Practise your piping skills with this stunning Christmas drip cake centrepiece by Dani Brazier from Blue Door Bakery!
Equipment
- 20cm (8in) round cake drum
- piping nozzles: open star, small closed star, Wilton 104
- palette knife
- side scraper
- circle cutter
- piping bags
Method
1. Stack the cake using buttercream. Add a thin layer of buttercream all over the cake, then scrape it off using a side scraper. Hold the scraper straight on the side of the cake and keep scraping around the cake until smooth. 
2. Place a palette knife over the edge of the cake and gently drag the excess buttercream into the middle, removing the excess if needed. Ensure the cake is as smooth as possible, then pop the cake in the fridge for 30 minutes. 
3. Next, add a final perfect layer of buttercream to the chilled cake. Repeat the same process as before, but this time apply a thicker layer of buttercream all the way over the cake. Aim to smooth it out, not scrape it off. To finish the cake off, hold your palette knife over the edge and smooth into the middle. 
4. Mix up a tablespoon of the buttercream with a green colour then, using a palette knife, add a thin layer of the coloured buttercream around the base of the cake. 
5. Using your scraper, smooth off the excess, leaving a rustic green layer around the base of the cake. Put the cake in the fridge for 30 minutes to firm up and set. 6. Press the circle cutter gently into the side of the cake to mark a guide for your bauble shape. 
7. Mix up some different buttercream colours for piping the bauble and the decorations on top of the cake. Put the buttercream into piping bags fitted with different nozzles. 
8. Starting in the middle of the bauble circle, pipe a curved line, then continue filling in the bauble shape, varying your piping colours. For a small star shape, press the buttercream onto the cake to attach it, pull the nozzle away while gently squeezing, then stop squeezing and pull away to finish. 
9. For the ruffles, using a 104 nozzle, ensure the wide part of the nozzle is against the cake and begin piping, wiggling along the bauble to create pretty ruffles. 
10. Add a bauble hanger at the top of the bauble using any piping method you like, then add some sprinkles to the bauble. Put the cake in the fridge for 30 minutes to set. 11. Add the cream and chocolate to a microwaveable bowl, then heat for 30 seconds in the microwave to make a ganache. Stir until completely melted. 
12. Add the chocolate to a piping bag, snip a little off the end and begin piping around the top of the cake. Hold the piping bag on the top edge of the cake and gently squeeze until a pea-sized amount comes out and drips down the side. Continue around the cake, varying the length of the drips and avoiding the bauble at the front. Squeeze some ganache over the top of the cake and spread out to the edges. 
13. Using the buttercream from the bauble and the same piping techniques, add some piping around the top of the cake. Then finish off with sprinkles. 
