We know it’s not even autumn yet (due September 22nd no less), but we couldn’t help but begin to feel ever so festive and ready for winter when working on this silver vintage lace inspired wedding cake! It certainly was a delight for us to design this cake from the strands upon strands of pearlescent fondant pearls to the hand-piped royal icing lace design.
When creating this tiered cake we took inspiration from vintage lace, Wedgwood silverware, soft fabric corsages and strings of pearls. The main focus needed to be on the centre of the cake so we began sketching out three tiered designs that played with different cake depths and proportions before settling on a cake that utilised a deep middle tier.
To further draw attention to the centre of the cake, but not overload the overall design with too much fussy detail we looked at small repeat patterns in vintage lace and quickly sketched out a rough version of what we’d need to re-create using small blossom cutters and royal icing. Utilising tiny flower cutters is a great way to mark and plan out a lace design on a cake.
To finish we decided to add a little softness to the top with a ruffled fantasy flower created using thinned flower paste circles gently ‘balled’ and teased in delicate white frills. Due to the tiny blossom lace design that features as the main design aspect of this cake we kept the flower topper simple and unassuming.
As the months have gradually gotten colder this cake has only added to our excitement for winter; one of our favourite seasons. We love how the shimmering pearls mimic expertly rolled snowballs and that from a distance the royal icing piped lace could be frosty snowflakes!
After a rather hectic couple of months full of magazine work, large cake orders and a pile of admin work our Tutorial Tuesday segment is back with a vengeance! Though we still have a myriad of responsibilities plus some fabulous plans for the next few months (why not sign up to our monthy newsletter to stay in the know) we’ve streamlined our work-plan somewhat to help maintain certain aspects of the blog; including our weekly tutorials! Without further ado here is this week’s tutorial… how to pipe pearl borders with royal icing! This handy technique is perfect for finished cakes, adding detail or creating delicate edgings on cupcakes or cookies!
When it comes to working with royal icing you can be forgiven for being a little stand offish if faced with a piping bag of that seemingly tempestuous mix, however, all it takes is one good recipe that you feel comfortable working with and whipping up. That’s why with this week’s tutorial for piping dainty pearl borders we’re sharing our simple recipe for royal icing. Before we tried this recipe we would sadly waste large amounts of icing sugar just to pipe a small pearl or shell border. We often lamented over why so many royal icing recipes listed their ingredients in large volumes and, worse yet, with measurements too odd to scale down. This recipe is possibly the most straightforward we’ve come across, creates the least amount of waste, and it has always yielded what we find the best consistency for piping.
Our royal icing recipe
Whites from 1 medium egg
188g icing/confectioner’s sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice (and extra to wipe down your bowl and whisk attachment)
Kitchen scales
Stand-up mixer with whisk attachment and metal bowl
Small round writing piping tip
Disposable piping bag
Step 1: Wipe down the bowl of your stand up mixer with lemon juice along with your whisk attachment.
Step 2: Add the whites of 1 medium egg to the bowl and whisk on high speed until white and frothy.
Step 3: Add in the icing/confectioner’s sugar and mix until incorporated.
Step 4: Finally add in the lemon juice. You need your royal icing to be the consistency of runny honey so add a little more lemon juice if you find your icing too thick.
Be aware that royal icing never lasts too long. It’s best to always make and use it fresh as the sugar soon begins to crystallize making it hard to work with. If you are, however, going back to using the icing in a few hours we’d recommend covering the icing with cling film/saran wrap directly on the icing’s surface in a bowl and then double covering over the bowl itself. If you also have some royal icing in a piping bag cling film the nozzle of your piping tip to stop the tip from getting clogged with crystallized sugar.
If you find the consistency of the royal icing too thin or thick don’t panic. It’s easy to adjust the consistency by either adding icing sugar gradually if it is too thin or adding a little bit of water if you think it is too thick.
As well as the royal icing you’ll also need a good seamless plain round piping tip (we used a 2.5 writer tip by PME for a small yet dainty pearl size and shape) and a disposable piping bag. As this is the beginner lesson we’ll save the parchment paper cornet/cone tutorial for next week and instead concentrate on the recipe and border piping method!
How to pipe Royal Icing Pearl Borders!
Piping pearl borders with royal icing looks relatively simple and straightforward… that is until you actually physically have to do them! Our top tip to get even, delicate and elegant piped pearl borders is to establish a good rhythm! Even before we begin piping directly onto a cake we have a quick practice on a clean surface to quickly check the consistency of the icing, establish the appropriate pressure we need to get certain sized pearls and to make sure we get a quick rhythm.
To get a nice even rhythm we repeat these three steps in our head until we’ve finished our border work; Squeeze. Stop. Swipe.
Squeeze. Stop. Swipe.
Squeeze the royal icing out at a 45 degree angle between the cake board (or stand) and cake (for cupcakes do this at a 90 degree angle). Squeeze with a nice even pressure. Don’t squeeze too hard or you’ll have royal icing flooding out everywhere. Also, don’t squeeze too fast or you’ll never have control over your border.
Stop when you’ve squeezed enough royal icing to create a lovely glistening pearl. A lot of beginners just keep going when attempting pearl or shell borders as they can look a little like cursive hand-writing and seem unbroken, but these borders are broken. You need to stop to establish a nice rounded pearl shape and not a continuous line of undefined royal icing squiggles!
Swipe the piping bag away in the direction you wish your border to continue with no pressure pushing out more royal icing. This creates a nice tapered or tear drop tail to your pearl which not only creates a good looking border, but helps mark out where your next pearl should be placed. You should then begin your next piped pearl on the tail of your last. When you squeeze once again the royal icing will fill the gap a little, but should still create a lovely defined shape!
Keep practising! Working with royal icing and even piping borders with buttercream takes a little practise to get just right, but you will get there if you keep at it. The brilliant thing about the ‘squeeze. swipe. stop’ method is that it can be used to make almost any border look even and professional. We use this technique to pipe out shell borders and buttercream borders too!
Next week we’ll be showing you the next step at getting used to working with royal icing; piping polka dots plus how to create a parchment paper cornet/cone to use as a piping bag! Royal icing polka dots is a fabulous way to add texture or a pretty yet subtle detail to cakes!
Here’s a lovely and bright cosmetics bag cake with a vintage twist that we created for a friend’s daughter! We were asked to design and make a polka dot make-up bag cake fit for an 18th birthday with a slight vintage feel, a tassel and a fresh colour palette. We were, otherwise, given creative license so with the previous requests we settled upon a cream, turquoise, gold and coral pink colour scheme paired with hand made roses, pearl jewellery, a quilted and sugar pearl studded board and vintage inspired cosmetic pieces.
Above is a close-up of some of the details of the cake including the gold fondant tassel, pearl necklace (complete with an ornate clasp), nail polish bottle, pearl ring, brooch, small parfum bottle and a lipstick inspired by the Estée Lauder Signature lip-colour in ‘Portofino Coral’.
The cake itself is a lovely soft and moist chocolate fudge cake with silky smooth chocolate fudge buttercream frosting. It’s then smothered with a milk chocolate ganache before being iced with fondant and decorated.
We loved creating the vintage inspired jewels, make-up items and sugar roses as well as hand-painting aspects of the cake in gold! They all help to lend a more grown-up and elegant feel to the cake whilst combined with a bright and fun colour palette.
Above is a photograph of the side of the cake capturing the gold fondant tassel and pearl necklace. We added stitching detail, a lovely pearlescent sheen to the fondant pearls, and a glowing hand-painted gold shimmer,
This cake was such fun to create! We loved adding the sweet yet fun little touches of jewellery, old fashioned style cosmetics, a personalised name plaque, etc.
Fondant / sugarpaste pearls and beads are a simple way to add a border to cakes, but if you make all your pearls individually by hand getting them even can be a long and exhausting job. This weeks CAKE101 decorating / baking tip gives you a good way to ensure that every bead is as evenly sized as possible!
“To get even fondant / sugarpaste pearls and beads cut multiple rolled out fondant circles with your choosen circle cutter. Then roll each circle up into even pearls!”
Here at Juniper Cakery we have amassed a large collection of sugarpaste tools. Some things we were lacking were the above Tala products. We have to admit we did not know that Tala made plunger cutters and modelling tools. We'd always used their pastry cutters to create smooth 'doilies', plaques, and sugar paste detailings. We've also used their 1950s icing set to add detail to cakes. Tala appeals to us because of their traditional yet simplistic 1950s/60s design, however, the the quality of their products is never compromised.
We have scored the above Tala tools on design, quality and function…
In order to test these modelling tools we decided to create a Tala inspired cake. We looked at their packaging, cake tins and at 1960s cake designs (due to the 1950s/60s style of Tala's products). From their range we picked out a very simple colour palate of a sky blue, pale yellow and white. From the sixties influence we chose to create sugarpaste pearls, an edible broderie anglaise border and a bouquet of daisies and blossoms.
The designs of the modelling tools are simple, classic and un-fussy. Their tools are plastic and are in a slight off-white colour which makes them fairly easy to find in our tool box crammed full of various tools (most of which are either a bright white or a very pale grey colour). The floral plungers, especially the daisy shapes, have just enough detail on them for you to also add you own accents (we cut yellow circles from icing tips and textured them with one of the Tala modelling tools to make the centre of the daisy).
In terms of quality we couldn't fault the tools. Our previous plunger cutters usually needed a bit of a prod or a wiggle in order to shake the flower or leaf out. These simply needed one small push on the plunger and it was ready to adorn with a bead or disc centre. All of the modelling tools are of a good thick and tough plastic so they feel extremely durable.
Some modelling tools came in old fashioned doctor's 'lollipop' style shapes, or more professionally called 'tongue depressors' which came in really handy for tidying up rouh sugarpaste corners. Also, the ball tools are larger than one's we've previously used which we feel will be better when it comes to shaping rose petals and ruffle edgings.
