Cake Pan Set

While it’s perfectly okay to bake your cakes one layer at a time, it’s much more efficient to have a set of cake pans so you can bake all your layers at once. I always like to make triple layer cakes, so I recommend having at least three of your favorite pan sizes. My go-to size is a 6-inch round pan, but a set of 8-inch round pans are great to have on hand too. And opt for anodized aluminum instead of dark metal – it bakes more evenly! 

Cake Turntable

It’s impossible to get a smooth buttercream finish without a cake turntable. It’s also just all-around easier to fill, stack, and decorate cakes with a turntable even if you’re going for a rustic look. The one thing I recommend is finding a cake turntable with a non-slip pad. This will ensure your cake won’t budge while you’re decorating! 

Icing Smoother

It’s super important to find an icing smoother that you feel totally compatible with. I’ve tried a lot of them over the years, but my all time favorite ended up being this bench scraper by Norpro. I use it 100% of the time! I love that it’s perfectly level, easy to grip, and can be gently heated for a super smooth buttercream finish. 

Icing Spatulas

Icing spatulas are extremely versatile. I use them to apply buttercream to my cakes before smoothing them, create sharp edges, add texture to my cakes, and more. It’s best to have a few sizes on hand for different tasks. 

Cardboard Cake Rounds

Every cake I make is built on top of a cardboard cake round. This makes it much easier to transfer the cake off the turntable and onto a stand or into a box. 

Piping Bags

Sure, you can use a ziploc bag for piping buttercream (I have in a pinch!), but it’s so much more efficient to have piping bags on hand. I like to buy the 16-inch size because it holds enough to pipe a lot of buttercream but can also be trimmed down into smaller bags. 

Piping Tips

If you have zero piping tips in your collection and just want to start with a few, I recommend the two below. They’re both extremely versatile – 1M is great for rosettes and swirl borders, 4B is great for star shapes and swirls borders. 

Cake Leveler

Every picture perfect cake starts with perfectly level layers. Since they don’t always bake up flat, it’s handy to have a cake leveler for cutting off domed or misshapen tops. This will make all of your layers the exact same height as well. 

Food Color Gels

It’s so much fun to incorporate color into your cake decorating! My favorite brand of coloring to use is AmeriColor for a few reasons: they don’t add any weird flavor to your buttercream, they’re super concentrated so it doesn’t take a whole lot of food coloring to achieve the color you want, and they come in every single color you could possibly imagine. While they do have Nifty Fifty and Heavenly Seventy kits that include pretty much every color you could want in your collection, they also make a starter kit (below) that has all the basics. 

Anyone Can Cake: Your Complete Guide to Making & Decorating Perfect Layer Cakes

My book is written with beginners and those wanting to up their cake decorating skills in mind! It’s essentially everything I know about making and decorating layer cakes. The first half covers how to bake the perfect cake layers, create a structurally sound layer cake, and decorate it in all sorts of ways. It includes full guides and troubleshooting tips on ganache drips, coloring buttercream, and adding finishing touches like sprinkles and piping. 

The second half is all recipes you could want to practice everything you learn in the first half of the book. It’s truly an all encompassing handbook that will set you up for success and help grow your skills! 

I put together a little Amazon shop with all of these essential tools in one place. Click the link below to shop them all at once!

I’m cheering you on in your cake making and am here to support you however I can. Once you get your collection of tools going, be sure to check out my Cake Basics series to learn all the fundamentals! That series paired with my book will be a game changer. Happy caking!

The post Essential Cake Decorating Tools for Beginners appeared first on Sugar & Sparrow.

I’m so excited to have these tools in my collection:

• Gold Whisk 
• Cake Turntable
• Measuring Cups
• Marble Silicone Spatula
• Measuring Spoons
• Icing Spatula Set

JOANN asked me to create a cake project with these baking and decorating tools and I was immediately inspired to make a marble buttercream cake with gold accents. I wanted to make a cake that captured the beauty of these tools in cake form, plus show you how fun and simple it is to make marble buttercream! These Stir products are top-notch when it comes to functionality, which made them a true joy to decorate this marble cake with.

I whipped up a quick video for this marble buttercream tutorial so you can visualize it before you read all about it below.

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

• A 6-inch cake that’s been crumb coated and chilled
• Cake turntable
• 1.5 batches of vanilla buttercream
• Black food color gel
• Bowls and spoons for color mixing
• Baker’s twine
• Parchment paper
• Scissors
• Scotch tape
• Icing spatula set
• Icing smoother
• Fondant smoother
• Small food-grade paint brush
• Gold luster dust
• Clear extract (lemon or vanilla) or vodka

Step 1: 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 at least 30 minutes. If you want more tips on creating a perfectly smooth cake finish, I’ve got a great tutorial for you here. 

Step 2: Mix the Marble Buttercream

Divide the remaining buttercream into three small bowls. Add 2 drops of black food color gel into the first bowl and gently mix it with your spatula until it’s about half mixed. You’ll want a dark grey color with some streaks of white/lighter grey in there.

Scoop out about 1 teaspoon of this dark grey marble color and mix it into the second bowl. Repeat the process of mixing until you have a light grey color with streaks of white mixed in. Keep the last bowl uncolored.

Step 3: Make the Marble Buttercream Wrap

Once your frosted cake is nice and chilled, wrap a piece of baker’s twine around it to measure the circumference. Cut the baker’s twine to mark the circumference and lay it out on your work surface. Spread a piece of parchment paper out as long as the baker’s twine and mark about one inch past the twine, then cut the parchment paper.

After trimming the parchment paper lengthwise, I marked the height at 4 ½ inches tall (almost the height of the frosted cake) and trimmed the excess. When you’re finished trimming the parchment, tape it down onto your work surface. 

Using the small angled spatula, scoop the dark grey and light grey marbled buttercream and gently apply it to the parchment paper. You’ll want to be sure not to spread or mix it up too much as you place it onto the parchment. Next, scoop the uncolored buttercream either with the same spatula (for an even more marbley look) or a clean spatula (for a cleaner look) and apply it to the parchment next to the marbled grey buttercreams.

Repeat the process of scooping and applying the buttercream until you’ve covered the length of the parchment, creating varying heights along the way. Make sure to place the highest buttercream splotches at least ½ inch down from the top of the parchment.

When you’ve finished applying the buttercream to the parchment paper, use an angled spatula to gently smooth the buttercream down until it’s about ¼ inch thick. Using gentle pressure here will prevent the marble from mixing too much underneath.

Step 4: Apply the Marble Buttercream Wrap

Place your chilled, frosted cake on the turntable. Un-tape the marble buttercream wrap from your work surface and wrap it around the cake as tightly as possible. It should stick to the cake really easily since the frosting is still very wet at this point. 

Use your fondant smoother to smooth the buttercream wrap down and adhere it to the cake, then place the wrapped cake back into the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes to let the marble buttercream firm up.

Step 5: Reveal the Marble 

Once the buttercream beneath the parchment paper is firm to the touch, gently peel the parchment away to reveal the stunning marble buttercream beneath.

I chose to keep the texture that the parchment paper created instead of smoothing it down because a) it looks amazing and b) last time I smoothed out the marble it all blended together and didn’t look as cool. 

Step 6: Paint the Gold Accents

Mix a few drops of clear extract or vodka into about 1 teaspoon of gold luster dust. Add more liquid if necessary to thin it into a paint-able consistency. When the gold paint is just right, use a small food-grade paintbrush to paint the top edge of the marble buttercream wrap.

Isn’t this marble buttercream cake so elegant? It ended up matching the gold marble Stir tools so perfectly!

This marble buttercream cake is so perfect for a wedding, fancy birthday party, anniversary, or any event that could use a little elegance. Let me know what you think in the comments below and feel free to tag @sugarandsparrowco and @joann_stores on Instagram if you post a pic!

And if you’re looking for beautiful baking or cake decorating tools, you must check out the Stir products exclusively at JOANN. If you’ve got a local JOANN store, you should be able to find them all in the baking section. You can also find all of these tools at JOANN.com. I was super excited to see that the Stir line also has molds, cake mixes, sprinkles, and basically everything you could need to make a creative cake (or any bake, really). 

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 Marble Buttercream Cake Tutorial Feat. the JOANN Stir Collection appeared first on Sugar & Sparrow.