Last week I made this really big (and really heavy) wedding cake. I have been asked a few times now how I cover cakes with sugarpaste and get it looking so smooth, so, I took some snaps as I went. My poor camera is now covered in icing sugar! 
I started with each cake covered in marzipan. It gives a really smooth base coat. (To cover a cake in marzipan you do the same proceedure as with the icing- you just use jam or buttercream to attach it, not alchohol) I found out whilst making this cake that if you buy a 5kg box of sugarpaste you get 1kg free. It’s so much cheaper to buy in bulk! I buy from here by the way. Just look at the size of that sugarpaste! It’s massive and really heavy. 
I break off big chunks and knead them until soft and pliable, then add the next chunk of sugarpaste, till I have enough to cover the whole cake. I use spacers when rolling to make sure that the icing is level throughout. This was a 12″ Madeira cake so the sugarpaste needed to be rolled out to a really big circle. 
In order for the sugarpaste to stick to the marzipan you need to make it damp. For this use either cooled boiled water or brandy. You can guess which one I used! Well, it was a wedding cake! Use a damp pastry brush and cover the whole cake especially around the base.
If you are sugarpasting directly onto a cake (ie with no marzipan) add a thin layer of buttercream to the top and side of the cake for the sugarpaste to stick to. The smoother you can get teh buttercream the better the sugarpaste will look. 
Carefully lift the rolled out sugarpaste over the cake. Support it from underneath as much as you can as it will stretch very easily- making it very thin in some areas. 
Use a cake smoother to gently force any trapped air bubbles out and smooth the top layer of the cake. 
I have this pink spirit leveller just for using with cakes. It’s an essential tool when stacking cakes, as if you get the bottom two tiers wonky it will throw the whole cake off. Most of the time you can keep using the smoother to get the level as good as perfect. Keep smoothing in a circular action and checking the flatness till it’s good. 
Once the top is nice and flat gently use the palm of your hand to smooth down the sides. 
Avoid creases at the bottom by holding the lower piece of sugarpaste out away from the cake while you smooth it gently towards the bottom with your other hand. (It’s impossible to take a photo of this action when you are home alone on a Tuesday afternoon!) Hope it makes sence. 
Once the whole cake is covered use the palm of your hand to smooth the edges of the icing securely onto the cake.
There is always some excess to cut off. 
I use a pizza wheel to cut away the extra sugarpaste. Don’t lean the cutter in towards the bottom of the cake. Keep it at a right angle and leave about 2mm sticking out. 
Use a flat smoother to tuck in the excess 2mm of sugarpaste all the way around the cake. 
Use the inside part of your palm- between your thumb and first finger, and smooth the top corner until it’s really soft and there are no bumps. 
The last action is to finish off with a cake smoother all over the top and around the sides till it’s perfectly smooth.
enjoy!
That cake is stunning! Well done Emma
Thank youuuuu X
That is absolutely beautiful. No wonder you were up to your eyes in iced flowers! Cx
That’s really helpful, thank you, as I’m just about to do my first bit of proper cake decorating. I’m not using marzipan this time so do I still use the cooled boiling water or brandy direct on the cake before putting the sugarpaste on?
Lovely cake!
Great question (I have added that detail into the post so thanks for that!)
If you are covering a cake without any marzipan you will need to add a thin layer of buttercream to the top and sides of the cake. Do one coat which is very thin and pop the cake in the fridge for 10-20 minutes for it to harden up. This is the crumb coating. Then add a second layer of buttercream on top. This layer will form a good base for the icing. The smoother you get the buttercream the better the sugarpaste will look.
Have a look at the post I did for the chocolate ganache which shows how I add buttercream crumb coating.
http://cakesbakesandcookies.com/?s=ganache&submit=Search
Hope that helps
EmmaMT
Mine is a fruit cake though. Would you put buttercream on a fruit cake?
I’d put marzipan on a fruit cake.
If you don’t want to use marzipan you could add a really thin later of warmed and sieved apricot jam. That will make it sticky enough to hold the sugarpaste in place. Water or Brandy will just make it wet.
Hope that helps
Good luck
Brilliant, thanks. I’d have marzipan too, but it’s a surprise cake and I’m not sure how much the person I’m making it for likes marzipan.
Looks really great
Beautiful instructions, thanks! Now… I have a number 80 cake to cover in fondant, any tips on where to start with that one?
Ooooh lovely! Lots of holes to decorate!
In my experience the best thing to do is to shape the numbers in the cake so you have as large a holes as possible then roll out the sugar paste quite thick. Say between 6-8mm. If you rub the sugar paste very slowly over each hole you won’t tear it and it will reach the cake board.
Good luck
EmmaMT
I know, probably the 2 worst numbers! Am hoping my number and letter came pan arrives In time – bit.ly/QqzprU – so wont get a say on the size of the holes.
Thanks for the tips, party is next weekend so hopefully good results to follow on the blog after that
Jen
Just had a thought! A few years ago I had to make a ’50′ birthday cake and I made a big circle cake then I cut out the middle ’0′ with a cookie cutter. I then cut this in half and put it back into the cake so the hole wasn’t all the way through the cake. I then covered the whole cake with one colour sugarpaste then made a circle in a darker colour sugarpaste which I put in the shallow hole. It sorted out the problem of not being able to get the sugarpaste all the way down the hole to the cake board without tearing.
Just a thought……
Ooh, good plan, thanks! As I’ll have 2 little holes in the 8 and a big one in the 0 it might well be worth making perhaps a little sheet cake to fill in the gaps. Stocked up today on lots of fondant and will let you know how it goes next weekend!
Good luck X
brilliant instructions and a beautiful cake too. I am making a christening cake for my son’s baptism and wanted 2 tiers, any tips on stacking them so they don’t collapse or the top sinks into the bottom?!
Hello,
When stacking a cake it’s important to put each additional layer onto a thin cake board. You can hide the board with the sugarpaste.
To stop the cakes from going into each other when you stack them you need to insert food standard posts into the base tier. Cake decorating shops sell wooden and plastic ones. You will need 3-4 posts, but I always pop an extra one in – just for good measure.
Start by inserting one post into the iced cake (the bottom one) and marking where the top of the post is. Remove the post and cut it to size.
Use this first post as a guide for the other posts so they are all the same length and your cake will be level.
Insert the posts around the cake but make sure you keep them away from the edges so they don’t miss the area where cake that is going to sit on top is.
Use a little bit of royal icing on top of the base cake and cover each post, then place the second tier on top. You will be able to move this cake into position.
Leave to set for a while then add ribbons or decorations. If there are gaps under the cake board of the second tier just fill with a little royal icing or hide them with decorations. No one will ever know!
Good luck and if you get a sec please pop a pic on the CakesBakesAndCookies Facebook page. I’d love to see the end result and share it with my followers.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cakes-Bakes-and-Cookies/260731630659816
EmmaMT
Beautiful cake and really clear instructions, thank you. GG
Great tutorial and thank you so much for sharing! =)
Hi Emma. What is the difference detween sugarpaste and fondant, I know fondant. But am getting it mixed up, because I don’t know if they are the same.
Sugarpaste and fondant are exactly the same thing. They are the blocks of pre-coloured ready roll icing that you can buy in cake shops (and in white from most supermarkets) I try to only call it sugarpaste as it is quite confusing but every now and again I forget… sorry! I think they call it fondant in the US whereas here in the UK we call it icing or sugarpaste.
Hope that clears up the misunderstanding
EmmaMT
For wedding cakes do you add brandy.
Fantastic, you have given me all the tips I need. My grandson wants Henry and Hetty (hoover) cakes for his birthday and I want to make them look good, here’s hoping! Your cake is stunning by the way (how do you make the gorgeous flowers?)
Hello,
Thanks so much for your lovely comment. I love the idea of a Henry and Hetty hoover cake. There’ll be plenty of cake to eat in those designs!
I make the flowers with either a long, stretched oval piece of sugarpaste which is rolled up. Or I cut out 5/7/9 circles of sugarpaste and roll one up, then add another ‘petal’, then another till I have lots of layers.I curl each edge outwards as I go. I think you have just inspired a future post!
Good luck with your cake.
EmmaMT