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.

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!

The post Spiced Vanilla Chai Cake Recipe appeared first on Sugar & Sparrow.

Wilton sent me a big box of supplies to create this birthday cake, and there are a few I want to highlight here because they’re total cake game changers. First, the Wilton Cake Leveler is something I always, ALWAYS use to level my cake layers before filling and stacking them. You can adjust the height of the leveler and just run it through your cake to create nice, even layers. Having even cake layers is a must for creating perfectly level cakes as an end result.

Second, having a trusty cake turntable is key for creating a smooth buttercream finish. Wilton sent me their High And Low Turntable and it was stellar for the job! It’s got adjustable legs so you can really get the turntable height that’s comfortable for you.

This cake design all starts with a smooth buttercream cake, so in addition to having level cake layers and a trustworthy turntable, the last keys to success are having a great icing smoother and angled spatula. I prefer both of these items to be stainless steel, because sometimes getting a smooth finish means slightly heating up the scraper/spatula to erase wrinkles. If you’re still trying to master a smooth buttercream finish, I’ve detailed all my best tips in this post.

Ok, back to this birthday cake design! Although it looks intricate, I promise it’s way easier than it looks. Watch this quick video of the process (above) to show you how it’s done, then I’ll walk you through the step by step below.

You Will Need:

• A 6-inch cake that’s been filled and frosted with a smooth buttercream finish
• 1 batch of vanilla buttercream
• The Wilton Color Right System
• Bowls and spoons for mixing buttercream colors
• A piece of saran wrap
• Piping bags
• Wilton Tips 1M, 104, and 4B
• Gold pearlized sprinkles
• Tall gold birthday candles

Step 1: Mix Up A Buttercream Color Palette

For this cake, I created a pastel rainbow color palette using the Wilton Color Right system.

A really easy way to do this is to divide the batch of buttercream into three bowls and color one bowl pink, one bowl yellow, and one bowl blue. Then, mix part of the blue with the pink in a separate bowl to create purple, part of the blue with part of the yellow to make green, and part of the pink with part of the yellow to make orange.

Step 2: Prepare Your Piping Bags

Before placing each buttercream color in its own piping bag, I created a multi-colored piping bag for making some rainbow rosettes! The easiest way to do this is to lay a piece of saran wrap down, then swipe four colors next to one another on top of it.

Roll the saran wrap up like a colorful burrito and snip off one of the ends before placing it into a piping bag fitted with Wilton Tip 1M.

Then, place each individual color into separate piping bags fitted with Wilton Tips 104 and 4B. I used Tip 104 for the green and blue colors and Tip 4B for the rest.

Step 3: Pipe The Cake

With your smooth buttercream cake on the turntable, pipe the rainbow rosettes on the upper half of the cake and the top of the cake in a random pattern.

Next, use the piping bags fitted with Tip 104 to pipe ruffles next to each rainbow rosette.

Finally, fill in all the empty spaces with stars using the piping bags fitted with Tip 4B. The goal here is to create a sort of ombrè effect with the piping, so feel free to pipe some stray stars toward the bottom of the cake.

Step 4: Add Sprinkles

I love using sprinkles to add even more texture to whimsical buttercream, and these Wilton Pearlized Sprinkles are perfect for the job. Using either your fingers or a pair of tweezers, add the sprinkles to the centers of some of the stars and the edges of some of the rosettes.

There is no right or wrong way to add sprinkles here. To keep with the ombrè look, I placed a few stray gold sprinkles toward the bottom of the cake.

Step 5: Top With Birthday Candles

No birthday cake is complete without some pretty candles, and the taller the better! These Tall Gold Candles are perfection. Place them on top of your cake and get ready to party!

Wilton has a ton of great birthday cake ideas on their site as well, so be sure to check them out for inspiration. If you’re inspired to make this cake design for a birthday or any day, be sure to tag me on Instagram (and @wiltoncakes as well!) to show us what you’re caking!

The post Pastel Rainbow Birthday Cake Tutorial appeared first on Sugar & Sparrow.

Unicorns are arguably the best mythical creatures of all. It’s no wonder that they became a major trend in the cake and party planning world! You’ve probably seen plenty of unicorn cakes in your social media feeds, the most popular look being the ones where the entire cake looks like a unicorn head. I thought I’d switch it up a little bit with this one, especially because I got my hands on a bottle of this Unicorn sprinkle mix by SprinklePop! They’d look amazing on any cake design, but I really love how they enhance the magical colors and textures going on in this unicorn cake:

The Unicorn sprinkle mix is made up of the most beautiful textures and colors. It’s a blend of pastel pinks, purples, and blues, mixed with gold metallic accents and tiny wafer paper unicorns. In other words, pure magic in a bottle! I was so obsessed with the color palette of the sprinkles that I decided to theme the entire cake around it. Just look at those pretty colors and the cute wafer paper unicorns!

This cake is perfect for any unicorn lover and is actually quite simple to create. It all starts with a smooth frosted buttercream cake and some easy piping. I used three of my favorite piping tips to get the look (listed below) and then pressed the Unicorn sprinkles onto the smooth part of the cake in a floating sprinkle design. And finally, I topped it with a sprinkle-covered white chocolate unicorn that I created using a unicorn shaped cookie cutter and a few wisps of pink and blue cotton candy for good measure. I’m pretty over the moon with how it turned out!

Every detailed instruction for how to make this unicorn-inspired cake is in the tutorial below, but I also made a video to show you the process! Take a look:

You Will Need:

• A frosted buttercream cake
• 1 batch of vanilla buttercream frosting
• 8oz bottle of Unicorn Sprinkles
• Wilton Tips 1M, 104, and 4B
• Piping bags
• Icing color gels of your choice
• ½ cup white chocolate chips
• Wax paper
• A unicorn-shaped cookie cutter
• ½ tsp coconut oil
• Cotton candy

Step 1: Make The Unicorn Cake Topper

To make the unicorn cake topper, spread out a small sheet of wax paper onto a moveable flat surface (like a cookie sheet). Add the white chocolate chips to a microwave-safe bowl, then reserve about ⅛ cup of them and set aside. These reserved chips will act as a “seed” to help temper the melted chocolate. Microwave the white chocolate chips sans “seed” in 30 second increments until melted, stirring after each interval, then toss in the reserved chips and stir until everything is fully melted.

Spread the melted white chocolate onto the wax paper about ¼ inch thick. Smooth the coconut oil onto the edges and crevices of the unicorn-shaped cookie cutter (helps with easy release once the white chocolate is set), then press the cookie cutter into the melted white chocolate.

While the chocolate is still wet, add Unicorn sprinkles to cover the entire area within the unicorn cookie cutter and gently press them in. Refrigerate the sprinkle-covered white chocolate unicorn for 10 minutes, or until firm to the touch.

Carefully remove the excess white chocolate from the edges of the cookie cutter, then release the center from the mold.

Step 2: Mix Up a Buttercream Color Palette

Divide the buttercream into a few separate bowls for color mixing. I ended up making five different colors for my palette. First, I used a mix of Americolor Electric Pink and Electric Purple to create a dark pink, then created a light pink by mixing that with white buttercream. Next, I used Americolor Sky Blue to create the light and darker blue shades. And finally, I used Americolor Regal Purple to create the purple tone.

Feel free to use whatever colors you’d like for your color palette! I’m sure the Unicorn sprinkle mix would look gorgeous with any pastel tones.

Step 3: Pipe the Bottom of the Cake

Prepare a few piping bags by fitting them with Wilton tip 1M, 4B, and 104, then filling them with your colored buttercream. Any of your favorite piping tips will do for this part, but here’s how to recreate the look. First, pipe rosettes with Wilton tip 1M:

Next, pipe ruffles to accent the edges of the rosettes using Wilton tip 104:

And finally, fill in the empty spaces with open stars in a few different colors using Wilton tip 4B:

Step 4: Add the Floating Sprinkles

One by one, add sprinkles to the smooth part of the buttercream cake in a floating pattern. You can either use tweezers for this part, or press a sprinkle onto the tip of your finger and gently press it into the buttercream.

Repeat until you’ve covered the top half of the cake with floating Unicorn sprinkles.

Step 5: Top the Cake

To complete the cake design, stick the legs of your sprinkle-covered unicorn into the top of the cake, then add some cotton candy as a backdrop. Just remember to add the cotton candy within an hour or two of serving the cake, because it’ll start to melt if you put it in the fridge.

As a final finishing touch, I also used Wilton tip 4B to pipe some open stars around the unicorn in a random pattern, then sprinkled some more Unicorn sprinkles (because more is more, people!).

And there you have it! A unicorn-inspired cake perfect for any magical occasion.

Is there a unicorn party in your future? Let me know if you end up making this cake by leaving a comment below! You can also tag me on Instagram so I can see what you’re caking. It gives me all the feels!

The post Unicorn Party Cake Tutorial appeared first on Sugar & Sparrow.

The party was for my friend Sarah, who happens love Mean Girls and is also real good at making pretty cakes. In other words, she’s very cool. To prepare for the party, me and a few other cool gals got together to watch Mean Girls for inspiration while we crafted all the party decor. Watching the movie back gave us lots of fun ideas for making it over the top. We kept track of all the best quotes and we figured out a few ways to incorporate them throughout the decor.

First, we made a glittery pink “you can’t sit with us” banner. After searching the internet for a quote banner to buy, we decided we could make it ourselves and it actually ended up being so easy! We found some glittery pink card stock, printed out some letter templates on computer paper, traced the templates onto the glitter paper, and cut them out carefully. We used a small hole punch to punch two holes at the top of each letter, then strung them all on some white baking twine.

Then, we transformed a pink notebook into a replica of the Burn Book! We printed out pictures of everyone on the guest list and wrote some quotes from the original burn book in there to really go the extra mile.

For the cake, I made sure to keep with the pink color palette and mixed vanilla buttercream with a few different shades of Fuschia and Maroon gel pastes by Americolor. After decorating with a messy ombre on the side of the cake, I used my favorite piping tips (Wilton tips 1M, 4B, and 104) to create a pretty border and sprinkled it with some pink sprinkles for extra texture.

I don’t know if you’ve ever written on a cake with buttercream before, but it was so nerve racking for me! I must have done twenty practice rounds on wax paper before mustering up the nerve to write on the cake. Wilton’s tip 3 is the perfect sized opening for writing though, so it wasn’t too bad once my hand stopped shaking all over the place.

Here’s how it all came together:

Now all I want to do is throw themed parties from here on out! 

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