The Busy Girls Guide to Cake Decorating by Ruth Clemens Read Free Book Online Page B

the candles and their holders onto the cake board, spaced evenly around the cake. A little dab of water on the base of each holder will secure it in place.

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    â€œA water brush will save you time when applying dabs of water, they can be picked up fairly cheaply in most arts and craft stores.”
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    8 Roll 16 pink and 16 white 1.5cm ( 1 ⁄ 2 in) diameter balls in the palms of your hands. Position the pink and white balls alternately between each candleholder using a dab of water on the base to secure them.
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TIP
    To make lifting small pieces easier, use a palette knife to pick them up rather than your fingers.
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    9 Trim the edge of the board with pale pink ribbon, securing at the back with a pearl-headed pin.

HALF-DAY DELIGHTS
(for when you’ve got a couple of hours to spare)

Regal Roses
Piping royal icing roses
    The thought of entirely piping the decoration onto a cake may well send you into a panic – fear not, these stylized piped swirl roses are super easy.

Get it together…
    20cm (8in) square cake, prepared for covering
    30cm (12in) square cake board
    Sugarpaste: purple
    Royal icing: dark purple and leaf green
    Piping (pastry) bags and no. 2, no. 8 and leaf (no. 2B) nozzles (tips)
    12mm ( 1 ⁄ 2 in) wide purple ribbon
    Pearl-headed pins
    Basic equipment (see Equipment )
    1 Roll out the purple sugarpaste to a 3mm ( 1 ⁄ 8 in) thickness and use to cover the cake board (see Covering a board with sugarpaste ). Lightly spraying the board with a mist from a water spray will help the sugarpaste to stick.
    2 Roll out more of the purple sugarpaste to a 5mm ( 3 ⁄ 16 in) thickness and cover the cake. Trim the excess neatly and polish with an icing smoother (see Covering a cake with sugarpaste ). Set both the board and the cake to one side to allow the sugarpaste to begin to dry.
    3 Split a batch of royal icing into two. Colour one portion dark purple and the other leaf green using edible gel paste colours (see Colouring ).
    4 Position the cake in the centre of the covered board, securing with a dab of royal icing.
    5 Using a piping (pastry) bag fitted with a no. 8 nozzle (tip), pipe a purple royal icing shell border around the base of the cake (see Piping a shell border ).
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TIP
    Practise piping on a sheet of greaseproof (wax) paper before piping onto the cake. This will give you a good feel for the action and pressure needed to create the swirls.
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    6 Mark positioning pinpricks on the top of the cake – these will guide you when piping each rose or cluster. Using a piping (pastry) bag fitted with a no. 2 nozzle (tip), pipe swirls of purple royal icing onto each marked position to create the roses. For the clusters of flowers, try to pipe them so that they just touch each other. If your piped swirls have a peaked end dab them down with a damp paintbrush.
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    â€œIf you are using disposable bags, the quickest thing to do is to cut the no. 8 nozzle (tip) from the bag and drop the whole lot into a new bag fitted with the no. 2 nozzle (tip).”
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    7 Once the top has been piped, begin piping on each side of the cake. Piping vertically will need a slightly different technique so tape a piece of greaseproof (wax) paper to the side of a box for a quick practice run! Add swirl roses around the cake board.
    8 Take the green royal icing and place in a piping (pastry) bag fitted with a leaf nozzle (tip) (no. 2B). Begin piping the leaf right next to the purple swirl. Keep the nozzle (tip) in the same position while applying pressure to the bag, once the base of the leaf is the correct size release the pressure completely and then pull away. This will create the pointed tip of the leaf. Pipe a leaf next to each swirl flower across the cake and board.
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TIP
    If you don’t have a leaf nozzle (tip) just cut a small inverted ‘V’ from the end of a disposable piping (pastry) bag. This will give you the same effect.
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    9 Finish by trimming the board with