In this drip cake tutorial from Cake Confidence by Mandy Merriman, Mandy takes you through the decorating process step-by-step as well as how to finish your cake with piped buttercream rosettes or swirls. (Continued from our Cake Confidence feature, Part 1: How to Expertly Buttercream a Cake – The Easy Way.)

Drip Cake Tutorial

For the ganache, melt candy melts or chocolate with heavy cream in the microwave in 30 second increments.

Stir to combine. Make sure there are no lumps! It shouldn’t be too thick or thin.

Pour into your squeeze bottle and twist the lid on tight.

Gently squeeze a bit of ganache down the side of the cake from the top edge. Stop when the ganache is about an inch down from the top.

Still squeezing, move the squeeze bottle over a bit for the next drip.

The more you squeeze, the deeper the drip.

Add more ganache on top—just enough to spread to the edges.

Using an offset icing spatula, spread the center pool of ganache to the edges. Then add a swirl on top. Let set for 5 minutes in the freezer.

Using a Wilton 1M piping tip, pipe on a swirl, going around three times, press down slightly, then lift up.

Repeat so there are 8 swirls on top of the cake. I do swirls at 12, 3, 6, and 9 o’clock.

Finish the final swirls by adding one between each of the previous ones.

Place on final decorations. Chill the cake to set.

Slide a cake lifter between the small cardboard round and the large one (cutting through the tape – see Cake Confidence extract, Part 1 for why you need two cardboard rounds taped together).