**The Art of Cake Carving: A Beginner's Guide**

When it comes to carving cakes, many people assume that it's only suitable for advanced bakers. However, with the right techniques and tools, anyone can create a beautifully symmetrical cake. The key to successful cake carving is to start with a well-designed template or pattern. This ensures that your cake is perfectly proportioned and visually appealing.

One of the most important things to consider when carving a cake is its shape. To achieve symmetry, you'll need to carve one angle all the way around the cake. This means that once you're happy with the shape of your cake, you can crumb coat it and let it set before proceeding to the next step. Crumb coating is an essential step in cake carving, as it helps to create a smooth surface for decorating.

After the crumb coating has set, you'll need to chill your cake until the buttercream is firm enough to work with. This can be a challenging part of the process, especially if you're new to cake carving. However, once you've mastered this step, you'll be able to create intricate designs and patterns on your cake.

**Measuring and Preparing for Fondant**

Once your cake is chilled and ready to go, it's time to prepare it for fondant. To do this, you'll need to measure the circumference of the bottom of the cake and the height of the cake. These measurements will help you determine how much fondant to roll out and how to shape it around the cake.

It's essential to use a fabric measuring tape or a flexible ruler to get accurate measurements. You'll also want to make sure that your fondant is rolled out a little longer than it needs to be, as this will allow you to create a smooth, even surface. As you roll out the fondant, brush away any excess icing sugar to prevent it from getting stuck to the front of the cake.

**Applying Fondant and Creating a Lid**

The next step in creating your cake is to apply the fondant. This can be a bit tricky, as you'll need to ensure that the fondant sticks well to the buttercream on your cake. To achieve this, make sure that the buttercream is not too cold or dry, as this can prevent the fondant from adhering properly.

To apply the fondant, carefully pick it up and line it against the cake. You'll want to make sure that the fondant is smooth and even, with no wrinkles or air pockets. As you apply the fondant, use a sharp paring knife to trim any excess and create a clean, defined edge.

**Creating a Cup**

One of the most iconic cake designs is the cupcake, which typically consists of a small cake topped with frosting and decorated with sprinkles or other toppings. To create your own cupcake design, you'll need to carve out a cup shape in your cake and decorate it accordingly.

To make this process easier, consider using a smaller cake or creating a half-sphere shape that can be glued together to form a ball. Fill the ball with frosting or whipped cream, and then attach it to the top of the cake. You can also use a fondant template to create intricate designs and patterns on your cupcake.

**Personalizing Your Cake**

One of the best things about cake decorating is the opportunity to personalize your creation. Whether you're making a birthday cake for a friend or family member, or simply creating a cake for fun, you can add unique touches that make it truly special.

Consider adding a name or message to your cake using frosting or edible markers. You could also use small decorations like sprinkles, candies, or even miniature figurines to create a festive atmosphere. With a little creativity and practice, you can turn any ordinary cake into an extraordinary work of art.

**Tips and Tricks from the Artist**

For this particular design, I found that using a template or pattern was essential to achieving symmetry. I also had to cut out intricate designs and letters to recreate the logo on the cup. One tip for making fondant easier to work with is to use a little bit of corn syrup to help it stick to the cake.

When applying fondant, make sure to take your time and work carefully to avoid wrinkles or air pockets. It's also essential to trim any excess fondant as you go, as this will prevent it from becoming too bulky and awkward.

If you're looking for inspiration for your own cake designs, consider checking out popular bakeries or decorating blogs online. You can also join cake decorating communities or take classes to learn new techniques and get feedback on your work.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthis week I'm going to revisit one of my favorite cakes I know for a fact that people love to see cakes that replicate their favorite foods but let's not forget about people's favorite drinks so I'm gonna use this revisit to explain to you how to make those types of cakes leave a comment below and let me know what your cake project would be would it be a Starbucks cup is it a McDonald's cup what else is there what else is there we're missing something big for this Tim Hortons cup the first thing I did is bake five round cakes I know how much batter goes in my pans I know how tall they are approximately once I level them and remove the caramelization from the bottom and then I have to think in my head how many of those layers do I need to get to the height that the cup is and also factor in that there will be filling in between but you definitely want a cup in front of you this is really really going to help you with the process because whenever I make a cake like this I measure I measure again and I re-measure if you want to enlarge the cup then you have to make sure to multiply all those measurements by the same number for this cake I decided to bake my ultimate vanilla cakes but I made a coffee simple syrup and then my favorite coffee buttercream it's my all-time favorite I like it with chocolate cake but it's also very good with vanilla cake even though novelty cakes are very restrictive in the sense that you don't have as much Freedom as you do with regular cakes I do try to impart flavor anytime I can if it goes with the theme of the cake so obviously this is a Tim Hortons coffee cup so I want some coffee in this cake the general rule for cake decorating is once a cake gets to four to six inches tall this is where you want to start having dowels and a board between so technically it's like you're building two cakes but from the outside it looks like one and this is just for support and it also makes life easier when you're cutting a cake of this nature in the case of this cake what I did is I made sure that the bottom layers were thicker than the top layers there's a reason this works for the structure and it's because the more buttercream that's in a cake or the thinner the cake layers once this cake warms up and comes to room temperature it's going to feel the weight of itself so a thicker layer on the bottom is going to be stronger than thinner layers but if you were making this for a client or to take to a party and you had to transport the cake you would definitely want to put a board and dowels in a cake like this do you remember when I built the um I want to say it was the Starbucks salted caramel inspired Mega cake and it started to feel its weight and we could see it do you remember and then I flipped it over removed some cake so I'm trying to avoid that because in the world of novelty cakes it's just a disaster when a cake starts to fall apart especially if you've already put fondant on it I'm mad at myself because I got cocky like I told myself I could put six layers in this cake and I knew better it's too small I didn't put it board there it is I had to shove sprinkles up against it no because it was falling over or hun these Rivers is so serious it's not look at me I made a cake it's so much fun it's like it can collapse in the fridge it is serious do you remember when I made the Valentine's Day mailbox cake and I filled it it was going to burst and I filled it with like cinnamon hearts and they were just pushing the walls of the cake and then I made a girdle the hardest part about being a cake decorator is having a plan B in your head knowing how to think quick and solve the problem because standing and looking at it and saying it's falling apart it will not do anything for you you have to work quickly but yeah cake decorating is serious or Han you should know you've seen my tears or Han you just edit you see them live you edit them out what are you talking about so now it's time to carve this into the shape of a cup and we're gonna make sure that right now while the cake is technically upside down the top of it is going to be the smallest diameter and then as it goes down it's going to be wider so what we're doing doing is we're cutting from top to bottom in an a line you know like the letter a in order to stay on track on top I always like to place something on top that is the right diameter a bowl or a plate or a cup or a circle cutter and then you can use a sharp serrated knife and cut all the way around I wish I had something round you can this that's actually great this is just like a cake okay you don't want to make big cuts you want to focus on cutting away like about an inch and then go around go around and overlap those cuts and that will keep it rounded you're not trying to make you know an octagon in all honesty I think this is an easier it's not a beginner cake but out of all the things that you could carve it's very symmetrical essentially you're carving one angle all the way around so once you're happy with the shape of your cake you can crumb coat it and once you crumb coat you want to chill until that buttercream is set and you can tell when you put your finger on it and nothing comes off you know looking at this cake I still think there's one side of it that's a bit could be that was good you're like I'm gonna say it before now that the crumb coat is chilled you can ice your cake and again you want to make sure it's really really straight foreign now comes the fun part when you can decorate your cake use a fabric measuring tape measure the circumference in this case it's most important that you're measuring the circumference of the bottom since it is the widest part and then you're going to measure the height and now you're going to roll out your fondant a little longer than it needs to be to go all the way around in a little higher than it needs to be while you're rolling it up with every roll brush away the excess icing sugar so you're not getting it on what is the front surface of the fondant and now we're going to carefully pick that up line it up against the cake you want to make sure that the buttercream on your cake at this point is not so cold that it feels dry you want to know that the fondant is going to stick now we're going to unravel this fondant around the cake you want to make sure the fondant is hitting the baseboard and as you unravel use your other hand to press it up against the cake and make sure that it's sticking a life-size Cup this is really a lot simpler this size cup it's okay but the Wendy's Cup this was such a chore because the fondant is so heavy that I could barely even hold it in one hand and make sure it was sticking and then at the back where the fondant overlaps itself you want to take a ruler cut a nice clean line that goes through both layers of fondant remove the excess and then join up the line down at the bottom of the cup you want to push in any excess and then use a sharp paring knife to cut away the excess and kind of angle your knife a bit since your cake is on an angle and then at the top you're going to hold your knife flush to that cake board turn your lazy Susan and cut away the excess fondant yeah I hope you're visualizing what cup you're going to make there's probably so many fast food places like we don't even have here so tell us what your cup would be what's your cup of cake you know what's your cup of tea what's your cup of cake don't you think this could be a whole TV show yeah oh boy oh boy oh boy we're getting to the most fun part of this King the lid yeah see here's where you've got to get smart guys if you're making a cake like this I would suggest doing it more like my pumpkin spice latte cake or the Wendy's cup not as big where the cup is just open and filled with something because filling a cake with like a frothy or whipped cream is easier than creating a lid I had to cut out that whole pattern and the letters to recreate it it was my first time meeting you in real life thinking like she probably has like a way of like I'm just like let me get my Tim Hortons cup lid uh uh imprinter nope it's a famous chain so I have to make the font exact I couldn't just use letter Cutters that I had so I had to make a little template and then cut it out with an exact ly yeah pick an easier cup either come up with your own logo or it's the perfect way to personalize a cake which you know I'm a big fan of so you can write you know someone's name on it or call it whatever you want these are Tim bots in America they call them donut holes I just made a little half sphere cakes that together form a ball and then I filled them glued them together and I had a lot of fun Timbits come in different flavors like summer or just glazed some are rolled in coconut some are rolled in sprinkles some are rolled in um doesn't Justin Bieber have what are his bits called beep beep it's what are they called I hope you guys enjoyed this revisit I hope I've encouraged you to cake your own cup and if you cake a cup post it and tag me because I want to see it I think we can make this a TV show look out Survivor is Survivor still on this we're gonna annihilate you you won't survive this show and I will see you all next weekthis week I'm going to revisit one of my favorite cakes I know for a fact that people love to see cakes that replicate their favorite foods but let's not forget about people's favorite drinks so I'm gonna use this revisit to explain to you how to make those types of cakes leave a comment below and let me know what your cake project would be would it be a Starbucks cup is it a McDonald's cup what else is there what else is there we're missing something big for this Tim Hortons cup the first thing I did is bake five round cakes I know how much batter goes in my pans I know how tall they are approximately once I level them and remove the caramelization from the bottom and then I have to think in my head how many of those layers do I need to get to the height that the cup is and also factor in that there will be filling in between but you definitely want a cup in front of you this is really really going to help you with the process because whenever I make a cake like this I measure I measure again and I re-measure if you want to enlarge the cup then you have to make sure to multiply all those measurements by the same number for this cake I decided to bake my ultimate vanilla cakes but I made a coffee simple syrup and then my favorite coffee buttercream it's my all-time favorite I like it with chocolate cake but it's also very good with vanilla cake even though novelty cakes are very restrictive in the sense that you don't have as much Freedom as you do with regular cakes I do try to impart flavor anytime I can if it goes with the theme of the cake so obviously this is a Tim Hortons coffee cup so I want some coffee in this cake the general rule for cake decorating is once a cake gets to four to six inches tall this is where you want to start having dowels and a board between so technically it's like you're building two cakes but from the outside it looks like one and this is just for support and it also makes life easier when you're cutting a cake of this nature in the case of this cake what I did is I made sure that the bottom layers were thicker than the top layers there's a reason this works for the structure and it's because the more buttercream that's in a cake or the thinner the cake layers once this cake warms up and comes to room temperature it's going to feel the weight of itself so a thicker layer on the bottom is going to be stronger than thinner layers but if you were making this for a client or to take to a party and you had to transport the cake you would definitely want to put a board and dowels in a cake like this do you remember when I built the um I want to say it was the Starbucks salted caramel inspired Mega cake and it started to feel its weight and we could see it do you remember and then I flipped it over removed some cake so I'm trying to avoid that because in the world of novelty cakes it's just a disaster when a cake starts to fall apart especially if you've already put fondant on it I'm mad at myself because I got cocky like I told myself I could put six layers in this cake and I knew better it's too small I didn't put it board there it is I had to shove sprinkles up against it no because it was falling over or hun these Rivers is so serious it's not look at me I made a cake it's so much fun it's like it can collapse in the fridge it is serious do you remember when I made the Valentine's Day mailbox cake and I filled it it was going to burst and I filled it with like cinnamon hearts and they were just pushing the walls of the cake and then I made a girdle the hardest part about being a cake decorator is having a plan B in your head knowing how to think quick and solve the problem because standing and looking at it and saying it's falling apart it will not do anything for you you have to work quickly but yeah cake decorating is serious or Han you should know you've seen my tears or Han you just edit you see them live you edit them out what are you talking about so now it's time to carve this into the shape of a cup and we're gonna make sure that right now while the cake is technically upside down the top of it is going to be the smallest diameter and then as it goes down it's going to be wider so what we're doing doing is we're cutting from top to bottom in an a line you know like the letter a in order to stay on track on top I always like to place something on top that is the right diameter a bowl or a plate or a cup or a circle cutter and then you can use a sharp serrated knife and cut all the way around I wish I had something round you can this that's actually great this is just like a cake okay you don't want to make big cuts you want to focus on cutting away like about an inch and then go around go around and overlap those cuts and that will keep it rounded you're not trying to make you know an octagon in all honesty I think this is an easier it's not a beginner cake but out of all the things that you could carve it's very symmetrical essentially you're carving one angle all the way around so once you're happy with the shape of your cake you can crumb coat it and once you crumb coat you want to chill until that buttercream is set and you can tell when you put your finger on it and nothing comes off you know looking at this cake I still think there's one side of it that's a bit could be that was good you're like I'm gonna say it before now that the crumb coat is chilled you can ice your cake and again you want to make sure it's really really straight foreign now comes the fun part when you can decorate your cake use a fabric measuring tape measure the circumference in this case it's most important that you're measuring the circumference of the bottom since it is the widest part and then you're going to measure the height and now you're going to roll out your fondant a little longer than it needs to be to go all the way around in a little higher than it needs to be while you're rolling it up with every roll brush away the excess icing sugar so you're not getting it on what is the front surface of the fondant and now we're going to carefully pick that up line it up against the cake you want to make sure that the buttercream on your cake at this point is not so cold that it feels dry you want to know that the fondant is going to stick now we're going to unravel this fondant around the cake you want to make sure the fondant is hitting the baseboard and as you unravel use your other hand to press it up against the cake and make sure that it's sticking a life-size Cup this is really a lot simpler this size cup it's okay but the Wendy's Cup this was such a chore because the fondant is so heavy that I could barely even hold it in one hand and make sure it was sticking and then at the back where the fondant overlaps itself you want to take a ruler cut a nice clean line that goes through both layers of fondant remove the excess and then join up the line down at the bottom of the cup you want to push in any excess and then use a sharp paring knife to cut away the excess and kind of angle your knife a bit since your cake is on an angle and then at the top you're going to hold your knife flush to that cake board turn your lazy Susan and cut away the excess fondant yeah I hope you're visualizing what cup you're going to make there's probably so many fast food places like we don't even have here so tell us what your cup would be what's your cup of cake you know what's your cup of tea what's your cup of cake don't you think this could be a whole TV show yeah oh boy oh boy oh boy we're getting to the most fun part of this King the lid yeah see here's where you've got to get smart guys if you're making a cake like this I would suggest doing it more like my pumpkin spice latte cake or the Wendy's cup not as big where the cup is just open and filled with something because filling a cake with like a frothy or whipped cream is easier than creating a lid I had to cut out that whole pattern and the letters to recreate it it was my first time meeting you in real life thinking like she probably has like a way of like I'm just like let me get my Tim Hortons cup lid uh uh imprinter nope it's a famous chain so I have to make the font exact I couldn't just use letter Cutters that I had so I had to make a little template and then cut it out with an exact ly yeah pick an easier cup either come up with your own logo or it's the perfect way to personalize a cake which you know I'm a big fan of so you can write you know someone's name on it or call it whatever you want these are Tim bots in America they call them donut holes I just made a little half sphere cakes that together form a ball and then I filled them glued them together and I had a lot of fun Timbits come in different flavors like summer or just glazed some are rolled in coconut some are rolled in sprinkles some are rolled in um doesn't Justin Bieber have what are his bits called beep beep it's what are they called I hope you guys enjoyed this revisit I hope I've encouraged you to cake your own cup and if you cake a cup post it and tag me because I want to see it I think we can make this a TV show look out Survivor is Survivor still on this we're gonna annihilate you you won't survive this show and I will see you all next week\n"