Easy, beginner level decorated cake perfect for the fourth of July. Using only a star tip and some cookie cutters, you can make this adorable patriotic cake.
Special Equipment Needed:
- 2-8 inch cake pans (or 3-6 inch cake pans)
- Mixer (for making buttercream and probably the cake)
- Offset spatula (not strictly necessary but encouraged-it will make frosting your cake sooo much easier).
- Star cookie cutter
- Star piping tip (I use the Wilton 18 tip).
Step 1:
Bake and cool your cake. This cake is a 2 layer, 8 inch round but I think it would also be adorable in a 3 layer 6 inch round. (A cake mix makes 2-8 or 9 inch cakes or 3-6 inch cakes if your pans are 2 inches deep).
Step 2:
Make your buttercream. For this cake, you won’t need quite two batches of buttercream, but you’ll need more than one. In situations like this, I typically just make 2 batches and freeze the leftovers because I don’t like to risk running out but you can make 1 1/2 batches if you like living a little closer to the edge than me.
Color 1/3 of the second batch of buttercream navy blue and 1/3 of it red.
Step 3:
Crumb coat your cake. Which is basically a fancy word for saying, frost your cake but you don’t really need to worry about how the frosting looks, it’s just the base layer. Refrigerate for 15 minutes or so to set the crumb coat.
Step 4:
Fit your piping bag with a star tip. This is a situation where it would be good to use a coupler unless you have 3 star tips and can fit 3 piping bags with three star tips. Fill your piping bag with white frosting. (If you do happen to have 3 star tips, fill three piping bags-one with white, one with blue, and one with red frosting and fit with your star tip).
Step 5:
Lay your star cookie cutter on top of your cake where you want the star to be. Lightly press the cookie cutter into the icing so it makes a star outline. Do this as many times as you would like (in the cake above, I wanted 3 stars so I make 3 star outlines).
Step 6:
Using your white frosting, pipe little stars into the star outline, filling it in completely.
Step 7:
Switch to navy buttercream. If you need to, wash your star tip and put it on the navy bag. Pipe navy stars all over the top of the cake, filling in around the stars.
Step 8:
Switch to red buttercream. If you need to, wash your star tip and put it on the red bag. Pipe red stars in a row on the side of the cake.
This is where it’s nice to at least have two star tips because you simply alternate red and white stripes down the side of the cake. However, if you only have one, estimate the size of your white stripe and leave space for it when making the red stripes down the cake and go back and fill in the white stripes.
Refrigerate for 15 minutes or so to set the stars and you should be ready to take it wherever it needs to go!
Happy Baking!
