How to Marble Sugarpaste

Sarah Lou Smith shows you how to create this striking and increasingly popular marble effect.. You could use any colour to marble, from very bold to subtle pastel.

Image credit: How to Create Marble Sugarpaste

Sarah Lou Smith shows you how to create this striking and increasingly popular marble effect. You could use any colour to marble, from very bold to subtle pastel.

You will need:
Edibles:	Equipment:
23cm (9in) round x 10cm (4in) deep cake (mine was a vanilla) your choice of cake filling your chosen crumb coat (I used white chocolate ganache) 1kg sugarpaste edible gel colour: claret (ProGel)	cake cards 23cm (9in) and 15cm (6in) dowels cake drums 25cm (10in) and 30cm (12in) non-slip mat to roll paste out onto, or a board with a nonslip mat underneath rolling pin cornflour/icing sugar to dust the board with knife smoothers acrylic smoothers (I used Shereens)

1 I have used two boards for this cake, the smaller 25cm (10inch) board is iced in white and the larger base board is covered in the marbles effect icing and will be covered after the marble paste has been mixed for the cake.
2 To marble, begin by kneading the white paste until it is pliable. Add a teaspoon full of the ProGel claret colour and fold the paste over. Knead colour in a little.
3 Using a sharp knife cut the paste in half, you will see the colour starting to mix inside the cut parts. Knead the paste again to draw the colour through the paste.
4 Continue to cut and knead the paste until you are happy with the marbling effect.
5 Roll out the paste onto a cornflour covered mat until around 3mm in thickness.
6 Once it is rolled out large enough to cover the cake, flip the paste over. Once flipped over you will find that the marble effect on the underside is finer in detail.
7 You will need to torte, fill, level and crumb coat your cakes, then attach them to their cake cards. Wet the 23cm (9in) cake with a water spray bottle of either filtered water or cooled boiled water. Add the marbled icing and smooth using yours hands and smoothers. Cut off any access, and put it into a plastic bag as you will use this to cover the 30cm (12in) cake board.
8 Sharpen the edges using plastic smoothers. I lift the side smoother upwards and push the top smoother out so that the two meet to create a sharp edge.Then use the acrylic smoothers and keep going around the top and sides of the cake until you achieve a sharp clean edge. Lightly knead leftover marbled paste and roll out to decorate the larger of the two base boards. Leave to set. Once both boards are dry, attach them together using royal icing. Make sure that the smaller white iced board is central on the larger board.