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| For a tropical two-tier cake, base ice a quarter sheet cake and a half sheet cake with white icing. Stack the quarter sheet on top of the half sheet, using dowels to support the upper cake. Airbrush both tiers light blue. Use a palette knife to carve a small, semi-circle in the center of the top tier. |
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| Airbrush the carved section yellow, and add rays to form the sun. Pipe white icing below the sun, and use a palette knife to carve waves into the icing. |
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| Pipe white, fluffy clouds using tip No. 6. Airbrush a strip of yellow extending down from the sun over the waves to create the sun’s reflection. Airbrush strips of red on either side of the yellow strip and around the sun’s rays. Airbrush the remaining sky a darker blue, and add blue color to the wavy icing to create the water. Airbrush against the grain of the waves to give them white caps, and work from the top of the cake down. |
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| Use tip No. 3 and a squiggle motion to form the brown trunks of the palm trees. Sprinkle brown sugar along the bottom of the top tier to create the beach, leaving the bases of the tree trunks free of sand to help create dimension. Use tip No. 349 to pipe green palm fronds at the top of the tree trunks and over the clouds. |
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| With icing that matches the cake and tip No. 2, pipe a message on the sides of the tiers. Outline the letters with white icing using tip No. 1 or 2. |
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| Use tip No. 349 to pipe light green icing over the tops of the palm fronds. And, pipe a few tufts of light green grass at the base of the trees. |
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| Stripe a pastry bag with a line of blue liquid gel, and fill it with white icing. Use tip No. 16 to pipe a wave border around the base of the top tier. Pipe one tall wave followed by two short waves. Repeat this pattern around the cake. For the bottom tier, use the same tip and pastry bag to pipe a rolling wave border. |
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| Add various colored tropical flowers on top of the bottom tier using tip No. 103. Pipe three loops to create the top petals all going in the same direction. Then, pipe the two bottom loops with the tip facing the opposite direction. Use tip No. 2 to outline the petals in a darker hue of icing. To pipe the spiky centers, use tip No. 2 to pipe several short tufts of icing. For the single stamen centers, use tip No. 2 to pipe a thick crescent of icing. Add green leaves using tip No. 349, and pipe neon green vines with tip No. 2. |
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| On the top tier, pipe a top border of two squiggles followed by a swoop with the same pastry bag used for the bottom borders. Leave the bottom tier without a top border to help the design blend together. Place fondant seashells along the top of the bottom tier. Airbrush pearlized essence over the cake to give it a little shine. |
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| For a red hot chili pepper cake, use double-layer 8-in. and 4-in. rounds. Base ice or airbrush the 8-in. tier red. Then, airbrush or base ice the 4-in. round yellow, and stack it on top of the red 8-in. round. |
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| Around the sides of the bottom tier, use the flat side of tip No. 48 to pipe single and double stripes of orange icing. Then, with tip No. 4, add stripes of yellow in various widths. Use tip No. 6 to pipe orange bulbs of icing randomly along the bottom border. Fill in the remaining space by piping various sizes of yellow bulbs using tip No. 7. |
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| On the top, yellow tier, use tip No. 4 to pipe several green and red chili peppers. Begin the pepper by piping a large bulb of icing, and swing down and up to create the hook of the pepper. With tip No. 1, add dark green leaves at the top of the peppers. Pipe three or four strips of icing to create the tops. |
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| At the base of the yellow tier, use tip No. 48 to pipe a flat orange band around the cake. Then, outline the orange band with a ribbon of yellow icing piped using tip No. 7. With tip No. 4, pipe a green zigzagging line around the top of the bottom tier. |
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| Top the cake with a red and yellow ribbon. To add a message, make a plaque out of rolled fondant, and allow it to dry. Use an edible marker to write the message on the plaque or pipe the message with icing, and prop it against the top tier. |
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| Shannon Sylvester is a decorator at Rick’s Bakery, Fayetteville, Ark., and is the 2005 winner of RBA’s (The Retail Baker’s of America) Creative Decorating Competition. Sylvester has more than 16 years of decorating experience and decorates an average of 30 cakes a day. Since winning the competition, she has become a regular demonstrator at regional bakery shows and seminars. She will be one of the judges at the 2006 competition to be held during the American Bakery Expo, Oct. 21-23 in Atlantic City. |
