The Contemporary Buttercream Bible by Christina Ong Valeri Valeriano Read Free Book Online Page A

been done for many years, with shells
    commonly used as borders. But we will give it a
    twist. By using vibrant colours and combining the
    patterns in interesting ways, we will make this
    age-old technique into contemporary art.
    1 For our variation on basic shells, we have piped a
    stylized flower using the basic shell technique. To
    do this, use a round cookie cutter or a cup or glass
    that fits nicely on the side of your cake and mark a
    guide circle (A).
    A
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    2 Pipe ‘shells’ using a star tip nozzle (Wilton 21)
    starting at the edge of the guide circle. Hold the
    piping bag straight onto the cake with tip of the
    nozzle touching the guide circle. Firmly squeeze the
    piping bag until the buttercream builds up and
    creates a fan shape, then slightly lift the piping bag and pull down towards the centre of the guide circle
    as you also gradually relax the pressure to create a
    pointed end (B). Pipe shells next to each other to
    finish one layer. Repeat the same process and pipe
    two more rows, each row getting shorter as it draws
    nearer to the centre of the circle (C).
    B
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    C
    3 For the fleur-de-lis, using small star nozzle
    (Wilton 16), pipe each one by starting with a reverse shell. Hold the piping bag straight on to the cake
    and pipe a short shell but pull your strokes
    upwards, not down (D). Then pipe another short shell that starts on the left side then curls slightly up then meets the central shell, do the same on the
    on the right. Both strokes join in the centre (E).
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    D
    E
    Tip
    Use differently sized star nozzles to create
    various effects. To make your designs more
    interesting, use the two-tone technique as
    discussed earlier in the Piping Textures and
    Patterns chapter.
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    To create this cake…
    • 15 × 15cm (6 × 6in) round cake
    • 1.55–2.05kg (3lb 7oz–4lb 10oz) buttercream
    • Paste colours: purple (Sugarflair Grape Violet),
    light
    orange
    (Sugarflair
    Tangerine),
    orange
    (Sugarflair Tangerine), dark orange (Sugarflair
    Tangerine)
    • Piping bags
    • Star nozzles (Wilton 16 and 21)
    • Silver edible balls (sugar balls)
    • Tweezers
    • Cake stand or covered cake board
    Colour 400–500g (14oz–1lb 2oz) of buttercream
    violet, and 250–350g (9–12oz) each in light orange,
    orange and dark orange and leave the rest plain.
    Cover the cake with plain buttercream (see
    Covering Cakes in Buttercream Basics) and place on
    a stand or covered board. Blend violet buttercream
    into the background coating at the top and bottom
    of the cake (see Blending in Palette Knife
    Techniques) and give the cake a smooth finish (see
    Covering Cakes in Buttercream Basics). Mark guide
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    circles around your cake, spacing them evenly, then
    pipe the ‘shell’ flower following the tutorial using all the orange colours. Add silver edible balls in the
    centre using tweezers. Starting about 1.5cm (5⁄8in)
    from the bottom of the cake, pipe the fleur-de-lis in violet, following the tutorial, all around the base,
    and add one silver edible ball to the centre of each.
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    Scrolls, Lines and Zigzags
    In this technique you won’t need any special tools,
    just a simple piping bag. We could call this
    technique ‘line art’ because just by piping curved
    and straight lines you will be able to create an
    illustration. This looks great on a nice, smooth and
    simple background that allows your design to really
    stand out.
    1 Measure and cut greaseproof (wax)paper to create
    your pattern – here we’ve made equally spaced
    triangles – and mark them on your cake using a
    cocktail stick (toothpick) (A).
    A
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    2 Put an ample amount of buttercream of different
    colours in separate piping bags and snip off the tip
    of each bag to create a small hole. Pipe on top of
    your guide all around the cake in one colour, then
    use the rest of the colours alternately until you
    cover the whole surface of the cake with zigzag lines (B).
    B
    3 To make floral patterns, use flower or petal cookie