Black & Gold Drip Cake – by Emma Stewart

I am thrilled to be able to welcome Emma Stewart back to Mr Baker’s Blog with an exclusive guest tutorial. Emma’s beautiful black and gold cake will make a striking addition to your Christmas or New Year party and it is easier than it looks.

Emma Stewart is a self-taught award winning cake artist from Omagh, Northern Ireland. She began her business, Truly Scrumptious Cakes by Design, 6 years ago after baking for friends and family for a year. She has continued to grow, becoming widely recognised for her elegant and creative designs. Emma specialises in wedding cakes and won the Northern Ireland Best Wedding Cake Designer award in November 2016. She runs classes in sugar flowers and wedding cakes throughout the UK and you can find out more about her in last month’s exclusive interview with Mr Baker’s Blog.

 

For the cake:

You will need:

Cake pre-covered in black sugarpaste/fondant (Renshaw Black)

Renshaw Ready To Use Royal Icing

Rolkem Super Gold*

High percentage alcohol (such as dipping solution or rejuvenator)

Off-set spatula

Turntable

Piping bag

Scissors

1 large paint brush

2 fine brushes (Pure Sable Series)

 

*In light of the new advice from UK retailers regarding the withdrawal of Rolkem Super Gold due to high concentrations of copper, I would advise against using this product. There are of course many other alternatives available, such as Faye Cahill’s Signature Gold, Sweet Sticks’ Honey Gold, Magic Colours’ Edible Paint in Metallic Gold or Rainbow Dust Metallic Food Paint in Light Gold.

Method:

1. Loosen the consistency of the Renshaw Royal Icing by adding cooled boiled water a few drops at a time. It needs to slowly drip from a lifted spatula.
2. Apply royal icing to the top of the cake.
3. Use the off-set spatula to spread the royal icing out to the edge of the cake.
4. Let the royal icing begin to spill over the sides of the cake.
5. Fill a piping bag with royal icing and cut off the tip. Apply drops of extra royal icing to the top edge of the cake and let them run down. The more pressure you use when squeezing the piping bag, the larger the icing drips.
6. Once all royal icing drips are done, leave to dry for approximately 90 minutes or until the royal icing has a matt look to it (no longer glossy).
7. If using liquid colour, you can skip this step, otherwise mix the powder colour with some high percentage alcohol to create a thick paint (milk consistency). Too diluted will give a see through and streaky finish and too thick will go clumpy.
8. Use a large brush to paint the top of the cake.
9. Choose a fine brush to paint the drips. Do not rush this stage. Taking the time to get a clean finish to the drips helps to create the perfect drip effect.
10. Once all royal icing has been painted gold you can use your spare fine brush & a little clear alcohol to tidy any areas where the gold may have gone onto the cake.

 

For the decorations:

You will need:

Squires Kitchen sugar flower paste white

Renshaw Ready to Roll black icing

Tylose powder

Rainbow Dust hologram white

Rainbow Dust hologram gold

Rolkem Super Gold

High percentage alcohol (such as dipping solution or rejuvenator)

Paper square 4” X 4”(pre mark the diagonals, their halfway point & the centre)

#18 gauge wire

2 polystyrene balls (4cm diameter approximately)

Sharp knife

1 large paint brush

1 fine brushes (Pure Sable Series)

1 large fluffy brush

 

Method:

1. Knead small amount of Tylose powder (1/4tsp) into 50g black icing.
2. Roll a thin sausage of the black icing with Tylose in. Thread a damp 18 gauge wire through centre of icing and secure by gently pinching base. Leave to harden overnight.
3. Roll out black icing with Tylose in to approximately 2-3mm thick. Use paper square as a template to cut around, then mark onto icing the outer ¼ of each diagonal line (dotted lines in picture). Remove paper and use knife to cut the line imprints. Take one corner, lift and glue to centre. Repeat on other corners. Use a small piece of kitchen roll to support the arches of pinwheel whilst it dries. Leave for 24hrs to dry. I recommend making extras as they can be fragile.
4. Cover the polystyrene balls in Squires Kitchen white sugar flower paste. Roll a ball of paste, push the polystyrene ball into paste and smooth around. Roll an extra ball of sugar flower paste slightly smaller than others. Leave all to dry.
5. Once pinwheel is dry, paint inward parts with edible glue and apply Rainbow Dust hologram gold. Use large fluffy brush to remove excess. Add a button of black icing to centre. Use edible glue to attach pinwheel onto stick made in step 2. Leave to dry.
6. Once white balls are dry they can be turned into either snowballs or baubles as pictured. Paint balls in edible glue then roll in desired sprinkles. Pictured baubles made using Rainbow Dust hologram white, Magic Sparkles clear and Wilton White Sparkling Sugar with added loops painted with Rolkem Super Gold.
7. Use either edible glue or a little Renshaw Ready to Use Royal Icing to attach the pinwheel & baubles to the black and gold drip cake.

 

And there you have it: the perfect drip cake…

Thanks again to Emma for creating this beautiful cake for us. Don’t forget to tag both Emma and me on social media if you use this exclusive tutorial – we’d love to see your results!