BPA 131: Basket Weave cake with Piped roses, royal icing flowers, and buttercream writing

Day 3, Intro to Cake Decorating

Today I cut my cake layers the same way as I did before, but instead of buttercream filling I used raspberry jam. I created a dam for the jam by piping a ring of buttercream along the inside edge of the layer and using my small offset spatula spread the jam inside the enclosed area. This keeps the jam from oozing out the sides when frosting and makes for a nice looking slice of cake. Because I was frosting the outside of my cake using a basket weave pattern, the crumb coat was a sufficient base to start with.

To make the basket weave, I had two piping bags with buttercream ready, one with a wide ridged edge and the other a thin rounded tip. I began with the small round tip and piped a line vertically, from top to bottom of the cake. I then switched bags and to the second tip and gently crossed over the small line in a horizontal line. I made 5 short (about 1/2", depending) horizontal lines, and then switched back bags. I made my next vertical line but up against the horizontal lines; I didn't want space between the two. Continuing in this same process around my cake I was able to get a nice basket weave. The most difficult part came when finishing the weave; the end was visible but not bad looking.

In finishing my cake I piped a small birthday message in green buttercream and piped three roses in some royal icing. I piped some leaves and used the piped flowers from the previous class to fill the rest of the space. To make the roses I began with the same tools as the other flowers, but started with a small Hershey kiss base for the center of the rose, and made concentric petals curving up and out around it. It took many tries but eventually they began to look like roses. I ended with a piped buttercream shell border around the top and bottom of the cake.