Having not done decorated cakes for some time, last year I had the opportunity to do two! In July, I made my nephew’s 13th birthday cake then later in the year, I was asked to do a 40th birthday cake for my cousin.
I decided to do a two-level cake as I think multi-layered always looks quite impressive! It also provides the opportunity to create a different shape and give different angles to the finished piece.
To gather ideas for a design and a colour scheme, I find it can be useful to peruse cake decorating books and search the internet for images of cakes. Because I’m not instinctively good at determining whether certain colours tone with other colours, seeing the colours that other people have used together can provide good ideas for one’s own creations.
For this 40th birthday cake, as a base, I used a board considerably larger than the lower cake. With the base board square on, I placed the lower cake (which was a 25cm square cake) angled a quarter turn as shown in the photograph. The upper cake was a 15cm square cake and I placed it square on with the board. This gave me four distinct corners on the base board that I could use for decorations.
This is the first cake for which I’ve covered the base board with fondant icing, the same as the cakes. I still find working with rolled fondant quite tricky especially when working with a large piece like I needed for the base board. Luckily the placement of the bottom cake hid a myriad of sins!
I placed some ribbon around the four sides of the base board to match the colour of the icing.
Cutters and tools
These days there are many tools available from craft shops and cake decorating shops (and also on-line) to help with cake craft creations. In the following sections, I refer to the tools shown in the photograph above.
Creating the Layers
As well as the base board, each cake was also on its own board. Each cake that is going to have another sitting on top needs to have dowels (see photograph under “Cutters and Tools” above) inserted in appropriate places so the board of the cake in the layer above rests on the dowels as opposed to resting directly on the cake below. Dowels look much like a pencil and have a pointed end like a pencil (but no lead in them!).
Immediately after covering the bottom cake with fondant icing (so that the icing hadn’t yet hardened), I worked out where the top cake would be placed and therefore where I would need to insert dowels to support the upper cake. A pencil can be used to lightly make a mark on the fondant icing in the relevant places. Using the pointed end of a dowel, I inserted it into the four marked places on the lower cake. This creates a hole for the dowel.
The dowel is then inserted again with the flat end down into the cake. Using a pen or pencil the dowel is marked at the level of the cake. The four dowels can then be cut to the marked length.
When the creation is assembled, the four dowels are inserted into the bottom cake ready for the top cake to be placed in position.
Making “40”
To make the two sets of “40”, I used large number cutters and rolled the gum paste quite thick. This meant that I could then stand up each “40” to give a 3D effect. I attached each “4” and “0” to the board with a dob of royal icing. To hold them in place until the royal icing dried, I placed cotton wool balls around (and under in the case of the 4’s) the numbers to support them. Cotton wool possibly doesn’t sound very sturdy for such a job but it is all that is required!
Royal icing is used for piping work and in other techniques. It is well-sifted icing sugar beaten with an egg white. It should be stiff enough that it can be piped through a piping bag but not so stiff that it is difficult to get it to move through a piping bag!
Making the Butterflies
To make the butterflies, I first coloured some gum paste yellow and rolled the gum paste to about 2-3mm thick. I then cut two butterfly shapes from the rolled gum paste with a butterfly cutter. I cut each butterfly in half to make two separate wings for each butterfly. I left the wings to dry overnight before proceeding with the next step.
Once the butterfly wings were dry, onto the base board in the two places where I wished to have a butterfly, using Royal Icing, I piped a thick line to be the body of the butterfly.
Immediately after piping the body, before the icing dried, I cut in half a flower stamen (see photograph under “Cutters and Tools”). Into what was to be the front end of the butterfly, I pushed each half of the stamen to signify the feelers. Flower stamens come in a range of colours so it is usually possible to find a colour to match the colour scheme of the cake. I then gently pushed the a wing into each side of the body at the desired angle. Again I used cotton wool balls under the wings to support them until they were dry. They are usually dry by the next day but I leave the cotton wool balls in place for as long as I can to make sure everything stays intact!
Making the Daisies
To make the daisies for the lower cake, I used white rolled gum paste and cut the shape of the base of the daisy using a daisy cutter. Using a modelling tool (see photograph under “Cutters and Tools”) and with the daisy sitting in the palm of one hand, I gently pressed the modelling tool into the middle of the daisy. This raised the “petals” of the daisy so they lifted upwards. Using gum paste that I had coloured golden yellow, I then rolled very small balls to be the centre of the daisy. I attached the base of the daisies to the cake using a small dob of royal icing, then attached the centre of each daisy to its base also using a small dob of royal icing.
Piping Wording on the Cake
For the piping on the upper cake, on my computer using Microsoft Word, I typed the wording in the font, size and formatting that I wished it to be on the cake. I printed this out then turned the piece of paper over. I placed tracing paper over the upside-down printed sheet then using a pencil firmly copied over the writing so that on the tracing paper I had the lettering in mirror image.
Once the fondant icing on the upper cake was dry and hard, I placed the tracing paper on the cake, pencil side down, and positioned it so that the writing appeared where it was to be written on the cake. Using a pencil, I firmly but gently traced over the writing so that there was a light image of the writing on the cake. Now it was just a matter of piping royal icing over the writing on the cake. This method can be used to copy both writing and a design onto a cake. It is much easier and less error-prone than piping free-hand! (Note that before attempting this method, the fondant icing needs to be hard and dry to prevent the pencil piercing through the fondant and damaging the surface.)
The finishing touch was ribbon around the base of each cake. I positioned it so it covered the sides of the board and the bottom edge of the cake.
For the actual cake, I made my trustee Never Fail Chocolate Cake. It seems to always go down well and this 40th birthday was no exception!
