Brush Embroidery with Buttercream- Free Video Tutorial

In this tutorial, you will learn the elegant technique of brush embroidery with buttercream! Brush embroidery is a method that is often used with royal icing on fondant covered cakes, or in cookie decorating.

However, it is also beautiful when used with buttercream, which is what I'll be demonstrating in this video. This is a great example of an impressive looking technique that is actually quite simple to achieve.

It is so simple that this video is much shorter than my usual tutorials! Make sure to scroll beneath the video to read about the materials and additional information. Enjoy the video!

Materials

Buttercream/Frosting (I prefer a crusting buttercream but if you'd rather use a non-crusting recipe, keep in mind that you will need to chill the cake periodically to keep the base coat of icing firm.) We used our High Ratio frosting recipe, but any of our crusting buttercream recipes would do.

Piping Tips- Small round piping tips work well. I used Wilton tips 3 & 4 for most of my piping, and I piped using a tip 2 for small white accents, and a Wilton tip 5 for the bead border.

Small paint brushes-- I like smallish brushes with a flat edge for brush embroidery, although as you see in the video, I still use a brush with a smaller tip for finer details. These brushes should of course be reserved for cake decorating purposes only ;0) - You want to make sure that the bristles do not fall out easily.

Cookie Cutters- Optional. We did not use cookie cutters, but if you are worried about freehanding your flowers, making an impression in the icing with a cookie cutter is a good idea. This will give you something to trace.

*The cakes that I used in this tutorial are 8 inch/6 inch/4 inch tiers.

Colors used: We used Wilton Rose for the dark pink, Americolor Soft Pink for the lighter shade, Americolor Leaf Green combined with a little bit of Avacado Green. For the lighter green, we used Americolor Electric Green.

As I mentioned in my video, I wanted to add more color and texture by brushing on additional buttercream. Usually, brush embroidery simply extends the icing of the border inward. This would have also been very pretty, but I'm happy with the look of our flowers! It's always a good idea to do a little experimenting on waxed paper before piping on your cake to establish the look you are going for. Have fun, and I hope that you enjoyed the tutorial!
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**We have a similar cake video tutorial on Buttercream Embroidery. This technique involves a bit more piping for an embroidered look. You can find the cake video here!: Piped Buttercream Embroidery

Thanks for stopping by! Also, don't miss our full collection of our favorite cake and frosting recipes in our Recipes Section!

34 Comments

Very Pretty. Never thought of using buttercream. Definitely going to try this.

when you say you are using high-ratio shortening...what exactly do you use? I love the look of brush embroidery...I may be doing this in Oct, but white on white. Looks awesome! Thanks for all you do...you are appreciated!

Stunning! Im so glad I found my cake school!

Hi Brenda, we used the brand Sweetex hi ratio shortening. Here is a link to where we have ordered from
/www.shopbakersnook.com/m5/1628--sweetex-high-ratio-shortening-1-pound-block.html

A google search will give you other options

I decorated a cake last year using the brushed embroidery technique and did as you suggested, used flower and leave cutters to outline the design on my cake before piping the BC. My cake was a bright pink with black BE design. Here is the link to my photos from my blog.

http://mycakebytori.blogspot.com/2011/07/brushed-embroidery-design.html