How to Make Carved Cakes Shaped Like Candles

A cake can be cut and decorated to resemble a birthday candle.

Cake carving is a baking and decorating technique that is often used to create cakes with unusual shapes. The technique can be used on sheet or round cakes of one or more layers fused together with a layer of filling or icing. Cake carving works best on cakes with a dense consistency or cakes that have been partially frozen to prevent crumbling. A stencil can be drawn and laid upon the top of the cake before carving to ensure the desired shape is achieved.

Things You'll Need

• Cake
• Cake board
• Plastic wrap
• Freezer
• Cardboard
• Pencil
• Scissors
• Knife with a long, serrated blade
• White icing
• Frosting spatula or icing knife
• Pastry bag
• Icing Tip
• Yellow icing

Instructions

1. Place a square or rectangular cake on a cake board slightly larger than the cake on all sides. Cover the cake with plastic wrap, and secure the edges to the cake board. Place the cake in a freezer, and allow it to harden for approximately 3 hours.

2. Draw a birthday-candle shape on top of a piece of cardboard with the pencil. Draw the candle so that it can be cut out in 1 large shape. Make sure that the drawing will fit on the surface of the cake that you have already placed in the freezer. Cut out the candle shape with scissors.

3. Remove the cake from the freezer, and place it on a flat surface in front of you. Lay the candle stencil on top of the cake.

4. Hold the knife in a vertical position with the blade facing down. Cut small sections of the cake away until it matches the shape of the stencil. Try to make smooth, even cuts for a smooth icing surface.

5. Cover the cake with white icing using a frosting spatula or icing knife.

6. Fill a pastry bag with yellow icing, and apply an icing tip to the pastry bag. Gently squeeze the pastry bag and pipe a border of yellow icing around the edge of the birthday candle. Fill in the flame with yellow icing using the frosting spatula or icing knife.

Tips & Warnings

• If the cake is too hard to cut, allow it to thaw for a short amount of time and try again. If the cake begins to crumble during the cutting process, return the cake to the freezer for another hour. Decorations can be added to the candle after the initial carving and decorating steps are completed.

References

• Sweet Things; Step-by-Step Cake Carving Tutorial; September 1, 2009
• Wilton: Carving Cakes