a new one.

You Will Need

• A layer cake that’s been crumb coated and chilled (mine is 6” diameter)
• Cake turntable
• Icing smoother
• Angled spatula 
• 3 Cups of light colored buttercream (I’m using one batch of this vanilla buttercream recipe)
• AmeriColor Egg Yellow (or yellow color gel of your choice)
• Wilton Tip 104
• Wilton Tip 10
• 2 piping bags 
• Palette knife or small food-grade paint brush (optional)

Step 1: Color the Buttercream

Reserve about ⅓ Cup of buttercream for piping the daisies, then add 3-5 drops of AmeriColor Egg Yellow (or other yellow food color gel) to tint the rest of the buttercream a medium yellow color. 

Step 2: Frost a Smooth Buttercream Finish

Place your chilled and crumb coated cake on the turntable and use the yellow buttercream you tinted in the previous step to frost a smooth buttercream finish onto the cake. Start by frosting a smooth layer on the very top of the cake with your angled icing spatula. Next, add buttercream to the sides of the cake and glide your icing smoother over them while turning the turntable to create smooth sides.

You’ll notice a crown of buttercream forming on the top edges of the cake, which is essential to getting sharp edges on the top. Use your angled icing spatula to swipe the crown inwards (toward the top center of the cake). Repeat until you’ve got nice sharp edges.

When your cake is looking ultra smooth, pop it into the refrigerator to firm up for at least 30 minutes. If you need more tips on creating a perfectly smooth cake finish, I’ve got a great tutorial for you here. 

Step 3: Pipe the Daisies

Place the white buttercream you reserved in Step 1 into a piping bag fitted with Wilton Tip 104. Add another drop of AmeriColor Egg Yellow to any leftover yellow buttercream and mix it to make a slightly darker yellow for the daisy centers. Add this darker yellow buttercream to a piping bag fitted with Wilton Tip 10. 

Starting with the white frosting, hold the piping bag so that Tip 104 is parallel to the side of the cake, angled so that the larger part of the opening is the tip of each daisy petal and the smaller part of the opening is the center of the flower. Hovering the piping tip about ⅛ inch from the surface, pipe the first daisy petal by squeezing the bag and quickly releasing pressure once you see a petal shape form. Repeat piping the petals in a circular formation, rotating your hand slightly after piping each petal. 

Repeat piping the clusters of daisy petals 1-2 inches apart, all over the sides and top of the cake. 

Pipe a dot of the darker yellow buttercream in the very center of each daisy petal cluster to finish each flower.

Step 4: Smooth the Centers (Optional) 

If the centers of the daisies are too peaked, you can smooth them down using either a small angled spatula or palette knife, or a small paint brush dipped in a little bit of water. Simply swipe the peaks with the palette knife or use the small paint brush (dipped in water) to gently press each peak down. 

And that’s it! The happiest little cake for your next Spring celebration and it couldn’t be easier to whip up with the right tools and a sunny color palette!

I hope you have the best time making this daisy cake! If you do end up making it, let me know what you’re celebrating in the comments below + be sure to tag @sugarandsparrowco on Instagram to show me. I love to see what you create! 

The post Daisy Cake Tutorial appeared first on Sugar & Sparrow.

Although it looks pretty intricate, this embroidery cake ended up being so much easier than I thought it would be. This is partly because the piping techniques I used were so forgiving, and partly because I had some adorable floral cookie cutters to imprint onto the cake and use as piping guides for the larger flowers. I went the extra mile on the buttercream color palette and mixed up nine different colors for this design. Since this cake will look great in any color scheme you can feel free to mix up a simpler palette if you want.

To show you the piping techniques in action, here’s a full video tutorial of this embroidery cake before I get into the written tutorial below:

If you’re into cake decorating videos like this one, be sure to check out my YouTube channel for further learning! I’m always rolling out new videos, so click the subscribe button while you’re there to ensure you never miss a new one.

You Will Need:

• A chilled, crumb coated cake (mine is three 6” layers)
• 4-5 Cups of vanilla buttercream (about 1.5 batches)
• Cake turntable
• Icing Smoother
• Angled Spatula
• Wilton Color Right Performance Food Coloring Set 
• Bowls and spoons for color mixing
• Large floral cookie cutters
• Small floral cookie cutters
• Piping Bags
• 8x Wilton Tip 2 or 3 
• Wilton Tip 12
• Small paint brush (optional)

Step 1: Frost the Cake with Smooth Buttercream

Place your chilled and crumb coated cake on the turntable and frost a smooth buttercream finish onto the cake. Start by frosting a smooth layer on the very top of the cake with your angled icing spatula.

Next, add buttercream to the sides of the cake and glide your icing smoother over them while turning the turntable to create smooth sides.

You’ll notice a crown of buttercream forming on the top edges of the cake, which is essential to getting sharp edges on the top. Use your angled icing spatula to swipe the crown inwards (toward the top center of the cake). Repeat until you’ve got nice sharp edges.

When your cake is looking ultra smooth, pop it into the refrigerator to firm up for at least 30 minutes. If you need more tips on creating a perfectly smooth cake finish, I’ve got a great tutorial for you here. 

Step 2: Mix the Color Palette

Divide the remaining buttercream amongst nine different bowls (or however many colors you plan on mixing, plus one bowl you’ll leave uncolored). Use the Wilton Color Right Performance Food Coloring Set to create your ideal color palette. This set comes with 8 bottles of ultra concentrated food color gels and a guide to help you mix the colors you’re imagining. If you want to replicate the color palette I created, here’s what I did:

• Dark Green: 1 drop blue, ½ drop yellow, ¼ drop brown 
• Light Green: Mix dark green with uncolored buttercream using a 1:1 ratio
• Light Purple: 1 drop pink, ¼ drop blue 
• Periwinkle Blue: 1 drop blue, ¼ drop pink
• Sky Blue: 1 drop blue
• Coral Red: 1 drop orange, 2 drops red, ½ drop brown 
• Peach: Mix 1 Tbsp of the coral red buttercream with uncolored buttercream
• Yellow: 1 drop yellow, ¼ drop brown

It might seem intimidating to custom mix your color palette but I promise it’s worth it! You’ll get more control over your colors (thus a more cohesive color palette), but like I said before – feel free to walk to the beat of your own drum and use whatever colors you’re imagining! 

Step 3: Prepare the Piping Bags

Fit eight piping bags with Wilton Tip 2 or 3, then fill each one with each of the colors you mixed up in the previous step. There’s not much of a size difference between Tip 2 and 3, so you could even use a mix of both or fit some of the piping bags with couplers so you can swap the tips between bags mid-decorating.

Step 4: Imprint the Cake with Floral Cookie Cutters

Once your frosted buttercream cake is chilled and firm to the touch, use the floral cookie cutters to make imprints where you want your embroidery to be piped.

Leave a little room to freehand some details in between imprints as well. 

Step 5: Pipe the Embroidery Textures

Start by outlining one of the floral imprints with one of the piping bags you prepared. Place a dot in the center of the flower. Squeeze and drag the piping bag from the outlined edge of the shape to the center dot and focus on making a straight line. Continue making straight lines of buttercream from the outlined edge to the center dot all the way around the shape.

For some of the flowers, you can pipe two colors on the inside of the imprint. Starting on the outlined edge of the flower, pipe the straight lines of buttercream only part of the way to the center of the shape with one color, then overlap with a different color to reach the center.

For some of the smaller flowers, I outlined the imprint with buttercream and filled in the shape with more of a back-and-forth piping motion. I started at the bottom of the flower outline and piped from one outlined edge to the other and continued piping parallel lines in a back-and-forth motion until I reached the top of the shape.

I freehanded the stems and leaves using the same embroidery-inspired piping techniques. Mainly just lines and dots!

Step 6: Add Some Accents 

I decided to add some super tiny flowers in random places as accents and I love them so much! Each one is just five dots in a circular formation.

I also placed dots in the center of each flower I created in the previous step. This made the embroidery design look super detailed and multi-layered.

Finally, I added a border on top of the cake. This is where the ninth color in my palette came in. I mixed the remaining uncolored buttercream with a little of the Coral Red to make a mid-toned coral color. Then I placed it in a bag fitted with Wilton Tip 12 and piped dots along the top edge of the cake.

If your dot border looks more like chocolate chips than dots, you can always wet a small paint brush with a little bit of water and gently reshape the peaked top until it looks more round. You can also do this with any of your embroidery piping to get rid of unwanted peaks. 

I piped just a few more tiny flowers on the very top of the cake and had to stop myself there because it is so easy to want to keep on piping! Definitely follow your heart when it comes to this design, but also try to leave plenty of white space to let the embroidery elements shine!

Just look at how adorable this embroidery cake turned out! I am so happy I finally tried these techniques and that my local JOANN had the perfect supplies to make it exactly how I imagined.

Be sure to check out your local JOANN to see their amazing cake decorating tool selection! Their Spring collection is so fun and inspiring, but they’re also my year-round go-to for local food crafting supplies (and so much more – if you’re anything like me you’ll probably also leave with armfuls of other crafts and home decor). And if you don’t live near a JOANN store, you can also shop their vast collection of products online. 

I hope you love making this embroidery cake as much as I did! If you do end up making one, let me know how it went in the comments below + be sure to tag @sugarandsparrowco and @joann_stores on Instagram to show us. We’d love to see what you create!   

Disclaimer: I was compensated by JOANN for my work of creating this project, styling, filming, photographing, and writing about their products. As always, all opinions are honest and my own. Thank you for supporting brands that support Sugar & Sparrow.

The post Buttercream Embroidery Cake Tutorial appeared first on Sugar & Sparrow.

The thing that makes this rainbow color palette extra cohesive is mixing up the primary colors first (pink, yellow, and blue), then mixing those colors together to make all the colors in between (orange, green, and purple). This process can help tie the color palette together better than mixing each of the 6 colors individually. You’re able to customize each color as you go along (add more pink to your purple to warm it up, add more blue to your green to cool it down, etc) without going overboard or making any color more vibrant than the rest. It helps to know a little bit about color theory for making adjustments, but even if you don’t know the first thing about color theory, this blog post should help.  

A Word About Color Gels + Buttercream

The color gels I love most for my cake projects are AmeriColor Soft Gel Pastes and the Wilton Color Right Performance Food Coloring System, and I always use them with American Buttercream. Note that if you’re using a different kind of buttercream, it may not take these color gels as easily. For meringue based buttercreams, I recommend using oil-based color gels like Colour Mill for best results. 

Before we get started with color mixing, here are a couple other blog posts that could really help with getting your buttercream just right, including my go-to buttercream recipe:

• How to Make the Perfect Buttercream Consistency
• A Guide to Coloring Buttercream Frosting
• Vanilla Buttercream Recipe

Here’s a video of the entire rainbow color palette process in case you want to watch vs. read about it below: 

If you’re into cake videos like this one, be sure to check out my YouTube channel for further learning! I’m always rolling out new videos, so click the subscribe button while you’re there to ensure you never miss a new one. 

You Will Need

• 2+ batches of vanilla buttercream (or other white-colored buttercream)
• Blue color gel (I used AmeriColor Sky Blue)
• Pink color gel (I used AmeriColor Deep Pink)
• Yellow color gel (I used AmeriColor Egg Yellow)
• Bowls and spoons for color mixing

Step 1: Mix the Primary Colors

Reserve 1-2 cups of buttercream (in case you need to tone any colors down), then divide the rest of the buttercream between three bowls. The primary colors are yellow, blue, and red (in this case, pink), so those are the colors we’ll mix first. 

Add a few drops of pink or red into the first bowl, a few drops of blue into the second bowl, and a few drops of yellow into the third bowl. It’s best to start with a small amount and add more color gel from there, especially if you’re mixing a pastel color palette. Keep in mind that the colors will darken slightly with time. 

Step 2: Mix the Secondary Colors

Once you’ve got the perfect primary colors, it’s time to mix the secondary colors. When you mix together any two primary colors, the result is a secondary color: 

• 1 part Red + 1 part Yellow = Orange
• 1 part Yellow + 1 part Blue = Green
• 1 part Blue + 1 part Pink = Purple 

Use the formulas above to mix the primary colors together into three new bowls. Start with about ¼ Cup of each primary color and add more as needed in the next step. 

Step 3: Adjust Color Temperature as Needed 

At any point in your color mixing, you can customize any color by changing its temperature. For example, if your green is looking too yellow (or too warm), adding a little more blue can help cool it down. If your orange is looking too pink or red, add a little more yellow to balance it out. Here are some formulas (and a mixing chart!) to help you make the perfect tones:

• Green + more Blue = Blue-Green (cooler)
• Green + more Yellow = Yellow-Green (warmer)
• Purple + more Blue = Blue-Purple (cooler)
• Purple + more Red = Red-Purple (warmer) 
• Orange + more Red = Red-Orange (cooler)
• Orange + more Yellow = Yellow-Orange (warmer)

When adjusting your color temperature, start with 1 Tbsp of added primary color and add more from there if needed. Again, it’s best to start small. 

Once you’re happy with your rainbow color palette, you’re ready to start decorating! Here are some rainbow cake projects to inspire you: 

Pastel Rainbow Birthday Cake: I used a pastel rainbow color palette to create this pretty piped cake. The full tutorial is here.

Cascading Rainbow Cake: I used the same piping techniques from this cascading cake + added these cute little icing rainbows I found from Wilton.

Piped Rainbow Ombrè Cake: I mixed three different shades of each rainbow color on this cake, then used Wilton Tips 1M, 32, and 16 to create the textures as I piped all the colors in an ombrè layout.

Spatula Painted Rainbow Cake: I mixed lots of different rainbow shades for this one and used this spatula painted technique to apply them as a gradient.

I’d love to see what you create with your rainbow color palette! Leave a comment below letting me know about your project or feel free to tag @sugarandsparrowco on Instagram to show me. I love to see what you create!

The post The Easiest Way to Make Rainbow Buttercream Colors appeared first on Sugar & Sparrow.

I was so happy to find this heart-shaped cake hack because I loathe having to store novelty cake pans and decorating tools that I only use (maybe) once a year. The vast majority of cake layers I bake are round, so I got so giddy when I realized how easy it was to turn a round cake layer into a heart shape. Simply use a serrated knife to make two clean cuts that form the bottom of the heart, then use the rounded cake trimmings for the top of the heart. They’ll glue on so easily with a little buttercream and once the cake is frosted, nobody will know you didn’t use a heart-shaped pan. 

I chose to frost the cake with a light pink frosting (AmeriColor Soft Pink) and some pretty piped floral accents using Wilton Tips 1M for the rosettes, 4B for the stars, and 32 for some swirls and smaller stars. The color palette was a happy accident but I love how it turned out! I used AmeriColor Chili Pepper + Super Red in varying intensities for all three colors. This heart-shaped cake would also look amazing with lambeth style piping, and I really hope to try that soon!   

You Will Need:

• Two 8-inch cake layers, cooled and leveled 
• Serrated knife
• 8-inch cardboard circle
• Cutting board 
• 2 batches of vanilla buttercream (or any flavor)
• Piping Bags 
• Turntable 
• Icing smoother
• Small angled spatula
• AmeriColor Soft Pink, Chili Pepper, and Super Red (optional)
• Wilton Tips 1M, 4B, and 32 (optional)
• Sprinkle Pop Vintage Rose Gold sprinkles (optional)

Step 1: Trim the Cake Layers

Place the first cake layer onto a cutting board. Use a serrated knife to make the two cuts that will end up being the pointed part of the heart. I usually just eyeball this. 

Repeat this step with any additional cake layers. You can use the first cake layer you trimmed as a template to make things super easy. 

Unless you’re planning on serving the cake on the turntable after you decorate it, trim the 8-inch cardboard cake round in the same way you trimmed the cake layers. This will end up being the foundation of the heart-shaped cake and will make it much easier to transfer the cake off the turntable after you’re done decorating. 

Step 2: Make the Heart Shape

Place the cardboard base you created in Step 1 onto the turntable. Spread a little buttercream onto it before adding the first cake layer on top. Position the two curved pieces that you cut off in Step 1 to be the top of the heart, then use some buttercream to adhere them.

Step 3: Fill and Crumb Coat

Add a layer of filling and then position the next layer of cake on top, adhering the curved pieces of the heart with buttercream like you did in the previous step. 

Crumb coat the cake with a thin layer of buttercream to really emphasize the shape of the heart and lock in all the crumbs. Place the crumb coated cake into the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes to let the frosting firm up. 

Step 3: Decorate 

There are so many ways to decorate this heart-shaped cake, so feel free to get creative! If you want to create the look pictured, start by frosting the cake with light pink buttercream (made with AmeriColor Soft Pink). Frosting a heart shape is similar to frosting a round cake (but maybe even easier!). Simply use an icing smoother to make the sides smooth and level

Then use a small angled spatula to swipe frosting that accumulates around the top of the sides inward to create sharp edges. Refrigerate the frosted cake for at least 20 minutes while you prepare the rest of the buttercream. 

Divide the rest of the buttercream evenly between 3 bowls. Add a few drops of AmeriColor Chili Pepper and a few drops of Super Red to the first bowl and mix it until you get a nice deep shade of red. Mix in more coloring as needed. Scoop a few Tablespoons of the dark red buttercream into the second bowl and mix it in to create a mid-toned pink. Scoop about a teaspoon of the mid-toned buttercream into the last bowl and mix it in to create a pinkish cream. 

Use Wilton Tip 1M to pipe swirls onto the cake wherever you’d like. 

Fill in some of the spaces in between by piping swirls with Wilton Tip 32 and stars with Tip 4B and 32. 

Finish the look with some pretty sprinkles. I used Sprinkle Pop Vintage Rose Gold sprinkles for this cake, which matched the buttercream color scheme perfectly. 

Isn’t this heart-shaped cake so perfect for Valentine’s Day? I am absolutely smitten with it!

I hope this tutorial saves you from buying a heart-shaped cake pan! Let me know in the comments and feel free to tag @sugarandsparrowco on Instagram to show me how you decorated it. I’d love to see what you create!

The post Easy Heart Shaped Cake Tutorial appeared first on Sugar & Sparrow.

My first order of business was figuring out what kind of drip to use as the base. I’d heard that using straight melted chocolate was one way to go, but I found that too thick and hard to work with. Instead, I figured out a way to create the gold drip with my favorite white chocolate ganache recipe. It’s easy to work with, tastes superb, and if you give it enough time in the refrigerator it will set firmly enough to paint.

That brings me to my next order of business: what product to use for turning the drip gold. First I tried mixing gold luster dust with a little lemon extract to create a paint-like consistency. It looked great when I painted it on the drip, but it ended up doing two terrible things in the long run: it would not dry and it was so thin that it ran right down past the drip. Luster dust mixed with something like vodka or grain alcohol might work better, but I wasn’t up for a trip to the liquor store to figure it out. 

Instead, I decided to use Edible Art Paint in Glamorous Gold. It’s a premixed edible metallic paint that’s FDA approved and it worked like a charm. I needed to paint two coats onto the drip to get the best coverage, but it looked amazing and ended up drying perfectly. With the right product, all that was left to do is practice! I’ve been working on getting better at painting the drip without painting the cake (but I did find a solution that works for cleaning up small mess-ups that I’ll talk about below).

Here’s a quick video that shows the full process of creating a gold drip, from dripping the cake with white chocolate ganache to painting and troubleshooting:

If you have yet to check out my YouTube channel, head there to see more cake recipe videos, decorating tutorials, and my entire Cake Basics series in video format. Hit the subscribe button while you’re there so you never miss a new video!

You Will Need

• A cake that’s been frosted smooth and chilled 
• Cake turntable
• 1 batch of my white chocolate ganache recipe
• Piping bag
• Angled spatula
• Edible Art Paint in Glamorous Gold
• Small food-grade paint brush
• Vodka or grain alcohol (just for touch ups)

Step 1: Drip the Cake 

Place the chilled, frosted cake on your turntable. When the white chocolate ganache has reached room temperature and is ideal drip consistency, place it into the piping bag and carefully snip off about ¼ inch opening on the end. Add a test drip to the side of the cake to make sure the ganache is just right (not too thick or thin), and if all is good, continue adding drips around the side of the cake.

When the sides are dripped, fill in the top of the cake with more ganache and smooth it down with an angled spatula. Be careful not to add too much ganache or smooth too closely to the edges so you don’t accidentally push more ganache over the edges of the cake. 

If this is your first time working with white chocolate ganache or you could use some tips on getting better at drip cakes, this blog post and video tutorial should answer all of your questions! 

Step 2: Let the Drip Set

After you drip the cake, place it into the refrigerator for 30 minutes at minimum. The more time you can let the drip firm up in the refrigerator the better (overnight is actually best!). 

The more firm the drip, the easier it will be to paint in the next step. 

Step 3: Paint the Drip 

Add 5-10 drops of the Edible Art Paint into a pinch bowl. Using the small paint brush, carefully paint the gold onto the ganache, starting on top of the cake and working your way over every drip. This is a tedious process that requires some patience, so be prepared for that! 

After painting the first coat of Edible Art Paint, place the cake into the refrigerator for another 15-30 minutes to let the paint dry a bit. Then, paint a second coat over the top of the first. 

Step 4: Erase Mess-Ups (if needed)

If there are any spots where you accidentally painted past the drip and onto the buttercream, there is a fix! Place a few teaspoons of vodka or grain alcohol into a pinch bowl and dip a clean paint brush into it, then paint over the stray paint. The idea here is essentially like using nail polish remover to clean up around your nails after painting them. Do this part carefully!

The higher the alcohol content in your paint remover, the quicker it will evaporate and dry. It will not make your cake taste like alcohol (in case you’re worried about that!). 

And there you have it – a beautiful metallic drip cake that is sure to impress! It’s the perfect way to add some glitz and elegance to your cake. 

FYI: I finished the look on this particular cake with a star border made with Wilton tip 6B and Sprinkle Pop “Treasure Hunt” sprinkles. And the color I used for this beautiful buttercream is AmeriColor Electric Purple. So stunning!

Did you make a gold drip cake with this tutorial? I’d love to know how it went! Leave a comment below and be sure to tag @sugarandsparrowco on Instagram to show me your work. I love to see what you create!

The post Gold Ganache Drip Cake Tutorial appeared first on Sugar & Sparrow.

The magic of keeping these poinsettias looking perfect is refrigeration. After you’re done piping, stick them in the refrigerator for at least 10 minutes to let the buttercream firm up. They’ll keep their shape and be so easy to handle when placing on your bakes. You can even make them up to five days in advance and keep them in the refrigerator until you’re ready to place them! 

The Best Buttercream for Piping Flowers

There’s one really important key to success with buttercream poinsettias (and any buttercream flower): a stiff consistency buttercream. I use a stiffened version of my American buttercream recipe for flowers, but you can use any buttercream that is thick enough to hold its shape when piped – Swiss meringue or Italian meringue being the best alternatives. The buttercream consistency is extra important because if it’s too thin your petals will droop and lose their detail. 

You can check the consistency of your buttercream by dipping your spatula into it and observing the peak. If it’s a soft or droopy peak, it’s too thin for piping flowers. You’ll need to thicken it by adding extra powdered sugar (complete instructions are below). If it sticks straight up and holds its shape when you move the spatula around, it should be stiff enough to pipe the flowers with. 

Keep in mind that when you add food coloring to your buttercream, it might thin out since color gels are essentially a liquid. Be sure to do the spatula dip test before and after coloring your buttercream. You can always add extra powdered sugar after adding the color gel to thicken it back up. 

Here’s a quick video that explains everything you need to know about piping perfect poinsettias – from coloring the buttercream to piping the flowers, storing them, and placing them. I’ve written out all the details below as well!

If you’re into cake decorating videos like this one, be sure to check out my YouTube Channel! You’ll find tons of videos to inspire you there, and make sure you never miss a new one by clicking the Subscribe button.

You Will Need

• 1 batch of American buttercream
• 3+ Tablespoons of powdered sugar
• Deep red food color gel (I used AmeriColor Super Red + Sangria)
• Yellow food color gel (I used AmeriColor Egg Yellow)
• Bowls and spoons for color mixing
• Wilton Tip 352
• Wilton Tip 2
• Piping bags
• Flower nail
• 2” Parchment paper squares 

Step 1: Make the Stiffened Buttercream

Make one batch of American Buttercream, then add an extra 3 Tablespoons of powdered sugar to stiffen it up for the best piping consistency. You may need to add more powdered sugar by the tablespoon to get it perfect.

To check whether or not the buttercream is the best consistency, dip your spatula into it and observe the peak. If it comes out with a stiff peak that doesn’t easily wobble around when you move the spatula at different angles, it’s perfect. If it looks grainy or rough around the edges, you might have stiffened it too much. Here’s a guide to help you make the perfect consistency and troubleshoot if you’ve gone too far. 

Step 2: Mix in the Buttercream Colors

Divide the buttercream into two bowls: ⅓ of the buttercream into a small bowl and the rest of the buttercream in a medium bowl. If you want to reserve some of the buttercream for piping leaves, you can divide the batch evenly between three bowls. This batch of buttercream will make a lot of poinsettias, so if you only need a few, you can tint just a little bit of the buttercream and store the rest for another project. 

In the bowl with the most frosting, add deep red food color gel until you achieve the shade you want. This will be what you use to pipe the petals of the poinsettias. I ended up adding about 7 drops of AmeriColor Super Red and 1 drop of AmeriColor Sangria to achieve this red color. Note that the color will deepen over time, especially after refrigerating, so if it’s close to that deep red color when you mix it up it may darken to the perfect color. Here’s a guide on color mixing to explain how that all works. 

In the bowl with the least amount of frosting, add yellow food color gel. This will be what you use to pipe the center of the poinsettias. I used 3 drops of AmeriColor Egg Yellow for this deep yellow shade. 

If you’re wanting a good green color for leaves, I love AmeriColor Forest Green. It’s what I used on the poinsettia cupcakes pictured above. I don’t technically show you how to pipe leaves in this tutorial, but you’ll basically use the same piping technique as the poinsettia petals with the same piping tip (Wilton 352). 

Step 3: Pipe the Poinsettias

Cut some parchment paper into 2 inch squares. Fit one piping bag with Wilton Tip 352 and fill it with the deep red buttercream. Fit another piping bag with Wilton Tip 2 and fill it with the yellow buttercream. Place a dot of buttercream (either color) onto the flower nail and place a parchment paper square on top. 

Starting with the deep red buttercream, hold the bag at a 45 degree angle to the flower nail with the pointed ends facing up and down. Beginning in the center of the parchment paper, pipe the first petal by putting pressure on the bag as you wiggle it slightly while moving it away from the center of the parchment. Release the pressure on the bag to end the petal. The wiggling motion helps add a slightly wrinkled texture to the petals, which makes them look more realistic. 

Continue piping the petals in a circular formation until you reach that first petal. This will end up being your bottom row of petals. 

Starting in the center of your bottom row of petals, pipe a smaller ring of poinsettia petals on top of the first using the same technique. 

To finish the poinsettia, pipe a dot in the very center of the petals using the yellow buttercream, then pipe a ring of dots around that first dot. 

Carefully remove the parchment paper from the flower nail (with the poinsettia on top) and place it onto a cookie sheet or drying rack while you continue piping any additional poinsettias. 

Step 4: Refrigerate the Poinsettias

After you’ve piped all of your poinsettias and have them laid out on a cookie sheet or drying rack, refrigerate them for at least 10 minutes. At this point they will be firm enough to peel away from the parchment paper backing and place on your bakes. 

If you’d rather make the poinsettias ahead of time, you can place them in an airtight container and continue refrigerating them for up to five days before placing them on your bakes. Any longer than this and you risk the deep red coloring bleeding into the yellow centers. 

If you want to pipe some leaves before placing the poinsettias, you can use the same piping technique as the poinsettia petals you made with Tip 352 and some dark green buttercream. Pipe the leaves first, then place the poinsettia on top to stick it down. 

I can’t wait to see how you decorate with these pretty buttercream poinsettias! Be sure to tag @sugarandsparrowco on Instagram if you post a pic! I love to see what you create. 

The post How to Make Buttercream Poinsettias appeared first on Sugar & Sparrow.