Beaded Wedding Cake
It has been a while since I last posted anything so I thought it was time I did so.
I have been busy driving up and down the country to run cake decorating workshops which have been brilliant fun but pretty tiring.
I am back home now so I have no excuse.
This wedding cake was made for a celebration at The Three Rivers Hotel in Cold Norton.
This cake contains no dummies. It has one tier of fruit cake, two tiers of sponge cake and one tier of chocolate cake.
I only mention this because four edible tiers gives you a lot of cake!
My client did tell me that her wedding party were cake lovers and would polish it off.
The decorations on the cake took a long time to complete but look very simple and elegant.
Once all the tiers were covered with marzipan and ivory fondant I assembled the first three.
It is a good job I didn’t have to go up any stairs to the reception room.
I would definitely have put my back out.
Having done this I piped lots of ivory beads in royal icing. I made them different sizes.
My client also wanted some hearts dotted around the cake. I made hearts using mexican paste which sets hard.
After cutting the heart shapes out I dusted them with edible ivory lustre dust which made them a rich ivory colour.
The top tie has an ivory ribbon around the base. I think this provides a simple base for the topper without detracting from it.
This tier was placed on the top of the cake at the venue and then the bride & groom’s topper finished off the cake.
The ribbon around the base of the top tier was tied in a bow at the back of the cake and the ends were left to fall down the side of the cake.
This is a really stylish cake and my client was very pleased with it.
Sarah Bell
I am a novice at cake decorating and have mostly kind of taught myself at doing cakes. I really like your cakes, they look so beautifully presented and creative so I would like to pick your brains
I saw a cake I really loved recently but haven’t really got an idea on how to attempt it. It was a layer of fondant icing in one colour with another colour of icing on top but then a flower stamped out of the top layer so the underneath colour showed through.
I thought that it would be best to put the layers of icing on first as if I stamped out the flower first, when you come to putting the top layer of icing onto the cake it would deform and become misshapen, but then if you stamp it out once both layers of icing are on how do you get the cut out icing off the once you have stuck it on?
I’m at a bit of a loss, so was wondering if you had any pearls of wisdom you could impart to me.
Many Thanks
Sarah
Amanda
Hi Sarah
You must have read my mind, I just used that effect recently on a cake for a TV programme. I will be putting the cake pictures on my blog after my Christmas break.
The way I did the cut outs was to start by putting a strip of the underneath colour (the colour you want to show through) around the side of the cake.
That needs to dry out and harden before applying the top layer. Once dry brush water all over the top of the cake and around the top edge and bottom edge of the underneath strip. Don’t brush water all over the strip because you will not be able to cut out and remove your shape from the top layer.
The width of the brushed on water depends on the size of your cut outs. If they are small and running around the centre of the side then you can put a wider strip of water around top and bottom. My hearts were pretty big and took up most of the side so I had to use a narrow brush at the top and bottom of the side.
I used water to stick the sugar paste to the top of the cake because mine was a polystyrene dummy if you are attaching your paste to marzipan you would use alcohol.
Next roll out your sugar paste as you would normally for covering a cake.
Apply the rolled out sugar paste as you would to any cake. When you smooth it down the sides of the cake you will get air bubbles forming because there is nothing for the paste to stick to. Don’t worry about these because you will be cutting out your shape and will eliminate these bubbles.
Once you have a smooth covering and have trimmed your paste you can start on the cut outs.
If you are doing a ramdom pattern around the side of the cake you do not need to measure anything. I wanted hearts equally spaced around my cake. If you are doing a random pattern you can ignore all this stuff with paper!
Cut a strip of grease proof paper the same length as the circumference of the cake (once covered).
There are few methods for marking out where you make your cuts. It will depend on the size of cutter you are using and you may need to be quite specific.
For example if your cutter is round and has a diameter of 50mm and you want 5mm space either side then the overall size of each circle is 60mm. So you would need to divide your overall length by 60 to get the number of evenly spread cut outs. You may need to jig it around a bit as you might not get an exact division. In this case any jigging can be done at the back of the cake where it will not be seen or you can add a bow.
Hope that makes sense!
I did it by folding the strip of paper in half then in half again and so on until I had little sections that would accommodate my hearts with a space between for another little pattern.
I would say at this point that it is prudent to have a plan before attaching the top layer of sugar paste. While you want your top layer to harden slightly before cutting out, if it hardens too much while you are working out how to do your side design it will be difficult to get a neat cut without any cracking of the surrounding sugar paste.
Once you have marked out your strip of paper you need to attach it around the side of the cake. I secured mine with pins as I could insert them where the marks would be covered with decoration once the pins were removed (I always use pins with the round bobble ends).
I marked my paper with vertical lines acting as a guide and then made my cuts by eye but you could mark out the exact position of each shape you want to cut out. this way you will avoid cutting where you have brushed water.
Once your strip of paper is in place you can use your cutter to push gently on the paper and make and imprint on the sugar paste. Once you have done this all around you can remove your paper and you should have your shape imprinted onto you cake.
I always start any pattern/detail etc at the back of my cakes. I find it takes a couple of goes to get into a rhythm and also if anything doesn’t work quite right it is then at the back of the cake and not slap bang in the centre at the front.
You can now cut out the shapes from the top layer. You need to push quite firmly and because you let the underneath layer harden your cutter should not go through it.
when you remove the sugarpaste you have cut out you will see your underneath colour.
I hope this all makes sense. Once I have put the pics with this effect on I will email you. It will probably be clearer if you can see a picture.
Amanda
Sarah Bell
Many thanks Amanda for taking the time to reply to me. I hope I will have as much success with it as you did. I look forward to seeing the results.
Sarah
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That cake of yours is amazing! Indeed seems a great effort put forth. I love multi-tiered cakes. Last X-mas all of my friends and me designed a 3-tier cake for the x-mas treat. This time due to time restrictions we could not make any. But we all have planned a at least 6-tier cake for next x-mas. Will post the pics if successful.
Amanda
Thanks
I was really pleased with this cake. The beads are vry time consuming but look really pretty when there are lots of them together.
I would love to see any pics of your 6 tiered extrvaganza!
Happy new year!
Amanda
Maria White
Hi Amanda
Can you tell me how you piped the beads? Did you just royal icing them directly onto the cake using a standard round piping tube of various different sizes?
I have tried this but never been very successful
many thanks
Maria