Valeri Valeriano and Christina Ong share with us their crochet lace cake tutorial this week from their book, The Contemporary Buttercream Bible.
No one has taken the world of cake decorating by storm quite the way Queen of Hearts Couture Cakes girls have and their book is a masterpiece in cake design innovation, oozing with ideas, concepts, textures and brand new techniques in the art of buttercream cake decorating.
Beginner decorators have been traditionally been wary of decorating with buttercream, leaning in favour of sugarpaste/fondant instead. Valeri & Christina have made it their personal mission to bring the beauty of buttercream art to the fore of cake style worldwide. And with the publication of this book, they can consider that mission: accomplished.
To get you started on your own buttercream adventure, we have a fabulous tutorial for you from The Contemporary Buttercream Bible for the stylish and unique buttercream crochet lace cake featured above.
Buttercream Crochet Lace Cake Tutorial: Materials
- 20 x 20cm (8 x 8in) square cake (bottom tier), 15 x 10cm (6 x 4in) square cake (top tier)
- 2.35–2.75kg (5lb 4oz–6lb) buttercream
- Dowel rods
- Paste colours: green (Sugarflair Gooseberry), violet (Sugarflair Grape Violet), dark green (Sugarflair Spruce Green)
- Cocktail stick (toothpick)
- Piping bags
- Scissors
- Small petal nozzle (Wilton 104)
- Cake stand or covered cake board
Buttercream Crochet Lace Cake Tutorial: How-To
Crumb coat, dowel and stack the cakes and place on a stand or covered board then, referring to the photograph, mark the pattern. Cover the lower part with 800–900g (1lb 12oz–2lb) of green buttercream and the top with 800–900g (1lb 12oz–2lb) of plain buttercream, giving both a smooth finish.
Colour the remaining buttercream in the following quantities: 500–600g (1lb 2oz–1lb 5oz) violet and 250–350g (9–12oz) dark green. Refer to the photographs and tutorial below to pipe the crochet in violet.
1. Using a cocktail stick (toothpick) or any pointed implement, mark patterns on the cake (below left).
2. Using tinted buttercream in a piping bag, cut the tip to create a small hole. Start with the outermost line and pipe over the marked guide lines. To create the crochet effect, continuously squeeze your piping bag and as you move it along, turn your bag with a small circular motion, clockwise (above right). Pipe another crochet effect line right next to the first line but do it counter-clockwise (below).
3. Repeat the process to complete the rest of the patterns on the cake (below left). Create some variations by making some lines double and some just a single crochet line.
4. You may pipe a guide outline, rather than following marks, if you find it easier. Pipe a very fine outline first (above right), then pipe over it using the circular crochet-making motion (below left).
5. To give volume to the hydrangea on the corner, either pipe a big blob of buttercream or pile up a small ball of cake sponge and stick with buttercream.
6. Use dark green buttercream to pipe the hydgrangea flowers (the two-toned example below was piped with two colours of buttercream in the piping bag).
7. Using a small petal nozzle (Wilton 103), hold the bag at a 20 to 30 degree angle with the wide end of the nozzle touching the surface, then give it a good squeeze until buttercream creates a fan shape. Stop squeezing the bag when and then gently pull it towards you (below left).
8. Repeat the same process and pipe three more petals making sure that all petals will start at one common point (below right).
9. Pipe clusters of flowers to create the flowerhead of a hydrangea. Use green tinted buttercream to pipe dots in the centre of each of the flowers (below left).
10. Pipe some leaves using a leaf nozzle (below right).
11. To finish off the cake design, pipe a crochet border in dark green (with a piping bag with the tip snipped off) all along the base of the bottom tier.
From The Contemporary Buttercream Bible
by Christina Ong and ValeriValeriano, published by David & Charles/FW Media.
