Looking to learn how to cover a cake with sugarpaste? You’ve come to the right place! Cake artist Emily Hankins shares her expertise with us in this video, showing the process step by step. In her demo, Emily uses The Sugar Paste to achieve a flawless finish.
Before we begin, it’s worth noting that you’ll also see these cakes referred to as “fondant covered”. Don’t panic if your packet of paste says fondant and not sugarpaste! These two products are the same thing, so regardless of the terminology, with Emily’s tips, you’ll create a show-stopping cake!
Shop all sugarpaste from our collection here.
Sugarpaste covered cakes make the perfect base for stunning celebration cakes and wedding cakes, ready for you to decorate. And as Emily shows, it couldn’t be easier to get a beautiful finish with these products.
To create the perfect sugarpaste covered cake, you’ll need:
- Your choice of sugarpaste
- A rolling pin
- Cornflour for dusting your work surface
- A fondant smoother
- A board to place your cake or cake dummy on
- A knife for trimming
How to cover a cake in sugarpaste – key points!
Short on time? Here are the key points from Emily’s walk-through!
- Dust your work surface with cornflour (icing sugar might make everything a little sticky!) to prevent your paste from sticking.
- Roll out your sugarpaste with your rolling pin. If you’re covering a round cake, work on the edges to create a round shape, this will make it easier in the long run!
- Roll all the way around the paste, not just backwards and forwards! Keep rolling until you reach your desired thickness.
- Feel for any air bubbles – Emily advises popping these using acupuncture needles (be very careful with these – safety first, keep well out of reach of any children!). These are sold in sterilised packs, so you know they’re clean, and they have extra fine points so you won’t see the mark where you popped the bubble.
- To make your sugarpaste stick, brush your cake with a thin layer of either cool boiled water or alcohol (Emily uses vodka, which evaporates, so is not of any concern for eating!).
- Use your rolling pin to lift your sugarpaste. Roll the paste around the barrel and lift on to your cake or cake dummy.
- Begin smoothing it out with your hands, focusing on the top first. Work carefully around the top edge to perfect it and get rid of any remaining air bubbles.
- To smooth the sides, begin pulling the paste away slightly and then smoothing it down. This bit takes practice and time – don’t rush! You’ll have to untuck as you go and continue smoothing until you’ve gone all the way around. You can skip to 8.50 in the video to see this in detail.
- Cut away any excess sugarpaste from the bottom, leaving about 1cm spare to ensure you can get a perfect finish on the bottom of your cake.
- Lift your cake on to a cake tin that is slightly smaller than your cake. This allows you to smooth that bottom edge out. Take extra care and attention here if you’re not adding a ribbon to the bottom of the cake. Once you’re happy, trim any excess off again, keeping the knife flush to the bottom of the cake.
- Run over the top with your fondant smoother, making sure everything is well stuck. Then run around the sides, working to get a lovely smooth finish.
- Lift your cake off the tin and pop it on to the cake board you will be serving it on. Make sure you’re happy with the position.
- Take your hard smoother and a flexi smoother (optional!) and work around the top to get a nice clean, crisp edge. Take your time with this.
- Spend a little time perfecting the bottom edge where the cake meets the board, and there you have it! A beautiful cake covered with sugarpaste.
We hope this guide was helpful! Thanks again to the wonderful, super talented Emily Hankins for joining us. To show us your next sugarpaste covered cake, be sure to tag us in your instagram snaps, and use the hashtag #CakeDecFamous so we don’t miss them!
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