CHRISTMAS PAST
http://www.cakedecorationmagazine.co.uk December 2017 | 4716 Unscrew the coupler on your
piping bag and change to a no.2
small round piping nozzle. Pipe a
small amount of royal icing onto
the back of a holly leaf to adhere to
your cake.17 Arrange larger holly leaves on
the surface of your 20cm (8in) cake
tier in groups of three. The holly
leaves should wind their way up
from the bottom of your cake tier
to the top.18 For each group of three holly
leaves, you can affix holly berries
singly or in groups of three.19 Once you have completed the
decoration of your 20cm (8in) tier,
pipe a little royal icing on top of
each of the dowelling rods.20 Press the 10cm (4in) separator
tier onto the royal iced dowels.
Your separator will need to be
mounted on a 10cm cake card
to prevent the dowels working
their way up into the polystyrene
once the weight of the top tier is
applied. Secure the card to the
separator with a little double-sided
tape. Check that you are happy
with the positioning before giving
the separator a firm press down
and leaving to dry.22 To finish off the decoration,
use the dark green edible paint
and fine paintbrush to hand-paint
little flourishes from the edges
of your trailing holly. It is worth
practising a little on a board or
piece of baking parchment to get
the feel of painting a flowing line.21 Decorate your 15cm (6in) cake
tier with the smaller holly leaves
and berries. As with your 20cm tier,
these should be arranged in groups
of three with either one or three
holly berries per group.23 You will need to dowel the
bottom 20cm cake tier, placing four
dowelling rods within 10cm of the
centre of your cake.24 I found the stunning ribbons
that I have used for this design
online at The Ribbon Shop.
I wanted to show you how
beautifully packaged these
ribbons arrived in the post. I had
not decided whether I would trim
this cake in red or green when I
placed the order! ➜p44-48_Charlotte White.indd 47 06/10/2017 10:58