The Cake Decorating Bible PDF

CONTENTS
Cover
List of Recipes
About the Book
About the Author
Title Page
Dedication
Introduction
Cake Jargon and Supplies
Equipment and Tools
Preparation: Cake and Cookie Basics
RECIPES
FILLINGS AND COVERINGS
LAYERING AND CONSTRUCTING CAKES
ICING CAKES
STACKING CAKES
DECORATING CAKES AND COOKIES
Design Ideas: Cookies
Design Ideas: Cupcakes
Design Ideas: Mini Cakes
Design Ideas: Single Tier Cakes
Design Ideas: Modelling
Design Ideas: Multi Tier Cakes
Caketastrophes!
Templates
Stockists
Acknowledgements
Copyright
LIST OF RECIPES
asic Covered Cake Balls

asic Vanilla Cookies
elgian Chocolate Ganache Buttercream
rush Embroidery
uttercream
ake Jazzling
hocolate Cigarillos
hocolate Cupcakes
hocolate Ganache Cupcakes
ookie Explosion
orsage Fondant Cupcakes
overing Cupcakes with Fondant Icing
overing Cupcakes with Ganache
overing Miniature Cakes with Marzipan and Sugarpaste
overing with Buttercream
overing with Chocolate Paste
overing with Glossy Chocolate Ganache for Pouring
overing with marzipan and sugar paste
overing with Royal Icing
reating Marbled, Swirled or Feathered Designs
ut-Out Petals
ark Belgian Chocolate Paste

esign Ideas: Cupcakes
esign Ideas: Multi Tier Cakes
esign Ideas: Single Tier Cakes
airyland Mushroom Cake

ondant Icing
our-Tier Stand to Display 30–40 Cupcakes or Mini Cakes
resh Raspberry and Strawberry Buttercream
Ganache Rose Corsage Cake

Glittered Cookies
Glossy Chocolate Ganache for Pouring
Hand-Moulded Roses
ce Cream Cookies
ayering the Rich Belgian Chocolate Truffle Cake

ayering the Very Vanilla and Lemon Drizzle Sponges
emon Drizzle Sponge
Making Run-Outs with Royal Icing

Masculine Ganache Cake
etal-Paste 3D Shapes
iping Straight Lines
rinted Cookies
rint-Wrap
ich Belgian Chocolate Truffle Cake

ich Boozy Fruit Cake
ose Garden Cookies
oyal Icing
eparated Stacked Cakes

ilhouettes Celebration Cake
preading Buttercream onto Cupcakes
tacking a One-Piece Cake using Dowels
tacking with Pillars
Using Cutters
anilla Bean Buttercream and Variations

ery Vanilla Cupcakes
ery Vanilla Sponge
intage Buttercream Cupcakes
intage Button Cake
When a Girl Needs Cake

White Belgian Chocolate Paste
esty Orange Cupcakes

ABOUT THE BOOK
Juliet Sear is cake-maker extraordinaire, baker to the stars and

owner of the fabulously decadent Fancy Nancy bakery in Essex. Her
breathtaking, show-stopping cakes and biscuits see celebrity and
style magazines flocking to get a glimpse of her latest
extravaganza. Now you can learn the secrets, tricks and insider tips
to making and decorating your own stunning baked creations.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Formerly with the Little Venice Cake Company, Juliet Sear now
runs Fancy Nancy (www.fancynancy.info), her own successful cake
boutique in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, selling celebration cakes,
cupcakes, cake pops and cookies. She has been praised widely for
her contemporary edge, stunning designs and the supreme taste of
her cakes. Fancy Nancy supplies Harvey Nichols across the UK and
Juliet runs classes at Leiths School of Food and Wine.
FOR SIMON, GEORGE, LYDIA AND RUBY
INTRODUCTION
I have always been interested in cooking and baking. When I met

my husband I would cook up three-course meals with starters and
puddings, partly, I think, to impress him, but mostly because I liked
the feeling of achievement. Having a happy and adoring customer
was also a good source of motivation.
My relationship with cakes, however, really started after I had
my first child, over 13 years ago. Like many new mums, I was at
home and had the urge to put on fairy-tale birthday parties, topped
off with a great big, themed birthday cake: something that would
impress the kids and probably the other mums as well. Teletubbies,
Power Rangers, castles; whatever was in vogue at the time, I gave
it a go.
I really enjoyed it and, before too long, admirers started to ask
if I would bake and decorate cakes for them too. This turned into a
little home business and within a few years I was baking weekly
orders for a local café. It gave me some cash, a focus beyond my
kids (I had three under the age of three) and a sense of enjoyment.
However, I felt that the quality of my work was okay for an
amateur but, having not had any formal training beyond home
economics at school, I had reached a ceiling.
I got a bee in my bonnet about it, and over the next few years,
whilst balancing commitments with the kids, I followed a short
course at the Cordon Bleu cookery school, and undertook some
work experience before getting a part-time job at the Little Venice
Cake Company in Marylebone, London, where I worked for about
18 months.
In 2006 I set up my cake-making business, Fancy Nancy, trading
from home for the first couple of years before moving into a shop
with a bakery and decorating facilities in April 2009. These days, I
have a team of half a dozen people and hundreds of customers. I
get regular calls from magazines and TV producers for innovative
designs and have made cakes for the likes of Eamonn Holmes,
Dizzee Rascal, Holly Willoughby, Sir Ian McKellen, Richard
Madeley, Bryan Adams, Fearne Cotton, Bob and Pixie Geldof….
It’s been a long journey and not always easy. But despite the
stress of it all, I really do enjoy designing and making cakes. I love
the creativity of it and the fulfilment I get at seeing someone filled
with joy when they come to pick up their cake or see it at their
venue for the first time.
This book catalogues what I have learnt on the journey and
passes on the methods that my team and I use in the Fancy Nancy
kitchen every day. It explains techniques and shares trade secrets
and clever shortcuts on how to get a perfect finish, how to bake the
perfect chocolate cake, how to match the right cupcake sponge to
topping, how to pick out the right design and a whole lot more.
Above and beyond everything, this book is full of practical
know-how on creating shop-quality cakes in your own home.
CAKE JARGON AND SUPPLIES
In the world of cake decorating there are words, phrases and supplies
that you may be unfamiliar with. Here they are explained.
ACETATE PAPER
A translucent, plastic, flexible paper that is used for creating run-
outs. Because it is clear, you can trace images through it. If you find
this hard to get hold of, you can use plastic stationery document
wallets in its place.
BAKING PARCHMENT
A thick, moisture-proof, greaseproof paper used to line baking tins
and trays. It can also be used to make piping bags.
BLEEDING
When one colour of icing runs or spreads into another; lighter-
coloured icings can get stained by stronger ones. This happens most
commonly with combinations of light and dark, especially on run-
outs, or cookies decorated with royal icing.
BLOOMING
This is when chocolate gets unattractive white patches on its
surface. The bloom can be caused by the fat or the sugar; the
chocolate is still fine to eat and will still taste the same, but is less
appealing to the eye. This can occasionally happen on a ganache
cake if you keep it for a while.
BRUSH EMBROIDERY
A decorating technique where a piped royal-icing outline is brushed
inwards with a soft, damp brush to create an embroidered effect.
CRUST OR SKIN OVER

A term used to describe when an icing surface or royal-icing run-
outs start to dry out and form a hard crust on the surface. This
prevents one colour from staining another; in cake decorating you
often have to wait for this to happen before moving on to the next
step.
DUST COLOURS
These are non-toxic powders, available in many colours and shades.
You can use them to decorate dried sugar decorations or they can
be mixed with vodka or cocoa butter to create a paint that you can
use for cake decorating. You can apply them with a dry brush to
give your sugar decorations more depth and varied colours.
EDIBLE-INK CARTRIDGES
Cartridges filled with edible ink (food colouring), which can be
used with a normal printer as long as the printer is used for edible
ink only.
EDIBLE PAPER/EDIBLE SHEETS

Edible paper made from sugar. As well as being used in edible-ink
printers to produce edible pictures and patterns, it can be
airbrushed, and easily cut into shapes, e.g. for fairy wings.
FLOODING
This is when you fill in a royal-icing outline with a more liquid
royal-icing colour, to give blocks or shapes of colour to decorate a
cookie or cake. This is how run-outs are made.
FORMERS
These are solid forms or shapes used to dry sugar flowers, leaves or
pieces, e.g. sugar shoes on. You can buy plastic formers for many
purposes or indeed make your own using old, dry sugarpaste
wrapped in cling film, or even using folded card.
GANACHE
A mixture of chocolate and cream used for filling or covering a
cake.
GLITTERISING
When you apply non-toxic glitter to the surface of a cake, cookie or
sugar decoration to add magical sparkliness. Non-toxic glitter is
considered safe to use, but if you prefer not to use glitter, you can
substitute it with ‘sanding sugars’. These are coloured sugars that
glimmer but are not as sparkly as glitter (see here).
GLYCERINE
Glycerine is a sweet, clear, odourless syrup that is available in
supermarkets and from cake-decorating suppliers. It is a softening
agent that is extracted from fats and oils, and in cake decorating it
is primarily used as an addition to royal icing, to prevent the icing
from becoming too hard, allowing you to cut through the iced
covering more easily. Without it, royal icing sets rock-hard and will
break up when a knife is inserted into the cake.
GUIDE STICKS OR MARZIPAN SPACERS

You can buy these from sugarcraft suppliers; they are used to
ensure an even thickness when rolling out sugarpaste, marzipan,
chocolate coatings or cookie dough.
GUM ARABIC
When gum arabic is mixed with water, it can be used as a glaze for
marzipan, or as edible glue for sugarpaste. As a glaze, it gives the
decoration a glossy sheen.
GUM TRAGACANTH
This is a plant-derived chemical that can be used to stiffen
sugarpaste to make it set harder and hold its shape. It’s particularly
handy for modelling, when you need shapes to stay in form.
LEVELLING
To make your cake or icing level on the surface.
LIQUID GLUCOSE
Also known as glucose syrup, this is a viscous sugar solution of
glucose suspended in liquid, which is sold in jars or tubs. It is now
more readily available and can be bought from the baking section
of supermarkets, from chemists, or from chocolate and baking
suppliers. It is used to make chocolate paste, as when added to
chocolate, it allows the chocolate to be moulded or rolled out.
LUSTRE DUST
Lustre dusts are non-toxic powders that come in many different
colours and metallic shades. Sugar flowers, embellishments or iced
surfaces can be decorated with lustre to give them a twinkling,
metallic effect. Lustre dusts can be mixed with vodka or cocoa
butter and painted directly onto sugar decorations or a cake itself,
though the dust can also be applied dry.
LUSTRE SPRAY
An edible spray that can be used to decorate and add sheen to a
cake’s surface or to sugar decorations to give a metallic sheen. It is
much quicker than painting on lustre dust.
MARBLING
When two or more colours of icing are added to a base coat of
Royal icing, and a cocktail stick is then dragged through them to
create a swirly, patterned effect.
PALETTE KNIFE
A tool used to spread and smooth fillings or icings.
PASTE COLOURING
Professional, strong, cake-decorating colourings with a paste or gel-
like consistency that is stronger and more intense than liquid food
colouring, and does not affect the consistency of sugarpaste or
liquid icings. You can buy these from cake-decorating suppliers or
online, and even some supermarkets are now starting to stock
them.
PEARLS
Small round piped dots of royal icing.
PETAL PASTE
A stiff sugarpaste that is used for making flowers. It can be rolled
very thinly and sets rock-hard, so that petals look less chunky and
more realistic. It dries out very quickly. I also use this for making
sugar buttons.
PIPING
When you force royal icing, buttercream or melted chocolate out of
a bag through a nozzle, to create a message, add detail or texturise
a cake.
PIPING BAG OR PASTRY BAG

Cone-shaped bags made out of plastic, fabric or paper, used for
piping royal icing, buttercream and melted chocolate. You can buy
these easily or save money by making your own using baking
parchment (see here). They can be used by themselves or with
piping nozzles.
PIPING GEL
A sugary gel that can be used for many different aspects of cake
decorating, including glazing sugarpaste or to give a sheen. It can
be tinted with colours or added to metallic lustres to give cakes a
shiny finish. You can also use it to create novelty effects, such as
the suggestion of water. I prefer the Squires Kitchen brand because
the gel is clearer and much easier to apply than many.
PIPING NOZZLES, TUBES OR TIPS

Used for piping lines, swirls, flowers, patterns and messages onto
cakes using royal icing, buttercream or melted chocolate. I
recommend only stainless-steel nozzles, as these are much better
quality than the plastic variety. Piping nozzles come in many
shapes and sizes, including circle, star or leaf-tip openings,
allowing the user to pipe different shapes and create various
effects. The simple round-tip nozzles come in standard sizes that
indicate the dimension of the opening; all cake-decorating suppliers
and online stores use the same sizes. For example, piping nozzles
used for writing and lace embroidery are either No. 2 or No. 3,
which have 2mm and 3mm openings respectively. No. 1 or No. 1.5
nozzles can be used for very fine detail, such as tiny pearls in a lace
pattern, linear patterns or facial details on small figurines. The star
or flower-shaped nozzles come in a variety of different shapes and
most catalogues and websites offer a visual guide or drawing as to
what kind of iced effect each tip will produce.
PLUNGER CUTTER
A cake-decorating cutter that cuts out, then ejects, a shape. These
are now available in many different shapes; they are quick and easy
to use.
PRESSURE PIPING
A piping technique that uses varying amounts of pressure to create
a more shaped piped line, with thicker parts in the pattern that trail
off to thinner parts, and vice versa.
ROLLED FONDANT
Another name for sugarpaste (see here).
ROYAL ICING
A white or coloured liquid icing that sets hard. It is made with icing
sugar, egg white and lemon juice, and can have glycerine added to
it when being used to cover a cake, to keep it softer and slightly
easier to cut through. It is a fairly old-fashioned cake covering
(rolled pastes are more commonly used nowadays).
RUN-OUT
This is a decoration or shape made by piping a border or outline
with royal icing, then filling or ‘flooding’ the outlined areas with a
more liquid royal icing, in whatever colours you like. Also known
as flood work, these can be piped onto baking parchment or acetate
paper or directly onto the surface of a cookie or cake. When the
shape is dry, you have an icing decoration that can be used in many
ways. You can even make run-outs on wires, cocktail sticks or
skewers so that they can stand upright on a cake.
SANDING SUGAR
A large, granular sugar that comes in many colours and is used for
cookie decorating or cake decorating to create a sparkly look.
SCORING
Scribing onto a cake to give you a guideline for writing over,
marking out a shape or making a mark to indicate where you want
to place a decoration or cake tier.
SILICONE OR PUSH MOULDS

Flexible moulds for making quick sugarpaste models, e.g. flowers,
to use as decorations for the top of cakes and cupcakes. They come
in hundreds of designs, including silicone moulds for giving
sugarpaste a lace or textured pattern.
SNAGGING
When you get a rough finish or peak on icing pearls or trails, or a
dent in the icing surface. You can correct snags by patting down
rough peaks with a small, damp, clean paintbrush or by filling holes
and dents with royal icing.
SNAIL TRAIL
When icing is piped around a cake in a continuous line, using any
kind of nozzle to create a textured or shaped trailing line to finish
or decorate.
SOFT PEAK
A term used to describe the consistency of royal icing. When the
icing is lifted from the bowl with the back of a spoon or palette
knife, it will have a peak that droops down and won’t hold a stiff
shape.
SPLITTING AND FILLING

Cutting a cake horizontally and sandwiching the two halves
together with a flavoured filling, usually buttercream.
STIFF PEAK
A term used to describe royal icing mixed to a consistency that is
stiff enough to hold a firm peak when lifted from the bowl with the
back of a spoon or palette knife.
SUGARPASTE (OR ROLLED FONDANT)

An icing paste made from icing sugar, water and gelatin. It is
usually purchased rather than made from scratch, as you can buy
great-quality ready-made fondant. It is used for covering cakes and
boards, and for making flowers, shapes and models.
TAIL
A tiny tail-like projection that forms on the tip of a piped pearl
when the nozzle is lifted away. This spoils the roundness of your
pearl; it can be rectified by patting down gently with a small,
damp, clean paintbrush.
TEXTURISING
A method of adding a rough pattern or detailed finish to a cake.
VEINER
A rubber, plastic or silicone mould that can be used for marking
and making impressions onto petal paste or sugarpaste to make
leaves or flowers look more realistic. Some plunger cutters will cut
out a shape and also make an impression at the same time, which
saves the need for a separate veiner.
EQUIPMENT AND TOOLS
There are many fantastic things you can do with a minimum

amount of cake decorating ‘stuff’. I have learnt over the years that
if you haven’t got certain pieces of equipment, there are often
handy things that you can substitute. When we’ve got a few cakes
on the go at Fancy Nancy and run out of equipment, we often find
ingenious solutions. And if you are just starting out you might not
want to go and spend loads of money on tools, so it helps if you
can adapt things you already have. For example, an upturned cake
tin, book or bowl will work as a makeshift turntable. Therefore,
throughout this book, I have suggested ways to improvise without
the specified kit whenever possible.
However, as with anything, if you want to increase your
repertoire then you need to invest time, and if you want to get
quicker – and make the job easier – you need to get yourself a few
pieces of invaluable kit. If you took up photography, you’d need a
camera; for windsurfing you’d need a board and sail. The surge of
interest in home baking and cake decorating has fuelled a huge
increase in the amount of equipment available for cake decorators.
There are some really innovative bits of kit on offer and it is worth
investing in some of these useful tools if you have reached the stage
of wanting to expand your cake-decorating horizons.
There is also a wide variety of exciting edible supplies you can
use to make your cakes look amazing. It’s incredible what you can
get, from gorgeous glitters in every imaginable colour to sugar
decorations in hundreds of shapes, sizes and colours and edible
prints or metallic embellishments. The list is endless and ever-
expanding as the cake-decorating market grows. Of course, once
you get into cake decorating you may want to make your own
versions of these but there is a huge array of ready-made sugar
designs out there for the beginner to use in their own way on a
lovingly-baked creation.
In this section I have listed the tools I refer to in this book as
well as a few extra bits and pieces. I have also explained how to
improvise without them whenever it is possible to do this.
BASICS AND BAKING

A good-quality electric mixer (e.g. Kitchen Aid, Kenwood).
You can use a hand mixer if you are short on cash, but it is
really worth investing if you are serious about cake-making
and decorating
Mixing bowls in a range of sizes
Wooden spoons
Metal tablespoons and teaspoons
Knives: large bread knife for cutting, splitting and filling
cakes; large serrated knife; small sharp knife
Large, medium and small palette knives – perfect for
covering, spreading and carefully lifting up cakes
Spatula
Sieve
Whisk
Cake leveller
Scissors
Pastry brushes
Cake tins in various shapes and sizes
Muffin/cupcake trays
Paper muffin cases
Cookie cutters – can also be used for cutting sugarpaste
Lolly/cookie sticks – for making lollipops or the Cookie
Explosion cake here
Non-stick baking parchment or paper (avoid normal
greaseproof)
Weighing scales – I recommend digital scales for the most
accurate measurements, as it’s important to be precise with
baking recipes
CAKE DECORATING
Must-haves:
Rolling pins (ideally plastic) – a large one for rolling out
coverings for the top and sides of a cake (should be 8cm/3in
larger than the diameter of the cake, so for a 20cm/8in cake a
35cm/14in) rolling pin is best) and a small plastic pin (15–
20cm/6–8in), for rolling out small amounts of sugarpaste, or
especially petal paste, for decorating
Cake boards
Piping bags
Piping nozzles/tubes – these come in many sizes but a basic
set includes No. 2 and No. 3 round nozzles and a simple star
nozzle. It’s easy to make your own leaf-tip nozzle by cutting
down a piping bag to create a ‘V’ shape at the end.
Scriber needle or pin tool (or use a regular pin with a ball
head, but take care not to lose it!) – this is used for popping
air bubbles, removing tiny particles or colour marks and
marking out lettering or patterns on your cake
Nice-to-haves:
Turntable
Guide sticks or marzipan spacers – not essential but handy for
ensuring an even thickness to cake coverings and cookie
dough
Side scraper (or a small plastic ruler as an alternative)
Straight edge tool (you can use a metal or strong plastic ruler
instead, but those generally only go up to 30cm/12in, so you
can’t use them for cakes that are any bigger)
Cake smoothers: ideally two side smoothers and one top
smoother
Varying sizes of paintbrushes for dusting colours, painting
and fixing mistakes
Ribbon cutter – a handy, wheeled cutter that can be adjusted
to cut different width strips of sugarpaste, chocolate or petal
paste, as well as ribbon
Ribbons
Cake dowels – for stacking cakes. I find the extra-strong
heavy-duty ones are the best option, especially for your base
cake if you are stacking a few tiers
Polystyrene cake dummies – shaped polystyrene ‘fake’ cakes.
They come in many shapes besides round and square and are
usually 7.5cm (3in) in depth
Polystyrene separators – polystyrene squares or circles of a
shallower depth than cake dummies; they come in 2.5cm
(1in) and 5cm (2in) depths
Projector – some people like to project images onto a cake’s
surface to aid with hand-painting or piping. It is not essential
but great if you aren’t good at freehand drawing and
painting. Alternatively, you can print off a picture and mark
out the edges by stabbing carefully through the paper with a
pin to create a dotted line on the icing, then all you have to
do is ‘join the dots’ with icing!
SUGARCRAFT MODELLING TOOLS

Sugarcraft cutters – rose, blossom, daisy, calyx and leaf
cutters, including plain metal cutters and also plunger-style
cutters
Silicone moulds and push moulds
Foam or gel pad – this provides a soft surface to press against
when making impressions on petal-paste shapes such as
buttons or leaves, when frilling petals, or using plunger
cutters; it ensures you get the veining or pattern from the
plunger cutter
Floppy mat – for covering petal paste to prevent it from
drying out (you can use a large book wrapped in cling film as
an alternative)
Ball or bone tool – I find this invaluable and you’ll need it for
making buttons
Dresden tool – a narrow, stick-like, plastic or wooden tool
with tapered, spike-like ends, used in modelling to create
lines, indentations and impressions, for example on a petal
Scalpel
Quilting or stitching wheels – handy little tools with
removable wheels that give different effects
PACKAGING AND TRANSPORTATION

Cake boxes
Cupcake boxes
Individual cupcake or portion boxes
Cookie bags (I recently saw these in a supermarket baking
section, or you can order from a specialist supplier)
PREPARATION: CAKE AND COOKIE BASICS
In order to produce perfect cakes or cookies at home, there are

simple steps that you should follow to make sure that you get the
best result. It’s worth spending a few minutes on these steps; don’t
rush, as they can make life much easier in the long run.
With baking, and particularly cake decorating, you do need to
invest your time. It’s different from other types of cooking; you
aren’t just throwing together a quick spag bol or curry. It will take
a bit more time and care, and sometimes needs to be spread out
over a couple of days or more, but it’s worth the effort because it’s
so rewarding.
CHOOSING A CAKE TIN

If you can, invest in a good tin to bake your cake in. At Fancy
Nancy we use Invicta tins – the beauty of these is that they are all
exactly the same height, 8cm (3in), which is a perfect depth for a
celebration or wedding cake. We use this height as a guide for all
our sponge cakes.
Of course you can use any tins, but if you are making a stacked
cake, you want all the sponge tiers to be the same height so that the
cake doesn’t look odd. So do try to buy cake tins of the same depth
if you want to try out my easy, foolproof method for preparing the
sponges. You can still get good results with other tins, but when it
comes to cake decorating, time saving and foolproofing are very
important to me.
LINING CAKE TINS AND COOKIE TRAYS

Always line your tins and trays, as it will prevent the cakes and
cookies from becoming stuck. If you don’t, you may have to use a
knife to free the cake from its tin and end up with chunks of your
cake getting hacked off, resulting in a bumpy surface under your
icing – not a good look. You will be pretty hacked off yourself
about having to patch up all the holes before you start decorating.
So it’s worth spending the time to do this right to ensure you get
the best result.
TIP
Make sure you use silicon baking
parchment for lining, not greaseproof
paper. Greaseproof paper isn’t substantial
enough and often disintegrates, or gets
baked onto the tin and sticks to the cake.
Parchment will protect your sponge, save
on washing-up and easily peel away from
your sponge. You can find parchment in
the baking section of supermarkets or
alongside the cling film and foil.
LINING ROUND TINS

STEP 1 First, generously grease your cake tin with plenty of butter by
smudging it all over with a piece of kitchen paper, a pastry brush or
even with your fingers.
STEP 2 To line the sides, cut long strips of baking parchment
approximately 10cm (4in) in depth (with the length of the strips
determined by the width of the roll); this will mean that the
parchment rises a couple of centimetres higher than the sides of the
tin. Cut as many strips as you need: for example, a 15cm (6in) tin
will probably need just one strip, but a 30cm (12in) tin will take
two or three strips.
STEP 3 Put all your strips on top of each other and fold over 1cm
(½in) along one long edge. With scissors, make lots of snips all
along this folded part, at 90 degrees to the fold line and snipping
just up to the crease, to create a ‘fringed’ edge.
STEP 4 Separate the strips and place onto the internal wall of the tin,
with the snipped part sitting flat on the base.
STEP 5 Sit the tin on top of the rolled-out baking parchment and
either cut with a sharp knife all the way round (if your worktop or
surface is safe to cut onto) or draw a circle around the tin and cut
out with scissors. Place the parchment disc into the base of the tin,
overlaying the snipped, folded edge that’s sitting around the sides.
Now your tin is perfectly lined and ready for your cake batter.
TIP
You can bake the cakes the day before you
need them and leave at room temperature,
or you can make them a few days in
advance, then wrap well and chill or even
freeze them if necessary. Just make sure
that you defrost them thoroughly one day
before use.
LINING SQUARE OR OBLONG TINS
STEP 1 First, generously grease your cake tin with plenty of butter by
smudging it all over with a piece of kitchen paper, a pastry brush or
even with your fingers.
STEP 2 Line three of the sides by cutting strips of baking parchment

to the correct length and approximately 10cm (4in) in depth; the
strips will rise a couple of centimetres higher than the sides of the
tin.
STEP 3 Fold over 1cm (½in) along one long edge of each strip. With
scissors, make lots of snips all along this folded part, at 90 degrees
to the fold line, just up to the crease, to create a ‘fringed’ edge.
Place the strips onto three of the internal walls of the tin, with the
snipped edges sitting flat on the base.
STEP 4 Sit the tin on top of the rolled-out baking parchment, lined up
to one edge.
STEP 5 Cut round the tin, but allow about 10cm (4in) extra for the
side that hasn’t yet been lined. When you place this piece of paper
into the base of the tin, the extra-long edge can be folded up to line
the final side. Now you have a perfectly lined tin ready to bake
your sponge.
LINING COOKIE TRAYS

When you are baking cookies for decorating, I really recommend
that you line the trays with baking parchment so that the cookies
don’t stick. It will damage their shape if you have to try to unstick
them from the tray with a knife. When using baking parchment,
they will easily glide off.
Simply cut a piece of baking parchment to fit the tray you are
using. To stop it sliding around on the tray, stick it down by
dampening the tray with a bit of water so that the paper clings to
it. Alternatively, you can dab a bit of royal icing in each corner to
fix the parchment in place.
FILLING YOUR TINS

Once your tins are lined, you are ready to start baking your
sponges – whatever flavours you decide upon – ready for
decorating. That’s the crucial thing to bear in mind here: you aren’t
baking a simple sponge to layer and eat in its naked (but gorgeous)
state. You want to decorate this cake. So you need to start with a
good base.
When baking a cake for decorating, unless it’s for a design that
will be covered entirely in some form of sugar, chocolate or cookie
embellishment, you should aim for a smooth and uniform shape, a
flat surface and, importantly, straight edges and a level top. Of
course, if your sponge isn’t perfect, you can always patch it up, and
add layers of marzipan or sugarpaste to get the cake base nice and
even, but that can take a good 30–60 minutes for an average-sized
sponge, so it’s best avoided.
Getting the top of the cake flat is one of the first things you need to
make happen. This top tip came from my good old dad, George (an
engineer by trade who is ever present in the kitchen, adapting his
inventive ideas into cake-decorating tips), and it makes this
laborious stage so much easier.
As described in the tin-lining instructions, line your tin so that
there’s an extra inch of baking parchment poking up above the top
edge. Then fill the tin with cake batter almost right to the top, just
about 1cm (½in) below the edge. This will allow your sponge to
rise above the top of the tin. Once cooled, you can put the cake
back into its tin and slice off the top using the tin as a guide. This
gives a perfect flat result, ready to decorate without the hassle of
reshaping, patching or building up. (Note that this tip only applies
to the Very Vanilla and Lemon Drizzle recipes; the Rich Belgian
Chocolate Truffle cake cannot be baked like this.)
Not only does this save time later (and you can be doing other
things whilst the sponge is in the oven), but it will also give you a
perfect base on which to decorate.
For all of the cupcakes in this book, I have used a muffin-sized
cupcake tray in which the muffin cup measures 51 × 38mm (51mm
diameter and 38mm deep). If you are using a different size, you
will need to adjust the amount of cake mixture – as a guide, I fill
the cases half full for buttercream-topped cupcakes, and one-third
full for cupcakes that will be covered with fondant or ganache, so
that it will sit fairly flat, rather than having a domed top.
TIP
My sponge recipes take a bit longer than
regular ones because they are quite deep, so
they need longer to cook in the centre. All
ovens vary, so once you have filled the tin
right up with batter, bake it at the usual
temperature (around 200°C/Gas mark 6
depending on your oven) for the first 30
minutes, until the cake has risen nice and
high, up to the top of the baking
parchment. Once it’s well risen, turn the
oven down by about 10°C/one gas mark.
With a small sponge of this depth, up to a

diameter of 18cm (7in), you will need to
cook it for approximately 20 minutes extra
than with usual sponge recipes, but larger
25cm (10in) sponges take up to 45–60
minutes extra. You therefore need to make
sure that the edges don’t burn before the
middle cooks through. For these larger
sponges, once I have cooked them for an
extra 30 minutes or so at about 190°C/Gas
mark 3, I then turn the oven down to
around 170°C/Gas mark 2. By this point,
the sponge will have risen and set, but this
extra-low cooking temperature allows the
centre to cook through until dry when
tested with a skewer or sharp knife. (If you
are using shallower tins than mine, use
your judgement and keep a close eye on
your sponge throughout the baking,
checking it regularly.)
The chocolate sponge is not baked in this

way as it is really dense and fudgy and if
you baked it for too long you would lose
the wonderful velvety chocolateyness of the
cake. Instead, you need to bake it in two
halves.
PRE-ICING YOUR CAKE BOARDS

Many of the designs in this book are displayed on an iced board.
This gives your cakes a professional touch and makes sure the
design looks complete. I think it looks really messy if you place a
beautiful cake onto an un-iced cake board with the silver foil
showing.
Icing cake boards with sugarpaste is easy and, because
sugarpaste has a very long shelf life, it can be done way in
advance, saving time when you are making and decorating the
actual cake. It is best done at least 24 hours before you want to put
your cake onto the board, so that the sugarpaste is dry and doesn’t
get squeezed over the edge by the weight of the cake.
Cakes are usually placed on a board that is 5–8cm (2–3in) larger
than the cake itself, unless your design involves lots of decoration
or models, etc. on the board, in which case you may want a larger
one. You might wish to cover it with the same colour icing that you
will use to decorate your cake, or perhaps choose a contrasting
colour.
To cover a 30cm (12in) round cake board you will need
approximately 750g sugarpaste. Below is a handy table to give you
a guide to the amounts of sugarpaste you will need for icing
different-sized cake boards.
STEP 1 These instructions are for a round cake board; the same
principles apply for a square board. Dust the cake board with a little
icing sugar, then wet this with a pastry brush dipped in cooled
boiled water or vodka – this will stick the icing to the board so that
it doesn’t slide around while you are trimming off the edges.
STEP 2 Knead the sugarpaste until pliable, then shape into a ball and
flatten. Before rolling out, dust the worktop beneath the icing with
plenty of icing sugar. You can also dust the top of the sugarpaste
with just a little icing sugar but try not to use too much or the
sugarpaste will become dry and can easily crack.
STEP 3 Roll out the sugarpaste evenly from the middle outwards,
turning it regularly to prevent an uneven or spidery shape; you
want a nice round piece to lay over the cake board. You can use
guide sticks if you have them, otherwise take care to roll with even
pressure so that the sugarpaste has a good, even thickness of
approximately 5–6mm.
STEP 4 Once rolled, lift the sugarpaste carefully over both arms, or
roll it onto your pin to lift, and place on your dampened cake
board. (If you haven’t quite judged the size right and you have too
little icing or the shape isn’t quite round, you can easily strip it off
the board and re-roll it.) Make sure that there are no air bubbles
under the icing – you should be able to see them if you bend down
so that the board is at eye level. If you see any, use a pin tool or
scriber tool to pierce a small hole in the icing and gently expel the
air by pushing it out with your fingertips.
STEP 5 Now smooth over the board with a top smoother (or with the
flat of your hand, but a smoother guarantees a better finish), to
iron out any lumps and bumps and to polish and smooth the
sugarpaste.
STEP 6 Finally, you need to trim off the excess. Hold up the cake
board with one hand (as you would hold a plate, with your fingers
splayed out under the board). With a sharp knife, carefully cut all
the way around the edge, holding the knife at a 90-degree angle to
the board and using the edge as a guide. Let the excess sugarpaste
fall back onto the worktop; you can re-use this. Turn the cake board
as you cut, until you have gone all the way around the board.
STEP 7 When you have trimmed off the excess icing, make sure the
edge is neat and that there are no rough bits, by gently smoothing
round the board with your fingertips. Leave the board aside to dry
until needed, for at least 24 hours.
TIP
If you get too much icing sugar on the
surface of a dark-coloured sugarpaste,
especially black, the icing sugar will cause
white blotches that spoil the iced surface
and are very hard to remove – if this
happens, re-knead and roll the sugarpaste
again.
TIP
If you find it tricky holding the board in
one hand, another option is to use a
turntable. Place the board on the turntable,
make an initial cut into the excess
sugarpaste, then hold the knife in place.
Now rotate the board so that your knife
glides through the rest.
MAKING PIPING BAGS
For cake decorating you will need lots of piping bags. Of course,
you can easily buy disposable ones, but it’s handy (and cheaper) if
you can make your own. If you want to ice a cake with a variety of
different colours, it’s best to make plenty of piping bags before you
start, as you’ll need a separate bag for each colour. I keep a stock of
them, and make 100 or so at once, so that I have them ready for
whenever I need them.
Ideally use baking parchment for making these, as it is stronger
and more substantial than greaseproof paper and so will last
longer. For instance, if you load a bag with coloured royal icing
and have some left over, you might want to use the rest the next
day. With greaseproof, you may find that the bag splits. Parchment,
on the other hand, is coated, so it won’t get too soggy from the
icing. (However, if greaseproof is all you have, then just use it.)
STEP 1 Unroll the parchment and cut at intervals, so that you end up
with several large squares of parchment.
STEP 2 Cut across each square on the diagonal from corner to corner.
You will be left with large triangles of paper.
STEP 3 Place a triangle with the longest straight edge away from you
and the opposite point facing towards you, then take hold of one
outer corner (I start on the right-hand side, but this depends on
whether you are left- or right-handed), and bring it in to meet the
point. Pull this in tightly so that a cone shape begins to form.
STEP 4 Hold these corners together tightly and lift up the cone in
front of you. Bring the other corner in by wrapping it around
behind the cone, to meet your thumb that’s holding the first part
together. Quickly and carefully slip the new corner under your
thumb too, making sure not to let go of the other bit.
STEP 5 Check you have a sharp point at the end of your bag: if it’s
not sharp you can play with it by pulling the cone tighter with your
thumbs and fingers. If you don’t get it right the first time, keep
trying; it’s easy once you get the hang of it but it does take a few
goes to get the feel of it.
STEP 6 To secure the piping bag, staple it at the top of the cone
where the paper is overlapping. This is the best method, but do take
care that no stray staples fall into your piping bag or find their way
into your cake.
The following sponge recipes produce cakes that are
perfect for decorating. They are delicious yet robust
and firm enough to be cut, carved, split and filled
and will hold the weight of your marzipan and
sugarpaste or chocolate paste. I bake these recipes
all the time, but of course if you are making these
for the first time, do take extra care and be sure to
check your cake regularly whilst its is cooking, as
all ovens vary and you will need to find what
works for your oven.
With all my recipes, I truly believe that if you buy

the best-quality ingredients that you can, you will
achieve a better finished product. I like to use free-
range organic eggs and organic flour, sugar and
butter, but of course you can’t always get hold of
these or justify the cost. At the very least, buy free-
range eggs if you can afford to.
Recipes
ery Vanilla Sponge
Very Vanilla Cupcakes
ich Belgian Chocolate Truffle Cake
emon Drizzle Sponge
ich Boozy Fruit Cake
hocolate Cupcakes
esty Orange Cupcakes
asic Vanilla Cookies
VERY VANILLA SPONGE
This gorgeous springy vanilla sponge is so incredibly versatile. You can

use it as the basis for all kinds of cakes – from a large Victoria sponge to
cupcakes (see variation), and it’s special enough for celebration or
wedding cakes. See the quantities chart here for a guide to making larger
mixes to fill different sizes of tins, should you want to make a selection
of tiers for one of the larger stacked cakes in the book. You can also
make double, triple or even a litre of the syrup if you bake often or are
tackling one of the tiered cake designs.
Whenever I have customers in for wedding-cake consultations and they

try this cake, their eyes widen and they ask how it’s so much lovelier
than a ‘normal’ sponge. It is loaded with vanilla – I like to use vanilla
seeds plus vanilla extract, a good-quality one to give it a real headiness.
Then, to add an extra vanilla kick, I drizzle the top of the warm sponge
with vanilla sugar syrup, which is easy to make and store; not only does
this add to the sweet flavour but it also keeps the cake moist and
prolongs its shelf life. Once you and your friends have tasted the results
– and discovered how easy it is to make – you will want to make it over
and over again.
MAKES A 15CM (6IN) ROUND CAKE
or the vanilla syrup

00g golden caster sugar
00ml water
vanilla pod, seeds scraped into a bowl and pod saved
or the vanilla sponge

00g softened butter
vanilla pod, seeds scraped into a bowl
tsp good-quality vanilla extract (I love Neilson Massey)
medium eggs, lightly beaten
00g self-raising flour
STEP 1 Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas mark 4. Line a 15cm (6in)

round cake tin with baking parchment (see here).
STEP 2 To make the syrup, mix the sugar and water in a saucepan
and bring gently to the boil, stirring occasionally to prevent lumps
or burning. Once it starts to boil, remove from the heat and allow
to cool slightly. Alternatively, you can microwave the sugar and
water for 1 minute at a time until all the sugar crystals have
dissolved and the syrup has boiled.) Add the seeds from the scraped
vanilla pod and then add the pod for extra vanilla flavour. Leave to
infuse. Once cool, transfer to a squeezy bottle or jug for pouring.
STEP 3 To make the sponge, combine the butter, sugar, vanilla seeds
and extract and beat with a wooden spoon, hand mixer or in an
electric mixer on medium–fast speed, until the mixture is very pale,
soft and fluffy and the granules of sugar have disappeared.
STEP 4 Add the beaten eggs, a quarter at a time. If it curdles a little

(looks lumpy and separated) just add a spoonful of flour from your
weighed-out amount. Mix this in slowly with each addition.
STEP 5 Then add the flour gradually, a quarter at a time, gently

stirring it in as you go. Slowly mix until the dry flour has been
mostly mixed in. Don’t mix it too quickly or over-process the flour,
or the sponge can turn out a bit chewy.
STEP 6 Spoon the cake mixture into the lined cake tin, pushing it up
the edges a bit, so that the sponge will rise high in the tin. Create a
well in the centre to prevent a large hump from rising; this will
help your sponge to rise evenly.
STEP 7 Bake for 35–40 minutes (but check on it after 30 minutes, as

all ovens vary). You want a nice, high sponge, and test with a knife
to be sure the middle is cooked through. You might need to cook it
for longer; even for up to an hour. If you think the outside is
cooking too fast, turn the oven down and cover the top with a
piece of foil to prevent it burning. Once the sponge is very risen
and beginning to firm up, you can turn your oven down to 160°C.
STEP 8 When cooked, turn out onto a wire rack and peel off the
paper to allow steam to evaporate from the sponge. Whilst still
warm, spear through the crust in several places with a sharp knife
or skewer, then drizzle or brush the sponge with the syrup. To feed
the syrup into the holes you can use a pastry brush or a squeezy
sauce bottle or drizzle it slowly from a jug with a spout. You don’t
want it too soggy but you need enough to soak in: use around 60ml
for the top of the cake, and save the rest to use in the middle of the
cake when you later split it to be filled. Now leave the cake to cool
completely.
See here for instructions on splitting and filling the cake.
TIP
Having all your ingredients at room
temperature makes your cake batter come
together perfectly. If your ingredients are
cold, they will not combine well and the
eggs may curdle.
SHELF LIFE AND STORAGE
Either use straight away or store by wrapping in plenty of cling

film and chilling for up to 3 days. Or you can freeze for up to 3
months. Once iced, the vanilla sponge will keep fresh for up to 5
days; it will of course remain safe to eat for a while afterwards but
you will find that it becomes dry and less palatable over time. As
with most food products, it is best eaten as soon as possible.
The vanilla syrup will keep in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. You
can also freeze it; pour portions of around 100ml into small freezer
bags to use as and when you need them (take out the night before
to defrost). One batch of the syrup will still be enough for all the
above sizes of cake. Use the syrup to taste, brushing it over each
layer of cake without soaking them. How much you need is really
down to personal taste. Be careful, though, the cake can become
sugary if too much syrup is used.
VERY VANILLA SPONGE QUANTITIES CHART

TIP
If making one of the bigger cake sizes, you
may need to divide large quantities into
two bowls or batches, or else your mixture
might overflow.
TIP
Begin checking the bake after 30 minutes
and check periodically, as ovens vary
greatly and the gauge of tin can also affect
this. Always check if the sponge is baked
through by inserting a skewer or sharp
knife into the centre.
VERY VANILLA CUPCAKES
MAKES 12–16 CUPCAKES
STEP 1 Preheat the oven to 200°C/Gas mark 6. Line one or two 12-
hole muffin trays with paper muffin cases.
STEP 2 Follow steps 1–5 of the main vanilla sponge recipe, then
divide the mixture between the cases and cook for 10–15 minutes.
Check after 10 minutes, as all ovens vary; the cakes should be a
light golden brown and springy to touch. If you want to be sure,
test with a sharp knife – this should come out clean and free of
mixture if they are cooked through.
STEP 3 Once baked, turn the cakes out onto a cooling rack and brush
or drizzle with a little vanilla syrup to coat the tops and soak into
your sponges. (You will have more syrup than you need, as the
amount in the main recipe covers about 30 cupcakes, but you can’t
really make it in smaller quantities. See here for storing any
leftovers.) Leave the cakes to cool, then decorate as required.

These can be frozen, but take care not to knock the paper cases, or
they will look messy if you later want to add fondant or ganache.
Freeze in a container to help protect them. Alternatively, you can
leave the cooled cakes in their baking tin, wrap the whole tin in
cling film and freeze. This also ensures they won’t get squashed.
Once iced, the cakes will last well for 3–4 days.
RICH BELGIAN CHOCOLATE TRUFFLE CAKE
This cake is to die for … I’ve tried lots of good chocolate cake recipes
and have tweaked my favourites until I got this result. It’s soft, fudgy
and decadent, but there’s enough flour in the mixture for it to keep its
shape when being cut, without crumbling too much – the perfect balance
of taste and practicality. You will have some leftover sponge from
baking this cake, as you need to cut off the top crust from both halves.
Save these gorgeous bits to put in trifles or eat with ice cream. See the
quantities chart here for a guide to baking other sizes, if you want to
make multiple tiers.

40g plain chocolate chips, 70% cocoa solids
00g softened unsalted butter
20g soft light brown sugar
medium eggs, beaten
tsp good-quality vanilla extract
40g plain flour
STEP 1 Preheat the oven to 160°C/Gas mark 3. Line two 15cm (6in)
round tins (you can’t make this sponge in one tin as it’s too heavy;
you need to cook it in two halves) with baking parchment (see
here).
STEP 2 Melt the chocolate in the microwave on medium heat for a

minute at a time, stirring at each interval. Alternatively, melt it in
a heatproof bowl set over a pan of just-simmering water. Leave to
cool.
STEP 3 Beat the butter and sugar together slowly with an electric
hand mixer or in an electric mixer (or in a large bowl with a
wooden spoon) until combined, then beat vigorously on a fast
speed until the mixture turns pale, soft and fluffy.
STEP 4 Add the beaten eggs a little at a time, mixing slowly until
each addition is incorporated.
STEP 5 Pour the cooled chocolate into your mixture, beating all the
time until everything is combined.
STEP 6 Stir or mix in the vanilla extract with the mixer on slow.
STEP 7 Add the flour and fold or mix in slowly, until it’s combined
with the wet ingredients.
STEP 8 Spoon evenly into the lined tins. You need to fill each tin
around 6cm (2½in) deep – you can measure this by dipping a
plastic ruler or knife into the mixture; it will leave a mark showing
the depth.
STEP 9 Bake for 30 minutes, then test the cakes with a skewer or
small, sharp knife. You can always cook for a few minutes more,
but you can’t unbake them! They should appear well risen, but
should still wobble a bit when shaken. There will be a crust on the
top, which will sink back into the cake as it cools.
STEP 10 Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin. This
sponge is fragile so remove it from the tin only when cool or it can
break very easily.

TIP
I like to weigh both halves to ensure I put
the same amount of batter into each tin.
This means they will both take the same
amount of time to cook.
TIP
Begin checking the bake after 30 minutes,
and check periodically, as ovens vary
greatly and the gauge of tin can also affect
the cooking time.

This cake will keep at room temperature for a few days as long as
it’s well wrapped. Once iced, it will keep for 7–10 days. It also
freezes well: wrap in baking parchment and foil, then seal in a
freezer bag or wrap in cling film to prevent freezer burn. Freeze
for up to 3 months.
RICH BELGIAN CHOCOLATE TRUFFLE CAKE QUANTITIES CHART

Here is a guide for the amounts of ingredients needed for different-
sized tins. Remember that you always need two tins for each cake
size. Bear in mind that square tins have a larger capacity than their
round equivalent.
LEMON DRIZZLE SPONGE
A lemon cake is a perfect recipe for both celebrations and weddings and
ideal when layered with zesty lemon buttercream (see recipe here). This
is lovely in spring and summer, when you can accompany it with some
fresh cream and raspberries if you want to serve it as a dessert. Using
plenty of fresh lemon zest and the addition of the lively lemon syrup
ensures a moist and delicious sponge. See the quantities chart here for a
guide to baking other sizes, if you want to make multiple tiers.
or the lemon syrup

00ml caster sugar
00ml freshly squeezed lemon juice (from 6–7 lemons)
Grated zest of 2 lemons
or the lemon sponge

00g softened butter 100g golden caster sugar
Grated zest of 3 lemons
anilla extract – as per chart here
STEP 1 Preheat your oven to 180°C/Gas mark 4. Line a 15cm (6in)

STEP 2 To make the syrup, mix the sugar and lemon juice in a pan
and bring gently to the boil, stirring occasionally to prevent lumps
or burning. Once it starts to boil, remove from the heat and allow
to cool slightly. Alternatively, you can microwave this for a minute
at a time on high power, stirring at each interval, until the sugar is
completely dissolved and the syrup is really hot or boiling. Add the
lemon zest and leave to infuse. Once cool, transfer to a squeezy
bottle or jug for pouring.
STEP 3 For the sponge, beat the butter, both sugars and lemon zest
together using a wooden spoon, hand mixer or electric mixer until
the mixture is pale, soft and fluffy and the sugar granules have
disappeared.
STEP 4 Add the beaten egg, a quarter at a time, mixing between each
addition. If it curdles a little (looks lumpy and separated), just add
a spoonful of flour from your weighed-out amount.
STEP 5 Now add the flour gradually, a quarter at a time, stirring it in

gently as you go. Mix slowly, because if you mix it too quickly or
over-process the flour, the sponge can turn out a bit chewy.
STEP 6 Spoon the cake mixture into your lined cake tin, pushing the
mixture up the edges a bit, so that the sponge will rise high in the
tin. Create a well in the centre – this will help your sponge to rise
evenly and prevent a large hump from rising in the middle.
STEP 7 Bake for 30 minutes, then check – you want a nice high
sponge, and test with a knife to be sure that the middle is cooked
through. You might need to cook it for longer, even for up to an
hour depending on your oven. If you think the outside of the cake
is cooking too fast, turn the oven down and cover the top of the
cake with a piece of foil to prevent it from burning.
STEP 8 When cooked, turn out onto a wire rack and peel off the
paper to allow the steam to evaporate from the sponge. Whilst the
cake is still warm, spear through the crust of your cake in several
places with a sharp knife or skewer and drizzle or brush the sponge
with the lemon syrup. To feed the syrup into the holes you can use
a pastry brush or a squeezy sauce bottle or drizzle it slowly from a
jug with a spout. You don’t want it too soggy but you need enough
to soak in; it will take around 60ml for this size of cake. Save the
rest to use in the middle of the cake when you later split it to be
filled. Leave the cake to cool completely.
TIP
Zest all the lemons first, before juicing
them. You can save any zest that you
aren’t using by putting it into a freezer bag
and freezing; you can re-use it straight
from the freezer and mix into sponge
batter, cookie dough or any other recipes
that require it.

Either use the cake straight away or store by wrapping in plenty of
cling film and chilling for up to 3 days. You can also freeze this
cake for up to 3 months. Once iced, it will keep well for up to 5
days if kept in a cool, dry place.
The lemon syrup will keep in the fridge for up to 2 weeks, and
you can also freeze it in small amounts. Just freeze portions of
around 100ml in small bags and get them out to defrost the night
before you need them.
LEMON DRIZZLE CAKE QUANTITIES CHART
One batch of the syrup will still be enough for all the above sizes of
cake. Use the syrup to taste, brushing it over each layer of cake
without soaking them. How much you need is really down to
personal taste. Be careful, though; the cake can become sugary if
too much syrup is used.
RICH BOOZY FRUIT CAKE
This divine recipe is perfect for celebrations. It’s got loads of brandy in it
and will keep for ages. See the quantities below for a guide to baking
other sizes, if you want to make multiple tiers.

00g natural-colour glacé cherries
80g raisins
40g currants
00g sultanas
0g mixed peel
40ml fine brandy, plus optional extra for brushing
40g softened butter
80g molasses sugar
00g plain flour
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground nutmeg
¼ tsp ground cloves
½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp mixed spice
tsp vanilla extract
STEP 1 Wash the cherries well and cut them in half. Rinse the raisins,
currants and sultanas in a sieve and drain thoroughly. Tip into a
bowl, together with the cherries, then add the mixed peel and mix
well. Pour the brandy over the mixture. Leave to soak overnight.
STEP 2 Preheat the oven to 160°C/Gas mark 3 and line a 20cm (8in)
STEP 3 Melt the butter and sugars in the microwave, stirring every
minute, until the butter has melted and the sugar and butter have
become amalgamated. Alternatively, do this in a pan on a medium
heat, stirring well to mix. Pour into a mixing bowl.
STEP 4 Add the beaten eggs to the sugar and butter. Stir with a
wooden spoon.
STEP 5 In another bowl, place the flour and all the ground spices. Sift
into another bowl to thoroughly combine the flour with the spices.
Add the flour mixture to the wet sugar, butter and egg mixture.
STEP 6 Now stir in the steeped fruit and its remaining liquid, and the
vanilla extract. Mix well, using your hands if it’s easier.
STEP 7 Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 2½
hours until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out
clean. For an extra brandy kick, brush some brandy onto the top of
the cake while it’s still warm. Leave to cool in the tin.
STEP 8 When cool, turn the cake out of the tin and wrap in a double
layer of greaseproof paper and a layer of foil, then store it until you
are ready to decorate.
STORAGE AND SHELF LIFE

Ideally store this cake at room temperature for 5–6 weeks before
covering it with marzipan or icing. It can be eaten earlier, but the
flavour and intensity improve the longer it is stored. Covered in
marzipan and icing, it will keep for a further 6 months at room
temperature. Alternatively, freeze, wrapped in a double layer of
greaseproof paper and a double layer of foil, then in a freezer bag,
and it will last for ages.
RICH BOOZY FRUIT CAKE QUANTITIES CHART

The table below is a guide to the quantities needed for making your
fruit cake in different sizes of tins. Note that some people find
cloves overpowering, so if you aren’t keen on them, take care not
to add too much.
CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES
I have found that many chocolate cupcake recipes turn out really dry.
While this recipe will obviously be heavier and denser than the vanilla
cupcakes, my recipe has soured cream added, so is very moist. The
cupcakes are deliciously chocolatey!
MAKES APPROX. 16 CUPCAKES

50g plain chocolate, 70% cocoa solids (chips or a broken-up bar)
50g softened butter
eggs and 2 egg yolks
tbsp soured cream
tsp vanilla extract
tbsp cocoa powder
STEP 1 Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas mark 4. Take two 12-hole

muffin trays and line 16 of the holes with paper muffin cases.
STEP 2 Melt the chocolate, butter and sugar together in a large

heatproof bowl (make sure it’s large, as you will eventually add
everything else to this bowl, too). Ideally, do this in a microwave
on medium heat for 1 minute at a time, stirring at each interval,
until all melted together. Alternatively, place the bowl over a pan
of simmering (not boiling) water until the chocolate is melted and
the ingredients are amalgamated. Allow to cool slightly.
STEP 3 Whisk the whole eggs and yolks, soured cream and vanilla
extract together in a separate bowl.
STEP 4 Sift the flour and cocoa into a bowl and mix with a spoon
until combined.
STEP 5 Add the egg mixture to the melted chocolate mixture and stir
together with a spoon until amalgamated.
STEP 6 Gently fold in the flour mixture until all the dry flour and
cocoa has been incorporated into the wet ingredients.
STEP 7 Spoon into the paper cases, around half full. Bake for 15–20
minutes until just firm. Test with a sharp knife to ensure they are
cooked through. Allow to cool for 5 minutes then turn out onto a
wire rack. Once cool, decorate as required.
ZESTY ORANGE CUPCAKES
These gorgeous little sponges are delicious topped with dark-chocolate

ganache (see here). They’re a big hit at Christmas; the cakes taste like
grown-up Jaffa cakes! The syrup quantities will make more than you
need as it will cover about 30 cupcakes, but you can’t make it much
smaller. You can store leftovers in the fridge for up to a week, or it
freezes very well; pour it into little freezer bags and get it out as and
when you need. Alternatively, if you are baking loads, just increase the
recipe as needed.
MAKES 12–16 CUPCAKES
or the orange syrup

00ml sugar
00ml freshly squeezed orange juice (from about 6 oranges; zest 4 of
them first)
Grated zest of 2 oranges (saved from above)
tbsp orange liqueur, such as Cointreau or Grand Marnier (optional)
or the orange sponge

00g softened butter
Grated zest of 2 oranges (saved from the syrup)
STEP 1 Preheat your oven to 200°C/Gas mark 4. Line one or two 12-
hole muffin trays with paper muffin cases.
STEP 2 Mix the sugar and orange juice in a pan and bring gently to
the boil, stirring occasionally to dissolve lumps. Alternatively, you
can microwave for 1 minute at a time until all the sugar crystals
have dissolved and the syrup has boiled. Once it starts to boil,
remove from the heat. Add the orange zest and leave to infuse.
Once cool, stir in the liqueur, if using, then transfer the syrup to a
squeezy bottle or jug for pouring.
STEP 3 For the sponge, combine the butter, both types of sugar and
the orange zest and beat, with a wooden spoon, hand mixer or in
an electric mixer on medium–fast speed, until the mixture is very
pale, soft and fluffy and the sugar granules have disappeared.
STEP 4 Add the beaten eggs, a quarter at a time, and mix in slowly at
each addition. If it curdles a little (looks lumpy and separated) just
add a spoonful of flour from your weighed-out amount.
STEP 5 Now add the flour gradually, a quarter at a time, gently

stirring it in as you go. Mix slowly, because if you mix it quickly
and over-process the flour, the sponge can turn out a bit chewy.
STEP 6 Divide the mixture between the paper cases and cook for 10–
15 minutes. Check after 10 minutes, as all ovens vary. When done,
the cakes should be a light golden brown and springy to the touch;
if you want to be sure, test with a sharp knife. This should come out
clean and free of mixture if the cakes are cooked through.
STEP 7 Once they are baked, turn the cakes out onto a wire rack. Use
a pastry brush to coat the tops with a little of the orange syrup, or
use a squeezy bottle to squirt it on – or pour from a jug. Leave to
cool, then decorate the cupcakes as required.
BASIC VANILLA COOKIES
This recipe is so easy; you just make the dough and roll it out, then cut
out any shape you wish. I use this to make lovely cookies for treats,
presents, party or wedding favours, as well as cake decorations (see here
for the Cookie Explosion cake). You can also use this recipe to create
cookie ‘lollipops’ by baking with a stick embedded into the dough. I give
these as gifts and treats, and use them on top of the Cookie Explosion
cake. If you want to spice things up a bit, you can change the
flavourings in this mixture. For example, if you want orange or lemon
cookies, instead of vanilla, you can use the grated zest of two oranges or
two lemons. To make them chocolatey, replace 25g of the plain flour
with 25g cocoa powder.
MAKES APPROX. 20 MEDIUM COOKIES

00g softened butter
eeds scraped from 1 vanilla pod
medium egg, lightly beaten
00g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
QUIPMENT:
0 lolly/cookie sticks (optional)
STEP 1 Preheat the oven to 190°C/Gas mark 5 and line two baking
sheets with baking parchment. Mix the butter and both types of
sugar with the vanilla seeds (or orange or lemon zest if you prefer)
until just combined but still grainy. Do NOT cream like you would
for a sponge mix or you may find your cookies spread, puff up a bit
and lose their shape definition. Either do this with a wooden spoon,
hand mixer or in a electric mixer on a slow speed. If using an
electric mixer, you may need to pause it a couple of times and
scrape the mixture down into the centre of the bowl before
continuing, to totally incorporate the butter.
STEP 2 Add the egg, a little at a time, mixing in each addition with a
wooden spoon or with your mixer on slow. Repeat until all the egg
is mixed in.
STEP 3 Add the flour to your mixture and mix slowly until a dough
forms. If you like, you can do this with your hands. If your dough is
still a bit sticky you might need to add a little more flour, or if it’s
dry, add a tiny bit more beaten egg. You need it to be firm and
easy to roll out without sticking to your rolling pin.
STEP 4 Dust your worktop with plenty of flour and roll out the
cookie dough. Work from the centre, rolling away from your body,
then from the centre towards you. Keep turning the dough a
quarter-turn. This will help you to roll out a uniform oblong as
opposed to a spidery shape, which is more difficult to cut shapes
from. Take care to apply even pressure, and roll to an approximate
thickness of 5mm. If you have guide sticks, use them to ensure you
get an even thickness and that the cookies all bake evenly.
STEP 5 Now cut out your required shapes with a cookie cutter(s).
Alternatively, you can draw or print out a shape, glue it onto card
and cut around it with scissors. Place this template onto the top of
the dough and cut around the shape with a sharp knife. You might
need to gently smooth any jagged edges with your fingertips to
make them look neat.
STEP 6 With a palette knife or very careful fingers, place your

cookies on the prepared baking sheets. At this point, if you want to
add sticks to the cookies, simply push a stick gently into the dough,
to about half way, with the fingers of your other hand pressing
gently onto the point where you are inserting it, to prevent the
dough from breaking. It takes a bit of practice, but you can always
re-roll the dough if it goes wrong.
STEP 7 Bake for around 10–12 minutes. Check after 10 minutes; you
may need to give them a few more minutes. The cookies should be
golden brown, firm and springy to touch but not too dark. Cool on
a wire rack and then decorate as required.
For ideas of how to decorate or cover your cookies, see here.
TIP
If you bake the cookies until they are very
dry, they will last longer. You can give
them 10–20 minutes extra but do this at a
lower temperature so that they properly dry
out and don’t burn – turn the oven down
by 10–20°C.
Fillings and Coverings
anilla Bean Buttercream and Variations
Orange Buttercream
Lemon Buttercream
Fresh Raspberry and Strawberry Buttercream
Belgian Chocolate Ganache Buttercream
Cupcake Buttercream
oyal Icing
ondant Icing
Glossy Chocolate Ganache for Pouring
ark Belgian Chocolate Paste
White Belgian Chocolate Paste
VANILLA BEAN BUTTERCREAM AND VARIATIONS
A simple buttercream is really quite easy to make, and I recommend that

you use the best possible ingredients. If you can, use natural unbleached
icing sugar, which has a lovely golden quality (only use this inside
cakes, though, if you need a whiter finish for covering a cake), and use a
good-quality unsalted butter, ideally organic. It also makes a difference
how you whip the buttercream, to make sure that it is super-smooth and
creamy. Buttercream is a perfect filling for celebration or wedding cakes.
Indeed, you can even use it for cupcakes (although I give a slightly
lighter buttercream recipe for cupcakes here). Increase the quantities of
this recipe as needed, and like most of the cakes and fillings, you can
freeze any that is left over. Once you have this basic buttercream, you
can use it as the base for many delicious flavours; see the variations
below. (The buttercream in the picture is the Fresh Raspberry and
Strawberry recipe here.) Bear in mind that if you are making a cake
with a few tiers, you can make one large batch of vanilla buttercream,
then divide it into portions, each to be flavoured differently if required.
ILLS AND COVERS A 20CM (8IN) ROUND CAKE
Makes approx. 750g

50g soft unsalted butter
00g sifted icing sugar (use the natural, unbleached one inside cakes
if you can get it; for covering cakes, use a bright white icing sugar)
tsp vanilla extract
vanilla pod, seeds scraped out (save the pod for syrups or put in
your sugar jar to infuse)
STEP 1 In an electric mixer with the beater or paddle attachment (or
in a bowl using a hand mixer or wooden spoon), cream the butter
with the vanilla seeds and extract until pale, soft and smooth.
STEP 2 Add about a quarter of the icing sugar. Mix to combine,

slowly at first so that the sugar doesn’t puff up all over your
kitchen. Once it is all mixed in, beat for about 30 seconds on fast
until the mixture is really creamy and pale. It will take a few
minutes if mixing by hand.
STEP 3 Continue adding the sugar in quarter increments, taking care

to completely beat it in after each addition.
STEP 4 Finally, beat the buttercream on fast for a minute or two until
it’s fluffy and pale. You can now use the buttercream, colour it or
adapt into many different flavours.
COLOURING BUTTERCREAM
You can tint or colour buttercream using liquid or paste food
colourings. If using a liquid colour, bear in mind that adding too
much liquid may give a sloppy buttercream, so if you want a very
strong colour I recommend using a strong professional food-
colouring paste. Once the colouring is added, either beat in an
electric mixer (this is the quickest and easiest method) or take the
required amount into a bowl and beat with a wooden spoon.
See here for using the buttercream as a covering on your cake.

ORANGE BUTTERCREAM
Follow the basic vanilla buttercream recipe (see here), but when you
cream the butter, add the grated zest of 2 fresh oranges. (You can still
include the vanilla, if you wish, or you can omit it if you prefer.) The
zest will infuse into the buttercream to make a delicious orange-
flavoured filling.
LEMON BUTTERCREAM
Again, using vanilla buttercream as a base, you can turn it into a

gorgeous lemon filling. Follow the vanilla recipe then add the grated zest
of two lemons, along with 200g lemon curd. (You can use homemade
curd, or there are plenty of great-quality ready-made brands available –
being an Essex girl I’m a fan of the Tiptree one, it is lovely and tangy.)
Stir these into the buttercream after you’ve added the icing sugar, until
combined, and you have a perfect accompaniment to your lemon sponge.
FRESH RASPBERRY AND STRAWBERRY BUTTERCREAM
For a fresh raspberry kick and the summery taste of strawberries, add 4
tablespoons of the following fruit coulis to the basic vanilla buttercream
(see here). You can then use as you wish to fill any cakes. A great
combination is to split a vanilla sponge twice and add one layer of
vanilla buttercream and another layer of the berry buttercream – not
only does this look really appealing when cut, but it tastes divine!
STEP 1 Take a small punnet each of fresh raspberries and strawberries

(approximately 200–250g of each), rinse the fruit and put into a
food processor or use a hand blender to purée. (Alternatively you
can use a potato masher to mash the fruit in a bowl.) Pass the purée
through a sieve into a small pan.
STEP 2 Place the pan on a low heat and bring the purée to a gentle
boil, then leave to cool. Or you can use a microwave for this stage.
STEP 3 Add approximately 4 tablespoons of the cooled fruity paste to

the vanilla buttercream and mix well.
BELGIAN CHOCOLATE GANACHE BUTTERCREAM
This will give you a perfect chocolate buttercream that’s ideal for filling
the Belgian Chocolate Truffle Cake (see here) or even the Very Vanilla
Sponge (see here) if you like. It can also be used as a cake covering. Once
again, start with the vanilla buttercream recipe here. As always, you
can increase the quantities by doubling, etc.
STEP 1 Put 200g fresh double cream and 400g good-quality plain
Belgian chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa solids – either chips or a
bar broken into small chunks) into a microwave-proof bowl and
heat on medium power for a minute at a time, stirring periodically,
until the chocolate has melted into the cream to form a smooth,
velvety ganache. Alternatively, you can do this in a heatproof bowl
over a pan of gently simmering water until you achieve the same
melted result. Leave to cool.
STEP 2 Once cooled, stir the ganache into the buttercream. Be sure
that it’s completely cool, as warm chocolate will make your
buttercream oily and unusable!
CUPCAKE BUTTERCREAM
When icing and decorating cupcakes, I used to find that if I topped them
with buttercream, the next day they would go a bit crunchy, and the
buttercream would crystallise on top. So I tried out ways to combat this
problem and discovered a way to prevent it.
To prolong the life of your buttercream and keep it soft for longer, add a
quantity of cream cheese to it. This makes it taste lovely too. Once
again, begin with the vanilla buttercream here, then add 150g cream
cheese, a good-quality one, slowly beating it into the finished
buttercream. You can then flavour the buttercream as normal. This is
ideal for cupcake covering, but can also be used to decorate a whole
cake.
TIP
If you are making it in advance, keep the
buttercream in the fridge for up to a week.
Make sure to get it out and leave at room
temperature for a couple of hours before
use.
ROYAL ICING
Once you have mastered this recipe it will be a loyal friend to you in
your cake-decorating quest. We use it every day at Fancy Nancy, for
piping messages, trims, borders and patterns, covering cakes or making
run-out decorations (see here) to go on cakes and cookies. We also use it
for sticking cake tiers together, attaching decorations and images, filling
gaps and even for covering up mistakes. It’s invaluable.
This recipe makes enough royal icing to decorate around 20 cookies if

you are using several colours for the designs. In each icing bag you will
need at least 100g (any smaller and it’s tricky to pipe with), so you will
probably have some left over. If so, it can be stored in an airtight
container or food bag for up to a week. You can also multiply this recipe
to make larger amounts if you are making more than 20 cookies or
creating larger cakes.
You can also buy ready-made royal-icing mix from most supermarkets;
you just add water to it. It works well on cookies and can be coloured
and used in the same way described here.
MAKES APPROX. 600G ROYAL ICING

00g sifted icing sugar
medium egg whites
uice of 2 lemons
STEP 1 Place the icing sugar in a large bowl or use an electric mixer
with the paddle attachment. Add the egg whites and whisk by hand
or run the machine on its slowest speed to start mixing them in.
Once it starts to amalgamate, add the lemon juice, then mix by
hand or on the slowest speed for 5 minutes.
STEP 2 Adjust the icing to the consistency that you need, by adding
more icing sugar or liquid. See here for more details on how to
achieve stiff-peak, soft-peak or runny consistencies of royal icing.
STEP 3 Once ready, cover the bowl with a clean, damp tea towel or
cloth, to keep the icing from going hard. If exposed to the air, it
will begin to skin over after just a few minutes. This is not good;
even if you stir the flaky bits in, they always block up your piping
nozzle.
See here for using royal icing as a covering on your cake.

FONDANT ICING
Although you can make fondant icing yourself, there are also some
amazing ready-made products available that work really well. You
simply add hot water to these. I like to use Tate & Lyle fondant icing
sugar; it’s quick and has a good finish. You can also buy good-quality
fondant from specialist stores, including suppliers like Squires Kitchen;
you can order online, theirs is a particularly good one. If you wish, you
can flavour your fondant icing with oils or essences such as vanilla,
orange and rose water – I have even been known to add a dash of
Absinth!
OVERS 12–16 LARGE CUPCAKES

00g pack of fondant icing sugar
Hot water (boiled then cooled slightly)
aste or liquid colours (optional)
STEP 1 Pour the fondant icing sugar into a bowl and add a few
splashes of hot water. Take care: you want it to be just the right
consistency, not so runny that it won’t set, and not so stiff that it
won’t drop off the spoon. You are looking for a treacle-like
consistency, so that it clings to the spoon but will still drop off. Stir
slowly and smoothly until you reach the right consistency, have
eliminated all the dry sugary bits and are left with a smooth
fondant. Avoid using a whisking motion or you will get too many
bubbles in the fondant, which can spoil the finish of your cakes.
STEP 2 If you want to add colour, add a tiny dab of the paste or
liquid to the fondant. I like to use the lightest colours first, as you
can sometimes change these into new colours without having to
wash the bowl out. Save time wherever you can.
See here for using fondant icing as a covering on your cupcakes.

GLOSSY CHOCOLATE GANACHE FOR POURING
This smooth, silky, rich chocolate ganache recipe is so simple, and

perfect for pouring over a whole celebration cake or for using to top
cupcakes. It’s a perfect marriage with Zesty Orange Cupcakes (see here),
especially at Christmas!
OVERS A 15CM (6IN) ROUND CAKE OR 12–16 CUPCAKES

00g chocolate chips or broken-up chocolate, 70% cocoa solids
25g unsalted butter
0ml double cream
STEP 1 Place all the ingredients together in a microwave-proof bowl

and microwave on medium for 1 minute. Stir the mixture, then put
back in the microwave and repeat the process until all the
ingredients are melted together. Alternatively, you can place all the
ingredients in a pan and heat gently, stirring often, until melted
together.
STEP 2 Leave to cool slightly. The ganache is now ready to use (see
here).

Leftover ganache can be re-used on another cake or put into a
piping bag and used to decorate any cakes. It can be stored in a
plastic container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks, or it freezes well
too; just make sure you defrost it in the fridge overnight. It can
then be gently heated to reach its liquid pouring consistency again.
DARK BELGIAN CHOCOLATE PASTE
This chocolate coating can also be referred to as roll-out chocolate,

modelling chocolate, moulding chocolate, cocoform or chocolate
plastique. When looking to buy this ready-made, be aware that brands
may describe it and name it differently. However, I refer to it
throughout this book as chocolate paste. It is very easy to make and
great for covering cakes as it looks really luxurious and suits all manner
of occasions. I particularly like adding metallic-effect lustres to this for a
gorgeous finish. If you want to make a milk chocolate coating, you can
just mix together equal quantities of this and the white chocolate
coating (see here). This recipe will cover a 20cm (8in) round cake with
excess that you can use for making models or flowers, or freeze for
another time. If you are making a larger tiered cake, multiply the recipe
accordingly.
OVERS A 20CM (8IN) ROUND CAKE

50g good-quality Belgian chocolate – chips or a broken-up bar (not
strong 70% chocolate or else the coating won’t set; 50–55% cocoa
solids are better here)
50g liquid glucose (or golden syrup if you can’t get it)
QUIPMENT :
itchen thermometer
STEP 1 Put the chocolate in a large microwave-proof bowl and melt in

the microwave on medium power, for a minute at a time, stirring at
each interval. Alternatively, melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl
set over a pan of just-simmering water until smooth and melted.
Heat the chocolate to around 40°C – check with a thermometer.
STEP 2 In a small pan, gently heat the glucose syrup or golden syrup
separately, also to 40°C, so that the two mixtures are at the same
temperature.
STEP 3 Pour the syrup onto the melted chocolate and stir vigorously
until thoroughly amalgamated.
STEP 4 With the mixture still in its warm, viscous state, pour it
carefully into a large, heavy-duty freezer bag. You might need help
with this, or you can place the bag in a bowl or pan with the top of
the bag rolled over the sides to keep it open, to avoid any spillage.
Leave to cool overnight at room temperature. It will set into a paste
that can then be kneaded until pliable and used in the same way as
sugarpaste or marzipan.
STEP 5 If you will be decorating your entire cake with moulded

chocolate ruffles, flowers etc., just one coat of this paste will
suffice. But if you wish to have lots of the coated surface on show, I
recommend two layers of this covering for the cake to look its best.
See here for using the chocolate coating as a covering on your cake.
WHITE BELGIAN CHOCOLATE PASTE
This amount covers a 20cm (8in) round cake and you will probably
have some left over that you can re-use. It keeps well at room
temperature, wrapped up in a food bag, for up to 2 weeks and it freezes
for up to 3 months. If you are making a larger tiered cake, you can
multiply the recipe accordingly. To begin with, you need to make a
sugar syrup. The syrup recipe makes double what you need, but it’s hard
to make it in a smaller quantity. Just freeze whatever you don’t use; it
will keep for up to 3 months.
OVERS A 20CM (8IN) ROUND CAKE

00g good-quality white Belgian chocolate – chips or a broken-up bar
0g cocoa butter
00g glucose syrup (or golden syrup if you can’t get it – your coating
will be a darker colour)
or the sugar syrup

0g liquid glucose
00ml water
STEP 1 To make the sugar syrup, place the ingredients in a

microwave-proof bowl and bring to the boil by microwaving on
high for a minute at a time and stirring at each interval.
Alternatively, bring gently to the boil on the hob in a small pan.
Leave to cool slightly.
STEP 2 Put the chocolate in a large microwave-proof bowl and melt
in the microwave on medium power, just for a minute at a time,
stirring at each interval. Alternatively, melt in a heatproof bowl set
over a pan of just-simmering water until smooth and melted.
STEP 3 Melt the cocoa butter in a microwave-proof bowl in the

microwave until liquid or again do this on the hob in a heatproof
bowl sat over simmering water.
STEP 4 Pour the liquid cocoa butter into the melted white chocolate
and stir gently until thoroughly amalgamated.
STEP 5 Place 150ml of the sugar syrup into a microwave-proof bowl,

add the glucose or golden syrup and warm for a minute or two
until they become fully incorporated together. This is easiest in a
microwave on medium power, but you can also melt them together
in a heatproof bowl over a pan of just-simmering (not boiling)
water, Don’t allow the mixture to get too hot – it should be no
hotter than body temperature, so keep checking it – as when you
pour it into the chocolate in the next step there shouldn’t be a great
difference in temperature between the two.
STEP 6 Pour the syrup mixture into the large bowl of melted
chocolate and work these together using a wooden spoon with a
fast, deep, beating motion. You need to work it quickly to avoid
ending up with any lumps of unmixed chocolate or cocoa butter in
your final cooled coating.
STEP 7 Now, while the coating is still in its warm, viscous state, pour
it carefully into a large, heavy-duty freezer bag. You might need
help with this, or you can place the bag in a bowl or pan with the
top of the bag rolled over the sides to keep it open, to avoid any
mishaps.
STEP 8 Leave to cool overnight. It will set into a paste that can then
be kneaded until pliable and used in the same way as sugarpaste or
marzipan.
STEP 9 If you will be decorating your entire cake with moulded
chocolate ruffles, flowers etc., just one coat of this paste will
suffice. But if you wish to have lots of the coated surface on show, I
recommend two layers of this covering for the cake to look its best.
See here for using the chocolate coating as a covering on your cake.
Once your lovely sponge cake is baked to
perfection, you can now fill it with some delicious
buttercream (see here) chocolate ganache (see
here) or anything else that takes your fancy. This
will bring your sponge to life! The sponge and
filling recipes I’ve given in this book are tried and
tested at Fancy Nancy, and work really well for
cake decorating. You can mix them up in any way
you like or, of course, you can use other recipes in
countless different flavours. Everyone has their
favourites!
The fillings and layering methods in this chapter

can be used not only to add flavour, but also to fill
any holes, lumps or bumps in your sponge. This is
so you end up with a perfectly smooth base
coating, which will make for the best finish
possible. I’ll explain some tricks I’ve learned along
the way to make sure you have a great base to
start your decorating. A good foundation is half
the battle in the quest for cake perfection and it
will really save you time in the long run.
Layering and Constructing Cakes
ayering the Very Vanilla and Lemon Drizzle Sponges
ayering the Rich Belgian Chocolate Truffle Cake
evelling the Rich Boozy Fruit Cake
LAYERING THE VERY VANILLA AND LEMON DRIZZLE
SPONGES
So, you’ve made your sponge, baked it a bit higher than your tin and
achieved a nice flat top by popping the sponge back in the tin and slicing
off the excess. Now it’s time to split the cake and fill it, to create a
sound foundation for decorating. It is well worth spending the time at
this point to get the base sponge right. I know you want to whizz along
to the fun bit of decorating, but if you start with a great base, your
finished product will look extra special and you’ll be glad that you took
your time.
For layering the Very Vanilla sponge, I like to slice it twice and fill it
with two layers of buttercream, one of Vanilla Bean Buttercream (see
here), and another of Fresh Raspberry and Strawberry Buttercream (see
here), as this tastes delicious and the two layers look really pretty when
the cake is cut. Of course, you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to
or are in a hurry. You can simply split it once and layer with whatever
filling you fancy. For the Lemon Drizzle cake, you only need to split it
once. You’ll need approximately one batch (750g) of buttercream for
layering a 20cm (8in) round cake.
STEP 1 When you slice a cake, no matter how precisely you measure
it, or even if you use a cake leveller for cutting, there will always
be slight undulations in the sponge, so sometimes when you
sandwich it back together again, the two halves don’t fit back in
exactly the same position and you end up with a slightly wonky
cake! My dad, George, came up with a great idea to help with this:
before you slice the cake, take a serrated knife and score a line all
the way down one edge of your cake so that you can line it back up
again when you put the two halves back together. Now, when you
split your cake, even if you go a bit wonky, you will be able to fit it
back together in exactly the right place, like a jigsaw, using the line
as a guide.
STEP 2 Cut little marks into the sponge around the edge of your cake,
measured out with a ruler at 5cm (2in) intervals to indicate the line
to which you will slice through. Mark roughly in the centre for the
Lemon Drizzle (see here) or a single-layer Very Vanilla cake (see
here). If you’re using two layers of filling, mark roughly one-third
and two-thirds up the sponge. If you have a cake leveller, set it in
the centre for one layer, or at a 2.5cm (1in) depth then at a 5cm
(2in) depth for two layers. Then slice right across your sponge once
or twice.
STEP 3 At this stage, I like to add a little drizzle of syrup to the cut
side of the cake so it can soak into the sponge before adding your
filling and sandwiching together. Apply the syrup with a pastry
brush or trickle it from a jug; you don’t want the cake to become
soggy so apply just enough to keep the cake nice and moist. The
syrup will also extend its shelf life. (If you followed my cake
recipes, you should have some sugar syrup left over for this. If you
used a different cake recipe, see here and here for how to make
sugar syrups.)
STEP 4 Now you need to adhere the bottom portion of your sliced
sponge cake to a cake board the same size as the cake. I find that a
large splodge of buttercream directly onto the board is the best way
to stick on the cake and prevent it from sliding around.
STEP 5 Next, spread a generous layer of your chosen buttercream

over the top of the base sponge cake as evenly as possible with a
palette knife.
STEP 6 If you have only sliced the cake once, take the top piece
(again you can drizzle the cut side of this too if you wish with some
syrup) and invert over the layer of buttercream filling, lining up
your guiding knife mark. (If you are doing two layers of filling,
place the middle piece of sponge on top of the bottom, line up the
knife mark, then drizzle over a little more syrup and top with the
next layer of filling. Place the top piece of sponge over the middle
piece, again using the knife mark as a guide, so that you have a
perfectly level and even cake.)
STEP 7 Once your sponge is filled and sandwiched together, you can
smooth over with more buttercream, or you can simply brush with
jam and add icing straight onto the sponge, but it does look better
if you give it a smooth buttercream covering first.
TIP
If you do a lot of cake decorating, you
might want to invest in a cake leveller; I
swear by mine for this task. With this
really handy tool, I just measure the depth
I need and then slice away; it cuts off the
top and leaves you with a perfectly level
cake on which to work.
TIP
Sticking the cake to the board stops it from
sliding about when you add marzipan and
icing, which would make the job very
tricky and probably result in a bad finish.
LAYERING THE RICH BELGIAN CHOCOLATE TRUFFLE
CAKE
As mentioned in the recipe here, my chocolate sponge is baked in two

halves. I love to sandwich it with the Belgian Chocolate Ganache
Buttercream (see here) – they are a perfect marriage. It’s not imperative
to do the outer buttercream layer if you don’t have the tools or the
time, but it does make for a nice cake and finish. If you wish, you can
simply brush the cake with jam and add icing or marzipan straight onto
the sponge without the buttercream layer. Or you can use it to make
one of the spectacular ganache cakes (see here).
STEP 1 To layer your chocolate sponge with buttercream, you first

need to turn your cakes out of their tins. This sponge is a fairly
dense, crumbly one, with a crust on the top, almost like a brownie,
so it’s best to either use a wire rack or a cake board that’s larger
than the tin. Place this over the top of the tin, then carefully invert,
so that your sponge is left with the bottom facing upwards.
STEP 2 Leave the cakes with the base parchment on and then turn
them back over by placing another wire rack or cake board on the
up-facing base of the cake, then carefully flipping over again so
that the crust is now on top.
STEP 3 Carefully slice the top crust off each sponge. As a general
guide, I like to work on cakes with an 8cm (3in) depth, so ideally
you should measure 4cm (1½in) up the side of each cake and slice
off at this point. (You can use a normal ruler for this, and mark all
around the edge at intervals of about 5cms. This will help to ensure
that you don’t cut the sponge off at a wonky angle.)
STEP 4 Once both halves are ready, take the appropriate-sized cake
board (for example, a 15cm (6in) sponge needs to go on a 15cm
(6in) cake board) and spread a little of your chosen buttercream or
filling onto the board to help the sponge to stick.
STEP 5 Now spread a good layer of the buttercream or filling evenly

over the cut top surface of the base half. It’s easiest to do this with
a palette knife, if you have one, otherwise a regular knife will do.
Try to achieve a layer of buttercream that is approximately 2mm
deep, no more, as you want enough to make the cake taste great,
but not so much that the filling forces itself out at the sides.
STEP 6 Take the other half of your sponge and carefully invert over
the bottom cake, so that both cut sides are facing each other in the
middle and the top of your cake is the nice straight-edged base of
that half.
STEP 7 Once you have these sandwiched together, if you want to be

very fussy about the straightness and levelness of the cake
(important if you are making a stacked design), it’s a good idea not
only to check by eye but also to use a spirit level. You can buy a
small, cheap spirit level from most DIY stores and even some
supermarkets. The best way to test is to place a cake board on the
top surface of the sponge and sit the spirit level on top of the cake
board. If you can see that it’s slightly higher on one side, this is
usually because the filling is uneven (assuming you have cut the
sponge level, of course!), so you can simply push down where you
need to until the spirit level reading is central.
STEP 8 Once you have a level sponge, take a palette knife all the way
around the edge of your cake to smooth off the filling.
STEP 9 From this point on, I like to work with the cake on a large
round cake board that’s 5–8cm (2–3in) wider than the cake on its
base board. This is easier than working directly onto a worktop or,
especially, a turntable, because when you are spreading
buttercream, etc. around the sides, the cake board will prevent any
mess from going onto your turntable or worktop. Working on a
board also aids spreading and covering, as it allows you to easily
spin the cake round using the board underneath.
STEP 10 You can now ice the cake as it is, or you can add an entire
layer of thin buttercream to the outside if you wish – it makes the
chocolate sponge taste wonderful. To do this, take a splodge of
buttercream on your palette knife and spread it all around the sides
of your cake. Also spread a layer of buttercream over the top,
making sure the surface is completely covered and there are no
holes where the sponge is still showing. You don’t want a thick
coating; just a thin all-over spreading of buttercream (a scraping is
enough).
STEP 11 If you have a side scraper, you can now use this to scrape off
excess buttercream, leaving you with a perfectly straight, thin,
smooth coating. Hold the side scraper at a 90-degree angle to the
cake board and facing in towards the cake, at about a 30–45-degree
angle to the surface. Rotate the cake whilst pulling the scraper
towards you. If you don’t have a side scraper, you can use a small
15cm (6in)plastic ruler – a wider one works best. Its straight, flat
edges do the job pretty well.
STEP 12 For the top of the cake, scrape off the excess using a straight
edge tool (a ruler-type tool that is used for royal icing. If you don’t
have one, you can improvise with the straight side of a long bread
knife – be careful of your fingers! – or use a regular 30cm/12in
plastic ruler). Bend down so that your eyes are level with the top of
the cake, then drag the buttercream from the back of the cake
towards you, holding the tool at a 45-degree angle. This will leave
a smooth top.
TIP
When layering your cakes, use the top, cut
edge as the bottom of the cake and use the
bottom of the sponge (the bit that was in
the tin) as the top. This will give you a
firm, smooth surface rather than a crumbly
surface.
LEVELLING THE RICH BOOZY FRUIT CAKE
This is the easiest cake to construct, as although the recipe and method
is more involved, there is no splitting and filling to do, so you can get
pretty much straight on with the covering stage.
As with the other sponges, use the top baked edge of the sponge as
the bottom. Invert it over the cake board to reveal the flat, bottom
part of the fruit cake, which will be smoother and more level as the
top of your cake.
It’s useful to stick the fruit cake to the correct-sized board by
brushing with a little boiled jam and a sticking a few small pieces
of marzipan to the board to prevent the fruit cake from sliding
around when you come to cover it.
However, if your fruit cake isn’t quite level or has any holes in
the edges etc., it’s a good idea to sort all this out before you start
covering, so that when you add marzipan or icing, you won’t get
any lumps or bumps.
You need to get the sides and top as square as possible to get the
best finish. If you have any holes in the sides of your cake, plug
them with marzipan. Also, fruit cakes sometimes shrink a bit, so
when you invert the sponge to get the flat base on top, there might
be a gap around the bottom. Fill this with a sausage of marzipan or
sugarpaste, going all around the base, so that when you ice the
cake, the covering will sit nice and flush with your base board, and
you won’t be left with an unsightly indent in your finished cake.
If the top of the fruit cake is not level, you can build up the dips
with marzipan. Roll out a piece of marzipan to the approximate
thickness, then, by eye, cut out a patch of marzipan to place onto
the dipped part, building up the top until it is flat. It’s a bit tricky
and might take several minutes but if you want your covering to be
even it’s worth doing this at the base level.
DECISIONS FIRST – WHAT TO USE TO COVER YOUR CAKES AND
CUPCAKES?
Now that you are ready to cover your cake, there
are so many different ways in which to do this. So
how do you make your decision? All coatings and
coverings have different tastes and looks, but you
need to consider which is most appropriate for the
design you want to give your cake creation. For
example, you can’t hand-paint onto a glossy
chocolate ganache surface, royal icing or
buttercream.
Sugarpaste is the best and most commonly used

covering because you can apply every different
cake-decorating method and technique to it. It’s a
fabulous product that comes in white, ivory and an
array of colours (or you can colour your own) and
gives you a smooth and even surface. You can pipe
onto it, add sugar models, embellishments or
pictures to it, or even cake-jazzle it (see here)!
Usually, large cakes are first covered with a layer
of marzipan then left for a day before being
covered with sugarpaste.
You can also use liquid icings that set on the cake,
including classic royal icing (see here), chocolate
ganache (see here) and fondant icing (see here),
which you can also buy easily in the supermarket –
you simply add boiled water to it and it’s excellent
to work with.
Covering a cake with chocolate is also a lovely idea

because, as well as being simple, it tastes really
delicious. There are a few ways of doing this: they
all have different looks and you should bear in
mind that some chocolate-covered cakes cannot be
decorated as intricately as an iced cake. If you wish
to decorate, paint or embellish a chocolate cake,
Belgian chocolate paste gives a smooth surface and
is used in the same way as sugarpaste. You need to
remember, however, that if it is a dark colour,
some other colours or hand-painted designs won’t
stand out as well as on plain sugarpaste. You can
buy Belgian chocolate paste coating fairly easily
(see stockists here, but don’t confuse it with
chocolate-flavoured icing, which has a horrible
artificial taste!) or you can make your own; it’s
relatively easy and tastes wonderful – see the recipe
here.
This chapter also includes extra tips for each type

of cake covering, e.g. practising on a cake board,
finishing royal icing, etc.
Icing Cakes
overing with Marzipan and Sugarpaste
First Coat: Marzipan
Second Coat: Sugarpaste
overing Miniature Cakes with Marzipan and Sugarpaste
overing with Royal Icing
overing with Buttercream
overing Cupcakes with Buttercream
Spreading Buttercream onto Cupcakes
Piping Buttercream onto Cupcakes
overing with Fondant Icing
Covering Cupcakes with Fondant Icing
overing with Glossy Chocolate Ganache for Pouring
Covering Cupcakes with Ganache
overing with Chocolate Paste
COVERING WITH MARZIPAN AND SUGARPASTE
To cover a cake in the traditional way, a layer of marzipan is

applied to the cake first, followed by a layer of sugarpaste. It is
always best to give cakes two layers of covering, as this not only
preserves your cake better but helps to achieve a smoother, more
flawless surface on which to decorate.
Marzipan is an excellent medium for the first layer, as it holds
in all the lovely moistness due to its high oil content. Do
remember, however, that you can’t use it if someone has a nut
allergy, as it contains almonds. In this case, use a thicker coating of
sugarpaste, or for a much better finish, I recommend using two
layers of sugarpaste.
The charts below give a guide to the amounts of marzipan and
sugarpaste needed for covering different-sized cakes. It does takes a
bit of trial and error to get to know the exact amount of marzipan
you need, but I think it’s best to roll out a bit too much to be on the
safe side; you can easily re-use the excess. So these quantities allow
enough for you to cover your cake and still have some room to
play; cut off the excess as soon as you’ve laid it over the cake, and
pop it in a food bag to keep it fresh.
FIRST COAT: MARZIPAN
If you have decided not to use marzipan, because of an allergy or if you

just don’t like it, you can apply an initial layer of sugarpaste to your
cake instead, in exactly the same way as described here. Then, the next
day, apply a second sugarpaste coat as described here.
ou will need:
cake, split and filled and adhered to a base board with buttercream
pricot jam
cing sugar
Marzipan (see chart here for amount)
quipment:
Greaseproof paper
astry brush
lastic icing rolling pin
Guide sticks (optional)
op smoother (optional)
side smoothers (optional)
mall, sharp knife
in tool or pin
urntable
ake board, 5–8cm (2–3in) larger than the cake
(See the step-by-step photographs, here)
STEP 1 The surface of the cake needs to be sticky so that the

marzipan will adhere to it; I use apricot jam for this. Microwave the
jam for a couple of minutes until boiling (this is to ensure that no
bacteria becomes trapped between the cake and the marzipan). If
you don’t have a microwave, bring the jam to the boil in a pan on
the hob.
STEP 2 Place the cake on a sheet of greaseproof paper, to avoid

making a sticky mess on the worktop, and brush the hot jam all
over the surface of the cake with a pastry brush. Make sure you
cover the cake completely, so that your marzipan (or sugarpaste, if
using) will stick well.
STEP 3 Dust the worktop with a little icing sugar and knead the
marzipan until it feels soft and malleable. How long this will take
depends on the amount you are using, but as a guide, if you are
covering a 15cm (6in) cake, you’ll need approximately 650g
marzipan and at normal room temperature it should only take a
minute to knead until it’s ready for use.
STEP 4 Dust the worktop with more icing sugar and roll out the
marzipan from the middle outwards; try to keep a round shape by
turning it as you go. Make sure you sweep plenty of icing sugar
under the marzipan as you go along, so that it doesn’t stick to the
worktop. You can dust the top of the marzipan with just a little
icing sugar so that your rolling pin doesn’t get stuck, but try not to
use too much or it might dry out, making it more likely to rip and
crack when you put it on the cake.
TIP
NEVER flip the marzipan over like you
would for pastry; it will cause it to become
much too dry. Just continuously turn it
and make sure you have enough icing
sugar underneath.
TIP
When rolling out marzipan, sugarpaste or
any roll-out covering, you need to keep the
same even thickness over the whole piece,
not so thin in any place that it might rip,
and without any bumps. It’s easy to do this
by eye, but if you want to make your life
even easier, I really recommend investing in
a pair of guide sticks or marzipan spacers.
They guarantee an even thickness, thus
giving a smooth, level surface on the cake.
STEP 5 You need to roll the marzipan large enough to cover both the
top and the sides of your cake. Once it’s rolled out, to check if you
have enough without having to lift it up and place it on the cake,
hold a tin or board the same size as your cake over the middle of
the marzipan. As long as you have at least 8cm (3in) excess around
the edge of the circle, you have enough to cover the entire cake.
STEP 6 Once the marzipan is rolled and ready, roll it gently over the
rolling pin. This will make it easier to lay the marzipan on the cake
without tearing it. It will also allow you to take a few seconds to
line it up in the centre, rather than having to stretch it over both
arms to lay it on the cake. Another benefit is that you can roll the
marzipan onto the cake slowly, which helps prevent air bubbles
becoming trapped underneath it.
STEP 7 Now hold the rolling pin above the cake, with the centre of
the pin positioned roughly in the middle of the cake. Lift the
marzipan up and start to unroll it, leaving just enough hanging
down on the side facing you and rolling the rest away from you
over the top of the cake. The excess should drape around the sides
of the cake and go right down to cover the base board that is
adhered to the bottom of your cake.
STEP 8 Work as quickly as you can to smooth the marzipan onto the
cake, using your hands to smooth the top, from the centre outwards
towards the edges, making sure to press out any air that may be
trapped under the marzipan. To guarantee a very smooth finish,
you can use a cake smoother to gently press and smooth over the
top of the cake.
TIP
I wouldn’t be without my cake smoothers –
if you are planning to make a few cakes,
they are well worth buying as they make
light work of the job and give a much
better finish. Ideally, you need a top
smoother, which has rounded edges, and
two straight-edged smoothers for the sides.
STEP 9 Once the top is smooth, gently press around the top edge to
fold the marzipan down over the sides. Be careful not to pull it
down or it may rip, and don’t press so hard that you leave
fingerprints. Smooth the marzipan onto the sides, taking care not
to create any folds or creases; if you do get these, gently lift the
marzipan back up again just where the crease is appearing and push
out the fold towards the base of the base board.
STEP 10 When your cake is covered with the marzipan, use a small
knife to cut away as much of the excess as you can, leaving just a
small border of marzipan lying on the worktop; around a 2.5cm or
so. You can save the trimmings for another use; immediately pop
them into a food bag and seal, as marzipan dries out fairly quickly.
There is no need to refrigerate this.
STEP 11 For the next part, you need to lift the cake up to ensure you
get a perfectly straight edge at the bottom of the marzipan, as
opposed to cutting off the remaining excess directly on the
worktop. Carefully lift up the cake and hold underneath the centre
of the base board.
TIP
Lifting the cake can be difficult, especially
if it is large and heavy. If you don’t have a
turntable, use a few stacked cake boards a
couple of inches smaller than the cake to
elevate it from the worktop so that you can
work with it at eye level and move it
around more easily. Otherwise, find
something in your kitchen that you can use
to lift up the cake – a can of beans is
perfect under a 10cm (4in) cake, or use an
upturned bowl or pot. Whatever you use, it
needs to be at least 2.5cm or so smaller
than the cake itself.
STEP 12 With the cake raised, use either the flat of your hand or,
preferably, a side smoother, to gently press the marzipan onto the
sides of the cake, right down to the edge of the bottom of the cake
board, so that there is marzipan hanging lower than the base of the
board. Press all the way around the cake until you are happy that
the marzipan is smooth and even.
STEP 13 Now take a small, sharp, clean knife and, holding it at a 90-
degree angle to the sides of the cake, run it all the way around the
underside of the cake board. Do this carefully, trimming off all the
excess marzipan and allowing it to drop onto the worktop.
STEP 14 You now have a perfectly trimmed cake, with straight sides
that are coated right down to the bottom of the cake board. Place
the covered cake onto a cake board at least 2.5cm (1in), or ideally
5cm (2in), larger than the cake.
STEP 15 Now you can pay more attention to the cake’s surface and
sides. Check for obvious air bubbles under the surface; if you notice
any, gently insert your pin tool or pin into them and expel the air
by gently pressing it out through the hole, then gently smooth over
the hole with your fingers.
STEP 16 Bend down so the cake is at eye level, allowing you to judge
the straightness of the top and sides more accurately. Smooth over
the top, sides and edges as best you can, either with the flat of your
hand or with side smoothers if you have them, until you are pleased
with the finish. If using smoothers, you can press quite firmly to
eliminate any bumps, but take care not to press too hard if using
your hands, or you’ll create fingerprint indentations.
STEP 17 Check once more for any air bubbles and expel using the pin
tool or pin as before, then press lightly with your top smoother to
ensure the surface is even. Sometimes, inevitably, you will miss
these bubbles and return the next day to see a huge bulge under
your icing or coating – incredibly frustrating. All you can do is pop
with the pin tool and gently smooth over with a side or top
smoother. You will always get the odd lump and bump and it really
doesn’t matter too much as you will be covering this layer with a
layer of sugarpaste.
STEP 18 Once you have covered your cake with marzipan, it is best to
leave this to dry until the next day so that it can ‘skin over’ and
will hold its neat shape when you add the sugarpaste layer.
TIP
Sometimes, especially in warm weather, if
there’s too much buttercream inside a cake,
you get a really unsightly bulge that
appears in the middle of the cake and can
be seen through the icing. This is known as
the cake ‘blowing’. If you have already
covered the cake with marzipan and this
happens on the following day, you can at
least try to trim away some of the bulge
before you ice the cake. To help prevent the
cake from ‘blowing’, use a pin tool (or a
clean pin, but be careful not to leave it
lying around) and prick several holes
around your cake.
SECOND COAT: SUGARPASTE
On the second day, you need to apply the next coat, this time of
sugarpaste. You’ve already done the hard work – you’ve made sure your
cake has a great base level, tweaked it if needed, and covered it in
marzipan or an initial coat of sugarpaste, so adding this final coat
should be easier.
ou will need:
cake (adhered to a base board), covered in marzipan or a first layer
of sugarpaste
randy, vodka or cooled boiled water
ugarpaste (see chart here for amount needed), in your choice of
colour
cing sugar
quipment:
alette knife, or large normal knife
Greaseproof paper
astry brush
Guide sticks (optional)
side smoothers (optional)
mall, sharp knife
in tool or pin
urntable
STEP 1 Carefully lift up the cake from its base board using a palette
knife or large normal knife, until you can get your fingers
underneath and gently lift it completely off the board (it might
stick a bit but be confident; it will lift away). Place the cake on a
piece of greaseproof paper to save on mess.
STEP 2 Brush the marzipan or first sugarpaste layer all over with
brandy or vodka (or, if you don’t want to use alcohol, with cooled
boiled water), using a pastry brush. You might intend to keep this
cake for a while, or will be taking a few days to stack and decorate
it, so you need to minimise any risk of bacterial growth under the
iced surface.
STEP 3 The cake is now ready to receive the next layer of covering.
Knead the sugarpaste until pliable, using plenty of icing sugar on
the worktop beneath the icing. When ready to roll, you can also
dust the top of the sugarpaste with just a little icing sugar to stop
your rolling pin from sticking, but try not to use too much or the
sugarpaste can become dry and may crack.
STEP 4 Flatten the ball of sugarpaste, and start to roll out evenly
from the middle outwards, turning it regularly to prevent an
uneven shape; you want a nice round piece to lay over the cake.
Take care to roll out with even pressure so that your sugarpaste is a
good, uniform thickness of approximately 5–6mm. You can use
guide sticks if you have them.
STEP 5 In the same way as described for the first coat of marzipan or
sugarpaste (see here, steps 7–18), roll the sugarpaste over the
rolling pin, line it up over the cake, smooth over, and trim off the
excess, again placing the cake back onto the cake board and
elevating it, to enable you to smooth down the sugarpaste and
make the cake surface as smooth and straight as possible. Leave
your cake to dry and skin over.
STEP 6 If your iced cake is for a single-tier design, it’s possible to

start decorating after just an hour or so, but take care not to make a
mistake (e.g. if you pipe on a decoration and then want to remove
it), as it will be more likely to damage or stain the iced surface
after such a short time. Ideally, it is best to leave the sugarpaste to
skin over for 24 hours. Then, if you make any mistakes, the
sugarpaste won’t mark too much and you will be able to repair
your mistake, or caketastrophe as I like to call them. here, I show
you how to rescue your cake from a caketastrophe – there are
always ways to repair or disguise mistakes, so don’t panic!
TIP
If you get too much icing sugar on the
surface of a dark-coloured sugarpaste,
especially black, the icing sugar will cause
white blotches that spoil the iced surface
and are very hard to remove. If this
happens, re-knead the sugarpaste and
begin again.
TIP
Like anything in life, the more you practise
this, the better you will get. If you are a
real perfectionist, then you could practise
with a polystyrene cake dummy (see
stockists here) before moving onto a cake.
You can use and re-use the sugarpaste
several times. It’s a good idea to attempt a
more basic or easier project on your first
go, and once you have got the hang of
working with marzipan and sugarpaste
(you do get a feel for it after a while, like
many other food mediums or craft
techniques), you can then try a bigger,
more elaborate or stacked cake project.
COVERING MINIATURE CAKES WITH MARZIPAN AND
SUGARPASTE
If you wish to cover miniature cakes with marzipan and sugarpaste,

or indeed with two coats of sugarpaste or chocolate coating, you
can do this in pretty much the same way as described for covering a
larger cake. They can be time-consuming but are delightful to make
and always a big hit.
First you need to work out how much cake to bake. You start by
making one large cake in a square tray or tin, with a shallow depth
of about 5cm (2in) – definitely not 8cm (3in) depth like the larger
cakes or the miniatures will be too tall. (If you’re making miniature
chocolate cakes, you don’t need to make it in two tins as earlier;
just one tin is fine here.) You then cut this large cake into lots of
smaller ones. As a guide, each miniature cake should be about 5cm
(2in) square or, for round ones, 5cm (2in) in diameter.
Measure the sides of your tin and calculate how many cakes of
this size it will give. I always allow for some loss at the edges
where the sponge may be dry, so I minus off one cake in each
direction. For example, a 25cm (10in) square tin will give five
across and five down, but once you minus a cake in each direction,
that gives four by four, resulting in approximately 16 mini cakes. If
you need more miniatures than your tin will give, bake more than
one cake.
Once your cake is baked, leave to cool, then (unless it’s a fruit
cake) slice once horizontally and fill with buttercream or your
chosen filling. You are now ready to create and cover your
miniature cakes.
ou will need:
23cm (9in) square cake, split and filled with a layer of buttercream
(unless it’s a fruit cake). This will make 9 mini cakes
pricot jam
cing sugar
.25 kg marzipan, sugarpaste or chocolate paste
randy, vodka or cooled boiled water
quipment:
ound cookie cutter (or round sugarcraft cutter, diameter 5cm/2in),
or a long, sharp knife if making square cakes
cm (2in) round or square cake cards (or pre-cut circles/squares of
greaseproof paper or card)
astry brush
side smoothers
alette knife (or small normal knife)
in tool
harp knife
STEP 1 Carefully cut out your little cakes. This is easiest if the cake is
at room temperature. For round ones, press out with a cutter. For
square ones, slice the cake into strips 5cm (2in) wide, then cut
across these at 5cm (2in) intervals to give cubes. Pop them all onto
a large cake board and place in the fridge, as it’s easier to cover
them when cold and firmed up.
STEP 2 Start by covering just four small cakes at a time, until you get
quicker, especially when using sugarpaste, as it dries out fast. Brush
each cake all over with boiled apricot jam (see here) and spread
them out so that you can work on each one.
STEP 3 Take some of your covering – for four cakes, 500g is enough
– and roll out as described in the method for marzipan (see here,
steps 3–5), to at least 30cm (12in) square.
STEP 4 Cut the covering into small squares, each one large enough to
cover a little cake morsel – about 15cm (6in) square is enough.
Place a square on top of each cake.
STEP 5 With your hands, roughly smooth over the top and sides until
each cake is covered. They will end up a bit rough, but you will
finish these off with smoothers. (Smoothers are a must for these
cakes; you can’t make perfectly iced mini cakes with just your
fingers and hands I’m afraid.)
STEP 6 Using a sharp knife, cut off the excess covering very close to
the base of each cake.
STEP 7 If your cakes are round, press your pair of smoothers against
opposite sides of the cake and run the smoothers all around the
edge with a backwards-and-forwards motion, until the edges are
smooth and neat. Pat the top down so that it looks straight and
level, and keep pushing the sides and patting the top until you have
a good upright shape.
STEP 8 For square cakes, just pat the cake by pushing the smoothers
on opposite sides, pressing the covering onto the cake, then switch
to the other sides until you have moulded a rough square shape.
Also pat down the top, to make sure it’s flat and level.
STEP 9 Once you have finished smoothing, lift the cakes carefully
with a palette knife or small normal knife and place on a large cake
board or baking sheet lined with greaseproof paper to dry
overnight.
STEP 10 The next day, line up your base cards or cut-out greaseproof
pieces, and use a dab of boiled apricot jam to adhere the cakes onto
the bases. Chill in the fridge for about an hour, so that they set nice
and firm. This will ensure that they hold their shape and will make
it easier to cover them with the next layer of sugarpaste (if the
cakes are left at room temperature, the marzipan can become
crumbly and be easily pressed out of shape.)
STEP 11 Cover with a second coating in the same way, but this time
using brandy, vodka or cooled boiled water, instead of jam, to stick
the second coat to the base coat. Leave to dry overnight before
decorating. (See here for some design ideas for mini cakes.)
COVERING WITH ROYAL ICING
Royal icing can be used to cover a whole cake. It used to be the

only way to decorate wedding cakes, until a few years ago, when
sugarpaste became popular and widely available. Cakes covered
with royal icing do look more old-fashioned, and the icing sets very
hard, but it can give you a cool retro look. It’s also great for
covering Christmas cakes, as it can make them look like they’re
covered in snow!
Applying royal icing is quite a tricky skill to learn and many
cake decorators don’t do it nowadays. If you want to have a go, I
would recommend investing in a straight edge tool and a side
scraper. It really is worth it, and being stainless steel, they last
forever.
With royal icing you really need two coats, or, even better,
three, so you should aim to leave your cake overnight after the first
coat before beginning the whole process again the next day. When
you are new to cake decorating, you might even need a fourth coat
until you are happy with the finish. Again, it depends on how you
will be decorating the cake.
TIP
If you are using royal icing to cover a cake,
you can add glycerine (about 1 teaspoon
per 500g royal icing), which softens the
icing, so that you can cut more easily
through the iced surface. Without this, it
sets hard like plaster, so it’s really difficult
to cut into.
TIP
If you are trying this for the first time, you
may want to think about decorating your
royal-iced cake with lots of floral
decorations, etc. That way, it won’t matter
too much if the surface isn’t completely
smooth as there won’t be lots of it showing.
You can cheat by hiding imperfections!
ou will need:
cake, covered in marzipan (see here)
oyal icing (see here); slightly thicker than soft peak is ideal – stiff
enough to apply and smooth out, but not so soft that it loses shape
(you need approx. 800g for a 20cm/8in round cake)
quipment:
urntable
alette knife
traight edge tool (or plastic 30cm/12in ruler)
ide scraper
harp knife
astry brush
STEP 1 Have your royal icing ready at the right consistency and cover
it with a clean, damp cloth to stop it from skinning over.
STEP 2 Place your marzipan-covered cake on the cake board and

position centrally onto the turntable.
STEP 3 For a round cake (I will explain how to cover a square cake in
a moment), use the palette knife to place a large blob of royal icing
onto the side of your cake. Spread it evenly around the edge in a
generous layer with a gentle pushing motion, paddling the icing
from side to side in small movements to spread it out to an even
thickness. Turn the cake on your turntable as you go, until all of
the sides are covered with a layer approximately 5mm thick.
Paddling in this way helps to push out and displace bubbles from
the icing. (If you are a perfectionist, you can paddle out the icing
on the work surface first to remove bubbles. It depends on how
you’ll be decorating the cake as to how smooth your icing needs to
be.) Don’t worry about getting it really neat; just get an even
amount on there, as you will smooth this over in a moment.
STEP 4 Hold the side scraper at a slight angle (about 15–20 degrees)
against the side of the cake. With your other hand, take hold of the
turntable at the back of the cake, just behind the scraper. Slowly,
but without stopping, revolve the cake a full circle in one
continuous motion.
STEP 5 When the entire surface is smooth, lift the scraper away from
the side. This will leave a visible take-off mark, but the more you
practise – and after further coats of icing – the less this mark will be
noticeable. If you are unhappy with your first attempt, then re-
paddle the sides and have another go. When finished, clean the
scraper.
If you are covering a square cake, apply the royal icing to two
opposite sides and let these dry for at least 2 hours, before coming
back to your cake and covering the remaining two sides. Complete
these in the same way as for the round cake by palleting on a thick
layer with the paddling motion, then scraping over the royal icing
with the side scraper set at an angle to smooth.
STEP 6 If there are any excess peaks protruding from the finish point,
use a sharp knife to drag down that side to remover the snags.
Clean off any icing left on the board using a sharp knife and a
clean, damp cloth. Clean the palette knife.
TIP
If you are a beginner with royal icing, leave
the iced cake in a dry atmosphere to
harden for a couple of hours before starting
on the sides. It is possible to ice the top and
sides together, but it is easier to do them
one at a time, especially when you’re just
starting out, or things can get a bit messy.
STEP 7 Using the palette knife, place a large blob of royal icing on
top of the cake. Spread it evenly over the top only, with a gentle
pushing motion, paddling the icing from side to side in small
movements to spread it out to an even thickness. Turn the cake on
your turntable as you go, until the top of the cake is covered, keep
paddling in this way to push out the bubbles from the icing, as you
did on the sides.
STEP 8 At this point, don’t worry too much about any icing spilling
over the edges (unless it’s going all over the place!) as you can
carefully scrape this off. Once you are happy that there is an even
coat on the top, of approximately 5mm thickness, stop and clean
the palette knife.
STEP 9 Hold your straight edge tool (or ruler) at both ends, at an
angle of 45 degrees to the surface of the cake. Starting at the edge
furthest away from you, at the back of the cake, draw the tool
forward across the cake, towards your body, in one continuous
movement. Make sure not to press down too hard, just glide
confidently over the icing.
STEP 10 Any icing collected on the straight edge tool can now be
scraped back into the bowl. If you are not happy with your surface
(it takes practice and patience) then you can just scrape it off the
cake and start again. You can do this as many times as you like
whilst the icing is still wet and not crusting; however, it will go
crusty quickly – after about 5 minutes. As long as the first coat is
level, you’re doing fine. Clean the straight edge tool after each
attempt to prevent dry lumps getting into the icing.
STEP 11 Once you are happy with the top, use the palette knife to
remove any icing from the sides of the cake by carefully holding it
vertically, running it along the sides and knocking off the excess as
you go. Throw this excess away as it will have started to dry out.
STEP 12 Before adding the second or third layer of royal icing, make
sure the first layer is dry. Using a sharp knife, carefully scrape off
any rough edges, excess snags and peaks. Use a pastry brush to
remove any loose particles of icing that could get caught up in the
next coat.
STEP 13 Now repeat all the steps for the next layer of coating. This
layer can be a little thinner; about the consistency of whipped
cream.
COVERING WITH BUTTERCREAM
Buttercream can be used as the outer covering for a whole large

cake and it tastes wonderful, great for those who don’t like
marzipan or sugarpaste icing. (However, a base layer of marzipan
will give a smoother finish, but if you don’t want to use it then it’s
fine to apply buttercream straight onto the sponge.) It is fairly easy
to cover a cake in this way and the beauty is that you don’t have to
get it perfect, particularly if you will be adding some decorations. I
have included a buttercream-covered design in the book (see here)
to inspire you. And see here for using buttercream to cover
cupcakes.
A buttercream-covered cake looks gorgeous for a vintage tea
party, placed on a glass stand and decorated simply with fresh
flowers. If you want to make it look very special, you can add
chocolate roses, sugar flowers of any kind, or even fun, hand-
moulded sugar models, depending on the occasion. For a wedding,
this is stunning in ivory with fresh flowers! If you want to make a
few tiers, you can get several lovely stands to display each cake
separately, or arrange them all on a multi-tiered stand.
For this technique, I would recommend investing in a straight
edge tool and side scraper. Of course, you can just use a palette
knife if that’s all you have; you won’t get a completely smooth look
but a rougher, ‘paletted’, surface, which can also look good,
particularly if you are going for more of a vintage theme. Bear in
mind, though, that a buttercream-covered cake is less stable, so on
a very hot day it may start to melt, and once the oil in the butter
has begun to melt, the surface of the cake will look all bitty and
oily. Try to keep the room fairly cool, and it should be okay. You
don’t have to refrigerate this but you can, of course, if you want to
prolong its shelf life.
ou will need:
round cake, covered in marzipan if you like (see here)
uttercream (see here), in a flavour and colour of your choice, at
room temperature (you need approx. 800g for a 15cm/6in round
cake)
quipment:
urntable
alette knife
traight edge tool (or plastic 30cm/12in ruler)
ide scraper (optional)
harp knife
STEP 1 Place your cake on the cake board and position centrally onto
your turntable.
STEP 2 With a palette knife, put a large blob of buttercream onto the
top of the cake and spread it evenly over the top surface. Use a
pushing motion and wiggle the knife from side to side, paddling
down with a backwards-and-forwards movement, turning the cake
on the turntable as you go. (If you are not using a turntable, just
spin the cake round on its board on the surface, although it’s not
quite as easy.) Don’t worry about any buttercream spilling over the
edges as you will be icing the sides straight away. You should have
a coating that’s not too thick, but enough to cover any lumps and
bumps; around 5mm is perfect.
STEP 3 Now take some more buttercream on the knife and start to
apply this onto the sides of the cake in thick blobs, roughly
spreading it around the sides. Use the palette knife to spread
around the sides until you have a rough all-over covering with no
holes showing and the cake is covered entirely.
STEP 4 If you don’t have a straight edge tool and scraper, try to
neaten off the coating as best you can by smoothing all around in a
sweeping motion with the palette knife, until all sides are equal
and smooth. You can run the knife along the top edge to neaten
any bits of buttercream that have pushed up above the top of the
cake. Leave the cake to set.
STEP 5 If you do have a straight edge tool (or are using the ruler
instead), hold it at both ends and position it at the back of the cake,
the edge furthest away from you, at an angle of 45 degrees to the
surface. Draw it across the cake towards your body in one
continuous movement. Make sure not to press down too hard, just
glide confidently over the buttercream. This will give you a clean
finish.
STEP 6 Continue immediately to smooth the sides. Hold the side

scraper against the side of the cake at a very slight angle (about 15–
20 degrees). With your other hand, take hold of the
board/turntable at the back of the cake, just behind the scraper.
Slowly, but without stopping, revolve the cake until a full circle has
been completed in one continuous motion.
STEP 7 When the entire side surface is smooth, lift the scraper away
from the buttercream. If a few snagging bits of buttercream are
poking up above the flat top, hold a sharp knife level with the top
of the cake and run it all the way around the edge to carefully take
off any excess.
STEP 8 Now leave the cake to set – you may want to pop it in the
fridge for an hour or so to help it firm up. Once the buttercream has
set, you can lift the cake off the cake board that you worked on (as
it will have buttercream all over it) and place it on a clean board,
cake stand or iced board ready to finish your gorgeous cake.
Decorate in any way you fancy.
TIP
If chilling this cake, allow it to set before
you pop it in the fridge, so that you don’t
smear the coating. Once set, wrap the cake
up in cling film to protect it from drying
out in the fridge. When you want to bring
it back to room temperature, unwrap
whilst it’s still fridge-cold, so that the
buttercream doesn’t stick to the cling film.
COVERING CUPCAKES WITH BUTTERCREAM
To decorate cupcakes with buttercream, it can either be spread over

the top of your cupcake with a palette knife or piped onto the
surface for different designs and textures. You can use any flavour
of buttercream, and remember that you can tint it with beautiful
colours to make the cakes stand out.
If you want to add further decoration to your cupcakes, such as
piped messages, buttercream might not be the best choice as the
surface isn’t flat so it’s difficult to pipe neatly onto it (fondant icing
is better for this; see here). However, a buttercream cupcake is
perfect for dotting with a sugar flower, or you can top with a
sugarpaste disc that you have already piped onto.
If you are making a batch of buttercream-topped cupcakes in
advance, you can keep the decorated cupcakes in a cake box in the
fridge until you are ready to eat them. They will last for a few days,
but obviously the fresher they are the better, as the sponge will go
dry over time.
TIP
If you haven’t done this before and you
want to practise first without spoiling a
cake, I recommend having a test run, onto
a cake board, a piece of greaseproof paper
or directly onto your worktop. (The first
two allow you to pop any buttercream back
into your bowl and re-use it.) This will give
you a feel for how the buttercream comes
out of the nozzle and how to work it to
produce the look you need.
SPREADING BUTTERCREAM ONTO CUPCAKES
ou will need:
2–16 cupcakes
batch of buttercream (see here) will cover 12–16 cupcakes
quipment:
alette knife
STEP 1 Dollop a fairly generous amount of buttercream onto the top

of the cupcake. It depends on the size of cupcake, but for a
standard-sized case (not mini or muffin-sized) you’ll need a heaped
tablespoon.
STEP 2 Hold the cake in your hand and, with your palette knife at an
angle of 45 degrees to the cake, sweep around in a circular motion
using gentle pressure, turning the cake as you go, until the top is
coated.
STEP 3 Once all your cupcakes are topped with buttercream, you can
finish them with sprinkles, sweets, sugar flowers or whatever takes
your fancy. They look divine when topped with a sugar or
chocolate rosebud and leaves.
PIPING BUTTERCREAM ONTO CUPCAKES
You can also pipe buttercream onto your cupcakes, which looks fab
and is fairly simple to do. Different-shaped nozzles, such as star,
leaf-tip or petal-shaped produce a range of effects.
Take a large plastic piping bag (the non-slip variety is best),
snip off the end and drop in the nozzle of your choice. (In the
pictures, I am using a large Wilton 1m nozzle.) Hold the bag with
the top folded over your hand – this stops it getting into a slippery
mess. With a spoon, fill up the bag halfway. Hold the top of the bag
firmly and shake down the buttercream so it drops to the bottom,
near the nozzle. Bunch up the bag above the filling and twist it
until it is tightly sealed and you can feel pressure. Now you can
start squeezing the buttercream out! Be sure to keep a firm grip and
twist the bag tight as you use up the buttercream.
STAR NOZZLE
A simple star nozzle is relatively easy to use and gives a lovely
whipped effect, similar to a whippy ice-cream. Start at the outer
edge of the cake and, in one continuous spiral motion, gently
squeeze out a trail of the star-shaped buttercream until you reach
the centre. Lift off and up to give the top a peaked finish.
PETAL NOZZLE
Piping ‘floral’ buttercream onto cupcakes can give a lovely rose
effect. It’s a bit trickier than the star-nozzle method, so try it first
on some paper, or just have a go with a cake – if you’re not happy
you can scrape the buttercream back into the bowl and re-use it.
STEP 1 Hold your petal-shaped nozzle against the top of your cupcake
in the centre with the fat side touching the sponge and the tapered
petal edge at the top.
STEP 2 Squeeze a small, cone-shaped ‘centre petal’ onto the cake and
stop. Twist the cupcake round as the icing comes out, rather than
trying to move the nozzle; it is much easier to turn the cake than to
turn the piping bag.
STEP 3 Now squeeze out another petal to ‘cup’ around the centre
one, beginning a layered rose-petal effect.
STEP 4 Repeat by piping a third petal around the two centre ones,
then continue this by going around in a circle, building up petals,
squeezing each one out and then stopping once it is formed, until
the entire surface is covered with a pretty, buttery, sugary rose.
LEAF NOZZLE
Piping buttercream ‘leaves’ around a flower or centre decoration is
straightforward with a leaf nozzle – it’s all about the squeezing
technique and knowing when to stop and drag away. (See pictures,
here.)
STEP 1 Place the tip of the leaf nozzle onto the cake against where
you want the leaves to ‘grow’ out from.
STEP 2 You want the leaf to be fatter and wider at the start, then
tapering off to a point as you finish. Squeeze the buttercream out to
begin the leaf, then, still squeezing, pull away from the base and
gently release the pressure until you stop. Drag the tip of the
nozzle up and away from the cake.
STEP 3 If you want the leaves to look ruffled, you can move the
nozzle slightly up and down while you squeeze out the
buttercream; have a practice a few times onto the worktop, or onto
greaseproof paper so that you can re-use the buttercream.
COVERING WITH FONDANT ICING
Covering a cake in fondant gives a slightly more messy look and does
take some skill, but it’s great for certain designs. If you wish to decorate
a whole cake with fondant icing, you can pour the entire bowl of icing
over the cake on a wire rack in the same way as described for the glossy
chocolate ganache (see here).
COVERING CUPCAKES WITH FONDANT ICING
Fondant-covered cupcakes are often better than buttercream

cupcakes if you want a suitable surface on which to decorate. For
example, you can easily pipe the recipient’s name, or age for a
birthday, onto fondant, whereas buttercream surfaces are not flat
so it’s difficult to pipe onto them neatly.
Secondly, if your cakes are totally covered in fondant, this will
preserve the sponge inside for much longer. Fondant-covered
cupcakes can last for up to five days if they are in foil cases and the
icing completely encapsulates the sponge beneath. Buttercream
cupcakes dry out much faster.
ou will need:
2–16 cupcakes
00g pack of fondant icing sugar
few tbsp hot water (boiled then cooled slightly)
aste colours (optional)
quipment:
Wire rack
Greaseproof paper
in tool
alette knife or metal spoon
POURING
Make the fondant as described here or follow the instructions on
the packet. They vary a bit, but ideally you want a consistency that
is runny enough to pour but not so runny that it doesn’t set well –
you are looking for the consistency of treacle, so that it will slide
off your spoon onto the cake. If you prefer, you can fill a plastic
disposable piping bag with the entire amount of fondant and snip a
small hole in it, to give you a bit more control. However, a spoon
works perfectly well. You’ll need a generous tablespoon of fondant
for a standard-sized cupcake.
STEP 1 If you wish to colour the fondant, tint with the colour of your
choice. Cover the bowl with a clean, damp tea towel to keep it from
drying out.
STEP 2 Scoop up a tablespoonful of fondant, slowly so that it doesn’t

spill over. Drip the fondant onto the top of a cupcake.
STEP 3 The fondant will slowly start to spread towards the edges of
the case. At this stage you should be able to tell if you need to add a
little more. Work quickly, as it sets fast and begins to skin over
when exposed to the air. If you have added too much icing, you can
invert the cupcake over the bowl (be careful not to drop crumbs
into the bowl of icing) and then turn it back over once some of the
fondant has dripped off.
STEP 4 To encourage the fondant to settle flat on the cake, to give
you a neat surface for decorating (piping a message onto a lumpy
surface will make even the tidiest of writing look messy!), gently
tap the base of the cupcake on the worktop, giving it little knocks
until the icing has flooded to the edges of the case.
STEP 5 Check the finish and if you notice any tiny bubbles appearing
in the icing, pop them quickly with your pin tool, then tap the cake
again to flatten. Leave to set for 24 hours until the icing is hard.
You can then pipe onto the fondant (such as a message, name or
number) or embellish with flowers, push-mould decorations, etc.
TIP
Ideally, if you are planning to cover
cupcakes with fondant, it is important to
bake them with the right amount of batter
in the case, so that the sponge rises to just
under the top of the case. This makes it so
much easier to cover the cakes with
fondant. I find that filling the case to just
under halfway usually works out about
right. If the baked sponge pokes up or rises
above the top of the case, you can, of
course, trim it flat, but it’s easier if you
start with a sponge that’s just under the
top edge. This enables you to pour in the
fondant and for it to be contained within
the cake case rather than trickling over the
edge, which looks messy. Your fondant will
then sit nice and flat, making it much
easier to pipe onto, or add pictures or cut-
out shapes to.
TIP
To take it slowly but still get a perfect
result, lay a damp tea towel over your bowl
of fondant so that it doesn’t form a skin
and leave you with flakes in your smooth
topping.
DIPPING
Another way to apply fondant to cupcakes, particularly if you
prefer to bake your cupcakes with a domed sponge top, is to hold
the cupcake by its case and invert it over the bowl of fondant,
immersing the top just far enough into the icing to coat the sponge,
and taking care not to let it smudge onto the case. Again, the
fondant will set touch-dry after a few hours, but it’s better to leave
the cakes until the next day, to totally dry out, before decorating
them.
TIP
If your fondant has a thin consistency, it’s
best to let a thin coating dry for a couple of
hours, before going back and dipping the
cakes again to ensure a good coverage
without any sponge showing through.
COVERING WITH GLOSSY CHOCOLATE GANACHE FOR
POURING
The glossy chocolate ganache covering here can be used on both larger
cakes and cupcakes. It is relatively simple to do and quite fun too!
If you want a simple cake project that tastes amazing, there’s

nothing better than a cake iced in chocolate ganache and then
decorated with a corsage of chocolate roses. You can buy these in a
plethora of colours at good suppliers, or alternatively you can make
your own (see here), or you can pipe a simple message directly
onto the cake for a personal touch. I have included a single-tier
chocolate ganache cake in the book to spark your imagination (see
here). Chocolate ganache is also a perfect marriage with Zesty
Orange Cupcakes (see here), especially at Christmas!
Although ganache is a quick way to decorate, if you want to try

different designs other than simple piping or adding chocolate,
fresh or sugar decorations, you will probably find it’s best to stick
with sugarpaste or chocolate paste. It’s also a bit tricky to stack
ganache-covered cakes; it can be done, of course, but you need to
think about the shelf life and the room temperature, as ganache
isn’t as stable as sugarpaste.
When you are working with chocolate ganache, ideally you need a
stable room temperature. At Fancy Nancy, we are lucky enough to
have an air-conditioned room to work in during the warmer
months. Most people won’t have that luxury at home, so if it’s a
steaming summer day, you will probably get into a melty, sticky
mess. It might be best, therefore, to work in the evenings or to
stick with sugarpaste or chocolate paste! Also, be warned that if you
keep a ganache-covered cake for a few days and the temperature
keeps changing, you might see matt white patches appearing on the
surface.
ou will need:
round cake, split and filled, and covered in buttercream if you wish
(see here) and adhered to a base board
Glossy chocolate ganache for pouring (see here, recipe will cover a
15cm/6in round cake)
quipment:
Wire rack
Greaseproof paper or baking parchment
Measuring jug with lip (optional)
alette knife or metal spoon
mall, sharp knife
iping bag and No. 3 nozzle (optional)
STEP 1 Place your cake onto a clean wire rack set over a large piece
of greaseproof paper or baking parchment – to catch the excess
ganache that pours down the sides of the cake.
STEP 2 Now, with your ganache in a measuring jug with a lip for
ease (or you can pour from the bowl), pour it liberally over the
cake so that you have a big shiny puddle of chocolate on the top of
your cake.
STEP 3 Use a palette knife or the back of a spoon to encourage the

chocolate to spread slowly to the edges and down the sides of the
cake. If some sponge is still showing through, add another big glug
over the top (use extra so that you get good coverage, and anything
left on the paper below can be re-used) and use the palette knife or
spoon to spread it all over the top and sides.
STEP 4 Once the cake is covered and there is no sponge showing,
gently tap the rack on the worktop to carefully level the topping
and get a smoother finish.
STEP 5 Leave to set at room temperature. The chocolate ganache will

firm up into a soft, creamy chocolate shell.
STEP 6 When you are ready to place your cake onto a board, or cake
stand, use a palette knife to lift up the cake from one side, just
enough to get your hands under it (you will get chocolatey hands!).
STEP 7 Hold the cake up to eye level carefully on one hand (with
whichever hand feels the most comfortable). You might find this a
bit tricky, but try to position your hand in the centre underneath
the cake board, and splay out your fingers to help balance it. You
will see a rough edge of chocolate along the bottom of the cake
where it was against the wire rack. Take a small sharp knife, and at
a 180-degree angle to the sides, flush with the flat base, run the
knife away from you to trim off that chocolate and neaten up your
edge.
STEP 8 Place a dab of ganache or royal icing in the middle of your

board or cake stand; this will keep the cake stuck down. Position
the cake on the board or stand. You can leave the cake like this, or
if you want it to look really professional and special, you can pipe a
trail of ganache around the bottom (see here), to finish off the look
and hide any uneven bits.
COVERING CUPCAKES WITH GANACHE
Cupcakes lend themselves perfectly to being covered with ganache in the

same way as fondant, by baking the sponge just under the level of the
case (fill only halfway with batter) so that you don’t have to trim them
flat. Then flood with glossy chocolate heaven. Make the ganache as
described here; it will cover 12–16 cupcakes.
STEP 1 While it’s still warm, pour just a dash of the ganache onto the
top of each cupcake. Don’t overfill – you can always add more, but
you don’t want it to spill over the edges of the cupcake case. I find
it helpful to pour the ganache from a jug with a lip, so that it’s
easier to control.
STEP 2 Once the ganache is poured on, take each cupcake in its case
and gently tap on a surface to encourage the chocolate to spread to
the edges and sit flat. Don’t worry if your sponge is a bit domed;
once you decorate it with sprinkles, gold leaf or a white-chocolate
rose it will look beautiful.
STEP 3 Continue until your batch is covered, then leave to set.
COVERING WITH CHOCOLATE PASTE
Chocolate paste (also known as roll-out chocolate, modelling

chocolate or chocolate plastique) is great if you want a chocolate-
coated cake but need it to last longer than is possible with ganache,
or if you wish to decorate, paint or embellish with appliqué for a
special occasion. It is a delicious chocolate coating, made using a
large quantity of Belgian chocolate, so it tastes fabulous and fudgy.
It’s different from pure chocolate – it still tastes gorgeous, but has a
slightly chewy texture. The addition of glucose and cocoa makes it
rollable or mouldable, so that you can use the paste for all manner
of things, including covering cakes, and making flowers and
models. It’s much more stable than ganache, sets harder and skins
over. As a covering, it’s quite strong and has a lovely smooth, flat
surface, similar to sugarpaste or marzipan.
Chocolate paste is brilliant for cake decorating and strikes a
happy medium for those who don’t really like marzipan and
sugarpaste and prefer a chocolatey cake but still want to be able to
decorate it. You can make it yourself (see here) or you can also
now purchase really good-quality ready-made chocolate paste (see
stockists here). It can either be used as a flat covering, like
sugarpaste, or it can be used to cover your sponge fairly roughly,
meaning you don’t have to be as precise as when you are covering
a cake with marzipan and sugarpaste. Chocolate paste allows you to
create so many fabulous designs and is an easy and, more
importantly, forgiving product to work with in the kitchen. At
Fancy Nancy we make frilly fans, panels, floral decorations and
figures with this. You can also use it to create crazy, wacky designs
with crumpled chocolate adornments.
The white-chocolate version (see here)can be coloured with
paste colourings, to make bright, multi-coloured chocolate
creations; they look like gorgeous, shiny, fondant decorations, but
taste much more chocolatey and less sugary sweet.
Working with this chocolate is fairly similar to working with
sugarpaste and marzipan by way of the application. However, bear
in mind that if it gets hot you may find it goes oily. Working in a
stable room temperature is best, ideally between 16–23°C. The
other advantage to this medium is that it doesn’t dry out quickly
like sugarpaste; it’s a bit more forgiving.
For a 15cm (6in) round cake, you’ll need approximately 650g
chocolate paste. For quantities needed to cover different-sized cakes
with chocolate paste, refer to the marzipan quantities chart here. If
you don’t intend to add further decorations over the cake’s surface,
you may wish to cover your cake twice with this chocolate coating
to achieve a smoother finish.
ou will need:
cake, split and filled, and stuck to a base board
pricot jam
cing sugar
hocolate paste (for amount, see introduction)
quipment:
Greaseproof paper
astry brush
Guide sticks or marzipan spacers (optional)
op smoother
side smoothers
mall, sharp knife
urntable
in tool or pin
odka, brandy or cooled boiled water
STEP 1 First, you need to make the surface of the cake sticky so that
the chocolate will adhere to it. The best thing to use is apricot jam.
Microwave the jam for a couple of minutes until boiling, just to be
sure that no bacteria becomes trapped between the cake and the
chocolate. If you don’t have a microwave, bring the jam to the boil
in a pan on the hob.
STEP 2 Place the cake on a sheet of greaseproof paper to avoid

making a sticky mess on the worktop, and brush the jam all over
the surface of the cake with a pastry brush. Make sure you cover it
completely so that the chocolate will stick well.
STEP 3 Dust the worktop with a little icing sugar and knead the
chocolate paste until it feels soft and malleable; how long this takes
depends on the amount you are using.
STEP 4 Begin to roll out the chocolate, from the middle outwards,
and turning it regularly to keep the shape round. Make sure to
sweep plenty of icing sugar under the chocolate so that it doesn’t
stick to the worktop. Also dust the top of the chocolate with just a
little icing sugar so that your rolling pin doesn’t stick, but don’t use
too much or the chocolate might dry out, making it more likely to
rip or crack when you put it onto the cake.
TIP
NEVER flip the chocolate over as you
would for pastry; it will become much too
dry. Just make sure to turn it and ensure
there’s enough icing sugar underneath; this
way you will be sure to keep a smooth,
gleaming coating.
STEP 5 You need to keep the same even thickness over the whole
piece of chocolate, without any bumps, and don’t let it get too thin
in places, or it may rip. Again, I really recommend investing in a
pair of guide sticks or marzipan spacers, which enable you to roll
the entire piece of chocolate to the thickness of the sticks, giving
you a smooth, even surface. But, of course, they’re not essential, so
if you don’t have them, just take care to apply gentle, even
pressure over the chocolate as you roll.
STEP 6 Continue rolling in this manner, turning a quarter-turn every

so often to ensure a nice, even shape. Roll out to a size large
enough to cover the top and all around the sides of the cake. To
ensure it’s going to cover the entire cake, you’ll need the piece to
be as large as the cake’s diameter, plus an extra 15–18cm (6–7in)
approximately.
STEP 7 Once it’s ready, roll the chocolate gently over the rolling pin.
Hold the pin above the cake with the centre of the pin lining up
roughly with the middle of the cake. Leave just enough chocolate
hanging down on the side nearest you and then roll the rest away
from you over the top of the cake. The excess should drape around
the sides of the cake. Work slowly and away from yourself to help
prevent air becoming trapped under the coating.
STEP 8 Use the flat of your hands and fingers to smooth the top of
the chocolate, from the centre out towards the edges. Make sure
you press out any air that may be trapped underneath, ideally with
a top smoother to ensure a flatter finish.
STEP 9 Once the top is smooth, gently press around the top edge to
fold the chocolate down over the sides, being careful not to pull
down and tear the coating. Press the chocolate gently onto the sides
of the cake; but don’t press so hard that you leave finger marks.
STEP 10 Smooth all around the sides with your hands, taking care not
to cause any folds or creases in the coating. (However, if you will
be applying a second coat, a couple of creases can be smoothed out
later – they disappear quite well, as the layers of chocolate coating
merge together more easily than marzipan and sugarpaste because
they are not as dry.) If it looks like the chocolate is going to crease
or bunch up quite a lot, gently lift it away from the cake just where
the crease is appearing, then push the crease out towards the base
of the cake.
STEP 11 With a small knife, cut away as much of the excess as

possible, just leaving a small border of excess chocolate lying on
the worktop – around an inch or so. You can save the cut-off excess
and re-use it when needed. It will keep for a few weeks if tied up in
a food bag and it freezes very well too.
STEP 12 To ensure you get a perfectly straight edge at the bottom,

you now need to lift up the cake, holding it carefully underneath
the centre of its base board. This allows you to smooth the
chocolate down completely, right down to the bottom of the board,
so that the icing ends up hanging lower than the base of the board.
Gently press the chocolate down the sides of the cake, either with
the flat of your hand or, preferably, a side smoother, until you are
happy that it is smooth and straight enough.
TIP
Some people have difficulty lifting the cake
like this, especially if it is large and heavy.
You can use a turntable if you have one, or
elevate the cake on a few stacked cake
boards an inch or two smaller than the
cake. Otherwise, find something in your
kitchen that you can use instead – a can of
beans is perfect under a 10cm (4in) cake,
or use an upturned bowl or pot.
STEP 13 Once you have finished smoothing down the sides, run a
small, sharp, clean knife all the way around the underside of the
cake board, at a 90-degree angle to the sides of the cake, to
carefully trim off the remaining excess chocolate onto the worktop,
until you have a perfectly trimmed cake, with straight sides and
coating that goes right down to its base. Place the covered cake
onto a clean cake board 5–8cm (2–3 in) larger than the cake.
STEP 14 Now you can pay more attention to the cake’s surface and
sides. If you notice any air bubbles, use the pin tool to puncture the
coating and smooth the air out through the hole.
STEP 15 Bend down until the cake is at eye level, so that you can
judge the straightness of the top and sides more accurately. Smooth
the top and sides as best you can, either with the flat of your hand
or side smoothers if you have them, until you are pleased with the
finish. If you are using smoothers, you can press quite firmly to
eliminate bumps, but if you are using your hands, take care to not
press too hard or you’ll leave finger impressions.
STEP 16 Leave this first coating to dry overnight, then continue the
next day, applying a second coat in exactly the same way, but this
time using vodka, brandy or cooled boiled water to stick on the
coating, rather than jam. Take extra care not to crease or fold the
coating as this will be your top and final layer.
STEP 17 You now have a smooth, chocolate-coated base cake that you
can decorate in a more elaborate way, adding chocolate or sugar
embellishments, shapes or flowers. You can also paint onto this
surface. What a great chocolatey alternative to sugarpaste!
There are several ways in which you can build
tiered cakes. They all have their pros and cons,
and it’s always best to have a trial run if you are
planning on making a really special cake, such as
a wedding cake. The days of stacking cakes with
those white plastic (and rather naff!) pillars are
mostly gone. (However, some people do still use
this method, and it can look quite retro, which
does suit some designs, so I will include instructions
for this method anyway.)
My favourite way of presenting tiered cakes is to

stack tiers directly on top of each other, creating a
one-piece cake design. Most of the wedding cakes
you see today, as well as birthday cakes, are tiered
in this way. It’s relatively simple to do, as long as
you follow the steps properly.
Alternatively, you might want to display your cake

with separated tiers. This adds height and also
allows you to incorporate other things into the
design, including flowers, fabrics or sugar
decorations. For this, I either use cake boards (easy
to buy from anywhere) or polystyrene separators
(see here for stockists). When it’s all fully
constructed, it’s much more stable than a one-piece
cake, plus you can transport all the cakes
separately, so you don’t have to drive at 20mph
and panic when you see a speed hump!
Stacking Cakes
tacked Cakes – Pros and Cons and What to Bear in Mind
tacking a One-Piece Cake using Dowels
eparated Stacked Cakes
onstructing Iced Sugar Display Stands for Cupcakes
Four-Tier Stand to Display 30–40 Cupcakes or Mini Cakes
tacking with Pillars
STACKED CAKES – PROS AND CONS AND WHAT TO
BEAR IN MIND
Before you decide on a method for stacking, think about a few key
questions to help make up your mind on the best approach.
Does the cake need to be stacked before decorating? For

example, if your cake will have sugar decorations or flowing
patterns going across it, it may be easier to stack the tiers
beforehand.
Can you decorate the tiers separately and stack them at your
venue? Think about the weight of a finished five-tier cake. They
are very heavy when fully decorated; a five-tier cake weighs about
30kg! Imagine the difficulty of carrying a delicate cake like this all
by yourself and keeping it level.
Are you able to transport your stacked cake? If so, how? If your
cake is more than two tiers high, it won’t fit into some models of
car. Cakes must be placed in the boot on a flat base. NEVER place
on a seat!
Don’t be afraid; as long as you know these things in advance, you

can plan. Then, on the day, there won’t be panic when you realise
your multi-tier cake won’t fit in your Fiat 500 and you need to
arrange another mode of transport! If you’ve planned ahead, you’ll
have borrowed a big-enough car or persuaded a friend to drive you
(or bribed them with cake!).
If you do decide to build a large pre-stacked cake, as long as you
put dowels in your cake correctly and follow the steps here, you
will be fine.
Having said all that, if at all possible it’s best to make a large
cake in separate sections, decorated separately, and then stack them
on site. You’ll need to take along some royal icing and a palette
knife to lift the cakes onto each other, but as you will have already
inserted the dowels at home in your kitchen, it’s pretty simple to
assemble on site.
If this is your first attempt at stacking, you are probably better
off sticking to two tiers to get the hang of it. Of course, once you
get into the swing of things, you can add more tiers.
TIP
Always take a repair kit with you if you
are setting up a tiered cake. If you find
hairline cracks or larger cracks on the
lower tiers, it means you haven’t used
enough dowels. CAKETASTROPHE! Never
fear, if the cracks are small you can fill
them with royal icing and they will
magically disappear. See here for dealing
with caketastrophes.
STACKING A ONE-PIECE CAKE USING DOWELS
You can build your tiered creation to any height, but you must
support the weight of your cakes inside, to prevent them from
collapsing through the cake below. Cakes are quite heavy when
finished, so if you just placed one cake on top of another, the
weight would force down and eventually squash the cake below or
create big cracks and bulges. It’s easy to prevent this from
happening by using cake dowels; you can buy clear, white plastic or
wooden dowels. You can also buy heavy-duty dowels; I favour these
myself. They are more expensive but well worth it to prevent all of
your hard work from collapsing.
STEP 1 Use a cake board as a guide to mark out a circle or square the
same size as the tier that will be sitting above. For example, if you
are stacking an 18cm (7in) round cake on top of a 25cm (10in)
round base cake, use an 18cm (7in) round cake board as a guide.
Put the board onto the base cake, and mark around it with a scriber
tool or the tip of a sharp knife. You can then easily see where you
need to place dowels, i.e. within this outline. Do the same for all
your tiers except the top one.
STEP 2 By eye, insert the cake dowels into the cake, pushing them
right in until they touch the board underneath, taking care to put
them in straight, not leaning at an angle. Place them all around the
inside edge of the outline and then a few in the middle just to be
safe. I recommend being over-cautious and adding plenty of these
dowels, particularly to the base tier if there will be more than one
other tier above it. However, for a tiny top tier that doesn’t weigh
much, you won’t need many dowels under it – for example, four
regular dowels is plenty for supporting a 10cm (4in) cake – so do
use your judgement.
STEP 3 Once all the dowels are inserted into your cake, you need to
put a mark on each dowel (I find a pencil with a retractable lead
most accurate here), level with the iced surface. Mark them all,
even if your surface is pretty straight, as there will be slight
undulations and you will see that when you remove the dowels and
line them up together against a flat edge, the marks will vary a tad.
STEP 4 To ensure your next cake will sit level, you then need to re-
mark all of the dowels at the same point as the tallest original
depth mark. This way, the next cake won’t be pressing anywhere
on the cake below, which could cause cracks. Now cut all the
dowels down to the marks – you can do this with a small hacksaw
or a serrated knife but take care. Then place the cut-down dowels
back into your cake, ready to receive the tier above.
TIP
My dad, George, had a clever idea for
safely cutting the dowels. He got a short
offcut of garden decking with lined ridges.
You can lay your dowels snugly in the
ridge to prevent them slipping around on
the worktop while you are cutting through
them. This avoids injuries and also makes
life easier.
STEP 5 Once all your cakes have their dowels, you can lift up the
upper tiers with a palette knife and safely position each onto the
cake below. Before you add each tier, apply royal icing to the
middle of the cake underneath to act as sugary cement to adhere
them together, making sure they set fast and stay put.
STEP 6 If there are any gaps between your tiers caused by dowels
that rise above the surface of the cake, they can be filled with royal
icing, or hidden with ribbon if it’s used in your design. Most cakes
will have ribbon to finish the tiers; it disguises any inevitable rough
edges at the bottom of your cake. You can also use pearl piping as a
decorative trim around the tiers (see here); it, too, will disguise any
gaps.
SEPARATED STACKED CAKES
Making a separated stacked cake uses a similar method to the one

for regular one-piece stacked cakes but includes one large plinth or
column between each tier. These add height and give your design a
different look, with a colour block of ribbon, fabric, icing or even
floral decoration in between the cakes.
For the columns between your tiers, you can either use cake
boards, stuck together to achieve any height you want, or
polystyrene cake dummies, 5–8cm (2–3in) in height (see here for
stockists). If you are going to put fresh or sugar flowers around
your tiers, you can leave the central columns bare, as they won’t
show once you have added the flowers. Otherwise, you can glue
pretty ribbons or fabric onto the stuck-together boards or
polystyrene dummies. If using boards, you can even ice them with
sugarpaste.
STEP 1 Place the board or dummy on top of the base cake as a guide,
and mark around the edge with a scriber tool or sharp knife so that
you can see the outline inside which you need to place dowels.
Repeat with the other tiers, using the appropriate column as a
guide.
STEP 2 Now continue in the same way as described for the one-piece
stacked cake (see here, steps 2–4), placing your dowels into the
cake and marking, then cutting and inserting back into your cake.
STEP 3 Once all of your cakes have their dowels inserted, it’s simply
a matter of stacking the cakes like building blocks. You can do this
at the party or venue very easily. You don’t have to stick them
together, as the weight of the cakes should be enough to hold them
in place, but it’s not a bad idea to stick them with some royal icing
as it will be safer, particularly if the cake is anywhere near a
springy dance floor, etc.! It can also be helpful to stick each
polystyrene or cake-board column onto the cake below in advance,
so that they are all ready to go when you come to stack the cake.
CONSTRUCTING ICED SUGAR DISPLAY STANDS FOR
CUPCAKES
An iced sugar cake stand is a fantastic centrepiece for displaying

miniature iced cakes or cupcakes. Of course, you can use ready-
made wedding and cupcake stands, but this is a perfect way to tie
the stand in to the rest of your look. For example, if you have made
lots of floral cupcakes, you can make a stand with any type or
colour of icing or covering, to display them all in a three-, four- or
five-tier arrangement.
This is really simple to do. All you need is several pre-iced cake
boards (see here) in your colour of choice, or several colours, or
even covered with printed images the world’s your oyster. You can
use round, square, hexagonal, heart-shaped or petal-shaped boards.
I like to use boards with a 5–8cm (2–3in) difference in size
between them, e.g. a four-tier stand using 15cm, 20cm, 25cm and
30cm (6in, 8in, 10in and 12in) boards, or if you want to display
lots and lots of cakes, a five-tier stand with 15cm, 23cm, 30cm,
38cm and 46cm (6in, 9in, 12in, 15in and 18in) boards. You can
make mini three-tiered ones too, using 20cm, 25cm and 30cm (8in,
10in and 12in) boards. Of course it depends on the number of cakes
you have and the size of the party.
As well as boards, you will also need polystyrene plinths or
separators to act as the central column. You can buy these from
many cake-decorating shops and online sites, including eBay. Cake
dummies are the best thing to use for this.
Alternatively, you can stick several cake boards together to get
a height of around 8cm (3in), though this method is more
expensive. Sizewise, the diameter needs to be wide enough to
support the cake board above, but small enough to allow room
around the column for your cakes. I’ve specified sizes but of course
you can make a sugar stand in any size you wish.
The central columns can be wrapped in ribbon, which ties in
with the design of your cakes for a perfect finish.
Below is a handy table to give you a guide to the lengths of
ribbon you will need for icing different-sized cakes/drums.
FOUR-TIER STAND TO DISPLAY 30–40 CUPCAKES OR MINI CAKES
ou will need:
0cm (8in), 25cm (10in), 30cm (12in) and 35cm (14in) round cake
boards, pre-iced and left to dry for at least 24 hours) (see here)
lengths of ribbon, 15mm (1/2in) width, for the board edges
0cm (4in), 12cm (5in) and 15cm (6in) polystyrene cake dummies,
8cm (3in) in depth (these are used to create your ribbon-covered
columns to separate the iced cake boards)
pprox. 4 metres of ribbon, 25mm (1in) width, for the separators
tiff-peak royal icing (see here and here)
quipment:
Glue (Pritt Stick is best as it doesn’t bleed through ribbon)
cissors
in or sharp knife
STEP 1 One at a time, apply glue to the edges of the cake boards and
neatly attach the narrower ribbon by wrapping it all the way
around, keeping it straight and flush to the worktop, until the silver
edges of the boards are completely covered.
STEP 2 Glue around the edges of the first cake dummy. Wrap the
wider ribbon neatly around the cake dummy overlapping it slightly
as you go. Take care not to leave any white polystyrene showing
through. Once you have covered the whole cake dummy, snip off
the end of the ribbon and secure with a dab of glue. Continue until
all three dummies are covered. Now you have your three ‘ribbon
columns’ ready to give you height between each cake board.
STEP 3 Take the largest board: this will be the bottom of your stand.
Place your largest column in the centre of the board. I like to
measure the space in front, behind and at either side to be sure it is
central. Once it’s in the right place, mark each side with a little
pinprick, or indent with the tip of a sharp knife, to save you re-
measuring.
STEP 4 Remove the column and spread a dab of royal icing over the
middle of the iced board inside the marks you made; this will secure
the column in place.
STEP 5 Find the ribbon joins on your board and on the dummy. Line
them both up – this can be the back of your stand. Press the column
onto the royal icing, checking that it’s within your marks and that
both ribbon joins are still facing the same way. Repeat with the
next two boards and columns. The smallest cake board will sit on
top of the final column. Leave them all to dry overnight.
STEP 6 Assemble the stand by placing the base level on your table (or
wherever you want to display your cakes). Position the ribbon joins
at the back so that the stand looks perfect. Arrange your cakes for
this level around the column.
STEP 7 Continue in the same way for each level, placing the next tier
centrally (you can measure to double check) then loading with an
array of gorgeous cakes until you finish with the top tier. You have
created a fabulous centrepiece for your event!
STACKING WITH PILLARS
If you want to stack your cake using pillars, it’s best to use good-
quality, substantial, heavy-duty ones. This method is very similar to
the previous ways of stacking cakes, and you still need your trusty
old dowels. It is done in exactly the same way as the one-piece cake
(see here), but you need to be much more neat and precise about
where you put the dowels, as you will be able to see the pillars
between the cakes. You also need much longer cake dowels, as they
will need to be cut to the top height of the pillars.
STEP 1 For each tier, consider the size of the cake above it. You want
the cakes to look like they are supported on the pillars, even though
it’s actually the dowels that are supporting. (The pillars are purely
decorative and shouldn’t be used as support; they would sink down
into the cake below.) If you have a 25cm (10in) base cake with an
18cm (7in) cake above it, your smaller cake should be sitting on a
23cm (9in) cake board, giving you a couple more inches to work
with.
TIP
You can do this without an additional iced
board underneath the upper cakes but the
construction won’t be as stable. However,
your cakes must still have their hidden
base boards sealed inside the bottom of the
trimmed icing, as this is necessary to
prevent the top of the pillars going through
into the cake above. You can also use other
bases on which to display each tier instead
of iced cake boards, such as Perspex cake
plates for a contemporary look, mirrors or
even china plates.
STEP 2 Once you’ve marked out the dowel positions, equidistant

apart, push the dowels into the cake, making sure they are upright
and straight, not at an angle.
STEP 3 Slide the pillars over the dowels that are poking out of your
cake. Mark the point of the dowel that is level and flush with the
top edge of the pillar. Take care to be accurate with this, so that
your pillars will sit neatly between the cakes with no gaps at the
top.
TIP
It’s a good idea to place a cake board on
top of the pillars and check the level with a
spirit level. Just so that you know
everything will be right when your cake
arrives at its venue!
STEP 4 Once they are all marked out, remove, adjust all the marks to
match the longest/tallest measurement and cut them down (see tip
here). Then place the dowels back into the cake and slide the pillars
onto them. Stack the cakes and check everything is level. If it isn’t
level, then you may have made a mistake, so you’ll need to unstack
the cakes, remove all the dowels and check them again – it’s
therefore quite important to ensure everything is level before you
stack your cakes.
STEP 5 You can transport all the tiers separately, with the dowels and
pillars pre-cut but kept separate, ready to insert and assemble at the
venue.
There is an abundance of different techniques that
you can use to decorate your cake, cupcakes or
cookies and this chapter will show you how to do
lots of them. They are used in many of the designs
later in the book, and once you’ve mastered them,
you can adapt them to try out different patterns or
effects. It’s all about practice. Of course, some of
them are easier and quicker to execute, but if you
are baking- and cake-mad like me, I am sure you
will want to give them all a bash.
Like anything artistic or creative, it’s a good idea

to plan your idea before you get started. Have a
think about the design and style you want to
achieve, as there’s likely to be a handy technique
to help you achieve the best design and finish.
There are lots of ideas in this book that you may
want to recreate or you can go online and get
inspiration from other photos. Even a simple sketch
will help you to envisage what you are hoping to
achieve. By planning like this, you will also be able
to see what equipment you are going to need.
If you are asked to make a cake for someone else,

perhaps get them to put together a mood board,
especially if they have a theme in mind. Look at
different ideas to spark your imagination, and
think about how it’s going to come to life: from
concept to creation. For example, you might be
making a cake for a favourite aunt or friend. Ask
yourself, what do they like? How do they spend
their spare time, how is their house decorated?
What do they wear? Are they a girly, floral kind of
girl or a neutral, understated queen of chic? If the
cake’s for a man, does he like fishing, golf, music,
sport, or is he covered in tattoos? Something about
the person may give you a good idea of the style of
cake they would like best!
Decorating Cakes and Cookies
ecorating with Royal Icing
Making Run-Outs with Royal Icing
Creating Marbled, Swirled or Feathered Designs
iping Techniques
Piped Designs and Lettering
Piping Pearl Beads
Piping ‘Snail Trails’, Shaped Trails or Pearl-bead Trims
Pressure Piping
Piping Patterns to Texturise Icing
Piping Straight Lines
Using Cutters
Petal-Paste 3D Shapes
Embossing
Moulding and Modelling
Silicone Push Moulds
Hand-Moulded Roses
Other Types of Roses
ecorating Cookies
Decorating Cookies with Royal Icing
Decorating Cookies with Sugar paste
Chocolate-Coated Cookies
DECORATING WITH ROYAL ICING
I’ve been decorating cookies and cakes for around 15 years now, so
I’m pretty nifty with a piping bag, but I do remember in the early
days how frustrating it could be when trying out some of the
trickier icing techniques – particularly using royal icing to create
run-outs (see here) or cookie decorating (see here). Royal icing is
perfect for decorating once you get the hang of using it. It’s easy to
control, holds its shape and dries hard so you can pipe patterns
including lace, flowers, beads, straight lines, swirls etc.
You may also find piping patterns onto the sides of a cake tier
can be tricky when you first try it, because you are at an awkward
angle and fighting against gravity. It’s definitely easier to pipe
onto a flat surface or the top of a cake. In the beginning, I could
never get the piped designs as neat as I wanted, but after a bit of
practice I found ways to make the job easier and get a better finish.
Hopefully my tips will ensure you find decorating with royal icing
both easy and fun. The most important thing with royal icing,
whether for piping or creating run-outs, is to start with the right
consistency for the job. The different consistencies are refered to as
‘stiff peak’, ‘soft peak’ and ‘runny’. (See here for royal icing
recipe).
TIP
Practise on the side of a cake tin or blank
cake dummy first, just to get the feel of
piping with royal icing. After a few tries,
you will begin to feel more confident and
ready to pipe directly onto your cake
without the worry of potentially spoiling its
icing.
STIFF PEAK
This is when the royal icing is stiff and paste-like, so that when you
lift a spoon from the mixture you get a stiff ‘peak’, or peaks,
forming. It means that whatever you pipe will hold its shape. Stiff
peak is used for some types of decoration, including snail trails,
beads and other piped shapes. Sometimes you may need to add a
few extra drops of water so that the icing is easy to push out of
your nozzle without having to squeeze so hard that it hurts your
hand, but you still want the icing to hold its shape.
SOFT PEAK
You can loosen the royal icing with a few drops of water, or egg
white (pasteurised) if you prefer, so that it can flow freely from
your icing bag. It’s not runny, so the line will still hold its shape,
but if you were to pipe a pearl trim with it, the dots would begin to
sink into a wavy, blobby line. To get the consistency right, add just
a few drops of water at a time until the icing feels looser and easier
to stir. Don’t make it too runny! This is used for piping messages
onto cakes, outlining shapes on cookies and piping the outlines of
run-outs.
RUNNY ICING
A more liquid consistency of icing is used for ‘flooding’ outlines on
run-outs or cookies to create coloured sections. My preference with
runny icing is that the surface smooths over at about the 10-second
mark. You don’t want it too thick or it won’t flood, but I still like it
thick enough to hold its shape and so that it doesn’t run too quickly
from the piping bag. If you find that it doesn’t settle quite flat,
either shake the cookie gently or, if you are doing run-outs on a
film or acetate surface, pop the film onto a cake board (tape the
edges down) and gently bang this on a worktop to encourage the
icing to sit neat and flat.
MAKING RUN-OUTS WITH ROYAL ICING
A run-out is a shape or decoration made with royal icing. First, a

border or outline is piped with soft-peak icing, then it is ‘flooded’,
or filled in, with a slightly more liquid royal icing to create a
coloured pattern or picture. (When decorating cookies, the same
idea is applied, by piping a border onto the cookie and then filling
in or ‘flooding’ the coloured parts. See here.)
The trick with creating run-outs is to start with the right
consistency of icing. I used to have a few mishaps and couldn’t get
my run-outs as neat as I wanted them – the trouble was always that
the icing was either too thick and dry, or too runny and hard to
control.
Run-outs can be made by icing onto baking parchment or, even
better, film or acetate sheets (see here for stockists) or smooth-
textured plastic document wallets, available from stationers. Once
dry, they can be lifted off the sheets and used as decorations. This is
ideal if you want to put run-outs onto the sides of a cake. You can
also pipe the shape directly onto the flat surface of your cake or
cookie. On cakes, mark out the outline of the shape onto your
surface with a pin tool so that you can just see the dotted edges,
then ‘join the dots’ by piping your outline over the dotted line.
With cookies, simply use the shape of the cookie as a guide.
STEP 1 Make up all the icing that you need for the soft-peak outlines
and runny ‘flooded’ areas, using royal icing (see here) and liquid
food colours or colour pastes. For the designs in the photo ( here),
the colours I used were egg yellow, dark brown, pink, liquorice and
tangerine, plus white.
STEP 2 Put the soft-peak outline icing in a piping bag with a No. 2
nozzle, and pipe over the edges and sections of your design (see
here).
STEP 3 ‘Flood’ your sections with the runny icing in your chosen
background colours, then allow to dry at room temperature for at
least a few hours or overnight. There is no need to refrigerate.
STEP 4 Add any additional outlines or details (for example, I have

added beady eyes) and leave to dry for at least 24 hours. If you
have iced onto a document wallet (or film, acetate or parchment),
once the run-outs are dry, they can be easily lifted off and used to
decorate your cake or cupcakes.
STEP 5 Attach the run-outs to your cake with a small dab of white
soft-peak royal icing.
TIP
For small details, run-outs or even large
cake toppers, it really helps to ‘trace’ over a
picture, especially if you are not a
naturally gifted artist! For the ‘Robot’
ganache cake (see here), I printed off a
picture of a toy robot and traced around it
onto A4 paper, then popped this into a
clean plastic document wallet. This made it
easy to follow the outlines and fill in the
designs; it also keeps the paper nice and
still.
TIP
It helps if you rub a small amount of
vegetable fat or a tiny bit of sunflower oil
onto the film, acetate or plastic, to help the
icing release easily once it’s dry. Just rub a
tiny amount between your fingertips and
smooth over; not too much, you don’t want
any lumps or splodges of oil.
TIP
If you are using a very dark colour for an
outline, with a lighter colour for flooding, I
recommend leaving the outline to dry for
24 hours before flooding it, or else you
might get a caketastrophe if the dark
colour seeps into the light one.
CREATING MARBLED, SWIRLED OR FEATHERED DESIGNS
Marbling, sometimes called ‘feathering’ or ‘swirling’, is a great

way to create a colourful effect with royal icing. It is done by using
more than one colour in a base coat of icing, through which a
cocktail stick or skewer is ‘dragged’, to give a marbled or swirly
effect.
Different combinations of colours create different looks. You
can use this technique to create swirls on run-outs or cookies, or
even feathered patterns on animal cookies. By changing the
direction and lines in which you drag your cocktail stick, you can
achieve completely different patterns. If you haven’t tried this
before, it’s helpful to have a go on a piece of greaseproof paper or
your worktop first.
Remember to get the icing consistency just right: for outline
icing you want a soft-peak consistency (see here). Prepare all your
piping bags for the coloured outline icing with No. 2 nozzles. For
the flooding colours, you don’t have to use a nozzle unless you
want to; you can just snip the end off an icing bag (although, if you
don’t have a nozzle, sometimes the bag slips about and after a
while the hole might get a bit too big).
STEP 1 Begin by piping an outline onto your cookie or, if you are
making run-outs for cakes, over your picture in a plastic document
wallet (see tip here) taped to a cake board.
STEP 2 You can now flood the outline straight away with just one
colour; this will make the outline disappear once it’s all dried. Take
care not to knock it with your flooding bag or nozzle. Once you’ve
filled in the whole cookie or section of icing, shake gently left to
right on your worktop, to help smooth the icing out.
STEP 3 Add your second colour (or more colours if you are using
them) into the background colour that you’ve already piped. Work
as quickly as you can before the icing sets.
STEP 4 Drag a cocktail stick or skewer through the icing. You can
play around if you want. For the one in the photo I used an S-shape
motion over the surface. You can make heart shapes by dragging
through the centre of a dot. This looks really effective.
STEP 5 For some designs you may wish to add a border or finish the
edges with another outline. For example, if making a patterned
heart-shaped cookie, you may like to ice the edge with a different-
coloured snail trail of stiff-peak royal icing, or if you are making a
funky floral or animal design, you may wish to go over the outline
in a clashing colour to enhance the detail.
STEP 6 Now let your marbled cookies or run-outs dry, add packaging
and ribbon if they are for gifts, or use for cake decorating.

Run-outs can be applied to the cake the next day or stored away in
cellophane bags until you want to use them; they are fragile so it’s
best to store them in layers with parchment between them. Keep in
a cool dry place and leave them for 24 hours before storing to make
sure they’re fully dry. Iced cookies will last for several weeks, as
long as they are kept sealed. However, if you have baked them with
a soft centre, they won’t last as long, so baking until they are very
crisp and dry is a good way to extend their life if necessary.
PIPING TECHNIQUES
Piping onto a cake is a great decoration technique. To start with,

you might simply want to pipe a name or an inscription. Or you
can texturise the whole surface of your cake with piped designs –
either free-flowing or very regimented patterns. If you are good at
drawing or have nice handwriting, you will find that some
freehand piping designs will come easily to you. If you’re not so
confident, you may find it easier to follow a template or marked
design. Here are some simple ways to pipe decorations onto cakes.
TIP
If you write your message in white royal
icing first, it’s not a big deal if you make a
mistake as you can remove the icing with a
sharp knife and start again without having
stained the cake or board. Once the white
icing message has set (after 1 hour) you
can then go over it in your chosen colour.
This also makes the letters stand out more,
as they are lifted from the surface.
PIPED DESIGNS AND LETTERING
For this, it’s easiest to work with royal icing; ideally of a soft-peak
consistency (see here). (You can also pipe with melted chocolate,
but this is a little more difficult to control.) Get the right
consistency by adding a few drops of water, pasteurised egg white
or lemon juice to stiff icing. Stir in until peaks are still present but,
rather than being stiff and spiky, they droop down. This will allow
the icing to flow easily from your piping bag and nozzle, whilst
still being firm enough to stay in place on the cake. If the icing is
too runny, it may sag or drip down the cake, especially if you are
decorating onto the sides.
For writing a message or piping onto the cake (or cake board)
in a pattern, I recommend using a No. 2 nozzle, which will give a
good thickness of line – not too thick or too thin. For a larger cake,
you can use a No. 3 nozzle if your lettering or font is going to be
larger than 4cm (1½in) in height; for anything smaller, stick with a
No. 2 nozzle.
You can write out your message exactly as you would with a
pen. Make sure you have the piping bag tightly folded at the top so
that when you squeeze it, the icing doesn’t burst out of it. You’ll
need to press the bag fairly firmly. Have a go on your work surface
first to check how much pressure you need to apply for the icing to
flow. The gentler the pressure, the slower the flow of icing. When
you finish a letter, stop applying the pressure to your bag and lift it
away from the cake’s surface. If you get an icing ‘tail’ or ‘snag’
you can pat this down with a damp paintbrush to neaten the finish
if you wish.
Everyone has different handwriting, so if you are a messy
writer, you may prefer to print out a message first and mark it out
on the cake to use as a template. Place the printed message over the
iced surface and prick out dots along the lines with a pin. You can
then follow these dots to make a neater inscription. Or you could
first pipe the message on your worktop, just in front of your cake,
so that you can see where to place the letters.
PIPING PEARL BEADS
You can pipe delicate iced beads for all sorts of designs – as single
details, or a trail of them lined up against each other to create the
effect of a bead trim or frame. A trail of individual beads resembles
a string of pearls – add pearl or metallic lustres to this and it looks
amazing, like edible jewellery! Alternatively, you can create a
‘snail trail’, which has a different, more joined-up look. See
instructions here.
To pipe an icing pearl, use stiff-peak royal icing (see here) in a
piping bag with a No. 3 nozzle. Pipe directly onto the surface of
your cake or board, facing straight on. Take your time, squeezing
the bag until the pearl is the desired size (I like them approximately
5mm in diameter); when you are happy with the size, stop pressing
and pull the nozzle away from the pearl.
When you pull away, you might get a tiny ‘tail’ or ‘snag’ (we
like to call them nipples in the trade!). If you do have some tails,
don’t worry; just have a small paintbrush and some cooled boiled
water to hand. After every few pearls, dampen your brush and
lightly touch and press on the peaked bit. It will then sit flush with
the pearl and won’t stick to your brush. However, although this
does looks better, most people won’t notice these little points,
unless they are beady-eyed cake enthusiasts!
PIPING ‘SNAIL TRAILS’, SHAPED TRAILS OR PEARL-BEAD TRIMS
Royal icing is perfect for piping trims around the base of each cake
tier, around their top edges, or around sugar details, to enhance the
design, and also to hide any joins. These trims can be made using
different piping nozzles, including round, star or shell-shaped
nozzles, to create particular finishes.
To create a classic rounded ‘snail trail’, use stiff-peak royal icing
in a piping bag with a No. 3 nozzle. Begin at the back of your cake
or at a convenient starting point if you are framing an image or
sugar detail.
Begin by piping a pearl (see here) with gentle pressure. Once
your first pearl is extruded, release the pressure on the bag and
draw the piping nozzle away from the pearl to one side. This will
create a little tail of icing on the surface of your cake or iced board.
Now pipe another pearl just slightly overlapping that tail, next to
the first pearl, to begin the trail. Pipe like this in a continous line or
trail all around your cake or design until you have a gorgeous sugar
pearl-bead trim or frame. This is a classic ‘snail trail’.
If you prefer a more structured bead trim (almost like a string of
pearls) You can pipe each pearl onto the cake seperately, patting
down any peak to round the top of the pearl and continue by
piping each pearl next to the previous one, almost touching its
neighbour. These pearls look gorgeous if painted with a pearl lustre
once dry.
PRESSURE PIPING
This is a bit trickier than the above techniques, so I recommend

trying those first so that you get a feel for the icing. Don’t try a
design like this until you have mastered doing a snail trail, piped
pearls and a lace/patterned design. It will end in tears!
Pressure-piped patterns have heavier, more pronounced parts
through the design, and this is all done by hand. You start at one
point of the design and push out a thicker/larger part of the icing.
Then as you drag away, you tail off the pressure, leaving a thinner
trail as you go. It has quite a regal and old-fashioned look. It’s a bit
dated right now, but these things come back into fashion. You may
like to try it for a particular cake or idea, and it looks good on
monogrammed cookies.
A simple pressure-piping technique is to create little piped hearts
on a cake (see the photograph, below, or for cake jazzling, see
here). They are lovely ‘fillers’ to pipe over a cake’s surface. These
are very simple to do and a good introduction to the art of pressure
piping. Use a No. 3 nozzle with stiff-peak royal icing in your piping
bag and apply pressure to eject a bead, then release the pressure
whilst dragging away. This creates a pearl with a tail trailing off
from it. Continue by piping another bead next to this first shape and
again dragging away, completing the heart.
If you want to try a very structured pressure-piped design, it is
best to mark out the pattern onto the sides of your cake rather than
do it freehand. Make sure you measure the edges, then space the
different patterns equally around your cake.
PIPING PATTERNS TO TEXTURISE ICING
Royal icing can be used to pipe lace patterns and texturised designs
onto the icing on your cakes. It looks beautiful when finished and it
is fairly simple to do. You’ll need soft-peak royal icing and either a
No. 2 or 3 nozzle for most of the patterns below.
LACE OR PATTERN PIPING

Alternatively, you may like to pipe a pattern (from an invite, a
dress design or favourite picture, for example) and you can do this
freehand directly onto the cake. If you are nervous, trace out the
main parts onto paper, then lay this over the cake and prick out the
design onto your cake with a pin. Then you can pipe the icing to
‘join the dots’ on your cake.
BRUSH EMBROIDERY
If you want to enhance your lace piping, you can try a technique
called brush embroidery. It involves piping out a shape – floral lace
works really well – then using a small, damp artist’s brush to gently
press onto the outer edges and draw inwards. This creates an
embroidered effect, with the pattern slightly raised at the outer
edges. It can hide a multitude of sins on the cake’s surface, plus if
your piping is a bit wobbly, once you have brushed it down you
won’t be able to notice any shaky edges.
FILIGREE
Simple filigree really is just squiggly lines. If you are good at
drawing, you can do it freehand and when it’s all finished and
together, you can’t see any particular parts of the pattern, so you
don’t need to be precise. It’s a good technique to use if you are
fairly confident with piping freehand. If not, then stick to
decorating with a pattern which you can mark onto your iced
surface.
PIPING STRAIGHT LINES
Piping iced lines is a great way to add detail to your cake. You can
use this technique to decorate the tiers of a large cake – or on one
‘statement tier’ – or to decorate mini cakes for presents or
weddings. If you’re feeling adventurous, try using lots of shades of
icing to create an ombre effect around your cake – funky! It can be
tricky at first and it helps if you have a steady hand – don’t try this
with a hangover…it won’t turn out well!
ou will need
our cake (or cakes), covered in sugarpaste
Greaseproof paper
urntable (optional)
tiff-peak royal icing in a piping bag with a No 3 nozzle (use one bag
per shade if you are trying multi-colour or ombre-effect piping)
mall, clean paintbrush
ooled boiled water
STEP 1 Choose your starting point on your cake. Gently squeeze the
icing bag against the cake with a light pressure, so that the icing
begins to flow out and attach itself to the cake. Now lift the nozzle
away from the surface and continue piping in a straight line just
above the cake; don’t drag the icing along the cake’s surface as the
line will come out wobbly. If you are piping straight lines down the
sides of a cake, lift the nozzle away from the cake slightly so that
gravity pulls the icing down. This will keep the icing lines nice and
straight.
STEP 2 Once you reach the end point on your design, very gently
push the nozzle back towards the cake until it touches the surface,
then stop squeezing and pull away. If you see a little tail or snag
poking up from the piping just pat it down with a paintbrush that
has been dampened with cooled boiled water.
STEP 3 Continue all the way around your cake edge or across the top
of your cake or cake board to create your design.
TIP
To get to grips with this trickier technique,
try it out first on the edge of a blank cake
dummy, upturned mug or upturned cake
tin – especially if it’s your first attempt.
USING CUTTERS
This really simple technique uses shaped cutters to create sugar

embellishments made from chocolate paste, sugarpaste and even
petal paste (for finer, thinner details). Use different mediums to
achieve your desired effect.
There are all kinds of cutters available: letters, patterns,
animals, flowers and many other shapes. They range from simple
metal cutters in all sizes, to plunger-style cutters that not only cut
out the shape, but eject it too. This is good because tiny sugarpaste
shapes can be tricky and sticky to handle. There are even plunger
cutters that also make an impression on the cut-out shape.
For basic cut-outs, including polka dots, hearts, stars, etc.,
simply roll out your chosen paste very thinly (about as thin as a
sheet of dried lasagne – no more than 1mm thick). For basic shapes
that will be adhered to the top or side of the cake, you don’t need
to use petal paste; sugarpaste or chocolate paste is best for shapes
that will be attached completely flat.
You can use this technique to create all kinds of looks, from
polka-dot cakes to appliqué designs. You can even go on to
embellish a cut-out: try adding royal icing to the edges of the shape
to add outline or extra detail, use brush embroidery on the wings of
a sugar butterfly cut-out, or why not paint glitter onto sugar stars
to make them sparkle? Try a few things out on the worktop or
piece of greaseproof paper first.
ou will need:
mall amount of sugarpaste or chocolate paste (approx. 50g)
cing sugar
unny royal icing, vodka or cooled boiled water
quipment:
utter or plunger cutter in your chosen shape
all tool or cake dowel (optional)
mall paintbrush
STEP 1 Roll out your chosen paste using plenty of icing sugar to dust
the worktop.
STEP 2 Press down with your cutter, through the rolled-out paste,
until the cutter edge reaches the worktop. Press firmly so that all
the edges are completely cut through and you don’t get any rough
snags of icing around the shape.
STEP 3 If you are using a plunger cutter, release the shape by using
the mechanism to pop it out onto the worktop. If you are using a
basic metal or plastic cutter, push the shape out with your finger or,
if the opening is very tiny, use a ball tool or the end of a cake
dowel to push the shape out.
STEP 4 To attach the shape to the icing on your cake, use a

paintbrush to dab a tiny bit of runny royal icing onto the spot
where you want to put it. (Or, if you prefer, you can carefully
brush the back of your shape with some vodka or cooled boiled
water; this will make it tacky.
PETAL-PASTE 3D SHAPES
You can use cutters or plunger cutters with petal paste for creating
finer details to which you wish to give a 3D effect (for example, to
create fluttering butterflies or petals lifted from a cake’s surface).
Remember that petal paste is very stiff and elastic, so work it until
it’s pliable and easy to roll. You’ll find it is quite stretchy – use firm
pressure to roll it out as thinly as possible, until you can just see the
worktop showing through if it’s a light colour. It should be almost
as thin as an actual petal.
ou will need:
cing sugar
etal paste, in your choice of colour
quipment:
mall plastic icing rolling pin
loppy mat (or book wrapped in cling film)
utter or plunger cutter, in your chosen shape
oam or gel pad
all tool
ormer (or see tip for alternatives)
PETAL PASTE DAISIES

Daisies and other flowers are perfect for adorning cupcakes, mini
cakes and larger cakes, and, of course, they look gorgeous on
wedding cakes. They are quick and simple to make but look so
beautiful and effective. Once the flowers have set, you can dust
their centres with some lustre dusts or powdered colouring dusts, to
give them a realistic look.
STEP 1 Dust the worktop with icing sugar and knead the petal paste
until soft and pliable. Roll out with a small rolling pin (a smaller
one is definitely easier here) using a firm pressure. Continue
rolling, keeping the worktop dusted with a little icing sugar to
make sure the paste doesn’t stick.
STEP 2 Cover the majority of the petal paste with your floppy mat (or
book in cling film), to prevent it from drying out. It goes dry very
quickly and once it’s crusty you can’t achieve a nice finish.
STEP 3 Use a daisy-shaped cutter to punch out a flower shape. Eject

the shape onto your foam pad or push out with your finger or the
ball tool.
STEP 4 Now use the ball tool to create an impression of movement in

the petals. By adding pressure to the petal paste you can draw the
edges of the petals upwards. Take the end of the ball tool to the
edge of a petal and press gently while drawing it back towards the
centre of the daisy.
STEP 5 If the petals begin settling back into a flat shape, you’ll need
to use something to hold the shape for an hour or so, until it has set
hard. A former is ideal, or see the tip over the page for alternatives.
However, because petal paste is so stiff and sets quickly you may
find you don’t even need to leave the flowers on a former. Small
daisies will usually just hold their shape once you have pressed up
the petals.
STEP 6 Repeat the steps to cut out and shape the next daisy. The petal
paste dries quickly, so it is best to do one at a time, so that you
shape the petals before they become too stiff.
STEP 7 Once dry, you can simply pop the flowers on top of
buttercream-covered cupcakes or attach to an iced cake with a little
royal icing. You can pipe colourful centres into the daisies once
they are stuck onto the cake.
TIP
‘Formers’ are handy for setting larger
shapes in place; you can buy these easily in
sugarcraft stores or online. If you don’t
have a former, there are a few alternative
things you can use. You can make your
own former by using a block of sugarpaste
and making an impression or well for each
shape with your fingers or the end of a
rolling pin. Lay some cling film over the
former to prevent the shape from sticking.
Another useful alternative is to use the
wells in a paint palette or cover balls of old
sugarpaste in cling film and lay the flowers
over them to dry. Even pieces of foil will
suffice if you can make little wells with
them.
OTHER TYPES OF FLOWERS
There are many types of flowers you can make with cutters: two of
my favourites are blossoms and hydrangeas.
Blossoms are made in exactly the same way as daisies, the only
difference is that you use a plunger to eject the blossom. The centre
of the plunger pushes out the middle of the floral shape, creating a
more cup-like shape as opposed to a flat cut out shape. It’s a very
quick and easy way to create a more detailed flower and it means
there’s no need to use a ball tool.
Hydrangeas are slightly different; it’s necessary to use a silicone
mould to give them their papery, veined surface. The shape is cut
with a metal cutter, then the flower is placed between the two sides
of the mould and pressed firmly.
Leave these blooms to dry on formers or on crinkled pieces of
foil. Once set, dust the centres if you wish.
PETAL PASTE BUTTERFLIES

To create sugar butterflies fluttering upon your cupcakes, mini cakes
or larger cake designs, there are fab butterfly-shaped metal or
plunger cutters available. The plunger butterfly cutters even mark
out a pattern on the wings. Follow the instructions above for the
petal-paste daisies, then once the paste is rolled out thinly, cut with
a small butterfly cutter and eject or press out onto the foam pad.
Either set these with a former, or stack a few square cake boards
to build up enough height and set the butterflies along the top edge
to create a bend in the middle of them. Leave overnight to set hard,
then attach to your cake with royal icing. Once dry, you can pipe
little bodies down the middle of the butterflies, using a snail trail of
coloured royal icing. You can also use a tiny brush to paint colours
over the wings and add even more detail.
TIP
If you are attaching butterflies or any fairly
heavy pieces of sugarpaste or petal paste to
the side of a cake, you may find that they
fall off before the royal icing sets. A handy
trick to prevent this is to insert wooden
cocktail sticks underneath the shapes for
them to rest on. Once they have dried onto
the cake, you can twist out the sticks and
fill the tiny holes with a touch of royal
icing.
EMBOSSING
Another handy use for cutters is to emboss shapes onto your iced
surface. This will give a visible outline, which you can then paint or
pipe over without having to worry about freehand work. This is
really handy for brush embroidery or when piping shapes onto
icing. You can buy embossers especially for this purpose or indeed
you can use any cutter to mark out a shape. Make sure to do this
while your sugarpaste or chocolate surface is still fresh as the
embosser will not press well into dry icing.
MOULDING AND MODELLING
Making flowers and models with sugar is a gorgeous way to

decorate a cake, and has become very popular. For example, you
can use different techniques to make little roses, or other shapes
such as buttons, teapots etc. In this section you will learn how to
use different silicone moulds as well as how to mould sugarpaste by
hand so as to create lots of different effects, shapes and patterns.
The silicone moulds are easy to buy from cake-decorating shops and
once you have bought them they last for years. They will allow you
to make quick decorations, which is great if you want to cover a
large area or are making a big batch of cupcakes. Hand moulding
requires more skill and takes more practice but it will give you a
more detailed, sculptural look.
SILICONE PUSH MOULDS
Silicone moulds have revolutionised the cake-decorating world.

They have been around for a few years now, and are available in
many designs, literally thousands, and in many different sizes. You
can find these moulds all over eBay, and in sugarcraft shops. Even
general craft shops have a great selection, as they can also be used
for other mediums and crafts. In fact, HobbyCraft, one of the UK’s
largest craft suppliers, has now introduced a section dedicated to
cake-craft and candy-making, as they are now such huge trends –
they even sell candy melts and edible supplies. You can also buy
‘make your own’ silicone mould kits for taking a cast of anything
you fancy; for example, a kid’s toy or a favourite piece of
jewellery.
Over the page, I’ve explained how to use a push mould to make
sugar roses and teapots; but you can apply the same basic technique
to any other shape that you wish to create.
PUSH-MOULD ROSES
This makes gorgeous sugar rose decorations that look like they are made
from china, perfect for a vintage feel.
MAKES 12 MEDIUM-SIZED ROSES
ou will need:
00g sugarpaste in your choice of colour
tsp gum tragacanth (optional – it will make your sugarpaste stiffer
and slightly easier to release from the mould)
cing sugar
quipment:
ose-shaped silicone mould
astry brush
xtra cake board (or chopping board)
STEP 1 Dust the mould with a little icing sugar and tip out any excess.
STEP 2 Dust your worktop with a little icing sugar and knead the
sugarpaste until pliable. Break off a small piece. For a medium-sized
rose, you need an amount the size of a hazelnut. If you’d prefer to
make tiny roses, you’ll need a piece the size of a large pea, or for
large roses, the size of a grape. The same mould can be used for
making different sizes; for smaller roses, fill just the centre part of
the hole.
STEP 3 Gently push the sugarpaste into the mould. Push it in just
enough to mark out the detail on the shape; don’t force it in too
hard or it may stick and clog up the mould.
STEP 4 Turn the mould over and flex it in a couple of directions until
the sugar rose drops out onto the worktop. It should pop out easily
provided the mould was dry, clean and dusted with icing sugar.
STEP 5 Repeat until you have the number of roses you need, lining
them up as you go. If there is excess icing sugar left on the roses,
wait until they have dried out overnight and then simply brush
them over with a pastry brush to remove it.
STEP 6 Once dry, you can use these roses for many different design
ideas on your cakes, cupcakes or even cookies.
HAND-MOULDED ROSES
This is one of the simplest ways to make a sugar or indeed a

marzipan or chocolate rose for a cake. Whichever modelling
medium you are using, the method is exactly the same, but if you
choose to make these in sugarpaste, your icing will begin to skin
over and dry out, making the petals trickier to attach. Marzipan
dries out more slowly, and chocolate paste is the best medium for
beginners because it doesn’t dry out. Also be careful if it’s a hot
day, or if your hands are very warm, as the paste may get too soft.
Have a play around with each one and see which works best for
you. You can add colour pastes to all three to give different-
coloured roses and you can even dip the finished flowers in glitter
if you wish!
You can use this method to create small, medium or large roses;
obviously you’ll need more of the product for larger flowers. An
approximate guide to quantities is as follows: about 40g for a large
rose, 25g for a medium rose, and 10–15g for a small one.
If you are planning on making a lot of roses, keep your coloured
medium wrapped up in a food bag on the worktop and get out just
a small amount at a time to work on, to prevent it drying out.
(See the step-by-step photographs to accompany these
instructions here.)
ou will need:
cing sugar
ugarpaste, marzipan or chocolate paste (see here or use ready-made)
gg yellow paste colour (optional)
odka or cooled boiled water (optional)
quipment:
lastic document wallet
cissors
mall, sharp knife
alyx-shaped cutter (optional)
STEP 1 Cut the document wallet so that it is open on three sides,

leaving it joined by just one seam.
STEP 2 Dust a clean worktop with a little icing sugar to prevent

sticking and knead your sugarpaste, marzipan or chocolate paste
until pliable. Don’t over-work, or it will get too soft and warm,
especially if using chocolate. Dust sparingly with icing sugar if the
paste is particularly warm or sticking.
STEP 3 Roll the piece into a long sausage – the fatter the sausage, the
bigger the rose: approximately 1cm (½in) diameter for a tiny rose,
2cm (¾in) diameter for a medium rose, and 3cm (1¼in) or more for
bigger roses. Don’t make them too large or the weight of the petals
will pull the rose apart.
STEP 4 Cut the sausage into discs – these will form the petals. When
you cut into your sausage, the bottom of it will flatten slightly
where it has pressed against the work surface – this is normal and
at this stage the shapes don’t need to be completely round. Try to
cut the discs roughly equal in thickness; approximately 3–4mm,
whatever the size of rose. You can make different-sized roses by
putting different amounts of these discs together.
STEP 5 Lay the plastic document wallet open on the worktop and
lightly dust the inside with icing sugar to prevent sticking. Shake
out the excess, or it will show up on your finished roses or dry out
the sugarpaste. Now lay the discs down with the flattened edge (the
edge that was pressed on the surface) facing towards the seam. The
reason for this is that the side facing the seam will be pressed
flatter than the other to create the delicate petal edge. Line the
discs up inside your document wallet in rows of 3, giving you 9–12
petals. Close the wallet.
TIP
If you find you are very slow, you may
decide to just make five or six petals at a
time to prevent them drying out, but as you
get quicker, you can cut out more discs at a
time, flatten them all and bring together in
groups.
STEP 6 With the base of your thumb (just above your wrist), gently
push down on each disc to begin flattening out.
STEP 7 You now need to thin the discs on one side to create a petal
effect. Gently sweep your thumb over one edge (on the side nearest
the seam, so that when you open the wallet later the delicate
flattened side won’t pull up as you open the wallet). Press from the
bottom to the top, smoothing with gentle pressure to thin it out.
Make sure to do this on one side only; leave the other half alone.
STEP 8 Repeat with all the petals, working as quickly as possible if

using sugarpaste or it will dry out (chocolate will be fine).
STEP 9 Carefully peel back the top of the wallet and pick up one
petal, holding it at the fat base so as not to damage the thinned-out
petal edge. You’ll notice that the petal will be curling to one side.
Hold up the petal in front of your face with the edge curling
towards you.
STEP 10 Make the centre of the rose by curling the petal back away
from you and rolling horizontally into a tight cone. Still take care
not to touch the thinner top edge; just press the bottom part
together gently to fix. You will be left with a tightly curled ‘petal’
centre. This might take a few attempts, but will soon become
easier.
STEP 11 Now you need to envelope the centre petal with the second
one to create a bud. Lift the next petal off the plastic and hold it up
to the centre petal. Have the edge curling away from the rose’s
centre, not pointing in towards it. Line up the seam or join of the
central petal with the middle of the second petal. Sit the second
petal just a fraction higher than the first one, to create an effect
where the outer petals are lifting up and out, rather than the
central petal sticking out furthest like a trumpet.
STEP 12 Gently press the bottom of the second petal in, pinching it to
the first petal so that their bases mould together. Again take care
not to press the top part or you will spoil the natural curling effect
of the petals.
STEP 13 You will now have a lovely rosebud, which can be used for
decorating cupcakes or for including in arrangements along with
larger roses. If you want to use it at this size, cut away the excess at
the base just below where the petals are joined. Leave the bud to
dry overnight then use it to decorate your cakes.
STEP 14 If you want to continue, to make it into a larger rose, you

can carry on overlaying further petals, spacing three outer petals
equally around the central bud. Position the third petal to overlay
one side of the bud (work in whichever direction suits, depending
on if you are left- or right- handed), so that the join in the second
petal is covered by the centre of the third petal, which again should
be sitting slightly higher than the rosebud. The top of the rosebud
should be about halfway down the third petal. Press the base gently
to secure, leaving the third petal open and curling away from the
middle bud.
STEP 15 Lay the fourth, then the fifth, over the edge of the previous
petal, sitting each one slightly higher and pressing it onto the rose
petals inside, until you have a five-petal rose. You want the rose to
look neat and uniform, not heavy on one side, so if you feel that it
could do with a sixth or even a seventh petal to balance the round
form of the flower, then just add more. For larger blooms, also add
more petals.
STEP 16 To finish the rose, use a sharp knife to slice off the chunky
base of excess sugarpaste, chocolate or marzipan. Set your flower
aside on a cake board to firm up for at least a few hours but ideally
overnight.
STEP 17 You can then use the roses as they are or, if you prefer, you
can add a green calyx to the bottom. To do this, colour a small
amount of sugarpaste, chocolate psate or marzipan with green paste
colour, roll out and cut out a calyx with the appropriate size of
cutter. Adhere this to the bottom of your rose with vodka or cooled
boiled water.
OTHER TYPES OF ROSES
There are still more ways to make roses, including using petal
paste, making simple quilled-style curls or using sugarpaste to make
romantic silk-style roses. I prefer the hand-moulding method on the
previous page, but you may wish to have a go at others.
PETAL-PASTE ROSES
ou will need:
etal paste, in your choice of colour
cing sugar
odka or cooled boiled water
quipment:
ocktail sticks
ive-petal rose cutter
oam or gel pad
all tool
mall paintbrush
STEP 1 You first need to make small cones out of petal paste, one for
each rose; ideally do this a day in advance. By hand, roll some of
the petal paste into a ball then pinch the top to mould a cone shape.
The size of the cone will determine the size of your rose. The cone
should be just slightly smaller in length than the size of the petals
on your cutter. Poke cocktail sticks into the bottom of the cones,
about halfway in, then stick them into a polystyrene cake dummy
or a block of old, dry sugarpaste and set aside to dry overnight.
STEP 2 Dust the worktop with icing sugar and roll out the petal paste
very thinly. Cut out the five-petal roses using your cutter and place
on a foam pad.
TIP
You can buy five-petal cutters in lots of
different sizes. Whatever size yours is, just
remember that the central cone of the rose
should be a little bit smaller in length than
the size of the petals.
STEP 3 Press firmly around the outer edges of each petal with the ball
tool to start frilling the edges. Flip the whole shape over and repeat
this process. This will give you lovely ruffled petal edges.
STEP 4 With a small paintbrush, dampen the centre of the flat rose
shapes and paint halfway up each petal with vodka or cooled boiled
water, to enable the petals to stick together.
STEP 5 Take a cone on its cocktail stick and skewer through the
centre of a sugarpaste rose, with the cone on the wet side.
STEP 6 Bring the petals up to the cone and wrap one of the petals
around the cone to create the central bud.
TIP
I keep old sugarpaste that is no longer
suitable for use, and store it in a food bag,
as it’s handy for making formers (see
here), the bases of cupcake bouquets or for
sticking wired flowers into, etc.
STEP 7 Now with the opposite petal, overlay the central one by
wrapping the second petal around the middle part. Because the
lower half of each petal is damp, they will stick to the base of the
cone, while the upper parts will curl freely away from the
cone/rose centre.
STEP 8 Continue to wrap the next three petals over the previous ones
then leave to dry overnight. Repeat with the rest of the cones and
rose shapes.
STEP 9 You can gently twist these buds off the cocktail sticks after
they have dried, but take care as the petals will be brittle. The roses
can be used to decorate all kinds of cakes. They are much harder
and less palatable than a sugarpaste rose, but are more delicate to
look at.
TIP
If you wish to make much larger roses in
this manner, you can continue building up
more layers of fine petals, using larger,
single, cut-out petals, until the desired
effect is achieved.
DECORATING COOKIES
Baking and decorating cookies is a really easy and simple way to

get into cake decorating. They make the perfect gift and they are
fantastic alongside a cake at a celebration or event as they can be
tailored to suit any theme. Cookies make wonderful party ‘favours’
or treats to give out to guests. They also make ideal presents for
children in place of those boring plastic party bags filled with
rubbish toys! Cookies are also perfect for charity events or school
fêtes, etc.
You can easily pick up cookie bags and packaging from the
supermarket to make them look that bit more impressive. Waitrose,
for example, sells an increasing amount of amazing baking and
cake-decorating supplies, including a range of lovely little cookie
bags.
When decorating cookies, the cookie itself must be fairly crisp,
hard and unbreakable, so that when it’s in its gift bag it will stay
looking lovely and not break or crumble. I used to make shortbread
cookies, and while those tasted a bit more delicious, they would
break too easily. Now I use a basic sugar cookie recipe that’s very
easy, tastes great and lasts for several weeks if kept well wrapped
and airtight. You’ll find the recipe here.
There are literally thousands of cookie cutters available and you
can find a basic range in most supermarkets. If you are looking for
a very specific shape – for example, if you want to make frog-
shaped cookies for your granny who is obsessed with frogs – then
cookie cutters like this are just a click away. You can buy almost
any shape online and have it delivered to your door the next day,
should you wish.
You don’t even need a cookie cutter. It’s really easy to just
draw, trace or print out a shape, stick it onto some cardboard, then
cut out the shape and use it as a template, to cut around with a
knife. I often do this for last-minute ideas or if there’s an unusual
request for which I can’t get a cutter.
Cookies can be decorated in a few different ways – you can use
royal icing, sugarpaste or chocolate. The most common way to
decorate cookies is with royal icing; I think this gives you the best
look and allows you to create more detailed and elaborate designs.
At Fancy Nancy, not only do I make cookies to go along with
many of the wedding and celebration cakes (as ‘place cards’ or
favours), but they are also brilliant to use as cake decorations. I
started doing this a few years ago when I came up with one of my
most special and popular designs that I call the ‘Cookie Explosion’
cake (see here). The beauty of using cookies for this is, firstly, that
anyone can do it, as they are extremely simple to make. Secondly,
if your cake covering is not so perfect, it doesn’t really matter,
because you will be covering the icing with an abundance of
cookies, so you won’t be able to see if there are lumps and bumps
underneath.
DECORATING COOKIES WITH ROYAL ICING
Decorating cookies with royal icing is very similar to making run-

outs (see here). You first need to outline the edge of the shape and
any sections that are to be separated off for different colours or
design reasons. Your outlines can then be ‘flooded’, to fill in the
cookie area with coloured icing.
For the outlines, you need royal icing made up to soft-peak
consistency (see here). Prepare the icing in your chosen colour and
put it into a piping bag with a No. 2 nozzle. Also prepare the
flooding icing, which should be a runny consistency (see here), like
clear honey or golden syrup – not so runny that it will spill over
the outlines, but runny enough to settle flat onto the cookie. If you
are making a multi-coloured design, get all the necessary colours
(for outlines and flooding) ready in the piping bags before you
start. It takes a while to make up the different colours, so it’s best
to get it all ready first.
Pipe all the outlines first, and any sections that you want to stay
separate. Then you can begin flooding with the runny coloured
icing. If different-coloured sections are right next to each other, you
need to leave the first one to dry for a few hours before flooding
another colour right next to it, otherwise the two colours may get
mixed up and it will look messy. While waiting for the first colour
to dry, place a clean, damp cloth over the piping bags to prevent
the ends or nozzles drying out and clogging up.
There are also some fun techniques to learn if you wish to create
more colourful and interesting designs. For example, by dropping
another colour of icing onto a wet, runny section and dragging a
cocktail stick through the two colours, you can create little heart
shapes, swirls or a marbling effect (see here). It’s really fun to do
and you don’t have to be precise as it’s intended to be a bit of a
messy pattern. Or you can simply drop in lines to create a colourful
pattern on your cookie. Like everything, it’s all about practice.
TIP
If you want to make quick cookies and
aren’t too worried about perfection (e.g. if
you are making quick kids’ cookies, rather
than wedding favours for your best friend’s
wedding), you can simply use a white
outline for everything then flood with the
different colours. The white won’t really
show once you’ve filled in the shape.
DECORATING COOKIES WITH SUGARPASTE
This is the simplest and easiest way to decorate your cookies, but is
still really effective and your cookies will look like those of a pro!
This way is definitely easier technically than decorating with royal
icing, so try out both methods and see what works best for you and
your design idea.
Simply roll out the sugarpaste, in any colour you wish, on a
worktop lightly dusted with icing sugar then cut out the icing with
the same cutter as you used to make the cookie. The icing shape can
then be stuck to the surface of your cookies with a little royal icing.
You can even cut out the same shape from two different colours of
sugarpaste, then cut both in half or into sections and mix and match
to get multi-coloured shapes and details. You can add details with
royal icing to finish the cookies.
I also use this method for adding edible images (see here). If
you want to try this, simply roll out your sugarpaste and brush with
a little vodka or cooled boiled water to make the surface slightly
damp – not too wet, just sticky. Lay the printed edible paper over
the tacky sugarpaste and the image will stick to the icing. Once the
image is on your icing, you can simply cut out the shape by
pressing the cutter through the sheet and sugarpaste, and pop it on
top of your cookie with a little royal icing. Finally, you can add
royal-icing details over the image if you like.
CHOCOLATE-COATED COOKIES
This is a very simple method of decorating cookies with not much

skill involved, so is excellent for beginners or when you’re short on
time. Although you can’t create as many designs, these cookies
taste amazing. A vanilla sugar cookie is delicious with a milk-
chocolate covering, or you could try different flavours of cookie
and chocolate. You can then dust with glitter or lovely sprinkles to
decorate.
Use a good-quality chocolate if you can – I love to use Green &
Black’s. Simply melt your chocolate in the microwave on medium
power, stirring at 30-second intervals, or in a heatproof bowl set
over a pan of simmering water. Then either drizzle the chocolate
from a spoon onto the cookies, or hold the cookie upside-down, flat
over the chocolate, and gently immerse in the melted chocolate to
cover the whole top surface. You can leave these to set on some
baking parchment paper at room temperature or pop them in the
fridge if you want them to set faster.
DESIGN IDEAS
esign Ideas: Cookies
Printed Cookies
Ice Cream Cookies
Rose Garden Cookies
Glittered Cookies
esign Ideas: Cupcakes
Chocolate Ganache Cupcakes
Vintage Buttercream Cupcakes
Corsage Fondant Cupcakes
esign Ideas: Mini Cakes
Basic Covered Cake Balls
Cut-Out Petals
esign Ideas: Single Tier Cakes
Masculine Ganache Cake
Ganache Rose Corsage Cake
Chocolate Cigarillos
Silhouettes Celebration Cake
Cake Jazzling
Print-Wrap
esign Ideas: Modelling
Fairyland Mushroom Cake
esign Ideas: Multi Tier Cakes
Brush Embroidery
Buttercream
Cookie Explosion
When a Girl Needs Cake
Vintage Button Cake
COOKIES
There are just too many ways in the world to decorate cookies! At
Fancy Nancy we mostly ice our cookies with royal icing, as
described here. But we also cover them in sugarpaste, using cut-outs
made with the same cutter that we used to cut out our dough. Or,
for a truly unique cookie design, the idea here uses printed edible
paper over your sugarpaste for fabulous detail.
PRINTED COOKIES
This is my favourite way to decorate cookies. It’s such an easy and

impressive way to make very personalised edible treats. I came up with
the idea after making a gorgeous patchwork print cake a few years ago.
At the time, nobody had ever made anything like it, so it caused lots of
interest from all over the world! The original idea has led to many
variations, including printed bags and shoes, and even printed animal
cookies and camouflaged planes. I recently made a lovely printed
bunting cake. Thanks to Nikki at Francis-Dee, who initially helped me
with bespoke patterns, I have lots of lovely individually crafted designs
to choose from. You can make your own, using photos of your own
fabrics, etc., or buy ready-made. See more details here about creating or
sourcing edible print for cookies or cakes.
MAKES 12 PRINTED COOKIES
ou will need:
2 vanilla cookies (see here), in dress shapes (ideally made with
cookie cutters that can also be used to cut the ‘edible print’
sugarpaste to match)
cing sugar
00g sugarpaste, in white, ivory or a pale colour that won’t show
through the print
× A4 sheets of edible paper, printed with your chosen designs (see
here)
0g white soft-peak royal icing, in a piping bag with the end snipped
off or a No. 3 nozzle if you prefer
quipment:
alette knife
mall, sharp knife (optional)
astry brushes
CREATING EDIBLE PRINT

If you are an avid cake-maker, you may decide to invest in an
edible-ink printer. This gives you the freedom to print off
photographs, images, patterns and all sorts onto edible paper. You
just need a normal printer – they are relatively inexpensive – but it
must be new and can only ever be used for food purposes. Sheets of
edible sugar paper and edible-ink cartridges are readily available
from various online sources (see here for stockists).
Alternatively, if you are just trying this technique for the first time,
or only occasionally need a couple of sheets, you should easily be
able to find a local company that can produce printed edible paper
– look online or in the Yellow Pages. There are also many national
companies that offer a quick service if you email them your photos.
This is a bit more expensive than producing single sheets yourself
(as a guide, expect to pay around £7–10 for a single A4 sheet, so
having your own printer is fairly cost-effective if you are a regular
cake-maker), but obviously means you don’t need to buy a new
printer or edible-ink supplies if you’re not going to need them
again. Also, the maintenance on an edible-ink printer can be quite
involved!
STEP 1 Dust the worktop with icing sugar, and roll out the sugarpaste
into a rectangular shape large enough to take your A4 sheets of
edible print, rolling from the centre outwards to get a uniform
shape. Make sure to turn the icing as you go and periodically
swoosh plenty of icing sugar underneath so that when you come to
cut out your shape it doesn’t stick to the worktop. (If it does stick,
once you have adhered the edible paper to the icing it’s likely to
tear and be damaged and I’m afraid you can’t fix this. The edible
paper sheets do tear quite easily as they are very delicate, so use
plenty of icing sugar underneath.)
STEP 2 Roll the sugarpaste as thinly as you can, ideally to a thickness

of approximately 1–2mm. If using guide sticks, first roll out to their
thickness; it will help you to keep the sugarpaste even. Then
continue to roll thinner – as thin as you can.
TIP
To get a uniform shape, always roll from
the centre outwards. Place your pin in the
middle of the sugarpaste and roll away
from yourself. Then place the pin back in
the centre and this time roll towards you.
Don’t just roll in one direction or you get
an irregular-shaped bit of sugarpaste, as
opposed to the rectangular A4 shape you
need to accommodate the icing sheet.
STEP 3 Now you need to stick your printed sheets onto the
sugarpaste. When you are first starting, it’s best to do just one
sheet at a time so you don’t feel under pressure to rush and so that
the rest do not start drying out or sticking to the surface. Take one
of your printed sheets out of its packet and release it carefully from
the backing paper using a palette knife or a sharp kitchen knife (if
you don’t have a palette knife, leave it on your worktop, dusted
with a little icing sugar to prevent it sticking).
STEP 4 With a pastry brush, dampen the rolled-out sugarpaste with a
little drop of vodka or cooled boiled water; don’t over-wet it or
your images will start to dissolve, just make sure that your brush is
damp and be sure to cover all of the sugarpaste so that the printed
sheet sticks to it completely, with no areas left dry or the image
may lift off.
STEP 5 Working in one direction (either away from you or towards

you) carefully lay your printed sheet onto the sugarpaste,
smoothing gently with your fingers as you go to make sure that
there are no air bubbles trapped under it.
STEP 6 Now cut out your printed shapes: take the cutter(s) that you
used for the cookies, and punch out the shapes by pressing the
cutter down onto the printed sheet and sugarpaste – press all the
way through to get a neat finish. If you are using a card template,
cut slowly and carefully around the edge either with a clean craft
knife or a small, sharp knife. (I do recommend investing in cutters
if you can though; they are very cheap and make the job easier and
neater.)
STEP 7 To stick the decoration to the cookies, use the royal icing to
pipe a rough outline just inside the edge of each cookie and a little
splodge in the middle.
STEP 8 Carefully lift up the sugar and edible-print shapes with a

palette knife and place on top of the cookies. Press down gently
with your fingers.
STEP 9 Leave to dry for 24 hours, then dust off any excess icing sugar
with a clean pastry brush. Now you can display, use as a cake
decoration, eat or package the cookies as required!
ICE CREAM COOKIES
Being from Leigh-on-Sea, right on the seafront, I’ve got a soft spot for
seaside-themed cookies and cakes. I love the jauntiness of seaside stuff! I
am also a bit obsessed with Rossi’s, a famous ice-cream parlour on the
seafront. So it didn’t take me long to come up with the idea for these
fabulous fun cookies. They are great for kids’ parties or as summer
wedding favours. To create them, follow the photographs here, and play
about with the colours and sprinkles to make them your own.
ou will need:
2 vanilla cookies (see here), in ice-cream cone shapes
aramel-coloured soft-peak royal icing (see here), in a piping bag
with a No. 3 nozzle
ale-pink, yellow, mint-green and white stiff-peak royal icing, in
piping bags with star nozzles
Multi-coloured sprinkles and chocolate vermicelli
STEP 1 To create the waffle-effect cones, use the caramel-coloured

royal icing to pipe around the edge of the lower cone section of
each cookie.
STEP 2 Next, pipe parallel diagonal lines across the cones, from one
side to the other, in one direction only. Then pipe parallel diagonal
lines in the opposite direction to create the lattice effect of a waffle
cone. It doesn’t matter if it’s not neat at the top; in fact, continue
the cone up a little into the ice-cream section, as this will later get
covered over with the swirly ‘ice cream’.
STEP 3 Using one colour per cone, pipe the pink, yellow, green and
white royal icing onto the top part of the cookies to form the ‘ice
cream’. (Or you could choose to do a three-colour ice cream to
create a Neapolitan effect!) Start at the bottom, next to the cone,
and pipe in a sweeping motion from one side to the other, then
back again, all the way up until you have filled the space with
swirled-effect horizontal lines. Finish with a peak at the top by
pulling the nozzle away from the cookie while still squeezing for a
moment.
STEP 4 Cover with sprinkles – multi-coloured ones on the pink and

yellow ice creams and chocolate ones on the green ice cream to
suggest mint choc-chip.
ROSE GARDEN COOKIES
Gorgeous little push-mould roses give a pretty look that can be used on
cakes, cupcakes and cookies. They are really quick to make (see here)
but look very impressive as there is so much detail on them. These
cookies make lovely presents for Mother’s Day, wedding favours or for a
garden party. A perfectly pretty, flowery treat for all kinds of occasions.
ou will need:
2 circular vanilla cookies (see here), covered in a circle of vintage
pistachio-green sugarpaste (see here)
large, 12 medium and 21–28 small push-mould roses (see here) –
sizes vary, so judge what looks best
ark-green stiff-peak royal icing, in a piping bag with a leaf nozzle
STEP 1 Attach all the roses to the discs of sugarpaste on the cookies,
by piping a tiny dab of the green royal icing to fix them in place.
Leave to dry for a couple of hours. Use 6–7 roses per cookie,
depending on the size and uniformity of your roses. If they vary a
great deal in size, just cover as much of the surface as possible.
STEP 2 Pipe leaves against the roses, extending outwards to create

the effect that they are growing from under the roses. For the
cookies covered all over with roses, pipe randomly in different
directions to fill the gaps in and around the sugar roses.
STEP 3 Place the cookies on plates to decorate your table, or leave to

dry overnight and wrap in cookie bags.
GLITTERED COOKIES
I love to add edible glitter to cakes and cookies; what’s not to like about
glitter!? Add to your royal-iced cookies by gently tapping the glitter over
the icing surface while it’s still wet. Try making these star and cool
Britannia cookies.
ou will need:
2 vanilla cookies (see here), in a star shape
lue soft-peak royal icing (see here), in piping bags with No. 2
nozzles
lue runny royal icing, in piping bags with the ends snipped off (no
nozzles needed)
lue non-toxic glitter
quipment:
Greaseproof paper
pastry brushes (1 for each colour)
STEP 1 Place the cookies on greaseproof paper, so that it will be easy

to tip any excess glitter back into the glitter pots to be re-used.
STEP 2 Outline the cookies with soft-peak royal icing to create frames
that you can then fill in.
STEP 3 Fill in the outlines with the same colour of runny icing.
STEP 4 Dip your pastry brush in the glitter. Hold this over the top of
your wet icing and tap your fingers on the brush to lightly dust
glitter all over the cookie. Repeat with the rest, then dry for a few
hours.
STEP 5 Add a detailed outline by overlaying with the same soft-peak

icing that you used for the first outline. Leave to dry overnight and
hey presto, your twinkling stars are ready.
COOL BRITANNIA UNION JACK COOKIES

As well as being a fan of the seaside, I’m a fan of all things cool
Britannia so I had a ball creating a commemorative range of cakes
and cookies for the royal wedding for Harvey Nichols.
To make these glittered flags, you need to ice each section
separately and let each stage dry completely before adding another
colour. Start by icing the red central part and dusting with red
glitter while the icing is still wet. The next day, dust off the excess
glitter with a pastry brush, back into the pot, then continue by
adding the blue parts of the cookie, outlining the triangular blue
sections then filling with runny blue icing. The following day, fill
in the white part of the flag design. (See the photographs, here.)
DESIGN IDEAS
CUPCAKES
CHOCOLATE GANACHE CUPCAKES
These glossy decadent cupcakes can be finished with a glittering gold

snowflake or gold dragées. Or, my favourite, they can be adorned with
large, bright individual chocolate roses.
ou will need:
6 cupcakes (chocolate or orange sponge is best – see here and here),
baked in gold foil cases and covered in chocolate ganache (see
here)
mall amount of Glossy Chocolate Ganache For Pouring (left over
from the ganache topping) (see here), in a piping bag with a No. 3
nozzle
6 large chocolate-paste roses (see here), in bright multi-colours or
chocolate shades if you prefer (alternatively, 16 sugar snowflakes
cut from caramel-coloured petal paste with a plunger cutter,
decorated with gold lustre dust or spray – great for Christmas!)
STEP 1 Make sure that once you have poured the chocolate ganache
covering over your cupcakes, you leave them to set for a few hours,
otherwise the decorations may sink into the topping.
STEP 2 When the ganache cake covering is set, pipe a small pearl of
chocolate ganache onto the centre of each cupcake.
STEP 3 Attach the chocolate roses or snowflakes to finish.
STEP 4 Display on a large platter and serve as dessert at your party,

or scoff them all by yourself.
VINTAGE BUTTERCREAM CUPCAKES
You can decorate these buttercream cupcakes with vintage-effect sugar

roses or in a French Marie Antoinette colour-palette of duck-egg blues,
mints, peaches, creams and pink. This is a nice opportunity to use gold
lustre spray. Display on a duck-egg blue sugar stand with gold ribbon,
or pile up glass stands on top of each other. You can buy some lovely
stands from homeware shops or, even better, you can pick up good-
quality vintage glass stands from charity shops for just a couple of
pounds.
ou will need:
6 cupcakes, covered in buttercream applied with a palette knife (see
here)
6 hand-moulded sugar roses (see here), in muted vintage shades or
Marie Antoinette palette with gold lustre dust or spray if you want
some metallic colouring. For these cakes I have stuck to the muted
pastel shades.
ale-green buttercream (see here), in a piping bag with a small leaf
nozzle
STEP 1 Attach the roses to the cakes by plunging them into the
buttercream topping. They will stick without any royal icing.
STEP 2 Pipe three buttercream leaves (see here) around each rose to
finish the detail.
CORSAGE FONDANT CUPCAKES
I’ve decorated these cupcakes with print corsages and sugar push-mould
buttons. If you don’t have a rose-shaped cutter, you can use different
small cutters, e.g. hearts, circles or wavy cutters. The cakes look great
displayed on a coloured stand, or a stand covered in edible print. You
can also simply stick wrapping paper to your cake boards if you wish to
make a colourful stand.
ou will need:
6 cupcakes, covered in vanilla fondant (see here) in various colours
(I’ve used blue, yellow and white)
6 large sugarpaste rose-cutter shapes, circles or hearts, rolled out
thinly with a selection of edible print on the surface (see here, or
use brightly coloured petal paste instead)
mall amount of royal icing, in a piping bag (for attaching the roses
to the cupcakes)
6 small sugarpaste rose-cutter shapes, with a different selection of
edible print (alternatively, use a contrasting brightly coloured petal
paste)
6 push-mould buttons (see here), in a selection of colours
oft-peak royal icing, in your choice of colour or to match buttons, in
a piping bag with a No. 1.5 nozzle
STEP 1 Attach the larger rose shapes (or circles and hearts) to the
fondant cupcake surface by sticking them down with royal icing.
STEP 2 Repeat the process with the smaller rose shapes, attaching
them over the larger ones.
STEP 3 Pipe a small dot of royal icing in the centre of each small rose
(or circle or heart) shape and stick on a sugar button.
STEP 4 Finish by piping a neat ‘stitch’ between the buttonholes,

using the coloured soft-peak royal icing, to create a ‘sewn onto’
effect.
DESIGN IDEAS
MINI CAKES
Miniature iced cakes are becoming very popular – cute, almost bite-
sized, mini treats. When perfectly iced, they’re ideal as gifts or to
give as party favours. They are equally lovely served as dessert at a
wedding or dinner party. Here are some designs to inspire you….
BASIC COVERED CAKE BALLS
These cute, round, playful mini fruit cakes make perfect table presents or
equally great gifts for teachers, family or friends. I started to make these
little spherical brown cakes to make the Christmas pudding cakes (see
the instructions here). The robins are a variation on this idea. Very
cute!
ou will need:
0 fruit-cake balls, covered in marzipan and brown sugarpaste
mall amounts of white, brown, yellow, red and green sugarpaste
White, green and red stiff-peak royal icing (see here), in piping bags
with No. 2 nozzles
lack stiff-peak royal icing, in a piping bag with a No. 1.5 nozzle
cing sugar
iping gel (optional)
ed non-toxic glitter (optional)
quipment:
mall paintbrushes
hell tool or cocktail stick (optional)
mall, sharp knife
mall flower cutter (optional)
mall holly-shaped plunger cutter (optional)
STEP 1 Take a small chunk of fruitcake in your hand (approx 80–90g

per ball) and compact this by squeezing together and roll between
your palms to achieve a ball shape (as if you were making
meatballs!)
STEP 2 Place these in a fridge to firm up for 30 minutes.
STEP 3 Boil a little apricot jam and brush over the balls to make them
sticky.
STEP 4 Roll out some marzipan to a thickness of no more than 5mm.

Cut into pieces large enough to completely cover the cake balls. Lay
a marzipan piece over the top of each balls and press around the
sides. Pick up a ball and pinch underneath the base to gather up the
excess marzipan. Trim this off. Roll the ball in your palms until
smooth. Repeat with the rest of the balls and then leave to dry
overnight.
STEP 5 When ready to cover in icing, brush the balls with a little
brandy, vodka or cooled boiled water. Repeat all of step 4 using
sugarpaste. If you see a little mark or crack where you have
trimmed off the excess icing, make sure this is on the underside so
it won’t show. Leave to dry ideally overnight before commencing
any decorating.
CHRISTMAS PUDS
STEP 1 Dust a worktop with icing sugar and roll out some white
sugarpaste until approximately 2–3mm thick. Use a wavy flower
cutter – I use a small, floral cookie cutter – to cut out five shapes for
the top of the puddings.
STEP 2 To create a dripping effect, roll a small rolling pin over the
shapes in random directions to flatten and splay out some of the
edges into longer parts that will become the dripping topping on the
puds.
STEP 3 Brush the top of each cake ball with a little vodka or cooled
boiled water, then place a white dripping shape on top of each ball
and smooth down. Allow to dry overnight.
STEP 4 Roll out some green sugarpaste on a worktop dusted with

icing sugar to 1–2mm in thickness and use a small, holly-shaped
plunger cutter to cut out 15 leaves. Place a collection of three holly
leaves on top of each cake, in the middle of the white icing.
Alternatively, you can pipe spiky holly leaves freehand with green
royal icing. Finish off by piping three fat pearls of red royal icing
onto the leaves to create juicy holly berries.
STEP 5 If you wish, once the holly is dry you can paint the leaves with
gel to give them a sheen, and paint over the berries with a mixture
of gel and red glitter, to add some razzle dazzle.
ROBINS
STEP 1 Roll approximately 10g of brown sugarpaste into a small ball.
Cut in half and make two cone shapes. Flatten them into cute,
chubby ‘wings’ for the sides of the robin. With the paintbrush,
dampen the sides of one cake ball with vodka or cooled boiled
water, roughly where you want to adhere the wings, just above
halfway up. Press the wings onto the sides of the robin’s body.
Repeat for the rest of the robin cakes.
STEP 2 To add detail to the wings, use a shell tool to mark out some
feathery lines at an angle, so that it looks like they are pointing
back and down towards the tail. If you don’t have a shell tool, use a
cocktail stick or knife to mark a few lines.
STEP 3 With a small rolling pin, roll out a small piece of red
sugarpaste on a worktop dusted with icing sugar until 1–2mm thick.
Cut out little circles with a round cutter, or use a knife if you don’t
have one – these will be the robins’ redbreasts. Using vodka or
cooled boiled water, stick the red circles in between the two wings
on the lower part of the body.
STEP 4 Take five tiny pea-sized pieces of yellow sugarpaste. Roll into
balls, then pinch one end into a slight point to make mini cone
shapes. Using vodka or cooled boiled water, stick these onto the
middle of the upper part of each cake ball, to make the ‘beaks’. Cut
carefully into each beak with a sharp knife and wiggle the knife
slightly to ‘open’ the beaks, so that the robins appear to be merrily
chirping.
STEP 5 Pipe ‘eyes’ onto the robins, using a small dot of white royal
icing for each eye. Pat down with a damp paintbrush to flatten
slightly. Leave to dry overnight.
STEP 6 Once dry, finish off with a small dot of black royal icing in the
middle of each eye. Make sure to do this the following day, to
prevent the black icing from bleeding into the white.
CUT-OUT PETALS
The idea for these cool structural daisies came to me after seeing the
Marc Jacobs ‘Daisy’ perfume. I once used them to create a gorgeous
three-tier cake for a magazine photo shoot. I like the more graphic
flowers; they are very sculptural looking, more like jewellery than a
natural flower.
ou will need:
2 mini cakes, iced in a pale eau-de-nil shade (I used tiny amounts of
mint green and baby blue to colour white sugarpaste)
00g white petal paste
cing sugar
Old/dry sugarpaste rolled into 12 walnut-sized balls and 24 smaller,
grape-sized balls, covered in cling film
tbsp white stiff-peak royal icing (see here)
tbsp caramel-coloured stiff-peak royal icing (see here), in a piping
bag with a No. 3 nozzle
Gold lustre piping gel
2 lengths of ribbon, in ivory, gold or the same eau-de-nil shade
quipment:
flower cutters, medium (5cm/2in across) and small (3cm/1¼in
across)
oam or gel pad
all tool
mall paintbrush
STEP 1 Roll out the petal paste thinly but not paper-thin, to a
thickness of 1–2mm, using icing sugar to dust the worktop. Place
your floppy mat over this rolled-out petal paste to prevent it from
drying out.
STEP 2 Cut out 12 medium flower shapes and place on the foam pad.
Gently press just inside the edge of each petal with the ball tool to
create a curved inner edge.
STEP 3 As you complete each flower, place upside-down on one of

the balls of dry sugarpaste, to help set the daisy into a large cup
shape that will set hard overnight. Next cut out 24 small flower
shapes and repeat steps 2 and 3 to shape and set the daisies.
STEP 4 The next day, decorate the mini cakes by attaching your
flowers using a dab of white stiff-peak royal icing, either with one
large flower positioned centrally, or one larger and two small
structural blooms on the top of each cake, just leaning out towards
the top edges so they protrude over the sides of the cakes. Leave to
set for a couple of hours.
STEP 5 Pipe the caramel centres and once dried, paint with gold
lustre piping gel.
DESIGN IDEAS
SINGLE TIER CAKES
MASCULINE GANACHE CAKE
For a chocolate ganache design for a man or boy, a great way to add
colour and detail is to use an iced run-out. Here I have used a retro
robot to sit on top of the cake. The bright, punchy colours really stand
out against the dark-chocolate background.
ou will need:
0cm (8in) round Rich Belgian Chocolate Truffle Cake (see here), split
and filled with Rich Belgian Chocolate Ganache Buttercream (see
here) and covered in Glossy Chocolate Ganache for Pouring (see
here)
5cm (10in) round cake board, iced in sugarpaste (see here)
iced run-out (see here; and for robot template see here)
mall amount of melted white chocolate
mall amount of white stiff-peak royal icing, to attach the cake to the
board (see here)
Glossy Chocolate Ganache for pouring (left over from covering the
cake) (see here), in a piping bag with a No. 3 nozzle
oft-peak royal icing, in your choice of colour, in a piping bag with a
No. 2 nozzle (optional; if you want to pipe a message)
quipment:
astry brush
urntable (optional)
STEP 1 Carefully turn over your iced run-out and, using a pastry
brush, paint the back with cooled melted white chocolate. This is to
prevent the dark chocolate ganache from bleeding through the iced
picture. Build up a few layers to be sure to seal the back of the
icing. Leave to set until dry, for at least an hour.
STEP 2 Put a dab of royal icing in the centre of the iced board, to
stick the cake firmly down, then lift the chocolate cake and place
onto the middle of the board; do this carefully as you can’t move it
once positioned, or the chocolate will mark the board.
STEP 3 With the chocolate ganache, pipe a snail trail (see here) all
around the base of the cake where it meets the coloured board, to
finish it off neatly. It’s best to do this on a turntable but it’s not
essential.
STEP 4 Put your run-out on the centre of the chocolate cake. If you
wish, pipe a message onto the cake or the board using the coloured
royal icing.
GANACHE ROSE CORSAGE CAKE
This girlie, chocolate-covered ganache design is perfect for an indulgent

celebration for a special lady.
ou will need:
here) and covered in Glossy Chocolate Ganache for Pouring (see
here)
5cm (10in) round cake board, iced in pastel-pink sugarpaste (see
here) (optional)
mall amount of white stiff-peak royal icing to attach the cake to the
board (see here)
Glossy chocolate ganache (see here), in a piping bag with a No. 3
nozzle
lunger-cutter rose leaves, made with pale gooseberry-coloured white
chocolate paste (see here)
election of hand-moulded chocolate roses (see here), made with
white chocolate paste (I use Squire’s Modelling Cocoform), in
muted shades of peach, pink and cream
eachy pale-pink soft-peak royal icing, in a piping bag with a No. 2
nozzle (optional; if you want to pipe a message)
quipment:
urntable (optional)
STEP 1 If you are using the cake board, place a dab of royal icing
onto the centre of the board to stick the cake firmly down, then lift
the chocolate cake and place in the middle; do this carefully, as
once positioned you can’t move it, or the chocolate will mark the
board.
STEP 2 With the chocolate ganache, pipe a snail trail (see here) all
around the base of the cake where the bottom meets the coloured
board, to finish it off neatly. It’s best to do this on a turntable but
it’s not essential.
STEP 3 Attach the chocolate leaves to the cake with a little piped
ganache, positioning them in the place where you want the
corsage: around 5–7 leaves around the outer part of the corsage is
perfect. If you want to pipe a message on the cake, make sure to
leave some space to one side.
STEP 4 With more ganache, attach the chocolate roses, arranging

them to form a corsage.
STEP 5 This cake looks lovely just as it is, but if you want to add a
message, use the pale-pink royal icing for this. Alternatively, you
could pipe a chocolate-coloured royal icing message onto the board.
CHOCOLATE CIGARILLOS
There are lots of great edible supplies easily available nowadays that
enable you to create a show-stopping, professional-looking cake with
minimum effort. These delicious Belgian chocolate cigarillos aren’t
cheating; if you’ve spent time baking a gorgeous sponge then added
ganache icing, it’s still created by you … but with the help of some
brilliant ingredients. You can even buy the roses ready-made.
This design is simple but eye-catching and would suit all manner of
celebrations. Imagine it all in pure white for a wedding or
anniversary. The beauty of this design is that it’s very quick and
you don’t have to fuss over making a neatly covered cake. Aim for
a cake that is 8cm (3in) in depth or make sure to measure the
cigarillos that you buy. Ideally, you want them to protrude above
the edge of your cake, so that you can sit the chocolate roses inside
the ring of chocolatey sticks. To check you have enough roses, you
can arrange them on a cake board that’s the same size as your cake,
to see if they fill the space.
ou will need:
here), and covered in white chocolate paste (see here)
5cm (10in) round cake board, iced in chocolate roll-out paste (see
here), coloured to match the cigarillos
mall amount of white stiff-peak royal icing to attach your cake to the
board (see here)
Melted white chocolate, in a plastic piping bag (no nozzle; simply
snip the end off the bag)
hocolate cigarillos, approximately 60–70
nough hand-moulded white chocolate roses to fill the top of the cake
(approximately 25–30)
Handful of chocolate leaves made with a plunger leaf cutter or a
silicone leaf-impression mould
Organza ribbon to tie the cake
quipment:
urntable (optional)
STEP 1 Put a small dab of royal icing in the centre of the cake board,
to fix the cake down, and place the chocolate cake centrally onto
the board.
STEP 2 Before attaching the cigarillos, pipe a small amount of melted

white chocolate onto part of the side of the cake, squiggling it on.
(Only a couple of inches wide at a time, as it will set quickly.)
Begin pressing the cigarillos onto the side of the cake where the
chocolate is, taking care to keep them upright. Also be aware that
one end of the cigarillo will have a neater edge – put this pointing
up and the rougher end down against the board.
STEP 3 Continue in this way all around the cake until you arrive back
at your starting point. Once the cigarillos are fixed, they set
quickly.
STEP 4 Pipe some more melted white chocolate over the flat top and
attach the roses and leaves inside the chocolate ring. Place some
leaves folding over the edges and others nestled in amongst the
chocolate flowers.
STEP 5 Finish the cake with a pretty organza bow.

SILHOUETTES CELEBRATION CAKE
For these groovy birthday cakes I’ve used simple, flat, cut-out petal paste
shapes, made by cutting round some templates. You can find shapes
online and print them out, draw sketches, or even use silhouettes of your
own photos. I’ve given instructions for a boy’s cake – a break-dance
design – and a ballet design for girls. Other themes could be tennis,
skating, singing (imagine a glittery microphone and neon musical notes)
or showjumping. This is a fabulous way to make a personalised cake for
children, teens and – even big kids!
ou will need:
0cm (8in) round Very Vanilla cake (see here), iced in powder
blue/grey sugarpaste (for break-dance design) or white (for ballet
design)
0cm (12in) round cake board, iced in a matching colour (see here)
or a cake stand
00g petal paste, in black (for break-dance) or pale flesh (for ballet)
5g pale-pink petal paste (for ballet only)
right-lime, pink, yellow (primrose) and orange (tangerine) soft-peak
royal icing (for break-dance) or dusky pink soft-peak royal icing
(for ballet), in piping bags with No. 2 nozzles
White stiff-peak royal icing, in a piping bag with a small hole snipped
in the end
iquorice and claret paste colours (for ballet)
iping gel (for ballet)
White non-toxic glitter (for ballet)
ibbon, in your choice of colour
quipment:
templates for break-dancers or ballerinas
astry brush
mall, sharp knife or palette knife
mall paintbrushes
utu template (for ballet design only)
oam or gel pad
ocktail sticks
STEP 1 Fix the cake centrally onto the cake board, if using, with a dab
of royal icing to secure. To ensure your silhouettes are evenly
spaced around the cake, wrap some ribbon around the cake, mark
where it meets, then remove and measure it. Divide by eight and
mark at equal intervals with a felt pen. Hold the ribbon back up to
the cake and, above each pen-mark, make a tiny dot on the icing
with a sharp knife, to indicate where to place the sugar silhouettes.
STEP 2 Roll out the black or flesh-coloured petal paste on a worktop

dusted with icing suagr, to 1–2mm in thickness, or as thin as you
can get without it becoming too fragile. Using the templates, cut
out the eight different shapes and carefully brush the backs with
some vodka or cooled boiled water. Just dampen, don’t over-wet,
or you may find that the liquid leaks out slightly.
STEP 3 Lift each shape with a knife or palette knife and place them
around the edges of the cake, spacing them equally.
STEP 4 Press the shapes lightly onto the icing with your fingertips to
secure. If a shape slides down, you have probably made it too wet,
so carefully peel away and dab off the excess with some kitchen
paper. Once all the shapes are on your cake, leave to dry for a
couple of hours.
TIP
If your shapes are a bit chunky and are
slipping down the side of your cake once
attached, use a cocktail stick to pierce
through the centre of the shape and secure
it onto the cake. You can remove the stick
and fill in the hole with matching royal
icing once it has dried out.
STEP 5 Adding detail to your break-dancers is easy. Add flashes of

colour with royal icing, as shown in the photo, to the shoes,
hoodies and jackets. This is the final step if you are making a break-
dancer cake, unless you wish to add a message to the top and
ribbon round the base of the cake to finish.
STEP 6 For the ballerinas, paint shoes, bodices and tiny kissy lips
onto the cut-outs with the paste colours and a small paintbrush. On
a worktop dusted with icing sugar, roll out the pink petal paste
thinly. Cut out eight tutu shapes using your template. On the foam
pad, roll up the bottom half of each tutu with a cocktail stick,
adding gentle pressure periodically to create a wavy frill at the
bottom. This will help to give your design a 3D effect.
STEP 7 Pipe a strip of white royal icing onto the waist of each dancer.
Attach the petal-paste skirts to the figures, securing on either side
with a little more royal icing, and gently pressing to adhere them
to the figures on the cake. Insert a cocktail stick on each side of the
waist to hold the petal-paste tutus in place. Leave to dry overnight.
STEP 8 To finish, mix ½ teaspoon of piping gel with 1 teaspoon of

white non-toxic glitter and paint this over the frilled tutus to make
them sparkle. Finish by piping a message, if you wish, and adding
ribbon to the base of the cake to hide the join with the board.
CAKE JAZZLING
One of my favourite latest inventions, this is a fabulous idea for

teenagers. What’s not to like about a glittery photo of yourself or one of
your friends?! Here I have used a photo of my daughter; this is perfect
for her 13th birthday. See here for more details on printing photos onto
edible paper. Use a clear photo that you can easily cut out – the face in
this one covers about a 12–15cm (5–6in) area.
You can then use different-coloured glitters, lustres and piping gel
to paint on sugary, glittery make-up detail. I also piped beads,
pearls, hearts and shapes of royal icing onto plastic and scattered
glitter over them whilst still wet. Once they had dried out, I lifted
them from their plastic backing and used them to create beaded
jewellery. I’ve made a hair accessory, necklace and earrings, but of
course you can make anything; go for it and experiment. Hilarious,
fun, and a little bit ‘Essex’, and the sparkliness will appeal to
everyone!
ou will need:
0cm (8in) round Very Vanilla cake (see here), iced in pink
sugarpaste (see here)
0cm (12in) round cake board, iced in red sugarpaste (see here)
White stiff-peak royal icing (see here)
ifferent-coloured non-toxic glitters
large edible photo (use an edible-ink printer or see here)
Metallic lustres (for the eyes and cheeks)
iping gel
lue soft-peak royal icing, in a piping bag with a No. 1.5 nozzle
quipment:
lastic document wallet
iece of A4 card
astry brush
Greaseproof paper
cissors
mall paintbrushes
mall, sharp knife
STEP 1 Begin by making your cake jazzles, so that these can dry
overnight. They will set in a couple of hours but be careful
handling them as they will still be soft inside. (For this cake I used
several different-coloured glitters – EdAbleArt disco white, disco
magenta, neon pink, purple, gold and green – to create the jazzly
jewellery.)
STEP 2 Take the plastic document wallet and pop the piece of A4 card
inside; this makes it easier to pick the wallet up when dusting off
excess glitter.
STEP 3 Begin piping little pearls, beads and hearts (by piping two
beads alongside each other and dragging downwards) of white
royal icing onto the plastic wallet. I also piped some swirly ‘S’
shapes, to make the earrings in the photo. Very OTT!
STEP 4 Pipe one set of shapes at a time, in a line, then dust with your
lightest colour of glitter, by loading up the pastry brush with glitter
and tapping it over the piping on the wallet. You need to add lots
of glitter to completely cover the piped shapes.
STEP 5 Dust off the excess by holding the wallet over a piece of
greaseproof paper, tilting and gently tapping so that the excess
glitter falls onto the paper. You can then use the paper as a funnel,
folding up either side and tipping the glitter back into its pot.
STEP 6 Continue this with the next line of piped shapes and your next
shade of glitter, pouring the excess back into the pots as you go.
Once finished, leave the sparkly, glittering cake jazzles to set.
STEP 7 Attach the cake to the cake board and secure with a dab of
royal icing. Carefully cut around the edge of the edible picture, and
apply centrally to the top of the cake by brushing a little vodka or
cooled boiled water onto the surface to stick the picture down.
STEP 8 Now you can start adding sugar ‘make-up’ to jazzle your
photo. Using a small paintbrush, add some metallic lustre to the
eyelids as eyeshadow, and as blusher to the cheeks.
STEP 9 Add some piping gel and glitter detail to the eyelids and lips
to make them really glittery, so that they stand out. Finish the eyes
with the blue royal icing to create luscious eyelashes.
STEP 10 Now attach your cake jazzles, lifting them off the wallet with
a sharp knife and securing in place with a tiny dot of white royal
icing under each bead, pearl or piped shape.
STEP 11 Finish off with a border of your choice.

PRINT-WRAP
Since I began my cake-decorating career, I think this must be one of my

all-time favourite creations. Using gorgeous vintage edible print (from
my friend Nikki at Francis-Dee), I am able to create an amazingly
detailed look for this cake without having to hand-paint or pipe the fine
detail. You can use any pattern to create a pretty design – there are
plenty of free downloads online, or you can take a photo of fabric and
print it off with an edible-ink printer, or send to a print company to
turn it into a sheet of edible print. This cake is perfect for birthdays,
weddings, tea parties or any time you fancy really!
ou will need:
5cm (6in) round cake, iced in vintage-green sugarpaste (I used
gooseberry paste colour) (see here)
0cm (8in) round cake board, iced in the same colour (see here)
pprox. 100g white sugarpaste
aramel–ivory–coloured stiff-peak royal icing (see here), in a piping
bag with a No. 3 nozzle
× A4 sheets of edible print
ength of any ribbon, 2.5cm (1in) width, to use as a guide
oft-jade satin ribbon, 1.5cm (½ in) width
Gold lustre
quipment:
ibbon cutter (or ruler and scalpel)
cissors
mall paintbrush
astry brush
STEP 1 Attach your cake centrally onto the board, with a dab of royal
icing to secure.
STEP 2 Roll out your white sugarpaste to a long sausage, flatten and
roll to a strip wide enough for your fabric wrap piece for the
decorative band (This should be very thin – about 1–2mm). Cut
your edible-print sheets lengthways in half and attach to the
sugarpaste strip, which you have lightly brushed with some vodka
or cooled boiled water. With a ribbon cutter set at the desired
thickness or with a ruler and scalpel, cut your strip out; it should be
approximately 2.5–3cm (1–1 ½in) wide although if you prefer a
thicker band that’s fine as long as there is space for your ribbon
and pearl trims.
STEP 3 Wrap the jade ribbon around the bottom of the cake and
fasten it at the back with a tiny dot of icing. Then, following the
top edge of the jade ribbon, wrap the 2.5cm guide ribbon around
the cake. The sugar print wrap can be aligned along its top edge so
that it will be straight. A good tip is to roll it onto a small pin then
unwrap over the sides of the cake (fasten it at the back with a tiny
dot of royal icing).
STEP 4 Now use the paintbrush to paint vodka or cooled boiled water
all around the cake, just above the guide ribbon so you have a
sticky surface for your print wrap sugarpaste strip.
STEP 5 Attach the strip to the cake, with its best part at the front,
laying it neatly onto the side of the cake, as straight as you can,
just a fraction above the guide ribbon. Unwrapping from a pin is
easiest; continue all the way round until you reach the starting
point and cut with a sharp knife. Adhere by pressing onto your
sticky cake or add a dab of stiff-peak royal icing to be sure it will
stay.
STEP 6 Add pearl detail above and below the strip to finish, piping
equal-sized beads of the caramel-ivory royal icing (see here). Leave
to dry for at least two hours then add gold lustre to the pearls,
mixed with vodka or cooled boiled water and painted onto the
pearls to make them golden and gorgeous.
DESIGN IDEAS
MODELLING
Hand-modelling is a really fun way to make cake decorations.
Sugarpaste is a lovely medium for modelling, as it’s very pliable
and holds its shape well. If you wish, you can add a teaspoon of
gum tragacanth to 500g sugarpaste and this will give you a better,
firmer result, making your model set harder and firmer.
You can also model with chocolate paste and even with petal paste;
they are both good mediums for rolling out, shaping and creating
models. It’s best to have a play around first; after a while you’ll get
the feel for it. Start simply, creating basic shapes that are made up
of just a few parts.
FAIRYLAND MUSHROOM CAKE
Here I’ve made a whimsical, fairytale cake that is a perfect celebration

cake for a little girl’s party. The mushrooms conjure up some
enchanting woodland magic!
ou will need:
0cm (8in) round cake, iced in grass-green sugarpaste (I mixed
gooseberry and leaf-green paste colours) (see here)
0cm (12in) round cake board, iced in matching green sugarpaste
pprox. 700g white sugarpaste, with optional 2 tsp gum tragacanth,
or sugar modelling paste
ed, caramel-ivory and spruce-green paste colours
ength of pink and green ribbon, 1.5cm width
White stiff-peak royal icing (see here), in a piping bag with a No. 3
nozzle
Green soft-peak royal icing, in a piping bag with a No. 2 nozzle
ink royal icing, in a piping bag with a No. 2 nozzle
election of pre-made petal-paste blossom flowers (see here), in your
choice of colours
ust colours: green and white
election of pre-made push-mould butterflies (see here)
White holographic non-toxic glitter
White soft-peak royal icing
quipment:
xtra cake boards, for modelling and drying
tar nozzle
ocktail stick (optional)
mall paintbrushes
astry brush
STEP 1 Colour approximately 300g of white sugarpaste with red paste

colouring. Take around 100g for your large central mushroom and
roll into a ball. Shape this into a cone by tapering one side by hand.
STEP 2 Invert, so that the wider base is on a cake board and push
down with your hand to flatten the bottom. Pinch the top so that it
looks more humpy and mushroom-like. Leave to set.
STEP 3 With the remainder of the red paste colour and repeat the
previous steps to make a few more medium and small mushroom
tops.
STEP 4 Make the mushroom stalks by kneading some caramel-ivory

colouring into the remaining sugarpaste (about 200g)to get a putty-
like colour. For the large mushroom, roll a fat sausage that’s just
over half the width of the base of the mushroom top. Do this by
eye, as there’s no need to be too precise. Turn the stalk over and
press with the flat of your hand, or a top smoother, to flatten the
top and bottom.
STEP 5 Make additional stalks in the same way to fit all the small
mushroom tops. Leave them to dry on a cake board overnight.
STEP 6 Add the pink and green ribbon around the base of the cake
(attach at the back with a dot of icing) and then add moss detail, by
colouring approximately 200g sugarpaste with the dark-green
colouring and hand-rolling it to make a few random moss clumps
for around the cake edges. (Save some green sugarpaste for the top
of the cake, too.) Press into these with the star nozzle to texturise
and make them furrier and more moss-like.
STEP 7 Affix the large central mushroom stalk to the top of the cake
with some stiff-peak royal icing. You may also want to use a
cocktail stick in the base stalk to give extra support, but it’s not
essential. (If the cake is for a very young child, who will be eating
it, it is better not to use a stick, but I would recommend using one
if you are transporting the cake any distance.)
STEP 8 Add the top part of the large mushroom, fixing it with more
royal icing, and add some moss detail to the base of the mushroom
and a few bits around the top of the cake in the same way as you
did to the sides. This will also help support the mushroom.
STEP 9 Add some piped tendrils of green royal icing dotted around
the top and sides coming out from where you want your blossom
flowers to be. Affix your petal-paste blossoms and place a few
clumps of blossoms together on the top of your cake.
STEP 10 Affix the smaller mushroom stalks to the top of the cake
board with royal icing, then add the mushroom tops. Leave to dry
overnight or for at least a few hours.
STEP 11 Use a dry paintbrush to dust some of the green dust onto the
moss to give it more depth. Mix the white dust with vodka or
cooled boiled water to make a paste, and paint this onto the
mushroom tops in white splodges.
STEP 12 Attach the butterflies to the large mushroom and the cake
with some stiff-peak white royal icing and leave to set. Pipe
blossom centres with the pink royal icing.
STEP 13 Use stiff-peak white and pink royal icing to pipe bodies onto
the butterflies. Dust the entire cake with a small cascade of white
holographic non-toxic glitter for a magical twinkly finish.
DESIGN IDEAS
MULTI-TIER CAKES
BRUSH EMBROIDERY
If you find that piping with royal icing comes fairly easily (and
enjoyably) to you, why not use freehand brush embroidery to create this
elegant cake? For this classic design I have piped five-petal, three-petal
and blossom freehand details to texturise the entire cake, then joined all
the main floral parts together by piping stems, tendrils and leaves, and
filled empty space with tiny triple pearls as pretty fillers. The tiers are
finished with a satin ribbon.
As always, you can use any base colour to tailor the cake to your
theme. If you find freehand piping tricky, mark out floral shapes
randomly over the freshly iced cake tiers. Use cutters as guides for
your main shapes. This design would also look stunning as a two-
tier cake.
ou will need:
5cm (6in), 23cm (9in) and 30cm (12in) round cakes, iced in powder-
blue sugarpaste (see here)
× 38cm (15in) round cake boards, stuck together with Pritt stick,
iced in matching powder-blue sugarpaste (see here)
he cakes should be stacked centrally on the iced boards so the cake is
set before working on your piped design.
vory soft-peak royal icing (see here; use a tiny amount of caramel-
ivory paste colour), in a piping bag with a No. 2 nozzle
ooled boiled water
vory stiff-peak royal icing, in a piping bag with a No. 3 nozzle
iping gel
earl lustre
quipment:
mall paintbrushes
itchen paper
vory satin ribbon to finish each tier and edge your base boards,
width 1.5cm (1/2 in)
STEP 1 Afix your ribbon around the tiers before commencing. Begin
on the top of the upper tier and use the soft-peak ivory icing to pipe
large five-petal floral patterns, randomly spaced. After piping each
flower, immediately use a paintbrush dipped in cooled boiled water
to embroider the edges (see here). If you leave the royal icing even
for a couple of minutes it will start to skin over, so every time you
pipe a flower, immediately brush in the edges then replace the
brush in the water. Don’t let your brush get too wet; if necessary,
dry with kitchen paper.
STEP 2 After you have piped and embroidered your main large
blooms, begin joining these up by piping stems, tendrils and leaf
shapes. Add some thicker, pressure-piped tendrils in places, coming
off the stems, and brush these down to embroider them onto the
cake. You can embroider the larger tendrils in places, but leave the
stems and leaves as unembroidered piped lines. Pipe centres in the
floral shapes onto the connecting stems.
STEP 3 You can also pipe, and embroider, smaller floral shapes onto
the connecting stems.
STEP 4 Once the top is nicely filled, continue down the sides of the
top tier. Keep checking the space, and think about spacing out the
flowers randomly and considering how they will flow and cascade
over the tiers below. Make sure that some of the stems join up to
the tier below so that the pattern becomes one and appears to flow
even under the ribbon. Continue until all the tiers are covered with
a medium to heavy lace coverage and the entire iced surface is
texturised.
STEP 5 Now go back over the entire cake, checking for spaces into
which you can pipe sets of triple dots. If you get snagging tails on
these, gently press with the damp brush to neaten and round off the
pearls.
BUTTERCREAM
This three-tier design is a simply beautiful and delicious celebration cake

for a birthday or wedding. Finish the buttery icing with sugar
hydrangeas, or use fresh flowers if you prefer (always take advice from
your florist as to which flowers are safe to add to a cake, as some
flowers can be toxic). A pretty alternative is to decorate a buttercream
cake with vintage-style sugar roses or daisies.
I’ve used a three-tier stand with 20cm (8in), 25cm (10in) and 30cm
(12in) plates, to accommodate my cakes and give me room to
decorate the edges. You can of course make just one tier and place
on a cake stand or an iced cake board at least 5cm (2in) larger than
your cake.
ou will need:
5cm (6in), 20cm (8in) and 25cm (10in) round cakes, iced in peach-
coloured vanilla buttercream (see here)
xtra peach-coloured buttercream, in a piping bag with a No. 3 nozzle
pprox. 30 large, 30 medium and 50 small white petal-paste
hydrangea flowers (see here)
Gooseberry-coloured soft-peak royal icing (see here), in a piping bag
with a No. 2 nozzle
Green dust colour
quipment:
lastic piping bag for the buttercream snail trail
mall paintbrush
STEP 1 If you wish to texturise your buttercream for a special vintage
look, you could scrape a tooth-edged side scraper all around each
tier in one smooth dragging motion, while the buttercream is still
soft, to create horizontal lines. Allow to set for a few hours. It looks
good, but here I went with a flat buttercream covering.
STEP 2 If you are using a stand like mine, attach your cakes to each
plate with a dab of stiff-peak royal icing. If making a single-tier
cake, attach either to your cake stand or iced board (see
introduction).
STEP 3 With your no. 3 nozzle bag, pipe a large snail trail of
buttercream along the bottom edges of the cakes where they meet
the stand or board, to neaten and add a pretty finishing touch.
STEP 4 Attach the petal-paste hydrangeas by piping a touch of

buttercream to the underside of each one. Place them randomly
over the tier(s), grouped together in some places to form heavier
clumps. Leave to set for a couple of hours.
STEP 5 Dust the centres of the hydrangeas with a little green dust to
add a realistic touch and then finish the centres by piping little
collections of pearls in the middle of the flowers with the
gooseberry-coloured royal icing.
COOKIE EXPLOSION
This is one of the most popular designs that we make at Fancy Nancy.
You can create it in any colour and change the shapes of the cookies to
tailor it for a man; red, white and blue is a great colour combination
for men. This cake is sure to wow guests at any party. We even make
these as wedding cakes sometimes!
ou will need:
5cm (6in) round cake, iced in pink sugarpaste (I mixed pink and
claret paste colour)
3cm (9in) round cake, iced in orange sugarpaste (I used tangerine
paste colour)
5cm (14in) round cake board, iced in purple sugarpaste (I used
Squires Kitchen purple, but you can mix blue and red, or use grape
violet) (see here)
medium heart-shaped vanilla cookies (see here), decorated in
orange, pink and purple with glitter and sprinkles, as shown
small heart-shaped vanilla cookies on sticks, decorated with
sprinkles and glitter
Orange and pink stiff-peak royal icing, in piping bags with No. 3
nozzles
large heart-shaped vanilla cookies, iced with recipient’s name
and/or age, edge details piped in matching colours
election of smaller pre-decorated hearts to scatter over the cake
election of petal-paste blossoms, roses and daisies (see here), in your
choice of colours
tiff-peak royal icing, in a variety of colours, in piping bags with No.
2 nozzles
quipment:
cissors or wire cutters
ocktail sticks (optional)
STEP 1 Begin by plunging your cookies (the ones with sprinkles), on

their sticks, into the top tier. Set three slightly higher and further
back and set two in front, as shown in the photo. You may need to
cut the sticks down with strong scissors or wire cutters.
STEP 2 Fix the two piped cookies to decorate the front of your cake,
attaching them with stiff-peak royal icing on the back of each
cookie. If you find that the cookies slip off, use cocktail sticks under
them to hold them in place until the icing sets.
STEP 3 Stick a selection of petal-paste flowers all around the top,

edges and sides of the cakes, and onto the board, so that they
cascade all over the place. Leave to set for a few hours or
overnight.
STEP 4 Attach as many of your other pre-decorated hearts as you

wish. The more the merrier!
STEP 5 Finish by piping royal-icing centres into your petal-paste

flowers in a variety of colours.
WHEN A GIRL NEEDS CAKE
This cake is ideal for a girly shopaholic. It uses run-out decorations,

which are easy to make (see here) and can be prepared in advance. If
you want a different theme for any other birthday or personal
celebration, choose two or three ‘icons’ that are special to the person.
You could make ‘bon voyage’ cakes with icons from the country they
are visiting or leaving; cakes for men with vintage robots, old-fashioned
toys or sports, or fun run-out animal cakes for kids. Because you have
done all the work making the run-outs in advance
ou will need:
5cm (6in), 20cm (8in) and 25cm (10in) square cakes, iced in ivory
sugarpaste, pre-stacked a day in advance (see here and here)
5cm (14in) square cake board, iced in ivory sugarpaste (see here), if
required (I used a cake stand)
lengths of black grosgrain ribbon, width 1cm
iced run-outs (see here): margarita cocktail, high-heeled shoe and
handbag shapes
White stiff-peak royal icing
STEP 1 Wrap a length of ribbon around each tier to hide the joins.
Also attach a length of the ribbon to the edge of the cake board.
STEP 2 Attach the run-outs to the cake using some of the white royal
icing to adhere them to the sugar paste icing. Place the shoe on the
bottom-left of the base tier and the handbag just right of the centre
on the middle tier. Finish with the cocktail placed left of the centre
on the top tier. Simple, gorgous and chic!
VINTAGE BUTTON CAKE
This is one of my favourite cake designs. I came up with the idea a few
years ago, inspired by my cousin Abby’s gorgeous Jenny Packham
wedding dress, which was embellished with beautiful mother-of-pearl
buttons. I just knew that a cake decorated with these hand-made buttons
would look lovely; indeed, it is a really popular choice for weddings and
other celebrations. I love the antique-pink colour scheme, but the base
works equally well in ivory for a more traditional look, or you can
choose any soft pastel colour to suit your theme. Making the sugar
buttons is very simple and can be done well in advance. The finishing
touches are the pearl lustre – it makes them look so realistic – and the
final iced stitch, which gives the effect that the buttons are sewn directly
onto the surface of the cake. Stunning! Because the cake is so heavily
embellished with sugar decorations, if you have the odd undulation or
bump, you can cleverly disguise any imperfections with a button and it
will still look perfect.
ERVES AROUND 150, IN SMALL CAKE-TASTING PORTIONS
ou will need:
5cm (6in), 20cm (8in), 25cm (10in) and 30cm (12in) round cakes,
iced in marzipan and antique-pink sugarpaste (I use a tiny amount
of pink paste colour and gradually knead in a tiny addition of egg-
yellow), stacked centrally on the board as a one-piece cake a day in
advance of decorating (see here)
× 40cm (16in) round cake boards, stuck together with Pritt stick,
iced in matching antique-pink sugarpaste (see here)
pprox. 3 metres of ivory satin ribbon, 10mm width
cing sugar
pprox. 500g petal paste
ale pink soft-peak royal icing (see here), in two piping bags (no
more than half-full), with No. 1.5 and No. 2 nozzles
opaz lustre dust (I use Squires Kitchen ‘Moon Beams’)
iping gel
ooled boiled water
quipment:
circle plunger cutters: small, medium and large
extra piping nozzles, a No. 1.5 and a No. 2 (old ones are best, as
cutting buttonholes wears them out)
oam or gel pad
all tool
xtra cake board
mall, sharp knife
astry brushes
mall paintbrush (No. 4 artist’s brush)
HOW TO MAKE THE MOTHER-OF-PEARL BUTTONS

STEP 1 You can make these buttons well in advance, as they last for
months. This makes approximately 150 small, 100 medium and 100
large sugar buttons.
STEP 2 Dust the worktop with icing sugar and knead the petal paste
until soft and pliable.
STEP 3 You will need to roll out just a small amount of petal paste at
a time, as it dries out very quickly. You will also need to keep the
rest of the rolled-out sheet covered whilst you are working on each
batch of buttons. I recommend a floppy mat for this – a clear piece
of tough plastic that you can lay over the petal paste – otherwise a
book wrapped in cling film will do.
STEP 4 Take approximately 50g petal paste and roll out thinly until
the worktop underneath starts to show through. Aim for no more
than 1mm thickness. Petal paste is very stretchy and goes a long
way, and you need to use quite a bit of pressure to roll it out, as it’s
much firmer and more elastic than regular sugarpaste.
STEP 5 Cut out the buttons with the round cutters; do just one size to
begin with, and just a few at a time so that they don’t dry out.
(Once you get quicker at shaping them, you can cut out more at
once – I do about 20 at a time.) Press the cutter down firmly into
the paste to ensure you get a clean cut with no rough edges.
TIP
I use little plunger polka dot cutters from
Kemper for quickness; they generally come
in a set of five different sizes and I use the
small, medium and large ones.
STEP 6 Once you have cut out a few circles, cover the rest of your
sheet with the floppy mat, then use one of the extra piping nozzles
(No.1.5 for the small buttons, or No.2 for medium and large) to
push out two little holes in each button, equally spaced in the
middle of the circle.
STEP 7 Now take one button and lay it on the foam pad. Using the
ball modelling tool, carefully press around the inside of the outer
edge with gentle, even pressure, moving it around one way then
back the other until your circle has formed a little upturned edge
and looks like a real button. Pick up the button with your fingers,
gently holding the edge, and put it onto a cake board.
STEP 8 Continue in this way, cutting out just a few circles at once,
and covering the remaining petal paste while you cut the holes and
mould the edges. Do all the small ones first, then the medium and
finally the large. Keep them in separate groups and line them up on
the cake board so that they are easy to keep count of.
STEP 9 Leave to dry for at least 24 hours before using them to

decorate the cake, but ideally you can make them several days or
weeks in advance. When dry, tip them into a box or container (not
airtight or they may go soft) and leave in a cool, dry place until
you are ready to decorate the cake.
HOW TO ASSEMBLE THE REST OF THE CAKE

STEP 1 Have your pre-iced cakes ready and stacked the day before
you want to begin decorating. Also make sure that your buttons are
prepared as described above, at least 24 hours in advance. Adhere
the ribbon to the cake before commencing sticking on buttons as it
is good to slightly overhang some parts of the ribbon to avoid
formal lines.
STEP 2 To apply the buttons to the cake, I like to work from the top
tier downwards, to avoid knocking any buttons off the tiers below.
It takes me a couple of hours to stick all the buttons onto a three-
tier cake of this size, but if you are a beginner, give yourself a bit
longer; don’t rush your masterpiece!
STEP 3 ‘Glue’ each button on, by piping a blob of soft-peak ivory

royal icing (from the bag with the No. 2 nozzle) onto the back of it
– taking care not to pipe over the holes – then gently pressing the
button onto the cake’s icing. You need only the lightest touch, as
the royal icing will easily adhere the button. (They will set rock
hard by the next day.) If at any stage you think you want to move a
button that doesn’t look right, just take a sharp knife and gently
scrape down behind the button – it will come off easily.
STEP 4 Apply the buttons following the photographs as a guide.

Heavily embellish the base tier with fewer buttons towards the top.
This creates a lovely cascading effect.
STEP 5 Once you have attached all of your buttons, they can be left
to dry on the cake for a couple of hours before continuing with the
next step.
STEP 6 In a small bowl, gently mix together a teaspoon of the topaz

lustre and two teaspoons of piping gel.
STEP 7 Now you can begin painting the buttons, using a small
paintbrush to paint over the middle and just up onto the edges of
each button. You don’t have to paint right round the edge, and be
careful not to paint any gel onto the icing, or the cake will look
messy. Start from the top of the cake and work your way down. It
takes me a couple of hours to paint them all; you might need longer
if you’re a beginner.
TIP
Before lustering the buttons, I like to check
that there are no odd bits of icing sugar or
dust on the cake. Use a pastry brush to dust
over the cake and buttons. You must do
this before you pearlise them, as you can’t
use a pastry brush after pearlising because
the gel is quite sticky and pastry-brush
hairs will stick to the buttons.
TIP
If you stir the gel and lustre mixture too
quickly, it goes everywhere, so don’t do it
near the cake! Stir it slowly and gently to
avoid a cloud of shimmery topaz going all
over your workspace.
STEP 8 Next is my favourite stage, and it really makes the cake. To

add the ‘stitches’, you need the piping bags of pink soft-peak royal
icing – use the bag with a No. 2 nozzle for the medium and large
buttons, and the No. 1.5 nozzle for the small buttons. Again, start
from the top and work your way downwards. Stitch onto each
medium and large button by squeezing a small line of royal icing
from the top hole to the lower one. When you touch the lower hole
with the nozzle, stop squeezing and pull away from the cake.
STEP 9 Once you have added stitches to all the medium and large
buttons, go back over the cake, again from the top downwards, this
time stitching the remaining small buttons with your No. 1.5
nozzle. You are finished, so sit back and marvel at your gorgeous
cake!
TIP
When you get good at piping, you can
avoid getting snags or tails (or nipples as
they are known in the trade!). Until then,
don’t worry if a little bit of icing is sticking
up on your ‘stitches’ – you can make it
look neat by using a small pastry brush
dipped in cooled boiled water. Gently press
the damp brush onto the icing to push
down the icing snugly into the buttonhole
and create the ‘stitched on’ effect.
CAKETASTROPHES!
There are some things that can go wrong when
cake decorating; I like to call these
‘caketastrophes’! In this section I outline cake
mishaps, things to avoid when decorating cakes or
cookies, and how to solve problems where possible.
When cakes go wrong, especially when you are a
beginner, it feels terribly dramatic and scary, and
there’s a sense of panic that if you don’t fix it
quickly, it will be ruined. Or worse, you may want
to throw it all away after hours of painstaking
labour.
Keep a cool head and you can normally fix things

and save your cakes. At the very least, you could
change the design and add more detail to cover up
any accidents; then no one will ever know! A good
point to mention again here is that cake decorating
does take time. Allow yourself enough time for
your projects because this will help to avoid any
caketastrophes caused by rushing.
I haven’t found any cake decorating books that tell

you what may go wrong, how to pre-empt
particular problems, or more importantly, how you
can fix them. So, throughout this book, I’ve
referred to possible annoyances, and here I list
some more tricky things to watch out for and ways
to rectify these irritating caketastrophes.
So keep calm: you can probably fix it, and if you

can’t fix it, you can probably disguise it or, at
worst, you can strip off your cake coverings and
begin again – not ideal, but still saveable. You only
learn by making mistakes.
HAIRLINE CRACKS
On occasion, once you have stacked your masterpiece and are
starting to decorate, you will notice one or two (or even more!)
hairline cracks. This is an indication either that you haven’t put
enough cake dowels into the cake, or that some may have gone in
at a slight angle. After time, the upper cakes will push down on the
base tier and may start to cause these cracks.
The best way to avoid this happening in the first place is to
never skimp on dowels. The heavier the cakes are, and the more
tiers they have, the more dowels you will need; e.g. for a small
15cm (6in) top tier, you will need at least 5–6 dowels in the cake
below it. But in a 30cm (12in) base tier that has 25cm (10in) and
15cm (6in) cakes above it, you will need 12–14 dowels, and I
recommend that they are the heavy-duty type. It’s easy to forget to
put them in, or to just put too few, but they are really important.
Once hairline cracks have appeared, there are a couple of ways
you can solve or improve them. If your cake is finished, it will
probably be okay, as you’ll have been working on it for a couple of
days and it will have already survived any transportation, so simply
fill over the cracks with royal icing. When done well, this will
almost vanish away the evidence. Another solution is to take some
of the sugarpaste with which you covered your cake (a particularly
good idea if you’ve blended a special colour, as it will be difficult to
match perfectly with royal icing) and work this into a paste with
some cooled boiled water until it has the consistency of soft-peak
royal icing. With a clean finger, smooth the paste over and into any
cracks. Then carefully remove any excess with a small, sharp knife
and good-quality kitchen paper (one that doesn’t shed any bits) or
use a brand-new cloth to do this. Allow to dry and your cracks will
be well hidden or, if you’ve done a good job, almost completely
gone!
However, if large cracks start appearing soon after stacking, this
is a sign that your top tiers are too heavy and you haven’t doweled
the cake correctly. You can either carefully lift the tiers off, using a
knife to cut them apart so that the icing on the tier below isn’t
pulled away from the cake, then add lots more dowels. Bear in
mind that it’s easy to damage the icing at this stage. Or sometimes
it’s a good idea to wait and check the progress, as the cracks may
not get any worse, in which case you can simply fill them with
icing as described above, or if there is a large amount of decoration
going onto the cake, for example a rose corsage, you can
strategically place models or run-outs over the cracks.
ROGUE AIR BUBBLES

If you find a very annoying air bubble occurring under sugarpaste a
couple of days after beginning decoration (this can particularly
occur when there are big changes in temperature) the only thing
you can do is to scrape off the decoration, insert a pin tool into the
bubble in a few places and carefully press down the iced cake
covering to flatten. This will probably cause a few cracks. Make up
some royal icing, matching the colour as closely as possible to your
sugarpaste. Or if you have any leftover sugarpaste from the
covering, use water to wet some down into a paste with the
consistency of soft-peak royal icing. Using a clean fingertip, smooth
this over the cracks and carefully wipe away any excess with a
piece of just-damp kitchen paper, then dry with a clean piece. Leave
to set for a few hours and then redecorate. Once the cake is
decorated this should not show too much, but if you decide you
want to reposition your cake so that this area is at the back, re-
attach ribbon (if you are using one) so that the join occurs beneath
it, making this the back of the cake.
CAKE SWEATING
Humidity in the air or changes of temperature (for example, if your
sponge has been chilled in a fridge then quickly iced), can cause a
‘sweaty’ look on the icing, called cake sweating. Don’t be tempted
to dry this or even to touch it or you’ll create smears, marks or,
worse, damage to the decoration.
Move the cake to a room where the temperature is regular and
constant. After a few hours, the surface should dry out again. I’ve
had this happen a few times during summer months and had to
move cakes into an air-conditioned room, as sugarpaste doesn’t
react well to being chilled. Another good idea is to use a
dehumidifier in the room in which you are working on and storing
your cake.
LEAKAGE
On occasion, if you have a really syrupy cake and it’s a hot time of
year, you may notice some juicy, sugary leaks coming out from the
bottom of the cake tiers, either onto the tier below or onto the cake
board. If your cake has ribbon around it, you may find that the leak
has marked the ribbon. You will need to replace it with a fresh
length, but for now remove the ribbon entirely while you fix the
problem. If you have piped an iced pearl trail or bead trim, you’ll
have to carefully cut away the part where the sugary syrup is
leaking out.
To rectify this problem, use good-quality kitchen paper to soak
up the leaking syrup as soon as possible. Otherwise it will start to
eat into the icing on the cake below or the iced board. Take a piece
of kitchen paper and very gently press onto the area to soak up
some of the moisture. Lift the paper away, taking care not to
smudge it onto the cake as you do this. Repeat with fresh pieces of
paper until all the moisture has gone. Keep checking regularly over
a period of time, as it may leak a bit more. If it’s a light-coloured
cake, you can also dust over a little icing sugar to dry out the area.
Once you are certain the leaking has stopped, you can re-attach
the ribbon or pipe back into the space in the pearl trim or snail
trail. If the damage is bad, the best option might be to cover the
area with additional sugar decorations, for example flowers or
butterflies, etc.
COLOUR BLEEDING
This is when one colour of icing runs or spreads into another;
lighter-coloured icings can get stained by stronger ones. This
happens most commonly with combinations of light and dark,
especially on royal icing run-outs or when you pipe onto a freshly
iced surface. To avoid this caketastrophe, make sure that you allow
a colour or icing to dry for 24 hours before continuing to decorate
or fill with a darker colour.
COLOUR BLOTCHES
Sometimes, if you haven’t mixed your paste colours thoroughly,
particularly for run-outs and cookie decorating, strong blotches of
colour can appear. There’s nothing you can do about this once the
icing has dried, but if you notice it happening, split your icing bag
and carefully remix. This is due to under-mixing; make sure you
can’t see any spots of colour and you have a smooth, all-over colour
in your sugarpaste or royal icing.
CRUMBLY ICING ON COOKIES

This is where you have over-mixed your royal icing, which leads to
a crumbly, spongy texture. The cookie decoration will crumble off,
especially if you put the cookies in cookie bags. If this happens, you
may want to leave it but take care not to knock the decoration.
Alternatively, you can cut off the decoration with a sharp knife,
bake the cookies again on a low temperature – around 140°C/Gas
mark 1 – for a few minutes to crisp them back up, then you can just
ice over the surface again once cool. This is better than throwing
the whole lot away.
PIPING OVER SNAGS, HOLES AND GAPS

Royal icing is a fabulous ‘edible Polyfiller’! If you have had to prick
air bubbles, pick off bits of decoration or have found a gap
anywhere on your cake, you may be left with a hole to cover. Most
designs allow for you to disguise these with your decoration, but if
not (e.g. when you’re piping stripes, if you want a clean iced
surface, or if when you come to add your ribbon there’s a bumpy
hole), you can just pipe over these with stiff-peak royal icing to fill
the void, gap or hole. Scrape away the excess and you’re left with a
smooth surface on which to begin your decorating.
TEMPLATES
STOCKISTS
For general cake decorating edibles, supplies and equipment:
ALMOND ART
Units 15/16 Faraday Close
Gorse Lane Industrial Estate
Clacton-on-Sea
Essex C015 4TR
www.almondart.com
Tel: 01255 223 322
CAKES, COOKIES AND CRAFTS

Unit 2
Francis Business Park
White Lund Industrial Estate
Morecambe
Lancashire LA3 3PT
www.cakescookiesandcraftsshop.co.uk
Tel: 01524 389 684
PICTURETHIS
8 Matlock Way
Canvey Island
Essex SS8 0EW
Tel: 01268 684 547
SPLAT COOKING
Splat Cooking Stuff Limited
PO Box 83
Princes Risborough
Buckinghamshire
HP27 9WB
www.splatcooking.net
Tel: 0870 766 8290
SQUIRES KITCHEN
Squires Group Squires House
3 Waverley Lane
Farnham
Surrey GU9 8BB
www.squires-shop.com
Tel: 0845 617 1810 or
01252 260 260
SUGARSHACK
Unit 12
Bowmans Trading Estate
Westoreland Road
London NW9 9RL
www.sugarshack.co.uk
Tel: 020 8204 2994
For baking ingredients, chocolate and packaging:
KEYLINK
Keylink Limited
Green Lane
Ecclesfield
Sheffield S35 9WY
www.keylink.org
Tel: 0114 245 5400
For gorgeous stationery, party and wedding accessories and

print design:
FRANCIS-DEE
140 Woodside
Leigh-On-Sea
Essex SS9 4RE
www.francis-dee.co.uk
Tel: 01702 520961
Also, a huge thanks to all the fantastic companies who kindly

let us use their products in the photographs:
BOMBAY DUCK
231 The Vale
London W3 7QS
Tel: 020 8749 3000
www.bombayduck.co.uk
THE CROCKERY CUPBOARD

www.thecrockerycupboard.co.uk
Tel: 07966 235 521 or 07974 636 127
DOTCOMGIFTSHOP
Unit 3–4 Allied Way
London W3 0RL
www.dotcomgiftshop.com
0208 746 2473
ETSY
www.etsy.com
JOHN LEWIS
www.johnlewis.com
Tel: 08456 049 049
NOT ON THE HIGH STREET

www.notonthehighstreet.com
PEACH BLOSSSOM
www.peachblossom.co.uk
ROSES ALL OVER

www.rosesallover.co.uk
THANKS
This book is a dream come true, but it didn’t just happen by magic.
I have so many people to thank for their help in turning it into a
reality. I would not have been able to develop a successful cake
business, let alone write a book, without the support of Simon ‘my
rock, my soul mate and all that cheesy stuff from our fave Steve
Wright Sunday show!’ and his help throughout my cakey career.
Simon, sorry that you had to endure days and days of trawling
through my text before I sent it in to Ebury, but now you are a cake
expert and I am sure find the subject completely thrilling! Thanks
to our gorgeous children, Ruby, Lydia and George for putting up
with my stressyitis, being ever humorous and so understanding.
Then the rest of my family: I want to thank my dad, George,
who is a total legend and helps us all in so many ways both at
home and at the shop, everyday, doing deliveries, washing up,
checking the cakes are level (listening to Django Reinhardt and
drinking all the cake brandy). Thanks to Mum, too, for everything!
My ‘mother-in-law’ Lydia, is one of my best friends and an
inspiration. I can’t thank her enough for all that she does for us,
from childcare, life coaching to the business accounts – and even
clearing out my messy handbag! Thanks to Nancy for being a
FABULOUS sister and super auntie to our kids, especially Ruby,
who is your mini-me.
Thanks to the brilliant Christine Lee, my cake mentor and true
friend, for teaching me so much about the wonderful world of cake
decorating and making it all hilarious fun – we are a great double
act! Big thanks to Dena Robles who worked with me in the early
days to produce amazing cake photos and more; a great friend and
a talented photographer whom we miss very much now that you
have headed back to the USA with your gorgeous family.
The support of my extended family has also been crucial: Auntie
Carol who made cakes for me when I was little, naughty Brenda,
Uncle Fred and all the aunties, uncles and cousins who I don’t see
enough of. Also thanks for the assistance from so many kind
friends, particularly Lucy Norris, my oldest and closest friend, for
her loyalty and calming influence; Ali Harris for her support and
introduction to Wedding magazine and for helping with this book;
the talented and creative Louise Naomi Best for my Fancy Nancy
logo and more; Dan Carter for coming into Fancy Nancy and
making some seriously awesome cakes; Kate and Craig for their
wonderful photography; Michelle and Pete for my website; and
friends-and-ex-colleagues Rosie Shorten and Colin Chih. Thanks to
Mich Turner for giving me a job at Little Venice Cake Company
back in the day – an opportunity for which I am ever grateful.
BIG thanks and hugs to my agents, Jennifer Christie and Jane
Graham Maw, who believed in me, and my baking passions, and
supported me throughout the making of this book. And to all my
staff at Fancy Nancy: Olivia Kerr, Tara Carter, Georgia Coles, Sam
Sains and Ali Penn-Franzolin. Enormous thanks, also, to the team
at Smith and Gilmour: Alex, Emma, Gavin and Rose – and to Maja
Smend for her gorgeous shots, and to the stylist (and stylish!) Ali
Lovett; I have had the best time working with you on this book.
And a big thank you to Paul Tait.
Thanks to magazine editors Victoria Sullivan and Catherine
Westwood for supporting me since the early days. Thanks to Nikki
Stock for allowing me to use her beautiful prints on my cakes and
in this book, and to my wonderfully exuberant TV agents Kim
Farmer and Kirsty Williams of Insanity Management. And grateful
thanks to the enthusiastic team at Ebury: to Kasi Collins, Katie Hall,
Laura Herring and Imogen Fortes.
And, of course, thanks to all my customers, Twitter, blog and
Facebook followers and the readers of my book for all your
support. I would be lost without you.
This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred,
distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically
permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under
which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any
unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s
and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
Version 1.0
Epub ISBN 9781448175550
www.randomhouse.co.uk
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Published in 2012 by Ebury Press, an imprint of Ebury Publishing
A Random House Group Company
Text copyright © Juliet Sear 2012

Photography copyright © Maja Smend 2012
(except here, here, here & here copyright © Dena Robles 2012 and here copyright © Paul
Tait 2012)
Juliet Sear has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this Work in accordance
with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner
The Random House Group Limited Reg. No. 954009
Addresses for companies within the Random House Group can be found at
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Some of the recipes in this book contain ingredients such as non toxic glitter which, whilst
generally considered safe for use, can be substituted with other or more traditional
ingredients. The author and publishers disclaim, as far as the law allows, any liability
arising directly or indirectly from the use, or misuse, of the information contained in this
book.
To buy books by your favourite authors and register for offers visit
Colour origination: Altaimage, London
Design: Smith & Gilmour

Photography: Maja Smend,
(except here, here, here & here, Dena Robles and here, Paul Tait)
Prop styling: Alison Lovett
ISBN 9780091946685

The Cake Decorating Bible PDF

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

The Cake Decorating Bible PDF

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

CONTENTS

asic Covered Cake Balls

ark Belgian Chocolate Paste

airyland Mushroom Cake

Ganache Rose Corsage Cake

ayering the Rich Belgian Chocolate Truffle Cake

Making Run-Outs with Royal Icing

ich Belgian Chocolate Truffle Cake

eparated Stacked Cakes

anilla Bean Buttercream and Variations

When a Girl Needs Cake

esty Orange Cupcakes

Juliet Sear is cake-maker extraordinaire, baker to the stars and

I have always been interested in cooking and baking. When I met

CRUST OR SKIN OVER

EDIBLE PAPER/EDIBLE SHEETS

GUIDE STICKS OR MARZIPAN SPACERS

PIPING BAG OR PASTRY BAG

PIPING NOZZLES, TUBES OR TIPS

SILICONE OR PUSH MOULDS

SPLITTING AND FILLING

SUGARPASTE (OR ROLLED FONDANT)

There are many fantastic things you can do with a minimum

BASICS AND BAKING

SUGARCRAFT MODELLING TOOLS

PACKAGING AND TRANSPORTATION

In order to produce perfect cakes or cookies at home, there are

CHOOSING A CAKE TIN

LINING CAKE TINS AND COOKIE TRAYS

LINING ROUND TINS

STEP 2 Line three of the sides by cutting strips of baking parchment

LINING COOKIE TRAYS

FILLING YOUR TINS

With a small sponge of this depth, up to a

The chocolate sponge is not baked in this

PRE-ICING YOUR CAKE BOARDS

With all my recipes, I truly believe that if you buy

This gorgeous springy vanilla sponge is so incredibly versatile. You can

Whenever I have customers in for wedding-cake consultations and they

MAKES A 15CM (6IN) ROUND CAKE

or the vanilla syrup

or the vanilla sponge

STEP 1 Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas mark 4. Line a 15cm (6in)

STEP 4 Add the beaten eggs, a quarter at a time. If it curdles a little

STEP 5 Then add the flour gradually, a quarter at a time, gently

STEP 7 Bake for 35–40 minutes (but check on it after 30 minutes, as

See here for instructions on splitting and filling the cake.

Either use straight away or store by wrapping in plenty of cling

VERY VANILLA SPONGE QUANTITIES CHART

MAKES 12–16 CUPCAKES

SHELF LIFE AND STORAGE

MAKES A 15CM (6IN) ROUND CAKE

STEP 2 Melt the chocolate in the microwave on medium heat for a

See here for instructions on splitting and filling the cake.

SHELF LIFE AND STORAGE

RICH BELGIAN CHOCOLATE TRUFFLE CAKE QUANTITIES CHART

MAKES A 15CM (6IN) ROUND CAKE

or the lemon syrup

or the lemon sponge

STEP 1 Preheat your oven to 180°C/Gas mark 4. Line a 15cm (6in)

STEP 5 Now add the flour gradually, a quarter at a time, stirring it in

See here for instructions on splitting and filling the cake.

SHELF LIFE AND STORAGE