Buttercream Dot Leaves Cake (Pointillism)
Steps involved
Make cake layers
Make buttercream (no color)
Split and color buttercream
Assemble and ice cake
Chill cake
Pipe dots to decorate cake
READ BEFORE CONTINUING: The following recipes are scaled to make the cake pictured above -- a 4 layer cake made with 6-inch round cake layers. If you wish to make a smaller cake, please scale down these recipes.
recipes used
1 vanilla cake recipe
**I used 1/4 teaspoon of super strong strawberry extract in place of the vanilla**1 - 1.5 batches Italian meringue buttercream
I made this buttercream vanilla flavored by adding 1 tablespoon of vanilla to my 1.5x batch (can add less or more to taste)
Colors used
To get these colors, I used Wilton's Color Right Food Coloring System, Wilton's Gel Icing Color, and some Cocoa Powder.*
For the cake layers:
Wilton Gel Icing Color in Burgundy: 1/2 a container
For the icing:
The colors may differ depending on how much icing you're coloring and the starting color of your buttercream (certain butter brands are more white or yellow which can make the buttercream whiter or more yellow). These are the amounts I used and should get you close.
I used roughly a scant cup of icing for each color:
Dark Purple Icing:
Yellow: 10 drops
Brown: 4 drops
Blue: 20 drops
Red: 7 drops
Pink: 35 drops
Orange Icing:
Orange: 7 drops
Cocoa powder - only a little bit to deepen the color
Yellow Icing:
Yellow: 3 drops
Cocoa powder - only a little bit to deepen the color
Pink Icing:
Pink: 3 drops
Brown: 3 drops
Sea Foam Icing:
Yellow: 2 drops
Blue: 3 drops
Supplies/tools
To find the tools I use for almost every cake I make and decorate (including pans, cake boards, icing smoothers, etc.), click here.
The supplies/tools below are specifically for decorating this cake, which I used in addition to the ones in the link above.*
Optional - 5 couplers (If you only want to use one tip, you can put a coupler on each bag to be able to use the same tip on each bag)
*Some of these links may be affiliate. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. I earn a small amount from some purchases, however, this does not affect my recommendations.
Decorating the cake
After the cake has been assembled and iced:
Fill a separate piping bag, with a small round tip attached, with each of the 5 colors.
Use a toothpick to roughly outline where you want your leaves to be on the cake. I've added a reference picture below showing varying leaf shapes (click on the image to enlarge it).
Using the purple color, pipe small dots along the outline and inner vein lines of each leaf. I chose to refrigerate the cake after this step to allow the purple dots to firm up, but it's not necessary.
Using one of your lighter colors (except the sea foam color) fill a leaf in with small dots of buttercream. Continue piping dots in each of the leaves, switching colors between each leaf.
Using the sea foam color, pipe rows of dots between all of the leaves. I chose to spread the dots apart as I got to the top and sides of the cake to give it a kind of gradient effect.
Slice and enjoy :)
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