Ruffle Cake Tutorial - Valentine's Day

Ruffle cakes are so, so pretty. And honestly, I expected them to be harder than they really are. The biggest challenge-- having enough icing!

What You Need:
Cake (This is a 6"x2" cake.)
Buttercream Icing (I used this Decorator's Buttercream Recipe.)*
Piping Bag with Tip #104

*Note: For a 6" cake, I used about 4-5 cups of icing. If you're making a more traditional, 8-9" round cake, and if it's taller, you need to make a double batch, just to be sure -- Especially if you're coloring the icing. (You always want to have more icing than you need because getting it the exact.same.color is really hard.)

Begin by icing the cake with a thin layer of icing. You are adding a lot of icing to the outside of this cake, you really don't want a thick layer of icing on there. But you need some or the ruffles won't stick as well.
Mark the cake for your lines. I eyeball it by dividing the top in half, half again, half again, etc. (as you can see in the photo above).
*There's also a trick you can do using parchment paper to divide the cake evenly. Martha Stewart shows you here.

Mark those lines down the side of the cake. This helps every line of ruffles to be relatively even.

I divided up this 6" cake into 36 sections. They need to be relatively thin if you want it to look really full and frilly. I'd say they're between 1/4-1/2" wide.

To make the side ruffles, hold the bag so that the fatter side of the tip is leaning against the cake (actually touching the icing). The back of the bag needs to be up towards the ceiling. Move the tip back and forth within your lines, slowly moving upwards.
* Be sure you get all the way to the top of the cake, maybe even a tiny bit higher than the side of the cake so that your top ruffle can easily meet the side ruffles.

To decorate the top, I used a large heart cookie cutter to mark the heart.

To make the top ruffle, you want to turn the tip so that the fat side is touching the icing, again, and the thin end is pointing up. Your bag will be parallel to the top of the cake, with the back of the bag pointing to the right. (Sorry I forgot to take a picture of this.)
I started with the outside ruffles and moved inward, finishing with the heart. (The heart was done with a tip #103, actually.)

Share this pretty cake with someone you love!

Click the Links Below to See:
Buttercream Heart Valentine's Cake
Easy Fondant Heart Valentine Cake
More Valentine's Ideas and Recipes

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