Bright Rose Cascade Wedding Cake

This brightly coloured cascade cake by Marie McGrath from Marie’s Bakehouse is perfect for a summer wedding – you can change the colours to match your theme!

You will need:

For the cake:

• 15cm (6in), 20cm (8in) and 25cm (10in) round cakes, all (4in) deep

To decorate:

• buttercream/ganache
• 30cm (12in) drum board
• bright 15mm ribbon in different colours – I used yellow, orange, bright pink and deep red
• sugarpaste in white
• flower paste in white
• ProGel colours in pink, tangerine and yellow

Equipment:

• knife
• rolling pin
• FMM Easiest Rose Cutter Ever
• flower foam pad
• edible glue and paintbrush
• white vegetable fat
• egg foam
• royal icing

Method:

1. Split, fill and cover the 15cm (6in), 20cm (8in) and 25cm (10in) round cakes in white sugarpaste and stack on a 30cm (12in) drum board. Add a bright ribbon trim around the bottom of each tier and around the edge of the board. Secure the ribbon round the edge of each tier using a tiny dot of royal icing.Making the paste  
2. Mix the white sugarpaste and flower paste in half and half quantities – you need a mixture of the two as when you are attaching the roses to the cake you will need to slice the extra paste from the back of each flower, and if you use flowerpaste alone it will be too difficult to cut. Split into 4 and colour them yellow, pink, orange, and the fourth piece a mixture of orange and pink. Wrap each piece well as it will dry out quickly. Before you use each piece of paste, knead in some white vegetable fat to keep it flexible and stop it drying out.Creating the flowers  
3. Take a small piece of yellow paste and roll it out thinly on a board or table top, with icing sugar to stop it sticking if necessary. Cut out 2 or 3 strips with the easiest rose cutter. Split it lengthways down the middle. Put the strips onto the flower foam pad and thin the ends of the bumpy side of it using the edge of the rolling pin. Turn it over, so the back of the strip is facing upwards and add a thin strip of glue along the straight edge of the strip. Start at one end and roll up the strip, spacing out the bumps at the top of the rose. If they are overlapping too much, stretch the paste a little and space them out more evenly. You can leave it at this for a small rose bud, or add one or two more strips around this to make a bigger rose. Once you have added all the layers, fold out the tips of the rose petals to shape the rose. Leave it on the egg foam to dry overnight. Make lots more roses in different sizes and in different colours!Attaching the roses  
4. Starting at the bottom of the cake, cut the back off the roses and stick them to the cake using a small amount of royal icing. Start with some of the larger ones and fill in gaps with the smaller ones. You can cut some of the ones at the sides of the cascade at an angle so the flower faces slightly outwards, so they are not all facing the same way. Work up the cake onto the next tier and so on, until the cascade of roses is finished at the top of the cake.