Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

I have been asked to do an Alice in wonderland themed “painting the roses red” three tier cake where each cake is completely covered in small Sugarpaste leaves with roses randomly placed on the cakes. As I am fairly new at cake decorating I am unsure how to attach all the leaves. Do I cover the cakes with ganache and Sugarpaste then attach the leaves with royal icing or will this be just far too much Sugarpaste and would the royal icing go hard?
Also if I cover with sugarpaste first will the weight of the roses just make them fall off? My other option is to just put sugarpaste on the top of each cake and then just cover the cakes in buttercream and try to stick the leaves onto this. You may have seen pictures of this cake on the Internet so if anybody has already done one I would be very grateful for any advice.

Hello Julesmakescakes

There are different ways of doing this cake, it will depend on which medium you feel most comfortable with and how long you will be working on the cake.
The cake could just be covered in buttercream and have buttercream leaves piped all over it, then add either wired gumpaste roses or roses made on toothpicks. I’ll go through how that’s done later.
Next you could ice the cake with sugarpaste and stick sugarpaste cut out leaves all over it, or pipe royal icing leaves. Another way would be to ganache the cake and pipe ganache leaves all over.

Covering a cake with buttercream is almost the same as covering it with ganache. Paul shows how to cover cake in buttercream in the free/beginners section
http://www.cakeflix.com/using-buttercream-covering-a-cake-in-buttercream
If you intend covering with buttercream, you’ll find all the buttercream section extremely helpful.
Once covered the leaves can be piped on with PME or any other make leaf piping nozzle. There are lots of tutorials in youtube on how to pipe leaves using the leaf nozzle. The same technique applies to both royal icing, butter cream or ganache. If you don’t have a leaf nozzle, have a look to see how Emma Ball made one from parchment paper in the latest enchanted castle cake tutorial:
http://www.cakeflix.com/online-cake-decorating-courses/dragon-castle-cake
If you decide to ganache the cakes, follow Paul’s tutorials on ganaching, there is a complete section in the free/beginners sections. Leaves can be piped using ganache, you’ll just need to keep two bags of ganache on the go. One in use and one keeping cool at room temperature. Ganache begins to melt quite quickly from the warmth of the hands during piping and requires working with fairly quickly.

There are lots of tutorial on how to make wired gum paste roses in youtube or follow any of Paul’s tutorials where he wires flowers, few links here:

Wired Gum Paste Roses – how do I attach to tiered cake?

Wires can not be inserted directly into cakes so you would need to insert the wired flower into a posy pick first and then place into the cake. If you don’t want to use posy picks, the wire can be placed inside a straw to make a barrier between cake and wire. Simple instructions here may help:

Posy picks

Attaching heavy gumpaste flower to wedding cake

To make a rose on a toothpick, search in youtube ‘Patchwork cutters make a rose’.
You don’t have to use Marions’s cutters, just the technique using any five petal blossom cutter.
And if you don’t want to make the bud from gumpaste or sugar paste, a lighter alternative would be to use unwired styrofoam celbuds, see them here:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Polystyrene-Rose-Buds-Styrofoam-Craft-Buds-Foam-Rose-Cone-Flower-Celbud-20mm-/200985735499
There are tutorials in youtube showing how to use them, or just do as Marion Frost shows in her tooth pick tutorial.
Finally you could make roses without wires or tooth picks and stick them on with royal icing, however if they are large it would be a good idea to support them with tooth picks or wooden skewers.
If you’re inserting any inedibles inside your cake please let your client know in writing of these. I usually make a duplicate note and get them to sign a copy to say they have understood to remove all inedibles before serving the cake.
ps, buttercream and ganached cakes can be kept refrigerated. It’s not ideal to keep cakes covered in sugar paste or royal icing to be refrigerated because the moisture from the fridge invariable attacks and melts the icing and any decorations.
If you need more information please post again. Hope some of the above helps.

Hi madeitwithlove I think the best option would be to cover the cake in buttercreme then attach the sugarpaste leaves to this. If I do this though would I put the cake in the fridge to harden up the crumb coat layer then use more buttercreme to attach the leaves? I would imagine it’s going to take me a while as there are hundreds of leaves on it.
I will deffinately use the polystyrene cones for the roses though, thanks for this

If the buttercream hardens up really dry give it a gentle mist of water or hot knife it like Paul does with ganached cakes. As you say there are hundreds of leave, you’ll be better off sticking them on as you make them. Might be better to make a whole batch let them set a little for handling purposes, stick them on and continue. It won’t take long to stamp out leaves with PME a plunger cutters especially if you can rope family, friends and children into helping. So you didn’t fancy piping the leaves on with buttercream?
How will you make the roses? will you wire them or other?

I will make the roses on a wire and use a posy pick then I will be confident they won’t fall off.
As for the leaves I am just trying to copy the picture the customer gave me as she wanted it exactly the same and the leaves are definately made from sugarpaste. Do you think I will need to add some tylose powder to them to make them harder or will this make them too hard to eat?

No don’t add tylose, that will make them brittle and not at all nice to eat, at least sugarpaste will stay fairly soft to chew. I recently did a cake completely covered in daisies which I made from white modelling chocolate, I suppose that could be another option for the leaves??

That sounds like a good idea although I have never used modelling chocolate before. Would I need the same quantity as I would sugarpaste? I have just seen some green coloured, mint flavoured chocolate on the internet which is £5.95 for 100g which sounds wonderful but may work out quite expensive as it’s a deep three tier cake, 8″, 10″ and 12″ If I did decide to use chocolate would you still place them on buttercream or on ganache?
It’s a pity the site doesn’t have some sort of facility for members to email pictures to you so that you could see the look I’m trying to achieve, although just being able to contact you like this is fantastic help.

There’s a very easy way to make your own modelling chocolate and colour it at home. I’ve never had any problems placing modelling chocolate on buttercream. Shawna Mcgreevy has a lovely tutorial on youtube, search ‘Shawna Mcgreevy modelling chocolate’. It’s a simple standard recipe which can be made using: http://www.thecakedecoratingcompany.co.uk/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=2110
or http://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/wilton-candy-melts-bright-white/597551-1000
Instead of corn syrup use liquid glucose which you’ll find either online, in hobbycraft, lakeland or in your local cake decorating shop. Shawna’s recipe is really easy, I make it and use it the same day although next day it’s much better. Spread the mixture out flat on cling film so it cools more quickly. Wrap it up and let it cool at room temperature rather than in the fridge. I think room temp makes a stronger paste. Try and get the very white candy melts because they take less colour + the colour stays vibrant. Use gel paints like Rainbow dust ProGel colours which are very concentrated, if you don’t have those any gel paints will be fine, use a little because colour develops as it sits. Add a small amount if you need it to be darker. If you don’t want to colour your own chocolate, candy melts also come in colours http://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/wilton-green-candy-melts-12oz340g/574311-1002 this may be better if you want to achieve consistent colour.
Modelling chocolate rolls out thinner than sugarpaste but it’s up to you how thin or thick you want the leaves to be. My daisy cake took 1 packet of candy melts that’s 300g for an 8″ cake, I had about a third of the paste left which went towards making other decorations. You’ve got some big cakes there, in which case I’d probably aim at about the same amount as for the sugarpaste. Make up the modelling chocolate as you need it, a packet at a time so nothing gets wasted.
Beau products make green modelling chocolate but it’s not the right green. I’ve searched for the last hour to find leaf green modelling paste with no luck. You could just buy white modelling paste if you didn’t want to make it at all. It’s available online and has come down considerably in price. Google modelling chocolate to see suppliers and best prices.
Could you not send me the link of the cake you’re doing so I can see a picture of the cake? I did have designer- cakes .com email address but don’t know whether it still works! I never use it.

Hi madeitwithlove I am going to try to do the leaves in modelling chocolate. I have bought Green candy melts buttons. If this is slightly too dark is it ok to add some white buttons to lighten it slightly. If so do I melt both colours separately then add the White until I get the right colour before adding the glucose? I have looked at the YouTube video and Shawna Mcgreedy says to use 40oz chocolate to 8oz corn syrup. Do I use the exact same quantity of glucose? Also do you think 40oz of chocolate would be enough to cover my three cakes with the leaves overlapping? I don’t want to run out as, if I’m mixing the colour I may not get it the same colour again. Is there a ratio chart I could look at which tells me how much chocolate to glucose to use if I need to make more?
Also somebody has advised me that the chocolate changes colour when you add the glucose is this correct?
Sorry for bombarding you with loads of questions but I want the cake to be perfect as there are going to be a lot of people at this party and hopefully some future orders!

Don’t apologise! I recommend you have a look at this book http://www.wickedgoodies.net/cake-decorating-with-modeling-chocolate/
There are lots of free recipes on the site including how to make and colour modelling chocolate. The book, if you want it, is also available as an ebook.
According to conversion charts 40 ounces is 1113.98g, that’s just over a kilo. I’m not sure whether that would cover all three cakes. My 8″ cake covered very quickly using the small PME blossom cutter. I made 300g and had quite a lot left over. I wish I hadn’t rolled mine out quite so thin because the chocolate kept melting each time I accidently touched the cake but it held up really well.
Since you have pre coloured chocolate I suggest you follow the instructions on the back of the packet for both colours. I don’t know what the melting point of pre coloured chocolate is and whether any adjustment has to be made for the glucose. I only make white and colour it, I don’t know whether adding glucose to coloured chocolate changes it’s colour. To get the same colour every time weigh the amount of white and glucose which you’ll be adding. Weigh the green as well so each time you’ll have the correct proportions before mixing together. Write down the proportions so you don’t forget. It’s better to make the paste up as you go along so you don’t end up with a big batch of green paste after all the decorating is done. If I haven’t made this very clear let me know.
Modelling chocolate doesn’t like over kneading, it becomes very oily and grainy, be gentle. Once the paste is ready take small amounts, about 50g and knead gently on a cool surface sprinkled lightly with icing sugar. Flatten the paste out and roll lightly, keep it turning to prevent sticking. When you have it to the thickness required cut out the leaves and cover them with a plastic food bag. When you have quite a few, stick them on the cake. You’ll soon get the feel of how much pressure to use when kneading and rolling without spoiling the paste. Making a trial batch is definitely worth doing, it will give you confidence with the weights when making for real. I hope it all works out, I’m sure you’ll get lots of orders on the back of this one. G’d luck. x