We are delighted to feature this week a baroque wedding cake decorating tutorial from the bestselling book, Wedding Cakes by Rosalind Miller.
Rosalind’s wedding cake are noted for their elegant and sophisticated design, with her background in fine art shining through each and every one.
With the publication of her book
Materials:
Cream flower paste/gumpaste
Edible glue
Ivory sugarpaste/fondant
Edible silver paint
Pearl lustre dust
Pale green lustre dust
Cornflour dusting pouch (see p. 46)
Equipment:
Tiny leaf cutter
Firm foam pad
Stitching wheel
Scalpel
Steel ruler
60mm polystyrene ball
No. 18 florist’s wire
Hot glue gun
Feather mould
Cameo mould
Ball tool
Tape measure
Small non-stick rolling pin
Cocktail sticks
Small paintbrush
For your base structure start with:
• 1 x 25cm x 10cm cake
• 1 x 20cm x 10cm cake
• 1 x 15cm x 15cm cake
• 1 x 10cm x 5cm cake
• 1 x 30cm cake drum
1. Cover the tiers and the cake drum in pale mint green sugarpaste. This cake calls for coloured sugarpaste, which requires a lot of kneading to mix in the colour. Do this a day ahead as the paste can get very warm and too soft to use straight away. This will also allow time for the colour to develop.
2. Dowel and stack your cakes.
Top tier feathers:
3. Knead equal amounts of ivory sugarpaste and cream flower paste together. Take a small amount of this mixture and place in the feather silcone mould. Spread it right out to the edges but make sure to keep all the paste inside the mould. Flex the mould and release. Make 20 of these.
4. Paint edible glue on the top two thirds of the back of a feather and attach to the top tier, folding the very top of the feather onto the top of the cake, and slightly curling the bottom edge of the feather up with your finger. Repeat for all the feathers.
Ribbon Scrolls:
5. Roll out strips of cream flower paste quite thinly.
6. Using the steel ruler and scalpel, cut neat ribbons 1.5cm x 60cm for the top tier, 1.5cm x 75cm for the third tier and 1.5cm x 110cm for the second tier. Don’t worry if you can’t cut one single strip long enough, as you can always overlap multiple strips when you’re attaching them to the cake.
7. Paint edible glue on the very bottom edge of the top tier.
8. Twist the strip and carefully place around the cake. Repeat at the bases of the two middle tiers.
Frills:
9. Roll out another piece of flower paste and using the steel ruler and scalpel, cut three neat ribbons of 2.5cm x 30cm.
10. Place two cocktail sticks across the ribbon at 3cm and 6cm from the end.
11. Use the cocktail sticks to bring the flower paste ribbon together so it rises up and creates a gentle fold.
12. Now take the first cocktail stick and place it 3cm away from the second cocktail stick. Repeat steps 10 and 11 until the whole strip is folded in a concertina fashion.
13. Gently run the stitching wheel lengthwise along the centre of the frills. Make sure not to press too hard, or the frill will fall apart when you try to attach it to the cake.
14. Paint a line of glue around the middle of the double height 15cm tier, and attach the three frills all around the cake, overlapping the ends of each one so the joins are not visible. Apply gently with fingers so as not to squash the frill, and hold for about 10 seconds at each section to ensure it is stuck.
15. Repeat steps 10-15 using six ribbons of flower paste 3cm x 30cm. Apply this frill to the base of the bottom tier.
Cameos:
16. Mix equal amounts of sugarpaste and flower paste together. Put a small ball of this into the cameo mould and push it out to the edges with your fingers. Make sure to keep all the paste inside the mould. Make four cameos.
17. Dust the background with pale green lustre dust and dust the face with pearl lustre dust.
18. Paint the metallic frame with edible silver paint. You can either buy readymade paint, or mix silver lustre dust with a few drops of vodka to make your own.
19. Glue the cameos to the second tier cake at four equal measurements.
Ribbons and bows
20. Cut four strips of thinly rolled cream flower paste 1.5cm x 6cm. Fold over the ends to the centre to form a bow and glue.
21. Cut a small strip of flower paste 1.5cm x 2.5cm, and paint edible glue on the back. Then fold it over the join in the middle of the bow. Set aside to dry a little.
22. Paint a line of edible glue on the cake in sweeping curves between the cameos on the second tier. Twist some long 1.5cm-wide strips and attach to the cake.
23. Take some more twisted strips and trim the ends at a 45 degree angle. Glue these on either side of each cameo. Finally, glue on the bow.
Leaves:
24. Using a tiny leaf cutter, cut out leaves from thinly rolled cream flower paste and use the small ball tool on the firm foam pad to gently curve the leaves. Glue to the top edge of the base tier with each leaf alternately pointing upwards and downwards.
Frilled ball ornament:
25. Take a 60mm polystyrene ball and attach a 10cm length of no. 18 florist’s wire to it.
26. Roll out more cream flower paste and cut it in 5cm x 10cm strips. Fold these in half lengthwise and pinch together at the fold to form a ruffle.
27. Glue these all over the polystyrene ball, and glue a strip of flower paste over the wire.
28. Push a posy pick (see right) containing a small amount of modelling paste into the centre of the top tier and insert the wire into this.
29. Glue another bow and tails to the wire.
Wedding Cakes by Rosalind Miller
For more on Rosalind Miller’s cake designs, see our earlier feature on Tumbling, Trailing Sugar Flowers.
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Coming Up Next: Baby’s Breath Wedding Cakes
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For more on Baroque style wedding cake decorating, see Alexandria Pellegrino of The Cake Opera Company’s class on Craftsy: Simple Skills for Dramatic Designs.
Readers might also be interested in the following feature tutorials:
- Wildflower Wedding Cake Tutorial by Juliet Sear (with fresh, pressed flowers)
- Blue Tiled Wedding Cake Decorating Tutorial by Lindy Smith
- Cake Calligraphy/Lettering Tutorial by Faye Cahill
- Gumpaste English Rose Tutorial by Naomi Yamamoto
- Peach & Gold Wedding Cake Decorating Tutorial by Emily Lael Aumiller of Lael Cakes
- Hand-stamped Floral Wedding Cake Decorating Tutorial by Erin Gardner
- Vintage Floral Buttercream Cake Decorating Tutorial by Carey Madden
- Vintage Hatbox Cake Decorating Tutorial in Buttercream by Christina Ong & Valeri Valeriano
- Buttercream Crochet Lace Wedding Cake Decorating Tutorial by Christina Ong & Valeri Valeriano
- Swiss Roll Art Cake Tutorial by Junko
- Baby Bag/Diaper Bag Cake Tutorial by Cherylshuen
- Pirate Cake Topper Tutorial by Lynlee North Beckett