by Shannon Sylvester and Katherine Martin
Spring and summer are traditionally the prime seasons for weddings. These two wedding cakes offer completely different takes on design styles, but incorporate many elements that are easy to tailor for each bride’s requests. Both feature round tiers, but the design elements are transferable to other tier shapes, such as squares. One features brown and aqua color elements, which can be swapped for other color combinations or made completely in a single color. The white cake’s design elements can be enhanced or toned down, and color can be easily incorporated.
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| 1. For a colorful cake, base ice 22-in., 14-in., 10-in. and 6-in. round tiers with white icing. Lightly airbrush the cake aqua blue. | 2. Use tip No. 2 and brown icing for all the decorations. Pipe polka dots on the top, 6-in. tier and swirls on the 10-in. tier. |
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| 3. On the 14-in. tier, pipe dots of various sizes by adjusting the pressure applied to the bag. Add curlicues on the bottom, 22-in. tier. | 4. With tip No. 6 and aqua icing, pipe individual dot borders around the bottom of each tier. |
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| 5. Stripe a pastry bag with dark blue gel, and fill it with aqua icing. Position tip No. 104 so the stripe of gel is at the small end. Then, pipe roses on a flower nail, and place the roses cascading down the cake. Also, top the cake with a bouquet of icing roses. | 6. With tip No. 104, add small aqua rosebuds, and use leaf tip No. 352 to add brown leaves among the roses. Use an airbrush to add iridescence to the flowers and borders to give them a pearly sheen. Be careful to spray only the flowers and borders because the iridescence will make the background airbrush color deeper. |
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| 1. For a mostly monochromatic cake, base ice 12-in., 9-in. and 6-in. round tiers with white icing. Use tip No. 46 to pipe white stripes on the bottom tier. | 2. Pipe a white shell bottom border on the 12-in. tier using tip No. 16. |
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| 3. Outline the bottom of the border with zig-zag swoops using tip No. 14. Then, overpipe the zig-zag swoops with straight swoops using the same tip. | 4. At the base of the middle tier, use tip No. 6 to pipe a bubble border. Then, add some dots on the side of the cake with the same tip. Keep the dots concentrated on the lower portion of the tier. Add smaller dots using tip No. 1. |
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| 5. Another option for the middle tier’s bottom border is to cover it with daisies. Use tip No. 102 to pipe white daisies on a flower nail, and transfer them to the cake. With tip No. 2, add the yellow centers. | 6. With a pin, mark diagonal lines on the top tier; one set slanting to the right, the other slanting to the left. Use tip No. 1 to pipe bubbles of icing along the slanted lines. |
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| 7. Add the same bottom border on the top tier as is on the bottom tier. With tip No. 102, pipe more daisies for a bouquet on top of the cake. | 8. Use tip No. 2 to add yellow centers to the daisies in the top bouquet. Airbrush the flowers and borders with iridescence, and sprinkle glitter on top of the tiers. |
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 17 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.
