With the rush of Valentine’s Day over, decorators can turn their attention to the coming spring and summer. The warmer weather and longer days will have customers anxiously looking forward, and what better way to herald the new season than with new decorated cake designs. Kites floating above spring flowers is sure to send customers moods soaring, and Sunbonnet Sue is a vintage design that harkens back to a simpler time.
For a spring kite scene, base ice an 8-in. round cake with white icing. Airbrush swirls of blue across the top and around the sides of the cake.
Pipe four green stems using a cut paper tube. Then, cut a "v" tip into a paper tube, and pipe green leaves.
With a No. 104 rose tip, create a yellow daffodil by piping five petals working around a center focal point. Form the petals by piping a forward ‘s’ and backward ‘s’ for each petal.
For the trumpet of the daffodil, airbrush sugar bells yellow. Hold the bell in one hand, and with tip No. 59o, pipe a ruffle from the inside outward around the opening of the bell, turning the bell as you pipe.
Place the trumpet of the daffodils in the center of the piped petals using scissors. Pipe a small dot inside the throat of the daffodils.
On the remaining three stems, place sugar calla lilies. Use the v-cut paper tube to add leaves to fill in the spaces around the flowers.
With a finely cut paper tube, pipe three black strings for kites. Then, use a paintbrush to pipe designs onto gumpaste plaques for the kites. Pipe dots of icing on the cake to prop up the kites, and place the kites on the cake. Add streamers along the kite strings with a cut paper tube.
Use the ‘v’ cut paper tube to pipe a grass border around the bottom of the cake. With tip No. 18, add a white top border using a 1,2,3 pull motion. With a cut paper tube, pipe ‘v’-shaped blue birds on the side and top of the cake.
For a vintage summer design, try Sunbonnet Sue. Base ice a quarter sheet cake with white icing, and airbrush the top half of the cake blue and the bottom half green. Add some darker green lines to give some definition to the scene.
Use tip No. 8 to pipe a fat apostrophe for Sue’s head and two small nibs for her hands.
Fit a tube with tip No. 104, and fill half of it with white icing and the other half with lavender. Use a ruffling motion to pipe a bonnet around Sue’s head. Then, pipe a strip of icing that tapers at the bottom under the head for the bodice of the dress.
Add two leg o’ mutton sleeves from the bodice to the hands. Pipe a ruffled bustle to the side of the bottom of the bodice, and pipe the outline of the skirt.
To fill the outline of the skirt, start at the bottom and use a ruffling motion or elongated scallops to form the pattern of the skirt. At the top of the skirt, add an apron by piping several swoops of icing under Sue’s arms.
Pipe white pantaloons under the skirt using tip No. 6. With tip No. 8, pipe two ‘s’ curves under the pantaloons for Sue’s feet. Add black Mary Jane shoes using a cut paper tube, and add black details under her feet.
With the cut paper tube and black icing, add her eye, and use a paintbrush to paint a small red dot for Sue’s mouth. For lace at the bottom of her pantaloons, apply a lot of pressure to a finely cut paper tube. The pressure forms the lace effect naturally. Cut a ‘v’ into a paper tube to add green leaves for flowers in Sue’s hand, and on her bonnet and dress. Place sugar flowers on the leaves.
Pipe green grass using a cut paper tube. Add an appropriate message, as well as a few ‘v’-shaped birds using a cut paper tube. Use rose tip No. 104 or 103 to pipe a yellow band bottom border with ruffles at the corners and in the center of the longer sides. With tip No. 6, pipe a white scallop border on top of the cake. Outline that border using the lavender bag and tip used for Sue’s dress.
