How to Decorate a Four Tier Square Wedding Cake
A four-tiered decorated wedding cake is common centerpiece at a reception. The four separate cakes should be crumb-coated with a layer of frosting that keeps crumbs from showing up in the decorative icing layer. Frost the cake with a smooth layer of royal or butter-cream icing before beginning to decorate the layers of cake. It is important that you have experience using a piping bag and have moderate to advanced decorating techniques. You must have knowledge of how to use a support system to keep the cakes in place before attempting to decorate a multi-tiered wedding cake.
- Difficulty:
- Moderately Challenging
Instructions
Things You'll Need
- Four crumb-coated and frosted cakes
- Separator plates
- Knife or spatula
- Piping bag and couplers
- Piping tips
- Frosting
- Photo or drawing of decorated cake
- Icing or gum paste flowers
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A border is piped around the top sides of each tier.
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Smooth a dollop of frosting onto the top of the center of each support plate with a knife or spatula. Smooth the frosting from the center outward. Secure the corresponding layer of cake to the separator plates by centering them in place on top of the frosting immediately after spreading it on the plate.
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2
Place the coupler into the piping bag. Put a medium-sized closed star or open star piping tip onto the coupler tip. Secure it in place with the coupler collar. Spoon frosting into the piping bag until it is 2/3 full. Twist the bag closed.
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3
Pipe a border around the outer edge of the bottom layer of the cake. Pipe around the top rim of the square cake. Repeat with the remaining cake layers.
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4
Assemble the the cake if it is on columns. (The cake will be taken apart for transport to the reception.) You need to see the entire cake as a unit to properly decorate it.
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Pipe a large dot of frosting the the back of a large gum paste or icing flower such as a rose, lily or daisy. Set the flower onto the cake while referring to the cake picture as a guide. Push slightly to get the frosting to secure it to the cake. Continue placing flowers onto the cake. Flower clusters can cascade from the top to the bottom of a cake corner or the down the front of the cake. If you are experienced in piping flowers by hand, pipe small blossoms near the larger ones. Hardened frosting shapes such as seashells are another wedding cake decoration that can be secured or glued to the cake with frosting.
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Fill a clean piping bag with green or white frosting. Secure a leaf tip into the coupler. Pipe leaves at the edges of some of the flowers on the cake tiers. You can also use a no. 1 round tip to pipe vines or tendrils near the flowers.
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7
Transport the cake to the reception site. Assemble it on a sturdy table for display. Repair any damage that may have taken place during the trip. Set the cake topper on the top layer of the four-tier cake. Pipe a border around the base of the topper with a smaller star tip than was used for the main cake border. Add more flowers to the top of the cake if needed.
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Tips & Warnings
Use cake separators between the layers even when there are no columns. This keeps the cake weight from crushing the lower layers.
Do not use commercial frosting for a wedding cake as it is too soft to use to pipe borders. You need a frosting that has a stiff consistency.
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