The trick with a good fur is to be specific. Animal fur comes in different lengths, colours and thickness – some are curly, others are very short and straight. Some are highly patterned (think leopard or cheetah) whilst in others, the interest lies in colour grading such as a wolf or cat fur.
But fur effects are not only for sculpted cakes. Leopard print can look spectacular on a tiered cake, or bring a cute cartoon animal topper to life with some well-placed texturing!
The versatility of fur cake textures
Fur cake textures work well on:
- Sculpted animal cakes
- Cartoon animal toppers
- Tiered celebration cakes (think leopard print rock 'n' roll)
- Illusion cakes
- Teddy bear and toy cakes
- Tiered winter cakes (think fox, mink or wolf fur)
- Bag cakes
Caption Llama cake by Zoe Burmester
Caption Peaky Badger cake by Zoe Burmester
Zoe shows you how to create three fur cake textures you can use to take your decorating to the next level and create stunning showstoppers – without stencils or an airbrush! Happy texturing!
How to create edible fur for cakes
Fur cake textures video tutorial
How to make a long thick fur cake texture
How to make a short fur cake texture
How to make a patterned fur cake texture
Fur cake textures video tutorial
1. Long thick fur cake texture
This technique relies on a thick paste to enable you to get a very deep texture, almost shaggy-like pelt… perfect for long haired animals, like a wolf. Start with a base colour that’s a bit lighter than the fur colour you're after.
You will need
Equipment
- Scallop tool
- Brush
Edibles
- Brown sugarpaste
- Petal dusts (Zoe uses cream, ochre, terracotta, brown and black)
-
Alcohol
“I coloured mine with Magic Colours chestnut brown gel paste.”
Method
1. Pre colour and roll your paste thickly.
2. Use a scallop or mouth tool on its side edge to create long and deep curved lines, twisting the tool in your hands to make the paste flick up at the ends.
3. Repeat all over making sure you create your texture all in the same direction. Use the tool in a twist motion to create a swirlier strand of fur.
4. Once textured add some colour depth by creating a watercolour paint wash with petal dusts and alcohol. To create a brown base as per the tutorial, lightly brush ochre and then a dark chocolate brown over the fur. Concentrate the darker wash in the crooks and crevices and apply the lighter colour to the tips.
5. You could also achieve a similar effect by airbrushing the colour over the textured fur.
2. Short fur cake texture
Use this technique to create a fine textured fur. It’s time consuming but the interest and layer comes from the colouration before the texturing process.
“For my example I chose wolf fur as I love the tonal shift between greys and creams, but use this technique on any short fur.”
You will need
Equipment
- Soft brush
- Dresden tool
Edibles
- Ivory sugarpaste
- Petal dusts (Zoe uses cream, ochre, terracotta, brown and black)
Method
1. Start with an ivory base colour and select a palette of petal dusts that correspond to the fur you're creating.
2. Gently mix a couple of soft tonal palettes and use a soft brush to apply the colours in vertical broad strokes in the direction of the fur. You do not want an even coverage.
3. Repeat the process using a slightly darker mix of colours. Concentrate a strip of darker colour down the central point of your piece. If you imagine a fur pelt this is often down the back of the animal.
4. Take the fine end of a Dresden tool and make short, narrow, elongated curve shapes into the paste, close together. As you work your way over the paste use different pressure. As you push and nudge this will help raise the height of the texturing so the uneven method will create a sense of movement (rather than just lines in the paste).
Repeat this patiently until you reach the middle area. ‘Part’ the fur down the central line so you make lines on one side going in one direction and on the other side in the opposite direction. This subtle movement will draw attention to that darker area on the fur.
3. Patterned fur cake texture
Patterned furs lend themselves really well to tiered cakes.
“Whichever animal print you choose I recommend looking at a picture so you can see how the pattern is made up and repeated. These lend themselves to airbrushing if you are confident, but I do like the handpainted version. I’ve made leopard print here.”
You will need
Equipment
- Sterilised, clean nailbrush
- Brush
- Small paintbrush
Edibles
- Ivory sugarpaste
- Petal dusts (Zoe uses ochre, terracotta, chocolate brown, cream and black)
- Alcohol
1. Start with an ivory base and use a clean nail brush to add a subtle bristle texture into the paste. Next mix up ochre petal dust with vodka to create a weak paint wash. Paint this over the paste leaving some lighter and darker patches. Concentrate the colour wash in the central part of your pattern.
2. Leave to dry and meanwhile mix up some dry petal dusts for some tonal shading. Mix to create a soft brown tone and use a soft brush to rub in some extra tone in the darker areas of the paste. As before concentrate the colour in the middle line of your pattern and where it graduates out to the darker patches. The base colour of leopard is not all even!
Now take some of this brown mix and combine with vodka to create paint. Paint irregular blobs over the paste with the smaller blobs concentrated in the darker area in the middle of the fur.
3. Once these spots are dry, mix black and brown dusts together with a little vodka and with a fine brush draw loose, spaced out, ‘C’ lines around the larger spots. Add in single curved lines around the smaller spots and in the middle of the fur add in some irregular small blobs of this darker colour.
4. Stand back and look at the pattern as you build it up and you'll see that the sizing and colour difference overall builds up a fantastic leopard print.
“Fur really comes into its own once you start playing with colour and texture. Once you start getting creative you can move away from the ordinary and create some very lifelike furry visuals. This is particularly relevant to sculpted animal cakes, but will also breathe life to some interesting tiers on themed celebration cakes.”
Don’t miss more from our cake textures series! Learn how to create edible grass for cakes, stone-like cake textures or wood cake textures!
