-Abstract Wedding Cake with Rice Paper Sails! _ Georgia's Cakes

Hey guys, welcome back to my channel. Now this video is really special because I'm going to be making a wedding cake for my good friends. Now I was meant to go to the wedding, it was in America, but because of the situation I wasn't able to travel. So I'm going to make them a smaller cake because they're doing a smaller version of the wedding that I can actually go to. And of course this is the time where people are having smaller events but there's no excuse not to have a cake. So what I've got here is some ready made sponge cake. So I've got a 6 inch and a 4 inch. And this is my regular sponge cake recipe, you can find it on my channel but I have written the quantities below for a 6 and 4 inch. I've also put a little bit more batter in than usual to make them a bit taller. What I'm going to do first is trim them off evenly. So I'm going to actually start with the 6 inch and as usual I'm just going to place my knife just above where it starts to dome and twist the cake, not cut through yet. Just going to mark round and when I get back to where I start I can now use that line as a guide and cut through and make a nice even surface. And of course you can eat these. It's actually my favourite part of the cake. I'm going to rest my knife on that layer I just cut and use it as a guide for my next one so I can get two even layers. Cut through once again. So the main reason why I do this is to obviously even them out if they're not totally flat but also get rid of that crumb layer because you don't want a line of brown when you cut through the cake. For me that's like a pet hate. So to cut each of these in half I'm going to bend down and see exactly where half way is and do the same. Mark all the way around the cake and then use it as a guide to cut through. See if that's even. About two millimetres off but it's okay with me and the same on the next layer. And now with the four inch cakes because they're quite small and a little bit harder to cut I can actually use one of my ready cut layers from the six inch as a guide, rest my knife and already cut the four inch in half. So again start by twisting it and then cutting through. And then I can cut off the top. And of course no cake wire needed, just a knife. The cake wires, unless you get an expensive sturdy one, they're not actually that good and everyone owns a knife in their kitchen anyway. So I'm going to save those off cuts for later. So I now have a total of eight even layers of cake and I've got my simple sugar syrup that I'm going to soak them. So once they're all soaked the last thing I'm going to do before filling the cake with buttercream is just put them in order of how I stack them. It's more of an organisational thing but you want to keep both of the bases as the bottom and the top because they are nice and flat. Two centre pieces and the cakes should be exactly the same height, which you always want for a tiered cake and so it's time to start filling. So I'm going to start off with my four inch cake and because it's such a small cake I find it more difficult to build it freehand so I like to use my acetate trick. So what I've got here is the four inch tin that I cooked the cake with plus a piece of acetate that I've just placed inside the tin and it's long enough to go around so I can build up the cake with the buttercream. So I've got my first layer of cake here and I'm just going to pop it upside down so the flat base facing downwards and you can see it fits nice and snug in there. And then I've got some vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream here, once again you can find a couple of tutorials of this on my channel as well as the recipe. What I'm going to do is actually spiral the buttercream inside the tin all the way to the edges like that so I have a nice even layer of buttercream in there and I want it all the way to the edges because that's what's going to make this tier of cake extremely straight. So now I can go in with my next layer, give it a little push to tighten that buttercream in and then pipe another layer. So you can go from the outside in or the inside out and repeat until the last layer. So with the last layer of cake I want it facing down so I have the flat base on the top and that can go straight on top of that last layer of buttercream and I like to give it all a big press down to make it nice and compact. Check it's straight because this is going in the freezer and I want this as straight as possible because once it's been firmed up in the freezer it's going to be difficult to readjust it. So I'm going to pop it in there while I do the six inch cake for at least ten minutes. So for my six inch cake I've got a nice rose gold board with a little bit of wet towel underneath and I want to stick the cake to the board so I'm going to put some buttercream first. Make a generous squiggle, get the first layer and flip it upwards and give it a squeeze down so it's secure to the board and then fill up the cake like I usually would. So spiral from the inside, once again it doesn't matter which way you go and piping ensures an even layer of the buttercream. I'm then going to use my small step palette knife and use the outer edge to make the buttercream flat and it also smooths out the air bubbles. Time for the next layer and trying to make it straight already and once again repeat to the last layer. And don't worry about any buttercream that's spilling over the edges, if anything that helps pack the buttercream in on the sides. And the last layer goes on upside down so the base is facing upwards and because I actually have a nice overfill I'm going to start my crumb coat by spreading this and then add on if I need. So with the back of the palette knife I'm going to go side to side and pack in that buttercream into the sides of the cake. And I will need a little bit more so I'm going to squeeze a little bit of buttercream on the top, spread that out side to side while turning the turntable, make the top flat, same action as I did when I was filling the cakes and then use that excess to go around the top and the bottom of the cake too. So you only want a thin layer at this point because it's just the crumb coat. And of course wipe any excess off you have into a bowl because this is crummy buttercream, you don't want to use that on your second layer. Before I scrape I'm just going to go around the top one more time. And now it's time to use my scraper so I just want to even out the buttercream, not so much take off the buttercream and my new way of describing how to hold a scraper is imagine you're cleaning your board with the bottom part of the scraper and that's how you get a straight edge. Just remember to also line up the bottom corner of the scraper with the bottom corner of the cake and turn. And keep turning until you're happy with the crumb coat and the buttercream has smoothed out and filled in any gaps. That's good enough and my board is clean because I was conscious of using that underside of the scraper. I'm just going to clean off the excess buttercream and then take away these corners so from the outside into the middle, cleaning off that excess of buttercream around the corners. There we go, crumb coat done. So I'm going to put this in the freezer just to speed things up but obviously you can sit it in the fridge as well until this layer of buttercream is nice and firm. So my four inch cake is nice and firm and I can feel by just touching the buttercream on the side of the acetate. So what I've got here, because I'm going to be putting the four inch on top of the six inch, I want it on its own cake board. So I have a larger surface here and a four inch cake board that I've secured onto it because when it comes to putting it on top of the six I will carry it from the four inch board. I do have a tutorial explaining how to make tiered cakes and how to prepare them so this will be like a little insight to a smaller tiered cake. On top of this little board I'm going to put some more buttercream. So there's something for the cake to stick to and with this I'm just going to flip the cake upside down, which looks a bit terrifying but I know it's firm. Squash it down to secure it and lift off the tin. And peel away the acetate and there you have an extremely straight and even four inch cake. Now because the cake has been frozen the crumbs are also frozen to the cake so you can actually skip the crumb coat stage and go straight on with your second layer of buttercream. So I'm going to do this with a piping bag, especially because it's white it tends to be a little bit more see through and so I want a generous layer on the outside. So I'm going to place my piping bag right at the bottom and turn the turntable but not move the hand that I'm piping with and gradually work my way up the cake. So I'm going to pipe all the way to the top and a spiral on the top as well. So small gaps like this in the buttercream doesn't matter too much because when I start smoothing around the outside the buttercream will spread out. I just want to flatten off the top with my palette knife before I start scraping around the outside. So like last time I'm going to hold my side scraper in the same position but I'm going to apply very little pressure because I don't want to be taking off this layer of buttercream I just want to smooth it out. I'm going to keep my hand still and turn and let the scraper and turntable do the work. So I would recommend going around a few times before you take a step back and see which gaps need filling in. So I do have a few around here so I'm just going to use this buttercream to fill in and scrape again. And I don't think people realise how many times you actually need to go around the cake and of course I know YouTube and Instagram and all other videos are edited but you do go around many times to smooth out the buttercream. So I'm really happy with that you can now clean the corners now but I'm going to put this back in the freezer because it's a lot easier to handle the cake when it's very cold and so I can trim off the top corners with a sharp knife to get them super sharp of course because it's a wedding cake too I want them as perfect as possible. So now it's time to put the second layer of buttercream onto the 6 inch cake so the crumb coat is really firm. Before I go on with the second layer I need to prepare this to hold the 4 inch that's going on top. So I've got a couple of straws because this is what's going to hold that base under the 4 inch so there's no pressure on the actual cake itself. So I'm just going to place a couple of straws in the middle of the cake and for a 4 inch two straws is enough but you can also do more and then trim them to size. Once the straws are in I can now go over with the layer of buttercream and I'm going to do the same as last time just because I had the piping bag already and pipe my way round the outside. So keeping the pressure even when I pipe and turning the turntable all the way to the top and even do an extra ring around the very top and a spiral as well. And like last time make the top flat. So this is where it's most important to make this top as flat as possible because it's going to be balancing the 4 inch tier and if it's a little bit crooked then the cake's going to look crooked. I'll even go with my scraper across the surface a couple of times to make sure it's super flat. That looks good enough, you can see I don't get any leveler out, I'm not that obsessive but overall it's pretty flat and now I can start scraping. Same as last time, gentle pressure at first and letting the turntable do most of the work here. And the more you go round the more the buttercream smooths out and I'm just going to put some more on the bottom. And when you're happy you can stop with the sides, once again if you wanted to clean off the corners now you can but it is quite warm at the moment so I want to make sure this cake is nice and cold so I'm going to put this back in the freezer and trim off the corners and in the meantime show you how to make some really nice rice paper sails. So I'm going to be adding some rice paper sails to this wedding cake, I think they give a really elegant effect. So there are isomalt sails which you may have seen the tutorial of but these are rice paper sails. They're a lot more delicate and you can be quite creative with what you make with them because you can also make these kind of small little bundles and when the rice paper overlaps itself different shades of colour can also come out so it's a really nice effect which I haven't done a tutorial of so I thought I'd include it today. Really easy to make, I'm going to start off with some water here and I'm going to add a tiny amount of food colouring so I have a peach colour because I want to keep the theme of this cake within like peaches and light pinks as well and just stir that in. So all I'm doing here is just colouring the water. Now what I'm going to do is pour the water onto a plate and this is going to be my soak and ground for the rice paper. So these rice papers are what you make like egg rolls out of so you can get them from pretty much any Asian store and they look like this. So they are hard and almost crispy when you take them out of the packet but as soon as it touches water it becomes soft. So I'm going to dip the paper into the plate of water and give it a good soaking. So it takes about 30 seconds for it to absorb the water and then what I have here are a couple of non-stick mats so I'm going to take the rice paper which has now gone a little bit soggy and place it onto the non-stick mat. So you kind of can't really see it anymore because it gets really thin but it is very much on there. And now you can shape this however you like because we're going to now leave this for a few hours for it to dry out and then it becomes something like this. So I've got a peg here and I like to create fans so I'm going to pinch the mat in the centre and unlike isomalt you can take your time with this, it doesn't harden straight away. And then I've got a couple of pegs which will keep it in place. So there are a couple of ways to dry this, either just out to the side and you probably need three to four hours in a warm-ish environment or you can put the oven on very low like 80 degrees Celsius and dry them out in there and it does speed it up. It is quite hot outside at the moment so these dried within a couple of hours just being left outside. So that's how you do the fan and to make the other smaller pieces you want to dip another piece of paper in the water and wait until it's soggy enough to start tearing. I think we're there. I can just tear it in half to get a smaller piece of paper and then to be honest there's no real rule. I'm just going to kind of shape it onto the mat. And if you leave it in the water a bit too long it gets like this sort of jelly-ish texture. So it doesn't look like much now but once again you leave it to dry and then you get these gorgeous abstract decorations. So I'm going to leave these aside to dry and then grab the other cakes and stack them. So both tiers are out the freezer and the buttercream is completely firm so I'm going to quickly trim off this excess to get a sharp corner. With a sharp knife I'm just going to go straight in and go around the edge of the cake cutting away that excess of buttercream. Even it out with my palette knife. Now that's pretty sharp. So now it's time to put the fourth tier on top of here and then I'll cut the corners because I want the fourth tier to be as cold as possible when I'm handling it. So I've got a small amount of buttercream in a smaller piping bag and I'm just going to squeeze on a little bit on top of the six inch. And then using my palette knife I'm going to slide under the four inch and grab that cake board and then very quickly place it on top of the six. Oop! Jogged a bit. And because it's on its own board I can use the palette knife to move it but it will firm up pretty quickly because the cake's cold. Centre it as much as you can. And I can see a couple of fingerprints but I'm not too worried about that because I am going to scrape around the outside but first I want to fill in where the two tiers meet. So I'm going to grab my buttercream and fill in that gap between the tiers. And now I'm going to scrape around and remove that excess and that will close the gap between the tiers and get rid of any fingerprint marks on the outside. And now I'm going to cut away the excess on the four inch. Just do the finishing touches with the palette knife again. So the two tiers are stacked. I'm going to put this back in the fridge for 15 to 20 minutes to set and then I'm going to finish off with all the decorations. So now it's time to decorate and I had this idea of just doing one collection of decorations and kind of exploding from this area here. So before I go on with some decorations such as the rice paper sails, I've also got some lemon slices as well and fresh flowers. I want to apply a little bit of coloured textured buttercream. So I have a few shades of coloured buttercream, some peach, some slightly nuder colours to keep within the theme and all I'm going to do is apply a tiny amount of one colour and apply it to the cake. So I'm going to do some strokes upwards and even spread them out as well. So this is where I'm going to focus most of the decoration. Now along with the texture, I have also seen a really cool technique of applying even more texture. I've got a silicon brush here and if I go over that buttercream I just applied, you get this really nice textured effect. So I'm going to keep going with a few colours and build up some texture. And this works best when the cakes are cold which is why I had them in the fridge before I did this. I've got a light pink here which I'll also apply. And I think the more random splodges the better. Don't think too much about it, it is meant to be abstract. Okay so I think I'm happy with the texture, it's like not too overboard, subtle but abstract and interesting. And now I'm going to apply my decorations. So I've got my buttercream in my piping bag which I can use to stick the decorations and I'm just going to make a cluster using my rice paper sails which I can also cut and change according to the size I want and once again I don't think I should think too much about it. Wow, what an amazing effect this rice paper does, I'm a little bit obsessed. I'm now going to finish off with a few lemon slices and some flowers. Wow, so I don't know if you can tell but I didn't really know what I was going to end up with when I decided to do this cake. I absolutely love it, I love these rice paper sails and I think those bits of greenery really emphasise the design and the kind of abstract yet rustic look of the cake. So I'm really really happy with this, I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, please try a two tiered cake if you haven't already and of course if you are getting married or know someone who is and want to make a wedding cake then I hope you found this tutorial helpful. In the meantime please check out all my other videos and recipes, they're all on my channel. Don't forget to subscribe and like this video as well as comment with your thoughts. Hope you enjoyed it and we'll see you very soon.