Vintage Ruffles Cake

A beautiful, simple tiered wedding cake, decorated with vintage ruffles.

Vintage Ruffles Cake

By Trudy Mitchell from Jelly Cake (www.jellycake.co.uk) For the Cake: 4 round cakes, 12.5cm (5in), 15cm (6in), 17.5cm (7in) and 20cm (8in), all 7.5cm (3.5-4in) deep Buttercream To decorate: 4kg (8lb 8oz) white sugarpaste White royal icing 200g (7oz) white flower paste Edible silver lustre dust Edible white or ivory shimmer lustre dust Special Equipment: 25cm (10in) round cake board 12.5cm (5in), 15cm (6in), 18cm (7in) and 20cm (8in) round cake boards 10 plastic dowels 4 sizes of five-petal cutters Ball tool Foam pad Bumpy foam/crumpled foil Silver ribbon/trim Turntable Icing smoothers Small piping bag and no.2 nozzle Button/brooch mould Medium sized paintbrush Method: 1 Trim the tops of the cakes using a large serrated knife to level them. Cut each cake in half, place the bottom layer of each cake on the same size cake card, then spread each half with a layer of buttercream. Place on each top half and press down lightly. Cover the cakes with a thin layer of buttercream, smooth using a palette knife and place in the fridge for 30 minutes to firm up slightly. 2 Knead the sugarpaste until you have a soft, pliable dough, then roll out until approximately 3mm (1/8in) thick. Cover each of the cakes, smoothing all over with the icing smoother and trimming away any excess from the bottom with a sharp knife. Ice the 25cm (10in) cake board with sugarpaste and set the cakes and board aside to dry, ideally overnight. 3 Taking the button/brooch mould, dust with cornflour, then press a small amount of flower paste into the moulds, making enough for the centre of each of the flowers (11 or 12) with around 20 extra for additional decoration. Leave them to dry. Once dry, decorate with the silver and white shimmer dusts and leave to one side. 4 To make the ruffled flowers, thinly roll out some white flower paste and cut out two of the largest flower, eight of the next size down, 10 of the next and finally four of the smallest size. Place two of each size on the foam board and using a swirling motion, press the ball tool around the edges of each petal, gently frilling. Place one flower into the dip of the crumpled foil or foam and dot a small amount of glue into the centre. Place the second flower on top, but place the petals over the joins of the bottom one. Dot the centre of the top flower with glue, then attach a button/brooch. Repeat for all of the other size flowers and leave to dry overnight. 5 To stack the cakes, place some royal icing in the centre of the iced cake board and carefully place the largest tier on the board, ensuring it is central. Dowel the 20cm (8in) and 18cm (7in) tiers with seven dowels each and the 15cm (6in) tier with five dowels. Using the royal icing to secure each cake, carefully stack the tiers ensuring each one is central, then leave for 30 minutes to set. When assembling the cake, if you need to move the cakes to ensure they are central to each other, use the icing smoothers to gently move them. 6 Cut the ribbon/trim to fit each tier, then attach with a small amount of royal icing at the back of the cake. Use a white or similar ribbon to the base of the cake, to cover the edge of the base cake board. 7 To decorate the cake, start with the largest flower and place this on the very front of the cake at the base of the second tier. Attach the flowers using royal icing and gently hold the flower in place until the icing sets a little. Attach the remainder of the flowers cascading up and down the cake from the largest central flower, but keeping the flowers to the middle two tiers. Once the flowers are all attached, you can place the remaining buttons/brooches on the top and bottom tiers and add additional detail with small piped icing pearls.