I LOVE the look of crochet. It is beautiful, delicate, & goes hand in hand with the vintage themes that are so popular in cake decorating right now.
I was excited to try a crochet design in buttercream, and I hope that you love the look as much as I do! Keep this in mind for wedding cakes, shower cakes, or any occasion that calls for an elegant centerpiece!
The design that I am creating is not difficult if you are comfortable with piping. However, I have to warn you that it is a bit time consuming! ;0) –If you’d like to speed up the process, you can space out your crochet designs a little further and still have a beautiful result.
I am piping on a frosted cake in buttercream in this video, but if you are piping onto a fondant covered cake, I would recommend using royal icing instead. I hope that you enjoy the video, and please find the materials used and a few notes below!
d be a really good option also. (I would not pipe onto the gum paste with a non-crusting or “wet” buttercream, as moisture could damage it.) I would make the flower at least 2 days in advance to be on the safe side. Mine only took one day to dry, but drying times vary greatly depending on your location, humidity levels, and the type of fondant/gum paste that you are using.
Thanks for watching! Let me know if you have questions, and if you try the design, we would LOVE to see!
Materials:
This stacked cake was made up of a 6 inch (double barrel) and 4 inch tier. They were frosted with High Ratio buttercream although any crusting buttercream recipe would be fine. (Non-crusting frosting wouldn’t work with the paper towel method smoothing, and may soften the gum paste flower over time.)
As usual, stacked tiers are each on their own cardboard cake circle cut down to size, and the 4 inch tier has three bubble tea straws beneath it. Double Barrel cakes like our bottom tier are tall, often 4 layer cakes which have a cardboard cake circle halfway up, with 4 bubble tea straws inserted in the bottom two layers to support the upper two.
Circle Cutters- We used 3 circles to make impressions for our crochet designs. The smallest circle was from a standard sized piping tip. The size difference from largest to smallest was pretty evenly spaced, but it doesn’t have to be. Work with what you have.
Piping Tip: 2 or 3. A tip 2 looks more delicate but you may find that piping from a smaller tip is harder on your hands…and you’ll be doing a lot of piping! ;0)
Gum Paste (or fondant with tylose powder kneaded into it until it has the consistency of gum paste)
Flower Cutter- I just used a generic flower cutter– about 3 inches wide.
Glass with foil over the opening to create a “flower former”
Small paintbrush or two
2D piping tip (or any closed star tip) for creating designs on crochet gum paste flower
Toothpick for creating holes in crochet flower
Sugar Glue or your edible glue of choice for the gum paste flower
**Make the flower at least a day or two in advance so that it has plenty of time to dry.
Hello Melissa! I love this technique …I can’t wait to do it. I love my cake school, your ideas are amazing !!!
Thank you so much!!
omg i cant wait to try this you made it look so easy thank you so much keep the videos coming i love them
Great tutorial, I think I will try this on a few sugar cookies for practice, before I attempt on a cake, since I have not really done much piping :)
I just love it! It’s so pretty. Reminds me of my Grandma who used to make crochet all day and I also learnt to do from her. But on a cake is amazing! If she was alive she would have loved it.
Thanks I would like to give that much piping a try:)
Great work Melissa,
I really look forward to doing this technique. What a great shabby chic wedding cake idea. Or would it be termed Vintage??? In any event…It would be WOW factor beautiful!
I loved this video. I was so excited when I saw it this morning. Great job. Actually, all your videos are great. Thank you
Absolutely lovely! My mom makes doilies and I couldn’t tell this was not the real thing! Beautiful handwork and your tutorial is excellent! I am so glad I joined the cake school. I feel like I can make anything!! Thank you!
Another beautiful cake and easy to follow tutorial. Thank you Melissa and Bebe! I must say…this is the best $30. I’ve ever spent!
Thank you all so much for your nice comments. I’m so glad that you liked the tutorial!
Can we only do this on a High Ratio Buttercream? I can’t find any high ratio shortening in my part of the world, would any other buttercream works?
I am just getting into cake decoration and yours website is the first tutorial website I subscribed myself into.
Would love to hear from you soon.
Cheers,
Nazz
Melissa, I am a new member, (about a week) and on my first day I requested a tutorial of a crochet cake. I can’t believe it, here it is. And it is so beautiful.
I can’t thank you enough. Wow, not only are you a wonderful cake decorator, you come through for your members. Thank you!!! That also includes your Mom.
Melissa, I just wanted to let you know that i loved your new tutorial on this cake cant wait to try this new method .Thank you very much and keep those tutorials coming cant wait for the next one
I love this design, I especially like how you covered the back of the flower, I wondering how you planning on covering that up, beautiful.
Wow!!! You did an awesome job on this cake. This is really a great tutorial! Can’t wait to give it a try!
Ansa
Hello Melissa ,U r so talent and u did a great job i feel it is a real piece of crochet and u made it so easy that i feel i can do it and i ‘ll try ,Thank u so much:)
AWESOME!!!!
so awesome as i have a cake order that wants something lacy and this is perfect! thanks so much!
Wow Melissa!! Beautiful cake!! Love the tutorial!! What a great idea and job!! Can’t wait to try the technique!!.
I love the cake….Beautiful!! Great job!!
WOW! you gave me something to do this weekend. love the technique. it’s awesome. thank so much for sharing.
Thanks again! I so appreciate that you all took the time to let me know that you enjoyed the video! For those of you who are going to try the technique, I would love to hear what you thought (and to see your cakes!) ;0) –@mykangaroocakegirl–have fun!
Melissa
I am sorry but but i can not access the video it’s not loading on the page once the page is open. Please help!!! would this cake also be considered as Victorian lace? I need to do a cake and I was thinking this would work.
Hi Beverly, Melissa made a post on the Forum today about the problem. Our video hosting site, Viddler, located in New York has lost power due to Hurricane Sandy. It was operating with back up generator power but lost that this morning. They have been in contact with Melissa and hope to be operating by late this afternoon. I think Melissa will be posting updates on the Forum and on Facebook.
I just googled Victorian lace and it is similar to the video. I think your customer would be happy with that look.
This is so beautiful. I’m going to make this cake for our 29th winning anniversary this month.
@Cakes On The Lane~ I’m so glad to hear that! Congratulations on 29 years!!
Hi Ria, it’s working on our end. Can you view the other videos? I’ll re-embed it for you. Let me know if that corrects the problem.
Another beautiful cake Melissa. It does look very time consuming but in the end you get rewarded with a gorgeous cake. I will try this someday. Thank you for the tutorial.
Absolutely love, love, love the Crochet looking flower on the top. The whole cake is exquisite!
Love this cake!! Hope to try it soon. Your tutorials/videos are awesome!
Thank you, Carolyn, it is one of our favorites also.
Hello Melissa
That is a great pleasure find you.
I live inBrazil. To much hot wheather.
What kind of butter cream can I use here, sweety??
I loved your crochet cake.
Hi Rozana, Here are links to two recipes from the recipe section that should work for you.
https://www.mycakeschool.com/recipes/fluffy-hi-ratio-buttercream/
https://www.mycakeschool.com/recipes/fluffy-vanilla-buttercream/ The Fluffy Hi Ratio buttercream uses Hi Ratio shortening such as Sweetex or CK products brand. Since you are in Brazil you may need to order online unless you have access to a baking supply store. The second link, for Fluffy Vanilla buttercream uses regular shortening plus butter. Since you are in a very hot area, you could replace the 1/2 cup butter with shortening. Both of these recipes should work for you.