I'm Anna Parsic. [upbeat music]
I've been baking since I was eight years old.
And today I'm going to fill, stack,
and decorate a five tier wedding cake.
[peaceful music]
Today we're starting with our cakes that are already baked.
This is a white vanilla butter cake.
We're using a high ratio cake,
which will provide the support to stack five tiers.
I'm using this tool to make sure
that both layers are equal in height.
This is a cake leveling tool that we design
to make it easier to make the tiers even.
Scoring the cake allows me to cut it flat.
Each of our cake tiers requires four layers of cake.
To do this, we bake two pans of cakes
and cut them both into equally sized layers.
This is basically like preparing your canvas
before painting.
If your canvas is not perfect,
your painting will not look right.
It's really important that your cakes are perfectly level.
This wedding cake has five tiers.
And if one of the tiers is uneven, you will be able to tell.
[peaceful music]
Here are the four evenly cut layers.
The next thing we're gonna do is fill the layers.
The first thing I'm going to do is put buttercream
on my board to hold the cake tier in place.
This is a traditional vanilla buttercream.
This is a simple syrup to keep the layers moist.
The boards support not only the tier itself,
but the tier that will be stacked
on top of it via wooden dowels.
I'm putting a ring of buttercream
around the outside of the cake.
I'm going to fill it inside with a strawberry mousseline.
[peaceful music]
I'm going to repeat this process two more times.
On the second tier, I'm just going
to use the vanilla buttercream.
This is a classic buttercream recipe.
It is very light and not overly sweet.
The main two ingredients
are whipped egg whites and whipped butter.
It is important to use a butter based buttercream
which has the ability of staying soft
while at room temperature.
Which allows me to shape it well to create a smooth surface.
And also will get hard when refrigerated.
This is important because when you apply the fondant,
the buttercream has to be hard.
I always use the bottom of the cake tier facing the top.
I do this because it's a more even surface
to finish my cake.
Once all my cake layers have been stacked,
I'm gonna do a crumb coating.
A crumb coating, it's a thin layer of buttercream
to make sure that you seal in all the crumbs.
This is a process that takes a long time to master,
but I've been doing this for 18 years.
[peaceful music]
To make sure that none of the crumbs are showing through,
I apply another layer of buttercream.
This also helps with the structure of the cake.
I keep leveling the cake with my offset spatula,
but it's a very soft touch.
And I keep rotating the cake to make sure
that I make as evenly as possible.
[peaceful music]
This cake has been filled and given its rough shape.
For the next step, I need the cake to be firm.
So I'm gonna put it in the refrigerator for a little bit.
The cake has been in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
It is now firm enough for me to give it's final shape.
To do this, I'm going to add a little bit more buttercream.
I'm doing this just to correct any imperfections.
[peaceful music]
I want the sides of the cake to be square,
and I'll know I'm finished
when the cake has a 90 degree angle all around.
I use this leveling tool to confirm that.
This is our cake tier that has been filled
and finished in buttercream.
Now we're going to apply the fondant.
We use fondant to cover our cakes.
Fondant is a sugar based paste.
First I sprinkle a generous amount of confectioner's sugar
on my table, and I will start rolling it out.
I want to make sure that it's circular and even,
so I'm rolling it out in every direction.
You can do so much with fondant.
You can mold it, paint on it, can make flowers.
This cake tier is nine inches in diameter,
and about five inches high.
So I'm looking for a piece of fondant
that is about 19 inches.
I roll the fondant into my rolling pin,
and then I'll unroll it onto the cake.
Once on the cake, I will start smoothing it out.
I'm using these tools. They are called fondant smoothers.
They basically act as my hands.
Once I apply the fondant onto the cake,
I smooth it out to make sure
that I don't have any air bubbles.
I don't want to leave any dents on the cake.
To be successful in this step,
your cake has to be very cold.
I know it looks easy,
but it's very difficult to master this step.
One of the reasons people fail
is because their cake, it's soft.
The fondant will amplify any imperfections in the cake,
which is why we took so much time making it very even.
Then I keep it smoothing out,
alternating between my hand and the fondant smoother.
This tier is finished. It's been wrapped in fondant.
I've also done the same steps on four other tiers.
Now we're gonna stack our tiers.
I'm going to apply a layer of royal icing to a cake board
that has been covered in fondant.
Royal icing will serve as our glue
to make sure that the cake tiers don't move around.
The bottom tiers of the cake can be very heavy.
So my daughter, Sarah, is going to assist me.
Royal icing, it's a mixture of egg whites and powdered sugar
that has been whipped to a stiff consistency.
I take one dowel, and insert it in the cake.
And I marked at the top.
And then I use that as a guide to mark my other dowels.
I cut them and then insert them in the cake.
I try to place the dowels,
not all in the centers of the cake.
That will give more stability.
After I insert the dowels,
I put another thin layer of royal icing,
and then I stack the next tier
on top very carefully using a spatula,
not to damage the sides of the fondant.
Every time I stack a tier on top of each other,
I use a bubble level to make sure
that the tiers are perfectly even.
I'm going to repeat this process for each tier.
Now I'm going to insert a longer, sharpened dowel
through both tiers all the way through the cake board
to make sure that the cake doesn't shift.
It's funny to be using a rubber mallet
to work on a wedding cake,
but it's actually the best tool to use for this purpose.
I'm making sure that the top tier is centered.
So I make minor adjustments using my fondant smoothers.
We use wooden dowels as support for our tiers.
At the wedding, when the cake sits for long hours,
that buttercream will start to soften.
Each tier is supported by the wooden dowels
in the tier below, so the cake doesn't settle.
[peaceful music]
The last dowel goes straight
through the middle of the top tier.
After I insert the last sharpened dowel,
I covered the little hole with a piece of fondant,
and then smoothed it out.
All the cake tiers have been stacked,
and the dowels have been inserted.
Now we're gonna start decorating.
First, we're gonna add our borders.
I have my 50/50 gum paste fondant mix.
The reason I use a 50/50 mix for the borders,
the addition of gum paste helps border retain its shape
while molding it, because some fondant is really soft,
and gum paste, it's a stronger paste.
And I'm just pressing with my rolling pin to make sure
that I get the impression.
I smoothed it out flat against the edge of the mold.
I'm going to put this border on the bottom tier.
I like using the widest border at the base.
I make my own molds.
A lot of my molds are actually trims
from dollhouse catalogs.
This helps me differentiate myself
because I keep my cakes unique,
and they are not the standard process
that you might find commercially.
This cake has three different types of molds,
but the process is the same for all of them.
[peaceful music]
Here we have our finished borders.
Now I'm going to paint them.
I'm using gold dust and lemon extract.
If you don't have lemon extract,
you could use vodka as well.
I'm painting the borders on this cake gold.
[peaceful music]
After we paint them,
these borders will be dry in a couple of minutes.
The alcohol will evaporate very quickly.
These are the painted borders.
Now we're going to apply the borders to the cake.
Before I apply the border,
I use a small brush and apply a very small amount
of water to make the fondant sticky.
The borders on the cake can be very long.
So, Sarah's gonna help me apply them.
Sometimes a single border is not enough
to go around the whole tier,
so I need to attach several pieces together.
I try to put the border seams in the back of the cake
so they are not as noticeable.
Most of the times a cake has a back and a front,
unless specifically the client has told you
that the cake will be in the center of the room.
I decide what the front of the cake will be.
If I'm doing some pipe work,
I try to do the nicest piping work,
or the biggest area that is being decorated in the front.
[peaceful music]
I also use a pairing knife to trim any excess.
[peaceful music]
Here's the cake with the borders attached.
The next step is piping.
Here, I have a piping bag that is filled with royal icing.
The royal icing, it's a very thin consistency.
I use a very fine tip as well.
It's a 1.5 tip.
When I'm doing this type of piping,
it's called brushed embroidery.
It's just a free hand style.
It's a technique where you use royal icing to pipe a design,
and then use a wet brush to make strokes.
You have to do this very fast
before the icing dries on the surface.
The texture this technique achieves
reminds me of oil painting.
I really enjoy using this technique
because it reminds me of my background in the fine arts.
It's just like drawing and painting.
My designs vary, but I always draw inspiration
from the weddings, whether it be a beautiful lace
from the bride's dress, the invitations,
or sometimes even the moldings at the venue.
A lot of people use templates,
or draw the design on the cake before piping.
But I find that I do my best work when I do it free hand
because that allows me to be organic with my designs.
So here's our piped cake.
Now we're gonna add color to the design.
So the food colors that I use are called pearl dust,
and they come in many, many colors.
I call it makeup for cakes.
I mix a small amount with clear alcohol
which evaporates really quickly.
So it won't melt the icing.
We use alcohol because if you use water,
it will dissolve the royal icing underneath.
I'm just quickly apply a little bit of color,
some pearl, a light pink, and a gold detail
to some of the piped embroidery.
[peaceful music]
This is a painted cake.
So now we're gonna make our decorations.
We're using the same mix 50/50 fondant and gum paste.
I'm gonna start by applying a little bit
of corn starch to the mold.
Then I take a piece of my 50/50 gum paste fondant mix,
and I push with my fingers
to make sure that I get all the detail.
And then I take a pairing knife to cut all the excess.
Carefully, turn the press upside down and remove the piece.
I use a brush to apply a small amount of corn starch.
For the second decoration,
I'm using a double-sided press.
Press to make sure that all the detail
is imprinted onto the paste.
Then I remove all the excess around the sides.
Symmetry is very important for my cakes.
This collar aids me in keeping the decorations
equal distance from each other.
I'm poking holes to mark where the pieces will go.
This tier will take about 10 of each mold.
I'm using water here to attach the decorations
to the sides of the cake.
I bend the pieces a little bit to form a garland shape.
I use a needle tool to press the decorations
against the cake.
These molds are very delicate,
so I'm being very careful to not disturb the design
with my fingers. [peaceful music]
Now I'm adding the lace pieces in between the garlands.
Now that the lace pieces are attached,
I'm done decorating the second tier.
I'm also adding molded pieces to the fourth tier.
The technique used to make these pieces
is the same technique used to make the pieces
on the second tier.
I use royal icing as a glue for these pieces.
Because there's less surface area,
they might fall off if I just use water.
I'm also going to use royal icing to pipe some stems
between the decorations. [peaceful music]
Now I'm going to add the side decorations
to the bottom tier.
For this tier, I have a general idea
of where I want the decorations to go.
But what I'm really trying to achieve is
to place them to create balance.
[peaceful music]
On this tier, I'm also going to add some piping details,
but I'm going to switch the tip to pipe the [indistinct].
[peaceful music]
I've attached all my molds and finished my piping.
Next, I'm going to show you how
to make two different types of flowers.
I'm going to show the sweet pea and the rose.
The sweet pea's a very delicate flower.
This is a one or two out of five on a difficulty scale.
Sugar flowers can take weeks to create.
The base for our sugar flowers is gum paste.
This will become the center of the sweet pea.
Then I take a covered wire, I dip it in the glue,
I insert the wire into the disc.
One sweet pea flower consists of one stem,
one center, and two petals.
Now I'm gonna cut the sweet pea petals.
I take the cutter and press firmly with my palm
to get a clean cut so there are no rugged edges.
To give the petals the right texture,
and to get a more natural look,
I'm gonna use a flower press.
I use the same press for the inner and outer petals.
Next, I'm gonna use a ball tool to thin the petals,
and give them a ruffled look.
And you need to apply firm pressure.
I've been making sugar flowers for over 18 years,
and I have invented some of my own techniques.
It's something that comes natural to me,
and I can even create my own fantasy flowers.
And sometimes people confuse them for real flowers.
Then I use a needle tool to mark a line
across the center of the inner petal.
This will be attached to the center.
Now I apply a small amount of glue
to the center of the petal.
Then I'll wrap the petal around the center.
Once a petal is wrapped around the center,
I hang it on a wire rack to dry.
While the paste is still flexible,
you can add some movement with your fingers
so they're not all drying in the same shape.
I'm also going to score the outer petal.
Apply a small amount of glue.
Once the inner petal has dried,
we can attach the outer petal.
I try to make them each unique.
Just as in nature, no two flowers are the same.
Now I can put the flower upright in a former to dry.
Well, now it comes a fun part
which is the coloring of the flowers.
This is one of my favorite parts
because this is when you really
can bring the sugar flowers to life.
For the sweet pea, I just use green and then pink.
[peaceful music]
I'll then attach three to five of these flowers
to complete one stem.
I use a nontoxic floral tape.
This is a finished sweet pea.
Now I'm going to show you how to make a rose.
The rose is probably a four or five on the difficulty scale.
If you can master the rose,
you can probably make any flower in sugar.
I take a small piece of gum paste,
form into a ball, and then I use my palms
to shape it into a cone.
This rose has four different layers and a calyx.
Then I take an 18 gauge wire,
and use a plier to make a small hook at the end.
The hook is something I do to help that wire stay in place.
This should be set aside to dry overnight,
but I'm going to continue working with a center
that I pre dried.
I'm doing the outer petal layer first
because it requires some drying time.
Same as a sweet pea, I'm going to add texture to each petal
by using a silicon press.
In reality, to make a rose, you really need two days.
You can't finish a rose in one day
because you need drying time between the layers of petals.
So that's something to keep in mind
when you are working on a wedding cake.
Then I'm gonna use a ball tool
to thin the edges of each petal.
Like the sweet pea, these petals are cut
from a thin sheet of gum paste.
Now I'm going to use a knitting needle
to curl the edges of each petal.
[peaceful music]
Now, place the petals upside down on spoons to dry.
This is the second layer.
It's the same process.
I thin the edges with a ball tool.
Third layer.
Now I'm making the first layer of the rose.
I put a small amount of glue,
and I attach the petals to the center.
I make sure the petals are overlapping,
that's the key to making this type of rose.
I attach the first petal halfway through,
and then I take the other petal and insert it in between.
I want my center to look tight and close,
like a natural rose would look like.
Even though this is a simple rose,
it's still very complicated.
This curl is much tighter than the outer layer.
[peaceful music]
I'm constantly adjusting the top of the petals
as I'm gluing them.
Now it's time to add the third layer.
As you can see, these petals are a little firm,
but are still very pliable.
For this layer, also, the petals are more open.
Now it's time to attach the fourth layer.
And as I attach it to the center,
you can see that the flower is starting to take shape.
This is also when I do my last touches adjusting the petals.
Once I'm happy with the placement of the petals,
I put it in a former to dry.
Once a flower has dried, I attach a calyx.
I use the ball tool to thin the edges and to cut the calyx.
The flower really needs to dry overnight
before attaching the calyx.
The last step we'll do is tape the stem and dust the flower.
For this rose, I'm using green floral tape.
I really think a little touch of magenta
bring this flower to life.
That's how you make a simple rose.
Now the cake is ready for me to add the sugar flowers.
For this cake, I made six types of flowers.
The first thing I'm going to do is take a ball of fondant,
and attach it to the top of the cake.
This will act as a base for my flowers.
I'm adding the bigger flowers first,
and then I'll work around it,
filling in any empty spots with some of the smaller blooms,
like the cherry blossoms and the freesia.
Those are filler flowers. [peaceful music]
Once I'm done with the top of the cake,
I use the remaining flowers to fill in the bottom tiers.
You have to be very careful when inserting into the cake.
It's not like fresh flowers. They break so easily.
[peaceful music]
While I'm attaching the flowers to the cake,
I'm constantly stepping back and looking at my cake
from different angles to make sure that it's balanced.
Not only with the different types of flowers,
but also in terms of color.
It's like a composition. [peaceful music]
This is a cake with all the sugar flowers on it.
The last thing we're going to do
is apply a ribbon to the baseboard.
I think this makes a much nicer presentation.
And that's how you assemble
and decorate a five tier wedding cake.
[peaceful music]
