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 first thing you need to know about white chocolate is that it’s not a true chocolate, meaning there’s a lack of chocolate solids and therefore doesn’t behave the same as semi-sweet, milk, or dark chocolate. Instead, it’s made from a mixture of sugar, cocoa butter, milk products, vanilla, and some sort of fatty substance called lecithin. Although I’ve never tried making white chocolate ganache with anything fancier than Hershey’s white chocolate chips, you can feel free to go as branded or non-branded as you want. Generic white chocolate chips or a white chocolate bar chopped into small pieces will work just fine.

With the absence of chocolate solids, the ratio of heavy whipping cream to white chocolate chips is going to be different than other ganache recipes. I’ve found a 3:1 ratio to be absolutely perfect (exact recipe below), meaning three parts chocolate to one part heavy whipping cream. Just bring the cream to an almost-boil, pour it over the white chocolate chips, whisk it together until it’s uniform, and you’re good.

Here’s a detailed video of the recipe, and you can continue reading below for all of my tips on working with white chocolate ganache:

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!

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White Chocolate Ganache For Drip Cakes

The perfect white chocolate ganache ratio for creating drip cakes. 

Servings 1 cup

Ingredients

• 1 Cup (190g) white chocolate chips or bar, chopped into bits
• 1/3 Cup (80ml) heavy whipping cream
• 1/2 tsp food color gel or whitening gel (optional)

Instructions

• Chop the white chocolate chips or bar as finely as you can and place it into a heat resistant bowl (glass or metal).
• In a saucepan over medium-high heat, warm heavy whipping cream until it just starts to simmer, whisking constantly. I always look for small bubbles forming around the edge and a soft boil starting in the middle. When it reaches this stage, pour the cream over the white chocolate. 
• Whisk together until the ganache is uniform in consistency and there are no bits of chocolate left on your whisk. It can help to hold the bowl over the residual heat from the burner (once it's turned off) if you're having a hard time whisking everything together.
• Whiten or color the ganache (optional), then cool ganache at room temperature for anywhere from 5-20 minutes (depending on your kitchen environment), or until the ganache itself is slightly above room temperature. See the instructions for dripping a cake with white chocolate ganache + troubleshooting tips in the rest of this blog post below.

Notes

Make Ahead Tips: this ganache 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, microwave it in 10 second increments, stirring after every interval until your ganache is room temperature and uniform in consistency.

Tip 1: Whiten Your Ganache If It’s Too Yellow

The thing about white chocolate chips is that they aren’t exactly as white in color as they seem to be. To whiten the ganache, I swear by Americolor Bright White food color gel. It works like a dream every time, and you only need about half a teaspoon per batch of white chocolate ganache to get a perfectly bright white.

Some bakers like to use white candy melts in place of white chocolate chips to make white ganache, but I don’t like the taste of candy melts. So the whitening method is my favorite option.

Tip 2: Be Patient With The Cooling Process

Once you’ve whisked the ganache together, it’s crucial to let it cool on your countertop until it’s room temperature, about 20-30 minutes depending on how cold your environment is. Trying to speed up this process by placing ganache in the refrigerator doesn’t usually end well – I’ve found that it cools unevenly, leading to thick, globby drips.

Cooling in the fridge also leads to the urge to stir it too often. Ganache (especially white chocolate!) does not like to be stirred too often, and the end result can mean that your whipping cream starts to separate from the chocolate. You’ll know that this has happened because the ganache will look grainy and dull, or even separated like oil and water. To fix situations like these, you’ll need to reheat the ganache to 92ºF to melt the fat crystals and re-whisk to bring it back together.  

Tip 3: Chill Your Buttercream

There’s a science to this tip. Since molecules move more slowly at cooler temperatures (and warp speed at higher temperatures), it makes a lot of sense that you can better control how far the white chocolate ganache drips when the buttercream is chilled. Make sure that after you do your final coat of buttercream, you chill the cake in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

Tip 4: Start With A Test Drip

When your buttercream is nice and chilled, do a test drip by letting the ganache run down the side of your cake. If it travels rapidly and pools at the bottom, your ganache is too warm. Continue to cool the ganache for another 5-10 minutes and try your test drip again. If it’s globby or doesn’t travel very far down the side of the cake, it’s too cold. Reheat the ganache in the microwave for about 10 seconds, stir, and try again. Repeat the reheating process as needed until you get the perfect consistency.

The good thing about a test drip is you’re able to see how the ganache will behave. That way you don’t have to commit until you like what you’re seeing.

Tip 5: Drip The Sides Before Filling In The Top

Whether you’re using a spoon to create drips (like I am!) or you’re into the squeeze bottle method, it’s best to drip the sides of the cake before filling in the top. Although it might be tempting to just dump all of the ganache on the top of the cake and let the drips fall where they may, you’ll have more control over the length of each drip by starting with the sides (after a successful test drip of course).

Try not to add too much ganache to the top when filling it in, because if you add any more to the drips you’ve created, it will make them travel farther than you’d like. Instead, try to use just a little ganache and spread it so that it just touches where your drips begin. The ganache on the top should self-level a bit, so don’t worry too much about getting it super smooth.

And there you have it – everything I know about dripping cakes with white chocolate ganache. It’s a really good skill to have in your cake decorating repertoire, especially with how versatile white chocolate ganache can be color-wise. Adding a little food color gel can turn it any vibrant color of the rainbow! And whether you keep it white or color it up, I promise it’ll taste a million times better than candy melts.

Is there anything else you’d like to know about drip cakes? I’m certainly not an expert per se, but if you have more questions, let me know in the comments below and I’ll do my best to answer!

The post White Chocolate Ganache Drip Cake Recipe + Tips [Video Included!] appeared first on Sugar & Sparrow.

There are drip cakes, and then there are sprinkle drip cakes. And let me tell you, while both are pretty to look at, the sprinkle version is so much more fun! The sprinkle drip cake trend was popularized by one of my favorite cakers to follow on Instagram, @brittanymaycakes. To my knowledge, she’s the little genius behind putting sprinkles on top of a ganache drip, and I just had to give it a go because it looks so stunning – especially with this Bewitched sprinkle mix by SprinklePop.

While any sprinkle mix will do for creating a sprinkle drip cake, I was really drawn to the vibrant color scheme of Bewitched. It’s a magical blend of pink, purple, teal, and yellow jimmies and spheres, plus gold and silver dragees to give it some extra bling. I decided to color the buttercream backdrop a deep fuschia (with Americolor soft gel past in Fuschia) to really compliment all of the sprinkle colors, but they’d look pretty on all sorts of buttercream hues. Just look at how pretty they are:

The essentials you’ll need for this look are a good pair of tweezers, the perfect sprinkle mix, and a great chocolate ganache recipe. I’ve got the perfect chocolate ganache recipe and white chocolate ganache recipe at the links below, with all the tips you need for successful drips. The tweezers make it easier to perfectly place the sprinkles (as opposed to using your fingers). And it’ll look incredible with any of SprinklePop’s gorgeous sprinkle mixes! Just pick your favorite and follow along the tutorial below:

You Will Need:

• A chilled buttercream cake
• 1 batch of chocolate ganache or white chocolate ganache
• 8 oz bottle of Bewitched sprinkles (or other favorite sprinkle mix)
• Tweezers

Step 1: Do A Test Drip

Before you get too crazy dripping your ganache, I always think it’s a great idea to do a test drip on your chilled buttercream cake. Make sure your ganache is room temperature and good drip consistency first, create one drip on the side of your cake, and wait until it stops traveling.

If your ganache is too runny or warm, it will travel all the way to the bottom of the cake quickly. If it’s too cold and thick, it won’t travel much at all. Adjust the consistency and temperature of your ganache if need be, and only continue the process of dripping your cake once you’re satisfied with the look of the drips.

Step 2: Drip The Sides Of The Cake

Once your ganache has passed the first drip test, continue dripping your ganache down the sides using either a squeeze bottle or the spoon method.

It’s best to start by dripping every side before moving on to the top of the cake. This way you can better control the look of the drips from the side view and only fill what’s necessary on the top.

Step 3: Fill In The Top Of The Cake

When all the sides have been dripped, pour a small amount of ganache on the top of the cake and smooth it with an icing spatula or the back of your spoon.

Be sure to only fill in the space that’s not yet covered with ganache, because adding too much might make your drips travel farther than you’d like. I always spread the ganache on top until it just reaches where the drips have started to cover on the top of the cake.

Step 4: Place The Sprinkles

Let the ganache rest in the refrigerator for about five minutes while you pour the sprinkles into a small bowl. After refrigerating for just those few minutes, the ganache drips should be sticky, but set enough to ensure that adding sprinkles won’t drag them down.

Using your tweezers, place the sprinkles onto the ganache one by one until you achieve the look you’re going for. This could take anywhere from 20-30 minutes, depending on how precise you want to be, but trust me. It’s so worth it!

Step 5: Keep On Decorating

While you can stop after you’ve created your sprinkle drip, I believe that when it comes to SprinklePop sprinkles, more is more!

Before I dripped the cake, I added a border of Bewitched sprinkles to the bottom edge, and after creating the sprinkle drip I added a buttercream border to the top of this cake using Wilton Tip 6B, then filled in the entire top of the cake with even more sprinkles. So fun!

Ready to create your very own sprinkle drip cake? Just grab a bottle of your favorite sprinkles and let the fun begin!  

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

This Witch Cauldron Cake is frosted with black buttercream, dripped with green (white chocolate) ganache, and topped with some creepy gummy candies and eyeballs. I finished it all off with a generous heap of green cotton candy to make it look like the cauldron steam. The full step-by-step with all my best tips on how to get pitch black buttercream, the perfect drippy ganache finish, and details on decorating is all over on The Cake Blog, so be sure to check out the tutorial there! In the meantime, here are some photos to inspire you:

Perfect amount of spooky and cute, right? I think so! Head to The Cake Blog to see the full tutorial and if you end up making this cake, be sure to tag @sugarandsparrowco and @thecakeblog on Instagram. We love to see what you create! Happy Halloween season, people!

The post Halloween Witch Cauldron Cake appeared first on Sugar & Sparrow.

A little over a year ago, my husband kept pushing the idea of turning my love for cake into a blog and although I liked the idea of it, I was absolutely terrified of the idea at the same time. I’d never had a blog before, never taken photos with a DSLR camera (so happy I upgraded to this one from my iPhone though!), and had never shared my recipes with anyone. What if they only worked in my own kitchen and were a disaster everywhere else? Somehow, I pushed the fear aside and got to work on what is now Sugar & Sparrow. What a wild ride it’s been!

I want to thank you A MILLION for following along and cheering me on with all this cake stuff. I couldn’t do any of it without you and am so amazed to find myself part of such a kind, inspiring community of bakers. I’m blessed by you all and consider you a huge part of my journey as a cake maker and recipe writer. You’ve grown my confidence a ton and I hope that you’re feeling more confident in the kitchen too!

That being said, to celebrate my blogiversary, I’ll be hosting a few giveaways on my Instagram channel over the next few weeks to give you all a chance to win some of my can’t-live-without cake decorating supplies. I hope they bring you even more kitchen confidence! Here are the details:

• This week: $100 worth of SprinklePop sprinkles (hello!) for making those cakes pop
• Next week: an Americolor Heavenly Seventy kit with (you guessed it!) seventy different soft gel pastes for making the most beautiful buttercream colors on earth.

Details to come on all of those things, be sure to follow along on my Instagram so you don’t miss any of it!

And for a trip down memory lane, here are some of my favorite recipes and tutorials from the past year:

Chocolate Ganache Drip Cake Tips

This is the perfect chocolate ganache recipe for dripping cakes, plus all of my best tips for achieving drip cake greatness!

If you’re working with milk, semi-sweet, or dark chocolate, this one is the best ratio. If you’re more of a white chocolate ganache drip caker, this one is my favorite ratio.  

Salted Caramel Buttercream Recipe

The perfect buttercream recipe for every salted caramel lover! It all starts with a batch of my easy four-ingredient salted caramel, then I’ll show you how to whip it up into tasty buttercream for filling and frosting cakes.

Spatula Painted Cake Tutorial

One of the easiest ways to decorate a colorful, eye-catching cake. Just mix up your favorite color palette, grab a small icing spatula, and go crazy!

Milk & Cereal Cake Recipe

This one’s for all the cereal lovers and it pairs perfectly with your Saturday morning cartoons. The best part about this recipe is it works with any cereal, so grab a box of your favorite and I’ll show you how to turn it into a tasty Milk & Cereal cake, plus how to make the perfect white chocolate milk splash to top it!

Vanilla Buttercream Recipe

One of the number one recipe requests I get is for my basic vanilla buttercream. It’s perfect for piping buttercream flowers, topping cupcakes, and frosting smooth buttercream cakes.

One-Bowl Chocolate Cake Recipe

A decadent, moist chocolate cake that’s almost as easy as whipping up a box of cake mix! All of the ingredients go into one bowl, making the mixing process totally failproof, and from start to finish you’ll have the perfect chocolate cake batter in about five minutes.

How To Frost A Smooth Buttercream Cake

This tutorial will walk you through all my tips and techniques for frosting a super smooth buttercream cake finish. You’re gonna want to know these tricks!

Thanks again SO MUCH for all of your support and I’m looking forward to all that’s to come in year two and beyond!  

The post Sugar & Sparrow Is ONE! appeared first on Sugar & Sparrow.

First birthday parties are my absolute favorite, mostly because it’s so much fun to watch a little babe figure out how to eat cake for the first time! My tiniest niece turned one a few weeks ago, and I was so delighted to get to make her smash cake. It got me thinking about sharing my best tips on smash cakes with all of you, since they’re super easy to make and the perfect DIY project if you’re planning a first birthday for your little one (or in charge of the cake for someone else’s babe). From the perfect sized cake pans to a great vanilla cake recipe and decorating ideas, I’ve got you covered!

The Perfect Smash Cake Size

Since babies are small (and their stomach’s are even smaller), you’re going to need a set of tiny cake pans to bake your layers. I absolutely love these 4-inch cake pans because they’re the perfect size, have removable bottoms for easy release, and they come in a set of four so you can bake multiple layers at once.

I typically bake three layers for smash cakes, but have also created a four-layer tower cake that ended up being super cute for a first birthday. It’s totally up to you on how many layers to bake, but a 4-inch diameter is just the right amount of cake in my opinion.

Vanilla Smash Cake Recipe

You don’t have to get crazy with a recipe for your smash cake. In fact, vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream is the perfect starter cake for a baby. It’s simple, classic, and pretty universally loved. I’ve got a great, easy vanilla cake + vanilla buttercream recipe modified for those 4-inch cake pans below. Here’s what it looks like on the inside:

Since it’s an adapted version of my vanilla cake recipe, it’s totally tasty! As in, you’re probably gonna want to finish off whatever your little one doesn’t.

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Vanilla Smash Cake Recipe

A triple layer 4-inch vanilla cake recipe that’s tasty and perfectly sized for a smash cake. Top with vanilla buttercream for a classic flavor combination. 

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 40 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 Cups (130g) cake flour, sifted before measuring
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/3 Cup (77g) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3/4 Cup (155g) granulated white sugar
• 1 egg + 1 egg yolk, room temperature
• 1/4 Cup (60g) sour cream, room temperature
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 Cup (118ml) whole milk, room temperature

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350°F. Prepare three 4-inch cake pans by spraying the sides and bottom with cooking spray (Baker’s Joy is my favorite). Sift the cake flour and then measure by spooning and leveling it in your measuring cup. Add the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, 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 high for another two minutes, scraping down the bowl and paddle as needed. Turn the mixer to low, add the egg and yolk and mix thoroughly. Scrape down the bowl and paddle and add the vanilla and sour cream. 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 milk 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 into prepared cake pans (about 2/3 of the way full) and bake for 25 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 filling and frosting with vanilla buttercream frosting. 

Notes

Make Ahead Tips: these tiny cake layers can be made ahead and stored at room temperature, wrapped in plastic wrap, for up to two days. Alternatively, you can store the plastic wrapped layers in the freezer for up to two months. When you’re ready to decorate, just thaw them at room temperature before filling and frosting. 

Smash Cake Decorating Ideas

The best thing about smash cakes is they’re going to get totally destroyed. That means you don’t have to get too intricate with your cake decorating or fret about design flaws. While you can decorate the cake any way you want, here are a few of my favorite ideas (with tutorial links to help you get the look!):

Smash Cake With Pretty Piping

This is one of my favorite easy looks for smash cakes, and the same design I created for my little niece! All you need is a few of your favorite piping tips and a smooth frosted cake.

After frosting the cake with buttercream, I chilled it for thirty minutes while I mixed up a buttercream color palette (there are five different colors on this beauty). Then, I piped rosettes with Wilton Tip 1M, ruffles with Wilton Tip 104, and filled the rest in with Wilton Tip 4B to create open stars.

Spatula Painted Smash Cake

If you’re wanting something colorful, yet super simple, this spatula painted technique is perfect! All you need is a color palette with three or more colors and a small icing spatula.

To get the look, fill and frost the cake and chill it in the refrigerator for thirty minutes while you mix up your buttercream color palette. Then, apply the colored buttercream to the cake by swiping it on with your icing spatula in a random pattern. There’s a full tutorial with additional tips here. You could also use the same technique to create longer spatula swipes for a look like this:

Smash Cake With Ganache Drip

This was a smash cake I created for an elegant first birthday party and I love the look so much! It’s a simple semi-naked cake design topped with white chocolate ganache drips.

If you want to top a cake like this with fresh flowers, be sure to check out this blog post first. You’ll want to be sure to choose flowers that are either edible or food-safe (non-poisonous) and prepare them properly before placing them on the cake. When your little one is ready to smash it up, remove the flowers and let them go crazy!

However you decide to decorate, this vanilla smash cake recipe is sure to be baby approved. Let me know if you end up trying it in the comments below, or tag me on Instagram so I can see what you whipped up!

The post 1st Birthday Smash Cake Recipe + Decorating Ideas appeared first on Sugar & Sparrow.