New Year's 2020 Glitter Cake

Steps involved

Make cake layers
Carve out '20
Make more layers
Make buttercream (no color)
Split and color buttercream
Assemble and ice cake
Chill cake
Cut out parchment letters
Add glitter to 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
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 Icing Color in Black and Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa Powder.*

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.

Black Icing: *for more in depth instructions on how to get deep black icing, click here.

Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa Powder - I use just enough to get a dark base to start with

Wilton's Icing Color in Black - 1-2 containers

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.*

Creating the 20

Coming...

*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:

Refrigerate until completely chilled.
Cut out "Happy New Year" letters from parchment paper using an X-acto knife. If you want the font I used it's Arial Black in 80pt. I also have an image below (click image to enlarge).
Press the letters onto the chilled cake. I like to use the brush set for this step because I feel like I have more control. *If the letters aren't sticking to the chilled icing, brush the back of each letter with a tiny amount of shortening*
In a small bowl, mix roughly equal parts of the gold and silver glitter squares together.
Take handfuls of glitter squares and press them onto the cake. (You can also dip a clean finger into the glitter squares and press them onto the cake that way if you prefer) Make sure to get in between the letters so they are easy to read when you peel them off later.
Repeat step 5 until the entire cake is covered with glitter.
If the icing has softened, you may want to chill the cake again before moving on.
Using a toothpick to peel up the corner of a letter, peel the letters off of the cake carefully.
Slice and enjoy :)

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