How to Decorate Sculpted Cakes

Transform plain cakes into a custom sculpted cake.

Shaped cake pans allow you to bake detailed cakes in unusual shapes and sizes, but if you cannot locate the correct pan for your needs, all is not lost. Instead of baking a cake in a specialty pan, carve your cake to the proper shape to make your own custom homemade cakes for any occasion. While this method does require some artistic skill, you can usually fix any mistakes by gluing the cake back together with buttercream frosting.

Things You'll Need

• Buttercream frosting
• Cake
• Serrated Knife
• Food coloring
• Cake spatula
• Decorating comb
• Pastry bag
• Decorating tips
• Coupler

Instructions

1. Spread a layer of buttercream frosting onto the top of a cooled cake and stack a second cake on top. Continue to stack layers of cake and frosting together until you have reached the desired height of the finished sculpted cake.

2. Freeze the cake for several hours before you begin sculpting. A frozen cake will crumble less as you sculpt it and ensure cleaner lines.

3. Sculpt the cake with a serrated knife by gently carving away pieces of the cake until you have achieved the desired shape. Don't worry about carving intricate details into the cake as small details will be added with frosting. Just sculpt the basic shape of your finished design.

4. Frost the cake with a thin layer of buttercream frosting. This layer is sometimes referred to as the crumb coat because it encases any crumbs on the surface of the cake so they will not be visible on the top layer of frosting.

5. Add another layer of frosting tinted to the desired shade of the cake with food coloring. Smooth the frosting with a cake spatula or drag a decorating comb gently through icing to create texture.

6. Pipe details onto the cake with additional frosting in a pastry bag with assorted decorating tips. Use a coupler on your decorating bag so that you can quickly switch from one tip to another.

Tips & Warnings

• If you want to cover your sculpted cake with fondant, roll fondant with a rolling pin until it is a quarter inch thick and drape it over your frosted cake. Gently smooth the fondant over the cake with your hands to remove air bubbles and form the fondant to your sculpted cake.

References

• "Cake Decorating!"; Wilton; 2004

Resources

• Wilton: Fondant