Free The Busy Girls Guide to Cake Decorating by Ruth Clemens Page B

with the consistency until you’re happy with it – it should be liquid enough to pipe easily but firm enough that a piped line doesn’t spread or break.

    9 Slowly pipe around the outline of each butterfly wing in turn. Start in the top left-hand corner of the cake and work downwards and across so that you don’t have to reach over the piped butterflies and risk smudging them. Pipe antennae and bulbs of royal icing down the centre of each butterfly (see Piping ).
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    “If you’re not confident with piping, instead of working directly on your cake cut butterflies out of white sugarpaste. Once they have dried, colour the butterflies as described and pipe around their outlines. Allow to dry fully before transferring to the cake then continue decorating as described.”
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    10 Using royal icing in a piping (pastry) bag with a no. 3 nozzle, pipe straight lines around the top of the cake to form a frame. Over the straight lines, pipe a wavy line (see Piping ).

    11 Empty the royal icing from the bag into a small bowl. Add a couple of drops of water to loosen the consistency. Dip the end of a paintbrush into the icing and dot onto the cake to create the white dots.

    12 Add a little of the pink lustre dust to the loosened icing and repeat the dotting method applying pink dots to each of the butterfly wings as shown in the photo.
    13 Trim around the base of the cake with pink ribbon and the edge of the board with turquoise ribbon, securing at the back with pearl-headed pins.

Dotty Dreams
Creating a high-impact design
    Let a round cutter do the design work for you! Combined with contrasting colours and a wired cake topper, this makes a stunning statement cake.

Get it together…
    Round cakes: 20cm (8in) and 25cm (10in), both prepared for covering
    30cm (12in) round cake board
    Round cake cards: 20cm (8in) and 25cm (10in)
    Four plastic cake dowels
    Sugarpaste: white, turquoise and bright pink
    Buttercream or royal icing
    Round cutters: medium and small
    Posy pick
    13 silver florists’ wires
    12mm ( 1 ⁄ 2 in) wide pink ribbon
    Pearl-headed pins
    Basic equipment (see Equipment )
    1 Roll out the turquoise sugarpaste to a 3mm ( 1 ⁄ 8 in) thickness and cover the cake board (see Covering a board with sugarpaste ). Set aside.
    2 Place each cake on the corresponding size cake card and cover each with a thin layer of white sugarpaste (see Covering a cake with sugarpaste ). Try to make this first layer as neat as possible – it will be covered up but will help get a super finish on your final layer. Allow the boards and cakes to dry out overnight before assembling and decorating.
    3 Take each cake in turn, spray with a light mist of water and cover with turquoise sugarpaste rolled out to a 5mm ( 3 ⁄ 16 in) thickness, polishing to a super finish with an icing smoother.
    4 Apply a small smear of buttercream or royal icing to the centre of the covered cake board. Position the 25cm (10in) cake in the centre of the board.
    5 Dowel the base cake (see Stacking a tiered cake ) and then lift the smaller cake into position, securing with a little buttercream or royal icing.
    6 Take the medium round cutter and cut out circles from the turquoise layer. The drier white layer underneath will help when cutting out the circles, as you will feel when the cutter reaches it. Turn the cutter in a drilling motion around and around until the circle is cut out.

    7 Cut out circles around the entire cake then repeat with the smaller round cutter.
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TIP
    The circles should come out with the cutter as you remove it. If they don’t, help ease them out with a cocktail stick (toothpick).
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    8 Roll out some bright pink sugarpaste to around 3mm ( 1 ⁄ 8 in) thick on your work surface lightly dusted with icing (confectioners’) sugar to stop it sticking.
    9 Using the cutters that made the holes, cut out bright pink circles, brush the backs with a little water and fit them into the cut-out holes. Repeat until all the holes have been filled.

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