Hi everyone! The new year is almost here and I wanted to share a festive, quick & easy cake tutorial with you!
First, I truly love the look of piped buttercream on cakes. In fact, the more piping, the better! It’s often a quicker option than applying frosting with a completely smooth finish, and I love the dressed up feel.
I often use my trusty 2D tip to pipe vertical ribbons of buttercream onto cakes….but today I wondered what would happen if I piped horizontally instead. The result is so pretty…and so easy! It’s my favorite part of this tutorial ;0)
First, I crumb coated my cake with a thin layer of buttercream. Then, starting from the bottom of the cake, I piped long strands of buttercream with my 2D tip. If you have a turntable, it makes things a bit easier so that you can spin as you pipe. We used this recipe but any frosting that holds it’s shape nicely to piping would work well.
Still going! I love the effect.
Here is a shot of the back of the cake. I stopped and started my bands of frosting in the same spot, creating a seam all the way down. If the seam bothers you, you can pipe a vertical line of small rosettes, or add sugar pearl “buttons”, but I like the look just as it is ;0).
The piped frosting was finished in just a matter of about 5-10 minutes! Next, I created a fondant plaque. We actually used a plaque cookie cutter for this. If you don’t have one & would like this same shape, you can use a rectangular cutter and then snip away the corners with a small circle cutter or piping tip.
I dusted my plaque with silver luster dust. (Rolkem Super Silver)
My fondant numbers were cut using a Wilton cutter set. I dusted with gold luster dust (Rolkem Super Gold) & sparkled with hologram twinkle dust.
Now for the stars! I melted white candy coating/bark coating and spooned it into a disposable piping bag (with the tip snipped away). Then, I piped lots of stars onto a waxed paper lined cookie sheet. I chilled in the freezer for about 5 minutes so that they would set up much more quickly and could be easily handled.
Using a dry paintbrush, I dusted my stars with silver and gold luster dust. Pearl dust would have been nice too! I chilled the dusted stars one last time for a few minutes before placing them into the frosting. (* Use your preferred luster dust for your stars. I used Rolkem Super Silver & Rolkem Super Gold luster dust for mine, which I ordered online. You could also sprinkle your stars with sparkling sugar/sprinkles or sugar pearls before they set up, or by using a little piping gel as adhesive.)
And that’s all there is to it! I love the sophisticated look of this cake, and I especially love that it came together so quickly!
Thanks for stopping by our site, we truly appreciate it! Wishing you all the best in the new year! Here’s to 2015! xoxo
Just gorgeous! Happy 2015!
Love it! Gorgeous and simple.
There is a spelling error under the 5th picture, “Then, I piped lots of starts…” I believe you meant stars. Sorry I notice this stuff :)
What buttercream recipe did you use and what consistency? Love this cake!! The simplicity is what I like about it.
Love the simplicity of it and yet it looks so elegant. Thanks again for another great cake.
Thanks everyone for your kind words!
@MsGF~ fixed! Haha, late night posts get me every time ;0)! @Shirley~ I used the fluffy vanilla buttercream (medium consistency) in our Recipes section but any buttercream/frosting recipe would work as long as it holds it’s shape nicely to piping.
Could airbrush sheen be used to paint/spray onto the stars…or would it not stick? As I said above, this is a lovely cake.
I would find a way of finishing where the lines meet. Maybe small icing rosettes. It than could become a feature instead of an unfinished area and could be offset to the plaque. Just a thought.
Hi Gail, we are on the same wavelength, I actually mentioned above the photo that the seam could be hidden by a small line of rosettes or sugar “buttons” ;0) It could easily be hidden or dressed up to fit the decorator’s style.
I love love love texture! And anything easy made with the melting chocolate! Sometimes when I make things, such as the stars…I put a little “spike” of chocolate on the bottom, so when you stick it in the cake, you have a ready-made pick. And you don’t see it.
I have been a member for 3 years. I bought it for myself for my birthday :)
Absolutely tell all my friends about you.
That’s a great tip, Brenda–We are so happy to have had you as a member for 3 years!! Happy New Year! xoxo
Thank you for the free tutorials. I always learn something new and I’ve been doing this a couple of years now. Thank you! Happy New Year!
Thanks Lori, that’s nice to hear! Happy New Year!!
Dear Melissa. I’m sure my subscription has run out, since I always pay by check I need to have your address again for payment. My name is Barb Cox My email address is : babs101@fuse.net. Thank you, Barb
Hi Barb, I will send you that information.
I just got a Wilton decorating triangle. it gives different types of designs. I would like to try it on the sides of a cake. Do I need to smooth the cake sides first? Thank you.
Hi BakerJudy, you don’t need to smooth the sides first. I do like to apply my frosting & then sweep around the sides with my bench scraper just to make sure the frosting is a consistent thickness. Have fun! I love decorating combs. ;0)
Love this Melissa!! I also love covering a cake in piped buttercream – so easy and so pretty!! xx
Thanks for sharing!
Best Wishes and Happy New Year to you! More Power
Melissa/Bebe,
This question does not pertain to the cake above. I was making a buttercream frosting today and the buttercream cuddled on me. Can you tell me what I did wrong. The buttercream came out like scrabble eggs, lost its volume with milk at the bottom of the mixing bowl. Did I over beat or perhaps had to much heat to the 4 egg whites, 1 cup of light brown sugar and 1/4 tsp salt which was over simmering hot water? I am thinking that I might have over beat the mixture when adding the 3 sticks of diced butter which was at room temp. After adding the butter, that is when the frosting came out looking like scrabble eggs. So I decided to use it on the cake any way because the flavor was great. Of course I had a hard time spreading it on the cake because it kept sliding off. The cake itself is great, it is just the frosting is lumpy. I will try this frosting again. Please give me feed back. Thanks for your help.
Hi Cecile, when the mixture separates and looks like cottage cheese or as you said scrambled eggs, you have broken buttercream, but it can be fixed. To repair broken buttercream, mix 5 minutes or a bit more to see if it will come together again. Another option is to remove about 1 cup of the mixture and microwave 5 to 10 seconds (soft but not hot) and slowly pour the melted buttercream into the mixing bowl while the mixer is on low speed. This should bring it back together. Click on this link link to marthastewart.com for a short 1 minute video presented by Martha Stewart on fixing broken buttercream. I am going to give this method a try the next time it happens to me.
Absolutely love it!
Dear Bebe,
Thanks so much for letting me know what was wrong with my buttercream. Now I know what to do the next time when I have buttercream problems. I knew I was coming to the right person to get the right answer from you and Melissa. Again, many thanks.
Cecile
I love this frosting technique! Thank you for sharing.
Loved the cake. How did you make the plaque stay on the buttercream? Did you use more buttercream or piping gel?
@Jolena, I’m glad that you like it! @Rosangel, I piped a little buttercream to the back of the plaque before applying to the cake.
Hi Thanks for sharing and can you please add the link to order the dusters.
happy new year!!!!!!!!!!!! Loved the cake thanks.
it lovely
Just used this technique for an 8″x4″ dark chocolate cake. I used 1M and piped the horizontal bands to the top, leaving the top of the cake flat and smooth. I actually used the “seam” (shown above in the back), as the front of my cake and piped in small 1M star where each line met. I then put light green sixlets in the center of each star.
This was a great, quick, design for a Manly Man Cake.
p.s. Received my subscription as a Birthday Gift! LOVE IT!
Hi Christina! I’m so happy that you liked this technique and put your own spin on it! I’m sure that it was a hit, and I’m happy that you are enjoying the site! xo
Were you able to find the Rolkum in the US, if so do you mind sharing!
I just love your site!
I’ve been looking for a supplier in the States for a while now with no success. Thanks!
Hi Sharon, We have not found the Rolkum gold in the US. Global Sugar Arts now has an edible gold luster dust that we will be trying soon. Here is a link to the product link to globalsugarart.com