Hi everyone! I’m so excited about our leopard print baby shower cake. Not only does it have a sweet theme with cute leopard print baby shoes & bunting….but we also carried the leopard print to the inside of the cake! Eek! So much fun!
I posted a photo of our cake on our Facebook page a couple of days ago and the response has been unbelievable! So, I can tell you with certainty that if you make this cake for someone, it will be a hit ;0)
There is more than one way to make a leopard print cake. In fact, in our leopard print cupcake video, I demonstrate a different way.
However, for cake layers, I find that the technique demonstrated in this video works best for me. I’ve listed some supplies and additional notes beneath the video—I hope that you enjoy it!
How to Make a Leopard Print Cake on the Inside
Make sure to watch the video tutorial further down in this post, as well as our printable how-to card. Here is just a quick rundown of our steps:
Three Shades of Batter: For our cake, we are working with vanilla cake batter- we divided it into three colors: plain, light brown, and darker brown (almost black). See measurements in the card below.
Fill three piping bags with the different colors.
Filling the pans: Start by putting a thin layer of white batter–approximately 1 ¼ cups- into each of the three pans.
Time to Pipe the Lines (which will become our spots)! Pipe elongated lines of the dark batter on top of the white batter. You don’t want the bands of dark batter to be very thick, but pipe them wide enough for the lighter shade of brown batter in the next step.
Light Brown Lines: Next, pipe thicker (but narrow) lines of light brown batter on top of the dark brown lines (these light lines are not as wide).
Go back in with the piping bag of dark brown batter, piping an outline around the light brown batter and on top. Enclosing the light brown batter in this way will give us the look of leopard spots later.
Using a piping bag with the tip snipped away, pipe on a layer of the white batter to cover the dark lines.
Optional: Another Layer of “Spots”: Next, still working on the same pan of batter, repeat the above steps, making one more layer of leopard print batter. (This is going to give us two layers of leopard spots in each cake layer).
If you would prefer to just have one layer of leopard spots per cake layer, that is fine also! We just wanted extra spots ;0)
Follow the above steps for the second cake pan also. Then bake according to recipe instructions!
How to Make Leopard Print on the Inside of the Cake
Learn how to make a cake with a Leopard Print Pattern on the inside in this free cake decorating video tutorial! We will also show you how to make a sweet baby shoe cake topper- this would make an adorable baby shower cake!
Materials
For the Cake Layers
- We made a 3 layer, 8 inch cake (2” deep pans) using a double batch of white almond sour cream cake-doctored cake mix recipe. You can use any recipe you’d like, as long as it is white or yellow…and for best results, use a batter that isn’t too runny.
- Cocoa Powder– We used this to tint part of our batter (2 tablespoons). You could also use coloring gel.
- Coloring Gels– Use whatever brand/colors you like. This is what we used- Americolor Ivory to tint our gum paste for the shoes & bunting, Super Black & Chocolate Brown for tinting our batter & for painting our leopard spots, Deep Pink for the letters & bows on the shoes.
- Buttercream Frosting– We used our “Fluffy Vanilla Buttercream” recipe.
Decorative Accents
- Satin Ice Gum Paste &/or Fondant—We used gum paste for our shoes & bunting, but you could also use fondant with tylose kneaded into it.
- Vodka/Lemon Extract-Mixing a small amount of either with coloring gel will give you the “paint” for your leopard print.
- Tylose Powder/Sugar Glue– This is our preferred food safe “glue”. You can easily make it by dissolving a ¼ teaspoon tylose into 2 tablespoons of warm water.
- Template– Baby Shoe Template
- Star cookie cutter—I used this to quickly create uniform triangles for our pennants/bunting.
- FMM Alphabet Block Set- Upper Case Tappit Cutters- (Optional) – to spell out “baby” on our bunting.
- Satin Ice Chocolate Fondant- (Optional) I had to knead in some white fondant to lighten it. This is for our fondant ribbon border.
- Silicone Pearl/Bead Former- We used the 6mm size. This was for the trim at the base of the cake.
- FMM multi-ribbon cutter (aff.) (for fondant ribbon around base of cake). Mine was spaced at 1 inch. You could also just measure and cut by hand.
Miscellaneous
- Small paint brush for paining leopard spots
- plate or palette for mixing your “paint”
- parchment paper, plastic piping bags for dispensing your batter
- sharp knife, blade, or x-acto for cutting out your template
Instructions
For the Leopard Print Cake Layers
(Preheat oven and prepare pans per recipe instructions. We used the White Almond Sour Cream Cake- Doctored Mix recipe)
After mixing up the batter we scooped approximately 1 ½ cups of batter into one bowl, and ½ cup of batter into another bowl. The remaining batter will stay white.
Mix 2 tablespoons cocoa powder into the first bowl (This will be the darker of the two shades of brown). Then we alternated drops of brown and black until we got the shade of very dark brown that we liked. (Approx. 2-3 drops each).
We tinted the 2nd bowl of batter with a little bit of the batter from bowl #1, and then a drop of brown coloring gel. This batter should be a light shade of brown.
Once you have your two shades of brown batter, scoop each color of batter into a separate disposable piping bag. You'll have a light brown, dark brown, and white piping bag of batter.
Now you are ready to begin the process! With each pan, start by putting a thin layer of white batter–approximately 1 ¼ cups for my 8 inch pans.
Time to Pipe the Lines (which will become our spots)! Snip the tip of the piping bag for the dark brown batter (not too big). Pipe elongated lines of the dark batter on top of the white batter. You don't want the bands of dark batter to be very thick, but pipe them wide enough for the lighter shade of brown batter in the next step.
Next, pipe a thinner light brown line of batter on top of the dark brown lines (these light lines are not as wide).
Go back in with the piping bag of dark brown batter, piping an outline around the light brown batter and on top. Enclosing the light brown batter in this way will give us the look of leopard spots later.
Using a piping bag with the tip snipped away, pipe on a layer of the white batter. Pipe all around and on top of the lines.
Next, still working on the same pan of batter, repeat the above steps, making one more layer of leopard print batter. (This is going to give us two layers of leopard spots in each cake layer). If you'd prefer to just have one layer of leopard spots per cake layer, that is fine also! We just wanted extra spots ;0)
Follow the above steps for the second cake pan also.
Leopard Print Baby Shoes
Use template for the Mary Jane style baby shoes to cut out gum paste pieces. Roll out your gum paste, and cut out the parts using the template. My shoes are made from ivory-tinted gum paste, but with a "lining" of thinly rolled pink gum paste. After making the first cutout, flip the template to cut out the second so that you don't wind up with two right shoes or two left shoes.
Glue the pieces with tylose glue (a combination of tylose powder and a small amount of warm water). You can use a little pillow stuffing or plastic wrap, etc. to fill the soft gum paste shoes until they are dry. Add gum paste bow and paint on leopard print spots with a "paint" created from brown and black coloring gel + a touch of vodka.
It's best to do the shoes at least a day in advance.
I created the little bunting with triangles of gum paste. "Baby" letters are cut out from Tappit Cutters.
Our cake is frosted with vanilla buttercream and the border is brown fondant (I used chocolate fondant). I cut a strip (using an FMM Brand Multi Ribbon Cutter) about 1.5 inches wide to wrap around the base, and then used a silicone bead former to create brown beads of fondant to wrap around the base.
Leopard Print Cupcakes
If you loved our leopard print cake tutorial, make sure to check out our leopard print cupcake tutorial as well!
You will love this simple technique for creating leopard spots in cupcakes- they match our cake perfectly ;0)
A Different Method-Leopard Print Cupcakes
In my leopard cupcake video, I layer dots of dark batter, light batter, and dark batter here and there rather than making the elongated layered lines.
The “layered lines” of batter that I use in this cake video allow me to make lots of dots at once. For me, it is easier and ensures that every slice will have at least a couple of dots, while the “layered dot” method gives a more sporadic arrangement.
The layered dot method does work well with cupcakes though, since they are so small! I’ll post our cupcake video and so you can decide for yourself what works best for you!
You make it look so easy!! I can’t wait to try this!
Now it makes sense!! I would have never figured it out without this tutorial!! Thanks so much
I love it, you are so good explaining every detail, I am very new at this and I am so glad that I subscribed, this is the best thing I have done, I will recommend it to anybody, thanks for doing this school, specially for people like me that I am a family child daycare provider and it’s so hard to take classes somewhere else so for me this is wonderful you can’t imagine how happy I am, thank you again.
looove this! thank you
Funny, so many people have been trying to reproduce this and are posting it on facebook. None of them were even close! Great job! And I can’t wait to try this!
So cute. I have to try this for my daughter’s 24th birthday. She loves leopard print and will be blown away that her dear old mom was able to put it in a cake for her.
I. LOVE. THIS!!!!!!! I’m agree with Stefanie, I would never have figured out how to do this! Can’t wait to try it! Thanx Melissa and Bebe! Luanne
This is so AWESOME!!! I can’t wait to try it with high heels for a Sweet 16 cake for my grand daughter!
Wow, I love this cake.. I can’t wait to make it.. I’m new to cake decorating and new to your site and I just love it. I stayed awake till 2 am the other day watching your videos until my hubby said “aren’t you gonna go to sleep”. Now I just have to find someone to make it for, or I might just have to make it for my two little girls, they will love it…
It looks so easy!! Thanks a whole bunch! As soon as I have the chance I’ll try it post it!!! Awesome Job!!!
I am really enjoying all of your videos. This was really fun to see at the end when you cut it. Thanks for going into details on everything.
Very cute design idea and an interesting video. SO many people on Facebook and cake forums are guessing how this was done, so far none of them quite have it. Thanks for taking the time to do this.
Very cute. You make everything look so easy!
I saw on facebook that someone fell in love with this cake and just had to try to make it. She did a little picture tutorial on CakeDecor.
I have to say, yours is MUCH BETTER and easier than what she did.
I cant wait to try this. Oooh the color combinations are endless!
thanks!
Ansa
The most clever cake you’ve done, Melissa. Thank you! How tall was this cake? So for your 3 layers, you baked 3 separate cakes, right?
I love this and have a feeling every one is gonna be seeing spots :) ty x
Oh I cannot wait to try this. Think I will be trying this tomorrow. Excited :o) Thank you for the tutorial, your site is fantastic x
Just one question, when you do round two of your lines, and you have covered wih the white batter again, do the second lot have to be in the same place as the first round?
Thanks so much everyone for your comments! I’m so glad that you like it. @Nikki—No, the next layer of lines do not need to line up with the first at all. In fact, you may like it better if they don’t line up exactly because the spots will be more staggered when you cut the cake. As long as there is white batter in between the two layers of dots, I think you’ll be happy with the result.
@Stephanie–The cake is still in Mom’s fridge–I’ll measure it for you later & post it. My guess would be around 4 1/2″. You should be able to get 3 layers from a double batch of the white almond sour cream recipe.
Just joined this site and i have been watching videos nonstop!! I Love this one! Can’t wait to try it!! I hope it goes as smooth as yours did in the video!!!
Thanks Melissa. Its in the oven as I type … lets see how the first attempt turns out :o)
Would this technique work the same way with a square or sheet cake? This is so much fun.
when I 1st saw this cake my jaw dropped! I just made the shoes & the cake will soon follow. Melissa thank you sooooo much!
Love it…thank you can’t wait to try it.
Thank you so much! I love it and can’t wait to try :)
This is so wonderful… can’t wait to try it. Thank you so much :)
Hi Melissa! LOVE this cake and will make it tomorrow just for grins! Two newbie questions for you though. What do you use to attach your fondant ribbon to the buttercream? If the buttercream crusts I wouldn’t think simply putting the fondant on would make it stick. Also, your cake board beneath the cake. I see it is smaller than the 8 inch round cakes. Do you purposely cut your circles smaller than that cakes and why? Thank you so much!
I have a baby shower cake due next week, think I might try this in blue print as a surprize, the outside is a cloud theme I will post pics ( if it turns out ). Thanks the video was aewsome as usual.
Hi Deborah- Glad that you like the cake! I had just removed my cake from the refrigerator when I added the border and so it had the tiniest bit of moisture on it which allowed the fondant band to easily adhere. However, if your buttercream is crusted, you can very lightly dampen the back of the fondant band with water it will stick. You could also adhere it with some dots of buttercream.
The cake circles under my cake tiers are usually right around the same size or just slightly smaller than the cake. It’s just how I do mine to keep the board out of the way when I frost. There’s no harm in using a board that is slightly larger than your cake if you plan to frost your cake to that thickness. Some people do this so that they can use their board as a guide as they frost.
I have been thinking about this cake all weekend. I see all these funky colored leopard print things that teen girls are having these days and think this would be adorable done in bright colors too!
What a beautiful idea…I can’t wait to try it.
great technique. wouldn’t figure that one by myself.. can’t wait to try it..
thanks for the detailed video tutorial… : )
I tried this cake on the weekend with one of my recipes. Unfortunately, it didnt turn out- I think my batter was too thin, so will try again with a thicker mixture.
@Susan-I’m so sorry that it didn’t turn out! I can see how a thinner batter might be harder to control. Thanks for posting about it!
Hi Melissa, I am sooooo excited to try this, Leopard is one of my favorite patterns. Thank you so much for sharing.
Sugar Mama
Oh my heavens! LOVE this!!!! Just in time for my daughters 1st birthday. ;-) Thanks so much!
Great idea! You are so creative, thanks!
This was the best so far. I’m a little worried about the shoes. I haven’t worked with fondant much but will be practicing soon. You are so talented and I am very happy I found your website. Thanks Melissa and BeBe.
Hi Melis and Bebe-
I haven’t had a chance to watch the tutorials for this method yet- but I can not wait to do so!!! I just saw on the CC site that someone has already posted a method for doing this. I hope it is not the same exact method, and taken from here without your permission- you know what I mean. I know how hard you guys work on the tutorials and your “students” get to reap the rewards.
I have used techiniques learned from you on almost every cake I have done- so.. thank you for all you do. I tell everyone about My Cake School- it is fantastic!!
Sorry, this is kind of long…I tried this this afternoon, I haven’t cut into it yet but I have a feeling it is going to be more of a gorgeous bright pink, ivory, and dark chocolate cake! I used my favorite chocolate cake recipe which is super thin, almost soupy ( a delicious cake) and then the WASC recipe. The think dark was the main color and the WASC was the spots in pink and it’s natural lovely color. They looked good when I first started but the heavier thicker batter seemed to kind of sink (or maybe the thin batter sucked it in). Anyway, by the time it went in the oven, it was definitely a bit marbly. It’s very pretty on top and when I cut the top off, it looks beautiful but I’m guessing it won’t be leopard spots. I used the leftover WASC cake to practice the cupcakes, so far I’ve cut three and they have big pink and brown smiles in the middle of the ivory cupcake. , I’ll keep cutting to see how the spots came out as I did each one slightly different to experiment. It was fun and I’m sure will be lovely, I just may not advertise it as leopard spots! ;-) Next time I’ll use the same cake batter for all parts. Thanks so much for these videos! Going to try the zebras too!
Thanks everybody for your comments! @Anita– Don’t worry, the baby shoes are not difficult to make! I do find it a lot easier though to either work with gum paste or fondant with tylose kneaded into it than straight fondant.
@Deborah~ I’m sorry, I do think that having the dark and light batter as the same consistency/recipe is going to help a lot. Since your chocolate batter was much thinner, i can see how that may cause issues—but, I’m still curious as to how it looks when cut. (Looking at the top view it’s almost impossible to tell.)
Again with the cupcakes, it may just be the difference in consistency of the two batters. We used WASC because it is a thicker batter– Thanks for letting us know your experience!
@Maureen–Thanks for your message! Someone tagged me on Facebook with CC’s post of the leopard print cake. It’s not the same (more time consuming). Thanks for supporting our site, so glad that you are still enjoying it! ;0)
Doing a small wedding cake today…and giving this a practice shot on a 6″ cake. I have a baby shower coming up, and she said to do what I wanted….I hope this turns out, its soooo cute! Now, I have designer cakes..zebra, cammo and polka dots…and now, Leopard! Thanks Melissa!
Thanks Brenda, hope it worked for you!
Hi Just some advice please. An attempting this for the first time but we don’t have same box mixes here in the uk. Would we make up a usual 8 inch mix and then guesstimate how much mix to take out for the spots? Then keep layering til mix is used up?
Also what temperature and how long do we cook it for? Many thanks for the fab tutorials! Xx
OK, we just cut the cake….NO SPOTS anywhere to be found…even though the top of the cake was a pretty pink and ivory swirl. The rest of the spots must have just disappeared into the dark chocolate thinner batter cake. I used leftover WASC batter for the cupcakes, as mentioned above. I haven’t cut into them all yet but at least you can see the color differences…so far only giant smiley faces (this batter was all the same consistency) but there are still many to go, will keep cutting. So I guess using a darker batter for the big part of the cake may not be a good idea. Or it could have just been my dark batter of thinner consistency. Will have to keep experimenting. I’m guessing that perhaps the bigger part needs to be the lighter batter, no matter what batter is used.
Hi Melissa I have just joined your site to get this video as my sister LOVES leopard print so I want to try and make one for her birthday. It’s so clever how you do it. Now I have discovered a whole heap of videos and cakes I wants to try :) I just wanted to ask a few questions. Firstly what is the box mix that is mentioned in the batter recepie? Secondly is there another cake mixture recepie I could use other than the white almond sour cake mix that would be thick enough to get the same results? x
Hi Ann, I am not sure where you are located but I do know that boxed cake mixes such as Pillsbury and Duncan Hines are not available to everyone. You can still make a leopard print on the inside of your cake using a from scratch recipe. I have used both the 1234 Cake and Favorite White Cake from our recipe section and both worked just fine. The difference was that with both of these recipes I did not have enough batter for 3 cake layers…..my cake was only two layers tall, but that was fine. Also, in Melissa’s video, each of her cake layers had 2 layers of spots. When using my scratch recipes I had only enough batter for 1 layer of spots…..still looks like leopard spots just not as many of them. You would need to double the scratch recipes that I mentioned to get a 3 layer cake with each layers having 2 layers of spots and of course, there would be left over batter. As long as your cake batter is not runny you won’t have a problem with your leopard spots sinking or becoming muddled. Hope this is clear. Just look at the picture of Melissa leopard cake and visualize it as a two layer cake with only one layer of spots on each cake layer. Let me know if you have other questions.
WOW, Melissa!!! This is absolutely gorgeous!
I was so excited when I tried this, but unfortunately failed miserably :(
I followed the directions to the T and it looks like a Dalmation cake (black spots all over but no brown. I posted a picture on my Facebook (April Abegg, I am Mycakeschool’s friend), could you check it out and tell me what I am doing wrong?
I know it was not my batter consistency because it was THICK.
I am going to keep trying until I get it! but any help is appreciated.
Thanks again.
@pinksugar–thanks for the suggestion about the dark chocolate cocoa. More importantly, I’m sorry that you are going through a hard time–sending prayers for healing your way.
@April- I’m sorry that you ended up with a dalmatian instead of a leopard! I cannot get to your FB page, even though you are friends with “MCS”..I guess that becoming a fan of a business is different than “friending” someone. Is there any way that you can e-mail me a pic to info@mycakeschool.com? —
If the batter was thick, I’m surprised that it didn’t turn out—but maybe if I see the cake we can do an autopsy ;0) – Could the problem have been that the light brown layer wasn’t piped thick enough? I had to go back and forth a couple of times as I piped the light brown to make sure that it was thicker than the dark brown…and then just after that, I outlined the light brown line with dark brown before covering the top of the light brown with the dark. Don’t give up on the method yet– I hope that we can figure this out for you!!
Hi Melissa! Was away for a few weeks as my Grandfather passed away. Trying to get back as i missed a lot of the blogs and videos. Saw the video today and love it as always. will try it soon. Hope turns out the way it looks.
Thanks!!
I love this!! I tried it last week and it didn’t come out to great, I need to make the light brown darker so, the cake just looked like fudge marble. I saw the tan faintly and i was pleased with the pattern. Melissa and Ms. Bebe this site is amazing!!! Thank you for creating it!!!
Mine keeps turning out marbled and the spots arent showing up even though im doing exactly what your doing
Hi Aisling– It sounds like there isn’t enough of the light brown batter in the center. Is your batter thick enough that you can give your light brown batter a little height as you pipe it over the thin layer of dark brown? The thickness of light brown batter determines the size of your light brown spot. You want to pipe it so that it has a little height (more than the dark which should have very little height). Then, just after piping your line of light brown, you go ahead and pipe a dark brown outline around it to help it hold it’s shape.
Such a cool video, can’t wait to try it out!
I see that CrumbBoss is trying to replicate it (don’t know if she has posted her video or not) but I saw a picture of the inside of her cake and it is just one layer of dots that fell to the bottom, so I don’t think she’ll be able to do it justice.
Want the BEST? Come to the ORIGINAL! :D
Melissa, thank you sooo much for this tutorial, Love it! Also, thank you BeBe you girls make an awesome team! :)
i tried the cupcake leopard print last night and i’m happy the way it turned out. my friends were amazed when they saw the photos i posted in FB. thank you for this wonderful video. i’m learning a lot of things from your tutorial :)
That’s great!! Thanks for your post
Hi melissa !! this cake is georgous !!!! i am going to do it now .. !!!! but i cant see the cake recipe .. !!! can you say me the name ?????? sorry for my english ….!!!!! i am from Spain !!! :)
Hi Rose, we used the White Almond Sour Cream recipe ( a doctored cake mix) from the recipe section. We doubled the recipe. You could also use a scratch recipe such as the 1234 Cake or one of your own recipes as long as the cake batter isn’t too thin. You may also need to double your recipe to get two layers of leopard spots in one cake layer…..I talk about this under Ann’s post above
Hi Melissa, would you please be so kind as to tell me what alphabet tappit cutters do you use for cutting the word baby, there are so many type and sizes, and I have been looking to purchase a small one like you’re using in this video. Thanks. Lillian :)
I saw the video tried it came out awsome. I actualy sold one the other day. This cake was a hit. Thanks so much your classes have realy brought new ideas to my cakes. You gals rock!!!!
My cake is in the oven as I write this. I have been reading everyone else’s comments. One of the problems as I worked on this was that the batter started to spread out on me. I am wondered if the tan batter is chilled a bit in the piping bag before piping into onto the dark chocolate would help. I also think that maybe it would help to complete one line at a time instead of doing several so that the tan lines would stay more stacked up? I am curious to see how mine turns out. I am making a Maxine cake for a fifty year old with this recipe. The design has a gumpaste brassiere that I am going to make in a leopard print.
Ok, the cake is out of the oven and here is how it turned out. The part that I used long curved lines didn’t turn out nearly as well as the parts where I used dots of batter. The long curved lines looked more like tiger stripes than leopard spots. Glad this is my practice cake. I will used dots of batter. The dark brown batter needs to be a very thin layer and the tan needs to be much thicker. I am going to cross my fingers and hope the next one turns out better. I think that once I get this mastered it will be a big hit.
Hi, I can not wait to try this….
Just a quick question… can you use mud cake for this? I thought maybe choc mud, caramel mud and white mud? Thoughts anyone?
Hi, Where can I find the templates for the booties? and any other templates?
Hi Josie, we have never made mud cake, this would be a good question to post on the Forum, more members would see it and hopefully have an answer for you.
To find the templates…..on the homepage, look in the right sidebar for Member Resources …click on select a page and scroll down to templates
Hi Be Be, thank you so much…. found the templates… I can’t wait to make the booties…
I finished my Maxine cake. I did a few things differently this time, and my pattern turned out much better! I used the dot method like Melissa shows in the cupcake demo instead of the curved lines of dark and light brown. Another thing I did was to chill my light brown batter for about 5-10 minutes(This seemed to help me pipe it more thickly without spreaded out). I also did not completely cover the top of my light brown blobs of cake batter with the dark batter. The light brown spots were much bigger and more defined. Hope this helps some of the rest of you who are having trouble.
and and prominent and the dark outlines did not overtake the light brown spots.
Hi, I had a go at your cake but the batter was too thin, how would you make the batter thicker?
Thanks Elaine
Hi Melissa, would you please be so kind as to tell me what alphabet tappit cutters do you use for cutting the word baby, there are so many type and sizes, and I have been looking to purchase a small one like you’re using in this video. Thanks. Lillian
Hi would you use the same technique for a square cake?
Hi Elaine, a comment from Wanda, in the post above your question says she chilled her batter to thicken it up.
Hi Lillian, the block tappit cutters we used in this video are 3/4″ high. I’m not sure where we bought them but you could google it to find the best buy.
Hello Jasmin, yes, the same technique for a square pan
Thanks I give that a go.
This is me again. I just spoke with the person that I made the leopard cake for. She loved it! Apparently the leopard spots in the sheet cake turned out! Chilling the light brown batter and not completely covering it with the dark brown batter worked well.
Hi, I had a go at making the booties…. and for my first attempt I have to say they arent too bad… your tutorials are great… thanks again!
Hi- I just watched this video for the second time. I’m hoping to practice this cake soon. I just wanted to verify something from the notes. You only used 1/2 cup of the lighter brown? And that was enough for 3 layers? Thanx, Luanne
Hey ladies! I’m planning on making a cake with cow print on the inside tomorrow and was wondering if you thought this technique would work well for that. Just large black spots in a white cake is what I’m going for, with two layered 9×13 sheets carved into numbers. Let me know soon! Thanks!
Btw, I did this technique for a two tier birthday cake and it was fabulous! You guys are amazing!
Alison
Angel Cakes
Hi Alison– Cow spots sound really cute! Because of the cutting pattern of a sheet cake, I probably would pipe splotches of the dark batter rather than the lines of batter. Otherwise, you may end up with some striped servings.
So, I would do it similar to how I did with the leopard cupcakes except for just one shade of dark batter (and more of it at a time).
Hello Melissa! Made it this morning and it was fabulous!!! I can’t stop smiling at the outcome!! Because I make xlarge cupcakes they were not as dazzling. I think I have to add more spots, maybe three layers to get the right effect. Regardless, thank you so much for sharing and I simply love the videos! You are both ( you and BeBe) very talented ladies! :o)
My spots worked…. but my cake did’t rise…. and burned at the bottom :( what am i doing wrong????
I just put the leopard print cake in the oven. Since a lot of people seemed to have a problem at first, I won’t be surprised if it doesn’t work out for me. lol That’s how experiments go sometimes. I’ll tell you one thing, though. If it works out, and anyone ever wants it, it’s gonna cost them! hahaha I’ll be back later to let you know!
Yes! It worked! It isn’t perfect, by any means, but it did work. I didn’t make the middle part (the lighter brown) thick enough, so it doesn’t show as much as it should. The batter was thick enough, I just didn’t make a thick enough line. I’m so tickled!! I will definitely do this again, but like I said in the previous post, it’s gonna cost them. Thank you, Ladies!
Yay!! we are happy you had success making this fun cake…….and yes, extra charge for the time involved. Thanks for making your post.
Hi Mélissa !
I ve got a problem with my sugar past whitch is too stretch.
I m sure you ve got an advice for me
Thanks
Stéphanie
Hi Stephanie–Do you have any tylose powder or CMC powder by chance? Kneading a little into your sugar paste will help if your sugar paste is too soft. Are you trying to make the baby shoes?
I did the leopard cake today for a 13th birthday party. I made rings around the pan and it turned out great. I had tried it the other way on my sample cake and decided to just try the rings today, so much quicker and I liked it better. Everyone thought I was so talented, not telling them how easy it was :) Can’t wait to try it again. Thanks for a great tutorial!
Yay Laurie!!!
I’m so glad to hear it. Thanks so much for letting us know! ;0)
Thank you so very much for this tutorial! I’ve tried two other methods without succeeding in getting leopard spots, I just got marbled glob shapes in the slices. This video, alone, is worth the whole years subscription price! I couldn’t have accomplished it without your video, Melissa! From Charmagne of Charming Confections.
Charmagne–Thank you!!! I’m so glad to know that it worked well for you!
I really enjoy watching and learning your techniques (they are a big wow to me). What talent and so creative!
Thank You sooooo much for the videos :O)
Im going to make this cake in blue for my friends baby shower, I’m thinking I’ll make blue booties instead of mary janes, any other ideas to BOY it up?
Thanks for this amazing site, best money I ever spent, I can’t afford to go to courses at the moment and this is better, I can pause it and replay it as many times as I like! haha
Hi Melissa,
I attempted the leopard print cake today using the WASC extended recipe. My concern is the cake rose quite high and in doing so distorted the pattern. How can I prevent the cake from rising too high?
Thanks. Cheers!
Angela
Hi Melissa, I’m going to be making this cake soon and I wanted to know for all the cakes that you tint the colors by mixing the batter, does it make the batter tough when the cake or cupcakes are finished? I’m afraid of overworking the batter. Thanks!
Veronica
Hi Veronica, no, that has not been a problem. I think you will be fine.
Hi Claire, are you able to view the other videos? Is is a blank screen for this video? It is playing on our computer…….let me know what is happening when you try to view this one. I’m sure we can find a solution.
Hi Melissa. Love your website. Thank you very much. Love it. Although I attempted the leopard print cake and unfortunately did not come out. The print was more like marble. The light brown does not show. Please let me know what I did wrong. Thanks.
Hi Grace–I’m so sorry that you had trouble with this cake. If you’ve read through the other comments beneath this post, then you know that a couple have had similar issues. I think that the consistency of the batter makes a big difference. If it is too runny, then I think that you are more likely to have a marbled look. One of our members said that they chilled their batter which was a little too thin and found it easier to manage. I haven’t found the need to do this but depending on the batter, it could help!
This is a method that works well, but you may need to experiment with it a couple of times before you really get the hang of it. You may even like to experiment with the leopard print method that I use with my leopard cupcakes, where you are layering dots of batter rather than stripes of batter.
Keep me posted –don’t give up, I’m sure you’ll get it!
Thank you Melissa for the very quick response. Thank you for the advise and will definately not give up. Was thinking of baking the cake soon. will let you know how it goes. Thanks again.
I am going to attempt to make this in a 1/2 sheet cake for a baby shower I am doing. Can you tell me you mentioned a Bubble “T” Straw when doing the shoes, can you tell me how to put them through the shoes without making a mess and the straw is the one with a bend in it correct? Just want to make sure…
Thanks
Lori
Hi Lori, the Bubble T straw in put into the cake, not into the shoe. It is cut to a height slightly shorter than the cake and the shoe would sit on top of it. It is not put through the shoe. It is there just to prevent to shoes from sinking into the cake. It is optional and if you put the shoes on your cake just before serving you won’t have a problem with them sinking into the cake.
Good Luck with your cake.
Thank you Bebe for the insight. Never done this before and Just went and purchased what I needed to do a 1/2 sheet cake…So excited…
Can you tell me what temperature to bake each cake at? and for how long?
Hi Lisa, we bake the White Almond Sour Cream cake at 325 degrees for approximately 35 minutes. Some bakers like to bake at 350 degrees either temperature is fine. Everyone’s oven is different ……your cake is done when a toothpick inserted in the center of the layer comes out clean and the cake begins to pull away from the sides of the pan.
with a 1/2 sheet cake would you still recommend 3 layers of cake?? Can you give me any direction on how to do this cake as a 1/2 sheet cake? I get the technique just looking for cake batter wise…
Thank you..
Lori
Hi Lori- The sheet cake would look great even with one or two layers of cake.
I’ve never done leopard print with a sheet cake but if I were experimenting, I would still do the “rings” of batter as we do with round cakes, and as you get closer to the corners, you may have to do some extra curved lines that don’t necessarily curve all the way around. —
However, it would also work well to just do the layered dots (rather than layered curved lines) with a sheet cake if you like that route better–this is the way that we make our spots in our leopard cupcake (on the inside) tutorial.
When is your order due? If you have time to experiment with a small square cake, its always nice to do a trial run with new techniques.
My order is for Friday! Thanks Melissa I will try it today… I love your videos please keep them coming!!
HI Melissa. Well I made this cake in a 3 tier 1/2 sheet cake using you’re vanilla cake mix recipe and it was a hit… the booties came out so cute and it made the momma to be cry, she loved it. Thank you for doing these video’s for visual learners like me! Keep them coming please
Lori
Hi there, where would I find the recipe for the almond sour cream cake please?
So cute! Do you have any idea how you would pull off an animal print more like cow spots? I have a cow themed cake a friend wants and I thought that it would look cute to have the inside if the cake have cow print too. I can’t seem to figure it out in my head so I will have to probably do a test cake. Any suggestions would be helpful!
Hi Elizabeth–So funny that you should ask because Mom and I were just talking about this. The cake video that we filmed last week (and that I’m editing now) is a cowboy themed cake. We had hoped to have time to experiment with a cow spot interior but just didn’t have time. I think it would be adorable though! —
If it were me, I’d just put in the white batter and pipe in dark brown (or even black tinted) blobs of batter to create the spots (sort of like what we do with our leopard print cupcakes except for there would be no light brown). I suppose that the rings of dark brown batter could work too (similar to what we did in this leopard video)…and you could just make them a little chunkier here and there.
Would love to hear if try it–It’s something I hope to get to one of these days! ;0)
I am a new member and I love it! Thank you for sharing. Love this cake and would like sometime if you can to see more cakes with designs inside. I have seen one on pintrest with like a African scene inside and love it and would love to know how to do something like that. Thank you so much again.
Lorraine
Hi, I am a first time viewer and have signed up especially to learn how to get a leopard print inside a cake. I have allready had two failed attempts of my own. I have now watched the video and understand what to do but wondered if you could tell me how to go about doing this in a 12 inch x 12 inch square tin ? I use a 15 egg madiera sponge recipe that I have used for years and cook one large deep cake which I cut after. I would like to cut the cake twice but once is fine. I normally only cut once but think it would look nice cut twice giving three layers like in the video. Any help would be gratefully received. Thank you in advance, Trudie.
Hi Trudie– I have never made this cake as a square. The cutting pattern is different…but I think that if you do the “rings” of dark batter, you will still get the leopard spots as the serving it eaten. On the other hand, you could also try layering the spots rather than the rings, as we do in our leopard cupcake on the inside video. –
Since you are baking it as a thick cake, and then torting, I would be tempted to just cut once. I say that because the more that you cut into the cake, the more likely that you may be cutting through your leopard spots. With the way that we did ours, we baked in individual pans and so we knew the look that we would be getting from the beginning (two layers of spots within each cake layer). Please let us know how it goes! Now that you have the hang of things, I hope that your next try will come easily!
Dear Melissa, Thank you for your advice.
I think I will practice once more on a smaller square doing the ring method and cut once.
I will indeed let you know how it turns out.
Doing patterns on the inside is very new to me and not something I have seen others do here in England.
I am having trouble with my spots sinking down to the bottom of the cake…thoughts?
Hi cft77, are you using Melissa’s method of making the leopard spots or one of the other methods found online that use small balls of cake, as if you were making cake pops and dropping that into cake batter??
Using Melissa’s method
Hi, are you using the white cake batter and making a portion of it chocolate with cocoa powder or are you using a different chocolate cake recipe (that might be heavier) for the chocolate spots? If it is all the same batter consistency, I can’t think why it might sink.
Hmm ok. Yeah using the same batter for all the colors. Im using convection bake…do you think that could be it?
Hi, I can’t watch this video it doesn’t appear on the screen only an empty space where usually the videos are, is it only me? I already tried in my phone, ipad and laptop, I need to bake this cake tomorrow morning :( thanks
Hi Cinthia, I’m sorry, can you see it now?
Yes Melissa thank you so much you are wonderful
Hi! Iv tried this method twice now and had varied results! The first time I think I know where I went wrong my dark lines were to thick and swallowed my lighter brown! However my second attempt I used much more light brown and still found it hard to see! I also found that my stripes seemed to have risen to the top of the cake and merged together? I used the classic white cake recipe as I’m here in the uk! Do you have any thoughts on what recipe works best for it? I used the line method like here in the video so I’m tempted to try the dots but thought I’d ask about the recipe first? Anyone else in the uk tried this and what recipe worked for you? Thanks xx
Hi Laura– I’m sorry that your results have been a little hit and miss. Do you think that your light brown on the second attempt was a thick enough stripe? I wish I had a good answer for you, I’m not sure why it wouldn’t be visible either. -We actually did experiment with this recipe using the “favorite white” scratch recipe way back when we were working out this technique. It’s the only scratch recipe I’ve used with this method….but I would have thought the “classic white” would have worked also. — The layered dot method may be a little easier to get the hang of. I’m sorry for all of the trial runs you are having to do but don’t give up, you’ll get it! Good luck!
Thanks Melissa! It’s normal to have a play with new techniques! I’ll have a try with the dot method! Not to worry, no cake goes to waste! Iv got what looks like a chocolate swirl cake which can be used as well! I’ll let you know how I get on x
Does anyone know where I can find a giraffe spot inside a cake tutorial. I found the zebra and leopard here on my cake school but can’t find the giraffe spots anywhere, I looked all over the internet. Please help, I’m making these cakes today!
Hi Melissa
Where can I find the templates for the shoes?
Hi Donna, here is the template for the shoes!:
https://www.mycakeschool.com/images/2010/06/babyshoe1.pdf
This is such a cool cake! The first time I made it, with my cake recipe, it didn’t work. I thought it might be too soft but I wanted to try it with my own recipe first. Then I tried your WASC recipe (scratch. It was delicious!! The leopard spots came out beautifully. I’m going to make a doll cake with these spots. I’ll try to post a picture (sometimes my pictures don’t upload).
Hi Debbie, I’m so happy all went well!! Thanks for posting. I would love to see your pictures.
Hi BeBe, here it is ?.
Inside…(the spots are not as defined ad I would like).
You did such a good job with this cake, Debbie! Thanks for sharing your pictures!
Thank you
Thanks Melissa
Hi Debbie, Your doll cake looks fantastic, beautiful work!! Thanks for posting!