Watercolor buttercream is the perfect base for all sorts of cake designs, whether you want something simple or elegant. The cakes shown below are actually the same cake decorated two different ways! And as far as buttercream types go, any kind of buttercream that you can tint to your desired colors will work with this tutorial (I’m using my favorite Vanilla Buttercream Recipe).

Most of the watercolor buttercream tutorials out there show you adding all of the colors at once and then smoothing them all together. With this technique, I find that the result ends up being more streaky in nature than I like. So, I usually start out with that technique and then go on to add and smooth the colors one by one to better control the outcome. All of this is shown in the video below, so give it a watch before you move on to the written tutorial below:

If you’re into cake decorating tutorials like this one, head on over to my YouTube Channel. You’ll find all sorts of cake decorating tutorials, recipes, and my entire Cake Basics series in video format. I’m always adding new videos there, so be sure to hit the subscribe button so you’ll always be the first to know about a new one. 

You Will Need

• A cake that’s been crumb coated and chilled (mine is a three layer 6 inch cake, but any size will do)
• 1.5 batches of vanilla buttercream
• Food color gels of your choice (mine are varying amounts of AmeriColor Fuchsia and Orange)
• Bowls and spoons for color mixing
• Angled spatula
• Icing smoother
• Cake turntable

Step 1: Frost the Cake with a Base Color

First, frost the cake. You don’t need to worry about getting it super smooth this go round, but you will want to make sure it’s nice and level to serve as a base for the colors that will go on top. With your chilled and crumb coated cake on the turntable, add some buttercream to the top and smooth it down with your angled spatula until it’s level and reaches beyond the edges of the cake. 

Next, add a thin layer of buttercream to the sides of the cake and smooth it with your icing smoother as you turn the cake on the turntable. 

When the sides are level and smooth, you should have a little crown of buttercream that has formed along the top edge. Use your angled spatula to swipe that buttercream toward the top center of the cake to create sharp edges all around.

If you want to improve your cake frosting skills, check out this guide that shows everything you need to know about creating a smooth buttercream finish. 

Step 2: Color the Buttercream

Divide the excess buttercream into bowls, one for each color you’re planning on mixing. Add your desired amounts of food color gel to each bowl and mix it up until you’ve got the color palette you’re imagining. 

I mixed up four different colors using AmeriColor Fuchsia and Orange. The lighter pink is just a tiny amount of AmeriColor Fuchsia, while the darker pink is a little more of that added. I did the same with the Orange color – added a tiny amount for the light orange and more for the dark orange. If you want to learn more about buttercream color mixing, here is a post on how to get the colors you’re going for.  

Step 3: Add and Smooth the Colors

I start off the traditional watercolor buttercream way by adding all of the colors at once and then smoothing them with my icing smoother.

With this technique, the colors end up being pretty streaky, but make a good base for the next step where we’ll add more color and definition.

Step 4: Add More Colors One by One

To turn this streaky watercolor cake into a masterpiece, we’ll need to add the colors one by one. I like to add big blobs of one color (I started here with the dark fuchsia on top of those streaks), and smooth it all down before moving onto the next.

After smoothing down the dark fuchsia, I moved on to adding big blobs of dark orange wherever I felt like, then smoothed those colors down. Don’t even worry about mixing colors on top of one another here – blending those colors is what makes the finish look like a watercolor masterpiece.

 Next, I added the light orange and smoothed it down, followed by the light pink. 

You can continue adding and smoothing colors until it looks just right. 

Step 5: Continue Decorating (Optional)

From here, you can keep on decorating the cake however you want! This watercolor base is perfect as-is or with some simple piping on top (as shown below using Wilton Tip 4B).

Or you can go more elegant and add a chocolate ganache drip and some fresh flowers like I did here: 

It’s all up to you! This watercolor look can be dressed up or dressed down depending on what you want to do. 

Did you make this watercolor cake? I want to know how it went and what colors you used! Let me know in the comments below and feel free to tag @sugarandsparrowco on Instagram to show me. I love to see what you create!

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

I know I’m not alone when I say my love for chocolate cake runs DEEP. I’ve just always had a soft spot in my heart for a good chocolate cake with chocolate frosting (bonus if it has sprinkles!). So when I went about making this Vegan Chocolate Cake recipe, I made sure it had all the essentials: extra moist, rich chocolate flavor, just the right balance of sweet and decadent, and has that melt-in-your-mouth crumb we all want in a chocolate cake. It’s a true rival to my (full-dairy) One-Bowl Chocolate Cake recipe and I could not be more satisfied with how the vegan version turned out! 

My ultimate goal with this recipe was to make it so tasty that you couldn’t tell it’s vegan. I’m so happy to say that this cake definitely knocks it out of the park on taste, texture, and all the things! After topping it with Vegan Chocolate Buttercream, even my (non-vegan) husband agreed that you truly can’t tell a difference between this recipe and the full-dairy version. Maybe we need to do a blind taste test to compare, but I feel like this Vegan Chocolate Cake is everything I was hoping for. 

This cake recipe actually dates back to the depression era (it’s sometimes called Wacky Cake or Crazy Cake), when ingredients like eggs and butter were too expensive to have on hand. Even though it’s super simple and basically the kind of cake you can throw together with ingredients you probably already have in your pantry, it makes the perfect vegan cake because it doesn’t need dairy to be amazing. It gets its moist crumb from a vegetable oil base, and while you can use any kind of oil you want, be sure that you like the taste of whatever you’re using, as it will end up flavoring the cake. I always opt for canola oil or generic vegetable oil, because they have the least amount of flavor and I want chocolate to be the star of the show in this recipe. 

Why NON Dutch Process Cocoa? 

Speaking of chocolate, it’s really important that you use non Dutch Process cocoa powder in this recipe. This is because there’s an amazing chemical reaction that happens between the cocoa powder, baking soda, and vinegar that’s responsible for giving this cake its rise. The chemical reaction doesn’t work properly with Dutch Process cocoa powder because of how it’s made – Dutch Process involves washing the cocoa beans in an alkaline solution called potassium carbonate, which neutralizes the acidity. In other words, it prevents that cool little science experiment from happening when you bake it, resulting in a deflated cake. Just be sure to use a natural, unsweetened cocoa powder for this recipe. Any brand will work, but Hershey’s is what I use.

This Vegan Chocolate Cake pairs well with pretty much any frosting flavor, but it’s pictured here with my Vegan Chocolate Buttercream, which is lick-the-spoon amazing. I ate an embarrassing amount of it (zero regrets though!). This cake also pairs super well with the Vegan Oreo Buttercream from this recipe as well if you’re more of a cookies and cream kind of person. 

To decorate, I frosted the cake smooth, added some Fancy Sprinkles in the “Hey Jude” mix (also vegan!), and used Wilton tip 4B to pipe swirls around the top before adding even more sprinkles. If you want to grow in your cake decorating skills, be sure to check out my Cake Basics series – it’s a collection of videos and blog posts that will show you how to build and decorate a cake just like this one from start to finish. However you decide to decorate, this Vegan Chocolate Cake recipe is sure to impress both vegans and non-vegans alike. Enjoy!

Print

Vegan Chocolate Cake

A simple yet decadent vegan chocolate cake that's moist, ultra-chocolatey, and basically everything you could want in a chocolate cake (but completely dairy-free!)

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 35 minutes

Ingredients

• 3 Cups (400g) all-purpose flour
• 2 Cups (410g) granulated white sugar
• 1/2 Cup (45g) natural, unsweetened cocoa powder NOT Dutch Process
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 3/4 Cup (180ml) vegetable oil
• 2 tsp white vinegar
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 Cups (480ml) water, room temperature

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350ºF and prepare three 6-inch or two 9-inch cake pans by spraying the sides with cooking spray and fitting the bottoms with a wax paper or parchment cake circle. 
• Place all of the dry ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixer and stir on low for 30 seconds to fully combine them. Add the vegetable oil, vinegar, vanilla, and water and mix on low until combined.
• Pour into prepared cake pans no more than 2/3 full and bake for 35-40 minutes, until a wooden toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool completely before filling and frosting with a double batch of Vegan Chocolate Buttercream (or frosting of your choice).

Notes

Make ahead tips: This Vegan Chocolate Cake can be made ahead and stored at room temperature, covered tightly in plastic wrap, for up to two days. Alternatively, you can cover with plastic wrap and store in the freezer for up to two months before thawing to room temperature. 

Make it extra chocolatey by filling and frosting with a double batch of Vegan Chocolate Buttercream. 

Did you make this Vegan Chocolate Cake? I want to know what you think! Let me know in the comments below and feel free to tag @sugarandsparrowco in your Instagram photos to show me. I love to see what you create!

The post Vegan Chocolate Cake Recipe appeared first on Sugar & Sparrow.

These past few months have been crazy. Between the demands of the holiday season coming up and working on a never-ending list of house projects, I am feeling perpetually frazzled these days. Despite the chaos, I thought a little recipe creating sesh would be perfect for me because baking does something good to my soul. I was right. I put on some Springsteen and decided to try my hand at creating the perfect pumpkin layer cake. Five rounds of bakes and a handful of albums later, I am so thrilled with how this Pumpkin Layer Cake turned out.

I tried baking this recipe with all purpose flour vs. cake flour, with buttermilk vs. whole milk, with just white sugar vs. a combination of white and brown sugars. In the end, the winners were cake flour, buttermilk, and the white and brown sugar combo. It’s deliciously moist because of the buttermilk, totally fluffy from the cake flour, and the combination of sweetness and spice is divine. Just look at this crumb: 

The pumpkin flavor of this cake comes from canned, pureed pumpkin and a medley of beautiful spices: cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and ground ginger. It’s so classic to pair this pumpkin layer cake with cream cheese buttercream, and in my opinion the flavor combo never gets old. I bet it would taste amazing with my spiced chai vanilla buttercream too if you want to get really autumnal (imagine a pumpkin spiced chai latte but in cake form!). 

The cream cheese buttercream recipe you’ll find below is sturdy and pipe-able without being overly sweet, which is why it’s my forever go-to. I colored some of it with Americolor Orange and Wedgewood and used Wilton Tips 8B and 4B to pipe those cute little pumpkins on top. Probably the easiest way to create buttercream pumpkins, ever. I piped them into a crescent moon shape because it gives me all the feels, but you do you. 

I decided to repurpose some of the pumpkin cake scraps into toasted cake crumbs that I pressed onto the sides of the cake and sprinkled around the piped pumpkins on top. It adds a great texture and I always feel good about finding a way to use leftover cake! I just crumbled the cake scraps into a pan and toasted them on the stovetop for about 10 minutes, stirring them frequently until they began to crisp. You can toast cake crumbs in the oven as well, but it takes almost an hour at a low temp, and I was impatient (hence the stovetop). Just be sure to let them cool completely before you use them on your cake and you’re good to go!

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Perfect Pumpkin Layer Cake

A Fall classic. Layers of moist, fluffy Pumpkin cake with just the right amount of spice, filled and frosted with tasty cream cheese buttercream.

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes

Ingredients

Pumpkin Layer Cake

• 2 3/4 Cups (290g) cake flour, sifted before measuring
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp allspice
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 Cup (226g) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3/4 Cup (140g) packed brown sugar
• 1 Cup (205g) white granulated sugar
• 3 eggs, room temperature
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 Cups (12 oz) canned pumpkin puree
• 1 Cup (240ml) full fat buttermilk DIY recipe in notes below

Cream Cheese Buttercream

• 1 Cup (226g) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 16 Oz cream cheese, room temperature brick-style, not the spreadable kind
• 8 Cup (960g) powdered sugar
• 1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp salt

Instructions

Make The Pumpkin Layer Cake

• Preheat the oven to 350ºF and prepare three 6-inch or two 9-inch cake pans by spraying the sides with cooking spray and placing a wax or parchment paper circle into the bottom of each one. Measure the cake flour by spooning into your measuring cup and leveling it. Place it into a medium sized bowl and add the baking powder, baking soda, salt, ground cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and ground ginger. Whisk together and set aside.
• In the bowl of your stand mixer (a handheld mixer works fine too!), cream the butter on high for two minutes until it's light and fluffy. Add in white and brown sugars and continue to mix on high for another two minutes, scraping down the bowl and paddle as needed. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition. Add pumpkin puree and vanilla and mix for one minute on medium-high, scraping down the bowl and paddle once more. 
• With the mixer on low speed, add in the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Add the buttermilk in a steady stream and mix until just incorporated. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and give it a few stirs to make sure there are no lumps. Batter will be slightly thick, but pourable.
• Pour batter evenly between the cake pans (fill them no more than ⅔ full) and bake for 35-40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool the cakes in the pan for ten minutes before removing and continuing to cool on a wire rack or flat surface.

Make The Cream Cheese Buttercream

• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and cream cheese on high until light, fluffy, and uniform (no lumps), about five minutes. Turn the mixer to low and add the powdered sugar a few cups at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition. Add the vanilla and salt, mixing on low for another 30 seconds.

Assembly

• Once the Pumpkin Cake layers have cooled completely, fill and frost the layers with Cream Cheese Buttercream. To create the design pictured, divide the leftover buttercream into four separate bowls. Use food color gel of your choice to create orange buttercream in the first bowl, light blue buttercream in the second, and brown buttercream in the third, keeping the last bowl uncolored. Fit three piping bags with Wilton Tips 8B (for the larger pumpkins) and 4B (for the smaller ones), then fill them with the orange, blue, and white buttercreams. Pipe pumpkins in a crescent moon design on top of the cake, then pipe a dot of brown buttercream on top of each one to look like stems. Finish the cake by pressing toasted cake crumbs** onto the sides and sprinkling them over the top (recipe in the notes below).

Notes

Make Ahead Tips: 

1. The cake layers can be made ahead and stored, wrapped in plastic wrap, at room temperature for up to two days. Alternatively, you can store the wrapped cake layers in the freezer for up to 2 months before thawing and frosting.
2. The Cream Cheese Buttercream can be made ahead and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. When you’re ready to use it, bring it back to room temperature and re-whip in your stand mixer to bring back to smooth buttercream consistency. 

*DIY Buttermilk Recipe: Add 1 Tbsp white vinegar into a mason jar or measuring cup. Add one cup (240ml) whole milk and let sit for at least 15 minutes before using in a recipe. 

**Toasted Cake Crumbs Recipe:  crumble cake scraps into a frying pan and toast on the stovetop on medium for about 10 minutes, until the cake crumbs begin to crisp. Let them cool completely before using them in your cake decorating.

This pumpkin layer cake recipe is a true crowd pleaser, perfect for any Fall gathering! I hope you love it as much as I do. Let me know what you think in the comments below and feel free to tag @sugarandsparrowco on Instagram if you post a pic! I love to see what you create.

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I get questions quite often about adding sprinkles to cake. Mainly: how do you get them to stick to the frosting? And how do you add them without indenting the buttercream? It’s about time I dedicated an entire post to my go-to methods for decorating cakes with sprinkles, and while I already have this post on how to cover an entire cake in sprinkles, this one will share all the little things I do to get the look pictured above. Here’s a quick video to show you the techniques before I get into all the details below:

Want to see more Cake Basics videos like this one? Head to my YouTube Channel to see the growing collection. You’ll also find tons of cake recipes and decorating videos to inspire you and broaden your skill set – be sure to hit the subscribe button so you never miss a new one!

What Kinds of Sprinkles Work with These Techniques? 

The cool thing about these techniques is that any sprinkles will work! Keep in mind that the smaller the sprinkles you’re using, the more tedious it will be to add them if you’re placing them one-by-one (like in Step 3). While it’s not impossible to work with teeny tiny sprinkles, it’s just much easier to place the sprinkles when they’re jimmy-size or bigger. 

The sprinkles I’m using in my video (and throughout this post) are the Hey Sugar mix by Sprinkle Pop, simply because I love the color scheme and think they go well with my turquoise + fuchsia buttercream. I also love using Fancy Sprinkles and have found plenty of pretty sprinkle mixes at my local JOANN store. They’re everywhere these days, so take a look around on Google, Instagram, or even try your local craft store or specialty baking aisle to find a sprinkle mix you love. 

How Many Sprinkles Do I Need? 

Sprinkles typically come in a few different jar sizes: 2oz (sample size), 4oz, 8oz, and beyond. The cake I’m working with throughout this post is a triple layer 6-inch cake that is about 5 inches tall. To get the look pictured (a thicker band of sprinkles around the base of the cake + individually placed sprinkles around the top) with this size of cake, you’ll need a 4oz bottle of sprinkles. In reality, you’ll only use about 2-3oz of sprinkles, but in my opinion, it’s always best to have more than enough than to have just barely enough. 

The good thing about this approach (buying a little more than you need) is that sprinkles keep for a long time, so you can always use the extra in future cake and cupcake projects. 

When to Add Sprinkles to Your Cake

I always add sprinkles right after I add the final layer of frosting to my cake, while the frosting is still wet to the touch. Beneath that final frosting layer is a crumb coated cake that’s been chilled, which gives the entire cake a sturdy foundation and makes the final layer of frosting semi-set (because of the cold sublayers), yet still fresh enough for sprinkles to adhere easily. 

In my experience, this timing is essential to decrease the chances of indenting the frosting finish while you’re placing the sprinkles. If you add the sprinkles without crumb coating and chilling your cake before applying that final layer of frosting, you have an increased risk of the foundation (cake layers and filling) shifting around on you as you decorate. On the other hand, if the final frosting layer is too chilled (aka you placed your cake in the refrigerator after the final layer of frosting was added) before adding the sprinkles, they may not adhere as easily. 

While it’s not impossible to place sprinkles on a cake that’s not set enough and a cake that’s too chilled/set, I recommend following the timeline laid out in this Cake Basics series and adding the sprinkles right after that final layer of frosting.

Here’s how: 

Step 1: Prepare Your Cake & Workspace

Once your cake has been frosted with the final layer of buttercream, you’re ready to prepare your workspace and start adding sprinkles. To make cleanup super easy and ensure that you don’t waste a ton of sprinkles in the process, I recommend placing a large sheet pan underneath your cake, which should still be on its turntable.  

I also recommend pouring the sprinkles out into a bowl and mixing them up, just so you don’t end up with all of the larger sprinkles in only one area of the cake. 

Step 2: Add the Concentrated Sprinkles

To add a concentrated amount of sprinkles around the bottom of the cake, I find it easiest to pour some sprinkles into the palm of my hand, then gently press them by the palmful onto the side of the cake. 

Continue this process around the entire base of the cake until you’re happy with the way it looks. I prefer an imperfect boundary line when it comes to this technique so I like to add a lot of highs and lows instead of trying to create a perfectly straight line here.

Feel free to add in larger sprinkles and fill in gaps as you see them. Once you feel satisfied with the sprinkle placement around the base, it’s helpful to clean up the stray sprinkles on the turntable so you can ensure that you’ve covered all the spaces you want to before moving on.

The easiest way to do this is with a pastry brush, and since you’ve got your sheet pan underneath the turntable, all of those extras will get swept away without covering your kitchen floor. 

Step 3: Add the Individual Sprinkles

Once I’ve got the base of the cake covered with a more concentrated sprinkle placement, it’s time to add individual sprinkles in what I like to call a “floating” pattern. I don’t really know what else to call it, but the only way to get the look is to add each sprinkle one-by-one. To get started, I press a sprinkle onto the pad of my pointer finger, then quickly (and gently) press that sprinkle to the side of the cake. 

In my opinion, pressing the sprinkles on with the pad of your finger is the best way to prevent indents, since your fingernails won’t get in the way. Adding sprinkles with tweezers, your fingertip, or by pinching the sprinkle between two fingers is totally possible, but you have to be way more careful in regards to the sharp points of the tweezers or your nails indenting the cake finish. 

You will drop a lot of sprinkles along the way whichever method you choose, but as a tip for getting the sprinkles to stick to your finger easier, it’s helpful to keep a damp paper towel handy. This way you can press your finger onto the paper towel before placing it onto a sprinkle – that little bit of moisture helps keep it stuck on for longer. 

I like to place the individual sprinkles about an inch or so apart, always ensuring that no two colors or shapes are placed right next to one another. This process in total can take upwards of 15 minutes, so throw on some music and settle in for a tedious sprinkle sesh. Taking your time will be worth it in the end! 

Step 4: Continue Decorating 

For this particular design, I move on to decorating the top of the cake once I’ve got the sides sprinkled just the way I want them. Side note worth mentioning: If I’m adding sprinkles to a cake that will have a ganache drip, I tend to do Steps 1 and 2, add the drip, then complete Steps 3 and 4. Just thought I’d mention that in case anyone is wondering where a drip comes into play. 

For this cake, I fitted a piping bag with Wilton Tip 4B and filled it with some buttercream frosting that I tinted with Americolor Fuchsia color gel. Then, I piped a series of swirls around the top edge.

To finish the look, I added more sprinkles onto each of the fuchsia swirls. It’s important to do this immediately after swirling, while the buttercream is still fresh. If the buttercream has set, the sprinkles will just bounce off. 

When you’re happy with your beautiful smooth and sprinkled buttercream cake, step back and marvel at your masterpiece! You did it! 

Did you make this cake? I want to see how it turned out! Be sure to let me know in the comments or tag @Sugarandsparrowco on Instagram to show me. And if you want more Cake Basics, head here to see all of the posts and learn the methods of caking I’ve come to love over the years. I’m cheering you on every step of the way!

The post How to Decorate a Cake with Sprinkles appeared first on Sugar & Sparrow.

Although there’s a ton of texture going on here, the design could not be simpler to create. I used a mix of simple fondant flowers, buttercream piped flowers, and sprinkles to make this cascading bouquet of blooms come to life. Incorporating all three of those elements helps to give depth to the design, but I’ve also created this cascading floral look with just buttercream and both ways look incredible! Whatever techniques you use, as long as you nail this floral placement, you really can’t lose. 

If you do include the cute little fondant flowers, I do recommend making them at least a day ahead, just because they’re much easier to work with when they’re firm. I made them with this plunger cutter set and loved how quick they were to cut out in a variety of sizes and colors. Allowing them to dry in a semi-sphere mold (or even on the inside curve of a bowl!) really helped give the petals the perfect shape. Probably the easiest fondant flowers I’ve ever made!  

And as far as the buttercream flowers go, all they really take is the right piping tips and a fun color palette. Including the Fuschia background color I used for the cake, this color palette consists of seven different buttercream colors! I do tend to get a little carried away when color mixing sometimes (it’s therapeutic!) but keep in mind that you can create this look with less colors, or really any color palette you want. With that in mind, feel free to follow the tutorial below closely or use it as inspiration for your floral cake creation. You do you! 

Here’s a quick video to show you the decorating techniques before you read all about them below:

Be sure to check out my YouTube channel to see even more cake decorating videos, tutorials, and recipes. Hit the Subscribe button while you’re there so you never miss a new video!

You Will Need 

• A 6-inch cake, filled and frosted in a solid color of your choice
• 3 1-inch balls of fondant
• Small rolling pin
• 1 tsp vegetable shortening
• Flower Plunger Cutter Set
• Flower drying mold
• 1 batch of vanilla buttercream
• Food color gels of your choice
• Bowls and spoons for mixing
• Piping bags
• Wilton Tip 1M (x2)
• Wilton Tip 4B (x2)
• Wilton Drop Flower tips: 190 and 225
• Sprinkles of your choice (I used the Sea Glass Mix by Sprinkle Pop)

Step 1: Make the Fondant Flowers

At least a day ahead (so the fondant flowers have time to dry), color the three 1-inch balls of fondant according to your chosen color scheme. I used Americolor Lemon Yellow, Fuschia, and Regal Purple for the colors shown below.

Coat a flat surface with a little bit of vegetable shortening, then roll the fondant out to about ⅛ inch thick.

Use the flower plungers to cut out a variety of floral shapes, gently pressing the plunge button to create the dot center on each one.

Finally, set the flowers to dry in a semi-sphere mold or the inside of a bowl so that the petals dry with some upward lift.

After about 24 hours, your fondant flowers should be dry and fully ready to use on your cake.

Step 2: Prepare the Buttercream 

Divide the vanilla buttercream evenly amongst separate bowls, one per color in your palette. Then color each bowl with your favorite color gels. For the color palette shown below, I used Americolor Fuschia, Lemon Yellow, Regal Purple (for both the light and dark purple), Turquoise (for both the light and dark turquoise), and Peach.

When your buttercream colors are ready to go, fit your piping bags with tips and fill each one with a different color. I fit the Fuschia and dark Regal Purple piping bags with Wilton Tip 1M, the Lemon Yellow and dark Turquoise piping bags with Wilton Tip 4B, the Peach bag with Wilton Tip 190, and the light Regal Purple and light Turquoise bags with Wilton Tip 225.

Feel free to use any variety of floral piping tips and colors you’d like for this look! 

Step 3: Decorate the Top of the Cake 

On the top of your frosted cake, start by piping some scattered rosettes with Wilton Tip 1M in a crescent moon shape.

Use the piping bags fitted with Wilton Tip 4B to pipe stars that follow the same crescent moon shape, allowing plenty of space to fill in with more florals.

Fill in most of the space with your drop flowers using Wilton Tips 190 and 225. If you’ve never piped a drop flower before, they’re super easy! Simply hold the piping tip at a 90 degree angle (straight down) about ⅛ inch from the cake surface. Then, twist the tip in a clockwise motion while you squeeze to swirl the petals before releasing.

Next, add the fondant flowers wherever you’d like, standing them at different angles. They’re super light weight, so they should stick right onto the buttercream without shifting or falling over.

Finally, fill in the empty spaces with spherical sprinkles of varying sizes. I loved adding some of the sprinkles to the buttercream flowers to give them a pretty center!

Step 4: Create the Floral Cascade 

To make these beautiful blooms look like they’re cascading down the side of the cake, repeat the above steps for piping, adding fondant flowers, and attaching sprinkles – only this time at a diagonal angle. Starting near one of the edges of the crescent moon shape you created along the top, pipe scattered rosettes diagonally down the side of the cake.

Pipe more stars with Wilton Tip 4B in that same diagonal direction down the side, then fill in most of the empty space with the drop flower tips to complete the general cascading shape.

Accent your cascading florals with fondant flowers and sprinkles until you are totally satisfied with all the textures going on.

This is one of those cake designs I get totally lost in and just keep adding things until I feel like it’s time to step back and marvel. These floral textures get me every time!

So pretty, right? I can’t wait to see your cascading floral cake creations – be sure to tag @sugarandsparrowco on Instagram to show me! We could all use something pretty to look at nowadays, so no matter what your reason is for making this cake design, it’s sure to bring some life to this crazy season. Hope you’re all safe, well and staying creative (or doing whatever brings you joy these days)!

The post Cascading Floral Cake Tutorial appeared first on Sugar & Sparrow.

This cake design is ever so slightly revamped (don’t mind my terrible pre-DSLR food photography in this original photo), but in the best way. It’s mostly because JOANN sent me a big box of Valentine’s Day goodies just for fun, and in it I found these amazing Wilton Icing Heart Decorations and the perfect sprinkles for my color palette. I ended up ditching the conversation hearts and adding in those extras instead. And speaking of the color palette, I am super into Americolor Dusty Rose right now, so I designed the whole color scheme around it. The warm pink and red tones are giving me all the feels (don’t worry, I’ll show you how to replicate the colors below). 

This design all begins by making your own fondant hearts. I colored some Satin Ice fondant to match my buttercream color palette and used a heart shaped cookie cutter to make the decorations. In about 24 hours (flip them halfway in between), they’re dry and ready to use. One question I get a lot is how I stick them to the side of the cake without weighing anything down. The answer is this: just make sure they’re only about ⅛ inch thick when you make them. They’ll end up weighing barely anything, so you can just stick them right into the buttercream and they’ll hold up perfectly. The buttercream piping serves as extra “glue” to keep them in place as well. 

Here’s a quick video to show you my technique for making fondant hearts and cascading them down the side of the cake with all the pretty details. I’ve written out all the steps below, but be sure to give this video a watch first for visualization: 

If you’re into cake decorating videos like this one, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel! I love making videos and am adding new ones there all the time, from cake decorating techniques to my go-to recipes. Head over there and click the subscribe button to make sure you don’t miss a thing!

You Will Need

• A 6-inch cake that’s been crumb coated and chilled
• 1.5 batches of vanilla buttercream
• Food color gels of your choice
• 2 ounces of fondant 
• Small rolling pin
• 1 tsp vegetable shortening 
• Small heart cookie cutter (mine is about 2 inches tall) 
• Cake turntable
• Angled Icing Spatula 
• Icing Smoother
• Wilton Tip 4B (x2)
• Wilton Tip 199 
• Piping Bags
• Wilton Icing Hearts Decorations
• Wilton Valentine’s Day Sprinkles

Step 1: Make the Fondant Hearts

With your hands coated in a little bit of vegetable shortening, knead the fondant until it’s the consistency of Play-Doh. Divide the fondant in half and color each half a different color. I used a mixture of Americolor Fuschia + Super Red to create the dark red color, and just a tiny bit of Fuschia to create the light pink color. 

Spread a little vegetable shortening onto a fondant mat or smooth cutting board, then roll the first fondant color out to about ⅛ inch thickness. Then, use the heart cookie cutter to cut out heart shapes. 

Repeat with the other fondant color and allow the heart shapes to dry for at least 24 hours, flipping them halfway through so that each side dries thoroughly. 

Step 2: Create the Buttercream Color Palette

Add about 3 cups of vanilla buttercream to a medium sized bowl, then divide the remaining buttercream evenly amongst three smaller bowls. The largest bowl is what you’ll be using to frost the cake, so color it whatever hue you’d like as your backdrop. I went with a light shade of Americolor Dusty Rose. 

The remaining bowls will be what you use for the accent piping in the cascading decoration. I colored two of the bowls with Dusty Rose (one a little lighter than the cake background color and one a bit darker), and the last bowl with a mixture of Americolor Fuschia and a small drop of Super Red to warm up the color. 

When you’re happy with your color palette, add the small bowls of buttercream into three separate piping bags, each fitted with either Wilton Tip 4B or 199. 

Step 3: Frost The Cake

With your chilled and crumb coated cake on a turntable, use the largest bowl of buttercream to frost a smooth 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 about 20 minutes. If you want more tips on creating a perfectly smooth cake finish, I’ve got a great tutorial for you here. 

Step 4: Create The Cascading Heart Design

First, stick the fondant hearts onto the top of the cake in a semi-straight line from the edge to just past the center. Make sure they look perfectly imperfect by sticking them in at different heights and angles. 

Next, use the piping bags to pipe open stars all around the hearts. Add sprinkles and icing heart decorations wherever your heart desires.

Place more fondant hearts down the side of the cake at an angle, connecting from the hearts on top towards the bottom middle of the cake. The fondant hearts should stick right into the buttercream and stay in place without weighing anything down. 

Add more buttercream piping all around the fondant hearts (this helps to truly ensure that they’ll stay in place).

Finally, add the finishing touches with sprinkles and more icing heart decorations. The icing hearts are my favorite! 

And just like that, you’ve got the most perfect cascading heart cake ever! It looks pretty complex, but can you believe how simple it is to create?

I’m in love with this one and I hope you are too! Let me know if you make this cake for Valentine’s Day (or any day!) by tagging @sugarandsparrowco on Instagram or leaving a comment on this post. I love to see your work inspired by my designs!

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

I created a huge 3D Christmas Tree Cake last year, and this year it was even more fun making mini versions. Especially since JOANN has such a great assortment of Holiday sprinkles right now. I was so dazzled by the festive sprinkles in their cake decorating aisle that it was hard to choose just one! I ended up with tons of sprinkles between the Wilton 6 pack of blue winter sprinkles and the double pack of Handmade Holiday sprinkles. They all look so great together on these mini Christmas trees. Just look at those tiny gingerbread men and snowflakes!

Underneath all those pretty sprinkles are four layers of cake ranging from 4 inches in diameter to ½ inch. When you stack them on top of one another they end up looking like tiny wedding cakes before you frost them up into a Christmas tree shape! From there, all that’s left to do is use your favorite piping tip to add some details and then decorate to your heart’s desire. You can get really creative with how you decorate these cuties and it’s the perfect project to do with little ones! 

Here’s a quick video of the process before you read all about how to make these mini Christmas tree cakes below:

If you’re into cake decorating videos like this one, be sure to check out my YouTube channel! I’m always adding fun tutorial and recipe videos there, and if you click the Subscribe button you’ll never miss a new one.

You Will Need

• 8 baked 4-inch cake layers
• Circular Fondant Cutter Set
• 2 batches of vanilla buttercream
• Green food color gel
• Piping bags
• Small icing spatula 
• Wilton Tip 4B
• Wilton Blue Holiday Sprinkle Mixes
• Wilton Handmade Holiday Sprinkles
• Gumpaste or fondant star 
• 4 inch cardboard cake circles

Step 1: Color the Buttercream

First thing’s first. We’ll need to color that big batch of buttercream. Note that you can use any color (or combination of colors!) you want for these mini Christmas trees. I went with a classic shade of green that I made using the Wilton Color Right System.

I think these mini Christmas trees would end up looking amazing in some non-classic colors as well. I’m dying to try them in a vibrant pink or bright white! 

Step 2: Cut out the Cake Layers

Next, it’s time to make all the different sized layers for stacking. Keep three of the 4-inch cake layers as-is, then use the Circular Fondant Cutter Set to cut out smaller circles from the remaining layers.

You’ll need three sets of each size since this tutorial ends up making three total mini Christmas trees, and it’s best to map out where you’ll be cutting each cake layer before you start. I used the 3 inch, 2 inch, and ½ inch circular cutters to create three sets of each size.

Check out this video to see how I planned out where to cut each layer! 

Step 3: Fill and Stack the Cake Layers

Now that you have four different sized layers per mini Christmas tree, it’s time to fill and stack them. Fill a piping bag with buttercream, snip off a ½ inch opening, and place a small dot onto a 4 inch cardboard cake circle, then place the 4 inch cake layer on top. Add a thin layer of buttercream and place the next smallest layer on top. Continue the process until you’ve got what looks like a mini version of a tiered wedding cake (so cute!).

Repeat this step three times, or per amount of mini Christmas trees you’re making.

Step 4: Ice and Shape the Mini Christmas Trees

With your first mini Christmas tree on a cake turntable, use the same piping bag from Step 3 to pipe buttercream all around the cake.

Then, use a small icing spatula to shape the cake into a tree (aka cone) shape.

Repeat until you’ve got three mini Christmas trees shaped, then pop them all into the refrigerator for about 20 minutes to let the buttercream set up. 

Step 5: Pipe the Details

Fit a piping bag with your favorite piping tip and fill it with more buttercream. I ended up using Wilton Tip 4B because I love how easy it is to create stunning texture. Starting at the bottom of the tree and working your way up, pipe open stars in even lines until the entire tree is covered with them.

Although I’m using Wilton Tip 4B to pipe the details on my mini Christmas trees, I think they would also look amazing with Wilton Tip 352 (leaf tip), Tip 233 (grass tip), or really any piping tip that you can create fun texture with. 

Step 6: Decorate with Holiday Sprinkles 

Finally, add generous amounts of sprinkles to each mini Christmas tree. I used the Wilton Winter Blue sprinkle set to add blue and white snowflakes, jimmies, and spherical sprinkles that look like tiny ornaments. Then I used the Handmade Holiday sprinkles to add more color and tiny gingerbread men.

When you’re finished sprinkling, add a star to the top of each mini Christmas tree. For these, I tinted some gumpaste yellow, rolled it out thin, and cut out each star with a small star cutter. After about 24 hours it’s totally dry to the touch and ready for topping your trees!

Pretty cute, right? Such a fun Holiday project whether it’s for adorning your dessert table or creating some festive memories with the family!

Not only does JOANN have the ideal Holiday sprinkles for your bakes this season, you’ll find everything else you need for this project. From piping tips and cake pans to chocolate molds and beyond, it’s where I buy the majority of my cake decorating supplies and I know you’ll love their selection. Check out your local JOANN store or their website for all your cake decorating needs (and then some). My recent cart add-ons besides cake stuff: mason jars, photography backgrounds, a grow your own geodes kit, some home decor for the Holidays, and three rolls of yarn because I’m really optimistic about teaching myself to knit now.

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 How To Make Mini Christmas Tree Cakes appeared first on Sugar & Sparrow.

My husband and I are big fans of the Great British Baking Show (if you haven’t seen it, power up Netflix right now!) and the other night we were watching a contestant bake a cranberry orange flavored dessert. While I’ve never really been all that intrigued to use those flavors before, my husband leaned over and said, “A cranberry orange cake would be delicious. You should make it.” It’s because of him that I found myself in the kitchen zesting oranges and rolling cranberries in sugar, wide-eyed at the Holiday scents filling the air. I ended up with a delicious orange flavored cake dotted with fresh, juicy cranberries, topped with zesty orange buttercream and tons of Christmas cheer! Thanks for the suggestion, husband. You were right. 

Cranberry and orange are a classic Holiday pairing, making this cake ideal for any festive gathering. It’s got a moist, light crumb and is so pleasantly aromatic (your kitchen will smell amazing). The sweetness of it all is balanced perfectly with the tartness of the cranberries, giving it just the right amount of zing. Much like any citrus cake, the orange flavoring comes mostly from the zest. You’ll want to zest one super large orange (or two smaller ones) before you get started with this recipe, and keep in mind that you’ll be dividing the zest between the cake batter and buttercream. 

I used fresh, whole cranberries in this cake recipe, but word on the street is that you can use frozen whole cranberries as a substitute. If you do, just make sure you don’t thaw them before adding them to the cake batter. And a pro tip for making sure they don’t sink to the bottom of your cake pan in the baking process: toss them in some flour before folding them in! The coating of flour keeps them suspended, and this trick also works with things like chocolate chips, sprinkles, and pretty much anything you would want to fold into cake batter. Life changing!

This cake tastes incredible with orange buttercream (recipe below), which is what I used to fill and frost it. As an alternative, you could also pair this cranberry orange cake with vanilla buttercream or cream cheese buttercream and either choice would be delicious. I love how the orange buttercream enhances the flavor of this cake and if you look real close, you can see tiny flecks of orange zest! Flecked buttercream always makes me swoon. 

In all honesty, my first attempt at decorating this cake was almost disastrous. I had this idea in my mind to tint the buttercream a light orange and give it a retro look, but what actually happened was the buttercream ended up looking like the color of a bandaid. I kept holding up the orange slices and sugared cranberries next to it and telling myself that the color scheme would look better on the cake, but in the end it just wasn’t as pretty as the natural color of the buttercream, so I started all over again and saved the other batch for another cake project. 

To decorate, I frosted a smooth layer of orange buttercream and piped portions of the cake with Wilton Tip 4B (for the stars) and Wilton Tip 1M (for the rosettes). Then I added sugared cranberries (I used this recipe for those) and some candied orange slices from Trader Joe’s. Holiday cake perfection inside and out!

Print

Cranberry Orange Cake Recipe

Layers of light and zesty orange cake with fresh, whole cranberries folded in. Topped with orange flavored buttercream to give it extra zing. The perfect Holiday cake for any festive gathering!

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 35 minutes

Ingredients

Cranberry Orange Cake

• 2 1/2 Cups (260g) cake flour, sifted before measuring
• 2 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 Cup (226g) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 1/2 Cups (335g) granulated white sugar
• 3 eggs, room temperature
• 1 Tbsp orange zest from about 1/2 large orange
• 1/4 Cup (60g) sour cream, room temperature
• 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 3/4 Cup (177ml) whole milk, room temperature
• 1/4 Cup (59ml) fresh squeezed orange juice from about 1/2 large orange
• 1 1/2 Cups fresh whole cranberries coated in 1 Tbsp flour

Orange Buttercream

• 2 Cups (452g) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 Tbsp orange zest from about 1/2 large orange
• 7 Cups (840g) powdered sugar
• 2 Tbsp fresh squeezed orange juice
• 3 Tbsp whole milk, room temperature
• pinch of salt, or to taste

Instructions

Make The Cranberry Orange Cake

• Preheat the oven to 350ºF and prepare three 6-inch or two 9-inch cake pans by spraying the sides with cooking spray and placing a wax or parchment paper circle into the bottom of each one. Measure the cake flour by spooning into your measuring cup and leveling it. Place it into a medium sized bowl and add the baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk together and set aside. Mix together the orange juice and whole milk and set aside.
• In the bowl of your stand mixer (a handheld mixer works fine too!), cream the butter for on high for two minutes until it's light and fluffy. Add in white granulated sugar and continue to mix on high for another two minutes, scraping down the bowl and paddle as needed. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition. Add the orange zest, sour cream, and vanilla and mix for one minute on medium-high, scraping down the bowl and paddle once more.
• With the mixer on low speed, add in the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Add the whole milk and orange juice mixture in a steady stream and mix until just incorporated. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and give it a few stirs to make sure there are no lumps. Make sure the cranberries are coated in 1 Tbsp of flour, then gently fold them into the batter.
• Pour batter evenly between the cake pans (fill them no more than ⅔ full) and bake for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool the cakes in the pan for ten minutes before removing and continuing to cool on a wire rack or flat surface.

Make The Orange Buttercream

• With a hand mixer or paddle attachment on your stand mixer, cream the butter with the orange zest on medium-high until the butter is creamy and light (almost white) in color. About 7 minutes. 
• With the mixer on low, add the powdered sugar a few cups at a time, scraping down after each addition and making sure each addition is fully incorporated before adding the next one. 
• Add the orange juice, milk, and salt and mix on medium-low for another two minutes until fully incorporated. 

Assembly

• Once the Cranberry Orange Cakes have cooled completely, fill and frost the layers with Orange Buttercream. To create the design pictured, fit one piping bag with Wilton Tip 4B and another piping bag with Wilton Tip 1M before filling each with the remaining Orange Buttercream. Pipe rosettes and stars onto the top of the cake in a crescent moon shape, then pipe some more onto the bottom of the cake on the opposite side. Add some sugared cranberries and candied orange slices wherever you wish!

Notes

Make Ahead Notes:

1. The cake layers can be made ahead and stored, wrapped in plastic wrap, at room temperature for up to two days. Alternatively, you can store the wrapped cake layers in the freezer for up to 2 months before thawing and frosting.
2. The Orange Buttercream can be made ahead and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. When you’re ready to use it, bring it back to room temperature and re-whip in your stand mixer to bring back to smooth buttercream consistency. 

What are some of your favorite Holiday cake recipes? This cranberry orange cake has become one of mine! Let me know what you’re baking right now and if you make this recipe, be sure to leave a comment to let me know how you like it and tag @sugarandsparrowco on Instagram to show me!

The post Cranberry Orange Cake Recipe appeared first on Sugar & Sparrow.

After the impulse Buttercream yarn purchase and a bit of research on knitted buttercream piping techniques, I decided to order all of the supplies on JOANN’s website and use their in-store pickup option just to see what it was like. I was so happy with how convenient it was! Did it stop me from wandering down the aisles and impulse buying some Fall home decor? Absolutely not. But it is so nice to know that the items I needed were ready and waiting for me at the checkout counter.

This cake requires just three piping tips (Wilton 1M, 4B, and 3) and an extra dose of patience, which is so worth it for this end result! There’s a major pro tip in the tutorial below that details how to get the knit lines so straight. I ended up using the Wilton Color Right system to create the purple buttercream color so that it matched the yarn perfectly. And as an optional cake topper, I found the perfect bamboo knitting needles to finish the look. I love everything about this cake.

Here’s a quick video to show you all the tips and techniques before you read all about them below:

If you’re into video tutorials like this, be sure to check out my YouTube channel. There are tons of videos there to inspire you and show you the ropes of cake decorating! And I’m always rolling out new ones, so be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss a thing.

You Will Need

• 6 inch cake that’s been crumb coated and chilled
• 1.5 batches of vanilla buttercream 
• Food color gels of your choice (optional)
• Cake turntable
• Angled spatula
• Icing Smoother
• Wilton Icing Comb
• Wilton Tips 1M, 4B, and 3
• Piping bags 

Step 1: Color the Buttercream (optional)

You can choose to leave the buttercream white or tint it with some food color gels of your choice. I ended up using the pink and blue gels from the Wilton Color Right Food Coloring System to create this warm purple tone that matches the Buttercream yarn as closely as possible! 

I love how easy it is to create totally custom colors with these food color gels, and it comes with a handy guide in case you aren’t sure about color theory. 

Step 2: Frost the Cake

Before we start piping, I find it best to frost a thin layer of smooth buttercream beneath the piped finish. This way any spaces that peek through your piped patterns will match exactly, making the texture look flawless. With your chilled, crumb coated cake on the turntable, smooth a thin layer of buttercream on top of the cake using your angled spatula, then cover the sides with buttercream. 

Next, use your icing smoother to create a smooth, even buttercream finish. No need to worry about small imperfections, but make sure the sides are as straight and level as possible.

You’ll notice a little crown appear around the top edge as you smooth the sides of the cake, and you can use your angled spatula to drag those edges inward to create sharp edges. 

Step 3: Create the Guidelines

If you’re wondering how to get the knitted piping perfectly straight horizontally, this is my favorite hack. I used the square tooth comb from the Wilton Icing Comb set to gently create evenly spaced horizontal lines around the cake. Just turn the cake while you gently comb the sides.

And for the top, I placed the same icing comb onto the center and swirled it around to create lines there too. These lines are the perfect piping guide! 

Once your cake finish is perfectly striped, pop the cake into the refrigerator to chill for about 20 minutes while you practice your piping.

Step 4: Practice Piping Techniques and Make a Plan 

While your cake is chilling, it’s best to prepare your piping bags and make a plan before you begin piping on the cake. Count how many rows (the lines from step 3) you’ve got on your cake and draw them out on a piece of paper. I had 17 rows to fill in, and knowing that helped me plan out which piping techniques I wanted to use on each section of the cake. Feel free to copy the pattern in step 5 if you have 17 rows, adjust it to fit more or less rows, or draw out your own design!  

I came up with three different techniques for the knitted piping, shown in the photo below. If you want to practice them before you start on the cake, you can pipe them out on a piece of wax paper to get the hang of it. 

Technique 1 (the top row above) is made with Wilton Tip 4B and simply involves piping stars. 

Technique 2 (the middle row above) is a cable knit texture created with Wilton Tip 1M. You can get the look by piping a braided pattern, or piping a series of v shapes that overlap. 

Technique 3 (the bottom row above) is your basic small knit texture, created with Wilton Tip 3. It’s similar to the technique above it, but instead of piping v shapes, you’ll be piping x shapes that overlap. This way, the top of each x looks like a v. Continue until you have a series of knits that look like the bottom row in the photo.

Step 5: Pipe the Sides of the Cake

Using the techniques shown above, I started at the bottom of the cake and piped a row of stars with Wilton Tip 4B, then filled in the subsequent three rows with Technique 3 (tiny knits):

I piped Technique 1 to fill in the next two rows, then Technique 2 to fill in the subsequent four rows:

The cable knit piping is basically the middle of the cake, so I repeated those techniques in reverse order to reach the top:

Step 6: Pipe the Top of the Cake

Similar to the planning session for the sides of the cake, count how many rows you’ve got on the top of your cake and decide how you want to fill them in. I started my design with one open star in the middle of the cake, then filled in the next four rows with Technique 3.

Then, I finished the top with another round of cable knit piping using Technique 2.

This part is totally optional, but I thought it would be so fitting to top the cake with these bamboo knitting needles once I was done with all that piping:

You might need a hand massage after this one, but this knitted buttercream texture is unreal and totally worth it!

Whether you’re in need of the perfect piping tips for this cake design, some cozy wool yarn for your next real life knit, the prettiest home decor for Fall, or all of the above, JOANN is my go-to place for all of it. Be sure to check out their website and try the BOPIS (buy online, pick up in-store) feature if you want next level customer service! I can’t promise that it will stop you from wandering the aisles and impulse buying other things, but it’s great to have everything you need ready to go at the checkout counter. 

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 Knitted Sweater Cake Tutorial appeared first on Sugar & Sparrow.

I’m a tea lover all year round, but once Fall hits and things start to get cozy, chai is a staple in my tea cabinet. The aromatic spices in a cup of chai are unreal and totally reminiscent of Autumn. So when I decided to bake up those spices in cake form, not only did my kitchen smell amazing, but this Spiced Vanilla Chai Cake tasted like an Autumnal dreamscape! It’s the perfect cake for welcoming the changes of the season whether you’re a tea lover or not.

The flavor of this Vanilla Chai Cake is created by both adding the perfect spice blend to the dry ingredients and infusing the liquid with chai goodness. By adding, I mean mixing up a blend of cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, allspice, and cloves and whisking it into the cake flour. And by infusion, I mean pouring boiled whole milk over a chai tea bag and letting it steep before adding it to the batter at the end. Both of these methods add tons of spicy chai flavor, and combined with a good dose of vanilla extract, the result is Spiced Vanilla Chai Cake perfection. 

To really up the flavor, I’ve filled and frosted this delicious cake with Vanilla Chai Buttercream. It’s basically my vanilla buttercream recipe with homemade Chai Spice Mix added, and oh my. The combination is Fall flavor heaven! You can choose to pair this cake with all sorts of buttercreams (cream cheese, chocolate, vanilla, or anything that pairs well with chai tea), but if you want the full-on chai cake experience, this is it. 

To decorate, I crumbled up some Speculoos Cookies and added them to the sides of the cake after frosting, then piped some simple stars (Wilton Tip 4B) and rosettes (Wilton Tip 1M) on top of the cake in a crescent moon design. Then, I topped it all off with some cinnamon sticks and more Speculoos cookie crumbles. My favorite part of all of it is the little specks of Chai Spice Mix that come through in the buttercream. I have all the heart eyes for speckled buttercream!

Print

Spiced Vanilla Chai Cake

Layers of fluffy, moist vanilla chai cake that's perfectly flavored with chai tea and a homemade chai spice mix. Top it with vanilla chai buttercream for the ultimate Autumn flavor palette.

Prep Time 40 minutes

Cook Time 35 minutes

Ingredients

Chai Spice Mix

• 4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground cardamom
• 1/2 tsp ground allspice
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves

Vanilla Chai Cake

• 1 1/4 Cups (296ml) whole milk
• 1 chai tea bag
• 2 3/4 Cups (290g) cake flour, sifted before measuring
• 2 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 4 tsp chai spice mix (recipe above)
• 1 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 Cup (226g) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 3/4 Cups (358g) granulated white sugar
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 1/2 Cup (112g) sour cream, room temperature
• 1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract

Vanilla Chai Buttercream

• 2 Cups (452g) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 7 Cups (840g) powdered sugar
• 1 Tbsp chai spice mix (recipe above)
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 Tbsp whole milk, room temperature
• 1/4 tsp salt

Instructions

Make The Chai Spice Mix

• In a small bowl, whisk together the cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, allspice, and cloves and set aside.

Make The Vanilla Chai Cake

• Preheat the oven to 350°F. Prepare three 6-inch or two 9-inch cake pans by spraying the sides with a cooking spray (Baker's Joy is my favorite) and fitting a wax or parchment paper circle to the bottom of the pan. Alternatively, you can grease and lightly flour the pans.
• Place the chai tea bag into a mason jar. In a small saucepan over medium-high heat, warm the whole milk, stirring constantly, until it begins to boil. Pour the boiling milk over the chai tea bag in the mason jar and let steep for 20 minutes before removing the tea bag. Allow the mixture to cool completely to room temperature before moving on.
• Sift the cake flour and then measure by spooning and leveling it in your measuring cup. Add the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, 4 teaspoons of the chai spice mix, and salt into a bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside.
• In the bowl of your stand mixer (a handheld mixer works fine too!), cream the butter for on high for two minutes until it's light and fluffy. Add in sugar and continue to mix on medium-high for another two minutes, scraping down the bowl and paddle as needed. Add the eggs one at a time, then add vanilla and sour cream and mix for one minute on high, scraping down the bowl and paddle once more. 
• With the mixer on low speed, add in the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Add the (room temperature!) chai milk mixture slowly and mix until just incorporated. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and give it a few stirs to make sure there are no lumps (without over-mixing). The batter will be slightly thick, but pourable. 
• Pour batter evenly into prepared cake pans (no more than 2/3 of the way full) and bake for 30-35 minutes. They're done when they spring back to the touch and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Let the cakes cool in the pan for five minutes before turning them out onto a wire rack for an additional few hours of cooling. Make sure they're entirely room temperature before applying any frosting. 

Make The Vanilla Chai Buttercream

• With a hand mixer or paddle attachment on your stand mixer, cream the butter on medium-high until it’s creamy and light (almost white) in color. About 7 minutes. 
• Whisk 1 Tbsp of the Chai Spice Mix into the measured powdered sugar. With the mixer on low, add the powdered sugar mixture a few cups at a time, scraping down after each addition and making sure each addition is fully incorporated before adding the next one. 
• Add vanilla, milk, and salt and mix on medium-low for another two minutes until fully incorporated. 

Assembly

• Once the Vanilla Chai Cakes have cooled completely, fill and frost the layers with Vanilla Chai Buttercream. To create the design pictured, add crushed Speculoos Cookies to the sides of the cake by placing them into the palm of your hand and gently pressing them onto the buttercream finish. Then, fit one piping bag with Wilton Tip 4B and another piping bag with Wilton Tip 1M before filling each with Vanilla Chai Buttercream. Pipe rosettes and stars onto the top of the cake in a crescent moon shape, add some cinnamon sticks, and sprinkle more crushed Speculoos Cookies on top.

Notes

Make Ahead Notes: 

1. The chai milk mixture can be made ahead and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to one week. When you’re ready to use it, bring it back to room temperature before adding it to the cake batter. 
2. The cake layers can be made ahead and stored, wrapped in plastic wrap, at room temperature for up to two days. Alternatively, you can store the wrapped cake layers in the freezer for up to 2 months before thawing and frosting.
3. The Vanilla Chai Buttercream can be made ahead and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. When you’re ready to use it, bring it back to room temperature and re-whip in your stand mixer to bring back to smooth buttercream consistency. 

What are some of your favorite Fall cake recipes? I particularly love this Caramel Apple Cake and this Matcha Cake (another tea lover’s dream!). It’s the perfect time of year for baking all of the above. Be sure to tag @sugarandsparrowco on Instagram if you try this Vanilla Chai Cake (or any of my recipes!) – I love to see what you’re creating!

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