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.

These Fondant Skills 101 Kits come with everything you need to create fondant decorations for cakes, cupcakes, brownies, and cookies. Inside, you’ll find some basic instructions on working with fondant and so many tools and supplies for getting artsy with it. There’s a paint palette, paint brush, and food color that you can mix with water for painting on fondant. A geometric-textured mat for embossing the fondant. And even a piping tip with a circular opening that you can use to create fondant sprinkles. I wanted to try it all, so I made some painted decorations, used the texture mat, and made my own sprinkles. So fun!

I think adding fondant accents to buttercream cakes can be such a fun way to mix mediums and achieve some really artistic looks. The best thing about using fondant decorations is that they’re 100% edible, fondant dries firm in about 24-48 hours, and it’s really easy to work with. This Fondant Skills 101 Kit is perfect whether you’ve never worked with fondant before or you want to try a variety of fondant techniques in a cost effective way (only $10!).

I’m walking you through the different types of fondant decorations I created with this kit below, but first, here’s a quick video of all three to show you in action:

You Will Need:

• Tasty by Wilton Fondant Skills 101 Kit
• Cornstarch or powdered sugar
• Vegetable shortening 
• Small rolling pin 
• Sharp knife
• Circular cookie/fondant cutters
• Wax or parchment paper
• Buttercream frosted cake, any size (mine is a 4” round)

How to Make Watercolor Fondant Decorations

Open one of the fondant packages and knead it until the consistency is moldable and even, similar to Playdoh. You can add a little vegetable shortening to your hands if you find they are sticking to the fondant.

Place a little cornstarch or powdered sugar on a flat surface to prevent the fondant from sticking, then use a small rolling pin to roll the fondant into about an ⅛ inch sheet.

Let the fondant sit while you mix up your paint colors. On the paint palette, add a few drops of whatever blend of colors you’d like, then mix a few drops of water into each color. The kit comes with primary colors (red, blue, yellow), so I created some pinkish reds, purples, and blues. Mix it with just a little bit of water for a stronger color, or a lot of water for a softer hue. When your colors are ready, use the paintbrush to paint them onto your fondant canvas.

I added broad strokes of each color and splattered a little extra water over the top of the canvas to let the colors bleed a bit.

When you’re satisfied with how your painting looks, cut the fondant into shapes. I used a sharp knife to cut the painted fondant into isosceles triangles, but you can create any shape you want with a knife or cookie cutters!

Once your shapes are cut out, place each one onto a sheet of wax or parchment paper to dry. I recommend allowing them to dry for 24 hours, then flipping them over and allowing the other side to dry for at least 12 more hours. 

How to Make Geometric Print Decorations

To make the geometric printed circles, open the second package of fondant and follow the steps in the previous section to knead the fondant and roll it into an ⅛ inch sheet. Then, take the geometric texture mat, place it on top of the fondant sheet, and roll over it with the rolling pin a few times.

Peel off the texture mat to reveal a glorious geometric pattern.

You can cut this fondant into any shape you want, or even paint over it at this point using the steps in the previous section. I chose to keep these decorations white and used these cookie cutters to cut out circular shapes.

Place your geometric print decorations on a sheet of wax or parchment paper, then allow them to dry for 24 hours on one side before flipping them over and drying for another 12 hours.

How to Make Fondant Sprinkles 

For this technique, I colored the remaining fondant with the food colors from the kit, then rolled all of them out into an ⅛ inch sheet. Using the small end of the green piping tip, press into the fondant sheet to cut out small circular sprinkles of each color.

Using the wide end of the green piping tip, cut out larger circles from each color. Then, roll each large circle into a ball.

Fondant sprinkles are so easy and I love how customizable they are! Imagine all the color palettes you could create.

Allow the fondant sprinkles to dry for about 24 hours, or until they’re firm. 

Decorating The Cake

All that’s left to do is add your fondant decorations to your buttercream cake and make a mixed medium masterpiece! To add my decorations, I simply stuck the watercolor triangles and geometric print circle decorations into the top of the cake. It’s easy to stick them straight into the buttercream and they’ll stand on their own (they weigh barely anything). Then, I added some fondant sprinkles around the toppers.

I also placed some of the fondant decorations to the side of the cake with a few dots of buttercream and added even more fondant sprinkles.

These fondant accents ended up making this cake look super abstract and I am so into it!

I love that this Fondant Skills 101 Kit comes with all the supplies you need for these three techniques and so much more – you can easily combine the techniques for even more decoration styles! Wilton’s new Tasty line has even more fun kits like this for cake decorating and they’re available now at JOANN. Go check them out at your local JOANN or in their online shop. I have a feeling you’re gonna have so much fun with these kits no matter what your cake decorating skill level! 

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 3 Ways to Make Fondant Decorations with a Tasty by Wilton Kit appeared first on Sugar & Sparrow.

You Will Need:

• Gumpaste (I use this. Most craft stores with a cake decorating aisle will have it.)
• Small rolling pin and smooth surface to roll gumpaste out
• Crisco
• Printed letter templates
• Exacto knife
• Wax paper
• Flat toothpicks or floral wire
• Finishing touches like sprinkles, edible glitter, Edible Art Paint, etc (optional)

Step 1: Print Out A Letter Template

In order to get the look you really want, spend some time looking through different fonts on your computer. I chose a few different fonts for this tutorial just to show you that anything is possible with a little gumpaste and an exacto knife.

Print the letter(s) out onto paper once you’ve got a font you like and it’s sized perfectly, then carefully cut the letter out to use as a template.

Step 2: Make The Gumpaste Monogram

Roll out the gumpaste to the thickness of about ⅛ of an inch using a little crisco to keep it from sticking to your surface. Place your template over the top of the gumpaste and carefully cut around it with an exacto knife.

Stick toothpicks or floral wire into the bottom of the monogram and let it dry for about 15 minutes before carefully transferring it to a piece of wax paper to continue drying. The monogram should be completely dry in 24-48 hours. Flip it over halfway through the drying process so that both sides get equal drying time.

Step 3: Customize The Finish

The monograms look great in plain white, or you can color the gumpaste with food color gels before rolling it out in step 2. I’ve also found some other awesome ways to customize the finish after the drying process though:

Sprinkled Monogram Topper

Because what’s more celebratory than sprinkles?

For this cupcake topper, I mixed water and gumpaste together to make a “glue” (1 Tbsp water + a small ¼ inch piece of gumpaste. Let rest for 30 minutes until gumpaste is dissolved and you have yourself a glue!), brushed it over the monogram, and stuck sprinkles all over it.

Metallic Monogram Topper

For the metallic gold look, I used Edible Art Paint in Glamorous Gold. They make a ton of different colors, both metallic and non, and I love this stuff so much for painting fondant, gumpaste, and even buttercream!

After the gumpaste monogram was completely dry, I used a small paintbrush to paint a few coats of this Edible Art Paint and get the metallic gold look.

Glitter Monogram Topper

To get this glitter finish, I brushed on some of my gumpaste “glue,” then pressed edible silver glitter over the surface of the monogram.

The best thing about these gumpaste letters is they dry super hard in a short amount of time, so you don’t have to worry about them falling apart on you. You could use this technique to spell out an entire word for a cake topper, or keep it simple with one letter. It’s a really quick and easy way to customize a cake or cupcakes without having to scour the internet for the perfect topper!

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