Pastel Stripe Cake

Satisfy your inner perfectionist with this perfectly precise striped cake by Pamela McCaffrey from Made With Love. You will need: For the cakes:

• one 12.5cm (5in) diameter round cake, 10cm (4in) high (top tier) and
• one 15cm (6in) diameter round cake, 10cm (4in) high (bottom tier), both buttercreamed/ganached with a smooth finish and sharp corners

To decorate:

• 700g (25oz) white sugarpaste
• 250g (9oz) flower paste
• Sugarflair Gooseberry paste colour
• Sugarflair Spring Green paste colour
• Sugarflair Baby Pink paste colour
• Sugarflair Bitter Lemon paste colour
• Crystal Colours Ceanothus dust
• Crystal Colours Meconopsis dust
• white 20-gauge florist wire
• white 26-gauge florist wire
• nile green 26-gauge florist wire
• green floral tape

Equipment:

• rolling pin
• cake smoothers
• ruler
• pizza cutter
• paper
• scriber, pin or cocktail stick
• sheet of craft foam
• craft knife
• 3.5x4cm (1¼-1½in) and 4x5cm (1½-2in) rose petal cutters
• ball tool
• foam pad
• edible glue
• CelBoard/grooved board
• veiner/friller tool
• bulbous cone modelling tool
• taper cones
• 5/6 star modelling tool
• leaf cutters
• two part all-purpose leaf veiner

Method:

1. Sharp edges are preferable, but not essential for this cake. To get a sharp finish, either cover the ‘normal’ way and sharpen the edges with regular smoothers and/or flexible smoothers or wrap it: cover the top first, trim it, then wrap the side and trim level with the top.
2. Ideally leave the cakes to firm up overnight.
3. For the stripes mix together 75g (2¾oz) sugarpaste and 75g (2¾oz) flower paste to make them a bit more robust while applying them. Divide the paste into three equal pieces. Colour one piece of the paste pale green with a mixture of Sugarflair Gooseberry and Spring Green paste, the next piece pale blue with Crystal Colours Ceanothus and Meconopsis dust and the final piece pale pink with Sugarflair Baby Pink paste.
4. The stripes need to be about 2mm thick. Roll a piece of the pink paste long enough and wide enough to cut a 2x27cm (¾x10½in) strip. Use a ruler and a pizza cutter to get a straight clean finish. Let the strip sit and firm up a little.
5. Cut a strip of paper 2x27cm (¾x10½in) . This is to help you to mark the ends of the area that will need to be wetted to attach the pink strip. Place your strip of paper around the left side of your cake so that the end at the front is about 1cm (½in) past the centre – make sure that it is flush against the board or surface the cake is on. Use a pin to hold it in place at each end.
6. Mark with a scriber just under each end of the paper so that you can see the beginning and end of where the cake needs to be wetted. Remove the paper.
7. Use a paint brush to lightly wet the area on the left of the cake between the two scribed marks. Be careful not to wet above 2cm (¾in) high.
8. Take your pink strip, attach the end at the front of the cake first, just past halfway, then work back around the left of the cake being careful to ensure that it is flush against the board.
9. Next cut a 1.5cm (5/8in) high strip of craft foam long enough to wrap around the cake (join two bits with tape if necessary). This is to help keep the second and third strips level and an equal distance apart when you apply them. Use a ruler and ideally a new craft blade to get a clean cut.
10. Wrap the foam strip around the cake, resting it on the pink strip and fasten at the back with a piece of tape.
11. Roll out the blue flower paste and cut a strip 2cm (¾in) wide by 20cm (8in) long.
12. Fold your strip of paper so that it is 20cm (8in) long (the length of the blue stripe). Pin the paper to the left side of the cake above the foam strip starting about 3.5cm (1¼in) to the left of the end of the pink stripe.
13. Mark the ends as before, remove the paper and lightly wet the area between the marks.
14. Attach the blue stripe using the foam guide to keep it level. Remove the foam strip.
15. Roll out the green flower paste and cut a strip 2cm (¾in) wide by 23cm (9in) long.
16. Re-attach the foam strip above the blue stripe. Fold your piece of paper to 23cm (9in) long and pin it to the cake above the foam, starting about halfway between the ends of the pink and blue stripes.
17. Attach the green stripe, again using the foam guide to keep it level. Remove the foam strip.
18. Cut and attach the stripes to the top tier using the same method as for the bottom tier, but remember this time to apply them to the right side of the cake. The pink stripe needs to be 24cm (9½in), the blue stripe 17cm (6½in) and the green 21cm (8½in).
19. Cut a 10cm (4in) piece of 20-gauge white wire and make a small hook in the end. Glue it into a bud/cone about 2.5x3.5cm (1-1¼in) tall – you can make a cone out of flower paste and add the wire to that. Leave it to dry overnight before adding the petals.
20.  Colour 50g (1¾oz) flower paste a light pink using Sugarflair Baby Pink.
21. Cut three petals with a 3.5x4cm (1¼-1½in) rose petal cutter. Thin the rounded edge of the petal using a ball tool on a foam mat. Use a veiner stick to vein the petal.
22. Apply a line of edible glue down the middle of a petal. Place the petal onto the wired cone with the thinned edge upwards, positioning it so that about 5mm (¼in) of the petal extends above the tip of the cone. Apply the second petal the same way, starting underneath the right side of the first petal. Add the final petal, starting under the right side of the second petal. Add some glue to the right underside of each petal and press into place.
23. Cut, thin and vein three more petals of the same size as the first three. Brush glue down the middle of the lower half of a petal. Apply the petal level with the top of the first three petals, centred over the edge of one of the original petals. Apply a second petal under lapping the petal just added. Stick on the third petal under lapping the second petal and overlapping the first petal. Make sure the tops of the petals sit away from the tip of the centre. Once they are positioned satisfactorily, glue down the overlapping edges.
24. For the next three petals roll your paste a bit thicker. Cut three petals with the same cutter as before, but elongate them slightly with a ball tool before thinning and veining them. Apply them in the same way as the previous three, but once attached gently the curl the petals down.
25. Next make four petals using a larger 4x5cm (1½-2in) rose petal cutter. Thin and vein them as usual, then place them in a former such as an apple tray or a paint palette to slightly shape them and to let them firm up a bit.
26. Glue and attach the shaped petals in the same way, but make sure they sit away more and curl back the edges. If you need to, you can hold the petals away while the glue dries with small pieces of foam or tissue. Hang the rose upside down and leave to dry overnight
27. The final layer of petals will be wired. Roll a piece of paste onto a CelBoard so that you get a channel for the wire. Cut a petal from the paste with the larger cutter and thin the edges.
28. Hold along the channel part of the petal with your thumb and finger. Dip a 10cm (4in) piece of white 26-gauge wire in edible glue, wipe off the excess and then carefully insert it into the channel.
29. Turn the petal the right way up so that the wire ridge is underneath and vein it with the veiner stick. Make four more petals the same way.
30. Place the five wired petals in a former again to slightly shape them. Leave them overnight to dry.
31. When the petals have dried, hold them veined side up, pinch them between finger and thumb at the point that the wire enters, then gently bend the wire down around 90 degrees.
32. Tape at least part of the way down the wire of each petal with a quarter width of green floral tape – this is to help stop them spinning when they are taped to the main flower.
33. Take a wired petal, position it on the rose and tape it to the stem at the top with green tape. Add the remaining petals, taping each one on as you go. When the final petal is added, tape down to the end of the stem. Arrange the petals so that each one overlaps the next. Tape on a group of two or three leaves. To make the leaves:
34. Colour 30g (1oz) flower paste with Sugarflair Gooseberry and Spring Green paste, making a darker green than that of the stripe on the cake.
35. Make at least 18 leaves of various sizes. Roll the green paste on a grooved board, cut out the leaves and thin the edges. Insert 10cm (4in) pieces of 26-gauge nile green wire.
36. Vein each leaf in a two piece leaf veiner. Place the leaf in the veiner, with the wire side of the leaf in the indented groove of the bottom piece of the veiner. Press on, then remove the top part of the veiner. Flex the bottom part of the veiner to release the leaf – do not pull it off by the wire.
37. Shape the leaves to give movement and let them dry in a piece of ‘egg foam’ or some crumpled-up foil.
38. When dry, bind the leaves together with green floral tape in groups. For a bit of variation do one group of two, one of four and the rest of threes.
39. For the filler flower centres mix about 5g (1/8oz) pale yellow flower paste using a tiny bit of Sugarflair Bitter Lemon.
40. Colour 30g (1oz) of flower paste blue using a mix of Crystal Colours Ceanothus and Meconopsis dust. As you make the flowers add a little bit more colour to a few of them to give a bit of variation – also make some a little bit bigger.
41. Make a small closed hook in the end of a 10cm (4in) piece of 26-gauge nile green wire and push it into 4mm (¼in) ball of yellow paste to make a centre.
42. Take a 1cm (½in) ball of the blue paste, shape it into a cone and then press a bulbous modelling tool into the wide end to make a hollow cone.
43. Use scissors or a razor blade to make four cuts in the cone to form the petals.
44. Flair the petals out, pinch each petal flat between your finger and thumb, then pinch each petal’s end to make a small point and pinch flat a second time. Finally thin the petals with a ball tool on a foam pad.
45. Put a little dot of edible glue in the middle of the flower. Thread the wired centre down through the flower and roll the underside of the flower between your finger and thumb to blend the paste into the wire. Make at least 15.
46. For the white filler flowers make a small closed hook in the end of a 10cm (4in) piece of 26-gauge nile green wire again. This time, however, the hook will form the centre of the flower.
47. Make the white flowers in the same way as the blue except they will have five petals not four. For this use the ‘five’ end of a 5/6 star modelling tool instead of the bulbous tool – this will guide you as to where to cut. Leave the tip of the hooked wire visible to make the centre. Make at least 18. As with the blue flowers, leave them to set overnight.
48. Gather the filler flowers together in bunches of around 10 or 11. Make one white bunch, one blue bunch and one mixed bunch. Arrange the flowers so they are a bit uneven and tape them together with green tape. Finally tape a spray of leaves to each bunch.
49. Dowel and stack the tiers, making sure that the pink stripe on the top tier overlaps the green strip on the bottom tier by around 2.5cm (1in).
50. Take the white bunch of filler flowers and the blue bunch of filler flowers and bind their ends together. Bend the wires to make a shallow curve with flowers at each end.
51. Bend the stem of the rose around halfway along to about 90 degrees. Place it in between the bound pair of filler flower bunches and bind the folded part of the stem to the filler flowers' bound stems.
52. Lay the curved arrangement of flowers on the top of the cake at the front left. Let some of the filler flowers hang down over the edge. If you like or need you can secure it by pressing the middle of the bound wires into 3.5cm (1.5in) hemisphere of white sugarpaste. Place a bunch of leaves over the exposed bound wires/sugarpaste at the back of the arrangement.
53. Place the mixed posy of blue and white flowers on the board or table against the front right of the bottom tier to finish.