Fall Embroidery Cake
Steps involved
Make cake layers
Make buttercream (no color)
Split and color buttercream
Assemble and ice cake
Pipe design onto cake and decorate
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 - 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.*
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 only about 1/4 cup of icing for each of the next icing colors...
Red Icing:
Red: 10 drops
Crimson: 25 drops
Brown: 2 drops
Burnt Orange Icing:
Orange: 20 drops
Crimson: 1 drop
Red: 1 drop
Brown: 1 drop
Brown Icing:
Yellow: 2 drops
Brown: 1 drop
Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa Powder: Add until you get a rich brown *can replace this with more brown food coloring if desired
Golden Yellow Icing:
Yellow: 4 drops
Orange: 1 drop
Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa Powder: I used a pinch
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.*
*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, iced, and cooled until icing is firm:
Put each color icing into its own piping bag with a small round tip.
Optional: Use a toothpick to lightly carve your design into the buttercream to use as a template.
Pipe your design in small strokes. Start with more pressure on the bag and release pressure as you drag until no icing is coming out. Start the next line partially on top of the previous one. *This is much easier to see than explain, so please refer to the video below to understand*
Continue piping in this way until you've achieved your desired design.
For the top "swirly dollops" lay out a piece of plastic wrap (about a foot long) onto your counter. Place a horizontal line of white icing onto the plastic wrap, leaving room on each end. Pipe a line of one of the fall colors up against this white icing. Place another line of white icing up against the colored line. Repeat this process until you've used all 4 colors. You should have a rectangle of stripes alternating between white and colored stripes.
Take the top and bottom edge of the plastic wrap and bring them together to allow the icing to form a log shape. Roll on the counter lightly.
Twist each side together to seal the ends (like the wrapper a hard candy comes in).
Set up a piping bag with a Wilton 1M tip.
Cut one of the twisted sides off of the icing log and place this cut side into the piping bag.
Using the .gif or video below as a reference, pipe "swirly dollops" onto the top of the cake.
Slice and enjoy :)
SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO
