Three Simple Stunning Cake Decorating Techniques

Layer cakes can seem a bit intimidating, but they’re a piece of a cake to decorate using these three techniques. Whether you want to cover a cake in sprinkles, pipe rosettes around a cake, or add a colorful drip to a cake, I’ve got you covered.

I share my favorite tips and tricks below to help you master these techniques. 
 

Sprinkle Covered Cake

A fun and super easy way to dress up a layer cake is to cover it with rainbow sprinkles. After covering your cake in an even layer of frosting, place the cake in a large, rimmed baking sheet.

Grab a generous handful of sprinkles and gently lift your hand from the base of the cake up the side. Use a gentle amount of pressure as you do this, so that the sprinkles stick but your fingers don’t dent the frosting.

Once the cake is fully covered, brush away any extra sprinkles from the base of the cake and voilà!

This technique is especially helpful if you’re someone who struggles to get your frosting super smooth. Once the sprinkles are on, the sides of your cake will look perfect. 
 

Buttercream Rosettes

The second technique I want to share is how to pipe buttercream rosettes. With the help of an open star tip, these swirls of frosting make your cake look like a total masterpiece.

As you pipe each rosette, hold your piping bag perpendicular to the side of the cake. Start where you want the middle of the rosette to be and pipe outward in a spiral. Make sure you pipe each rosette in the same direction and try to make them similar in size to give your cake a cohesive look.

If you want to use colorful buttercream to pipe your rosettes, I highly recommend using the same color of buttercream to crumb coat or frost your cake. This will help camouflage any little gaps between your rosettes. 
 

Colorful Drip Cake

Ganache drips are another fantastic way to dress up a layer cake.

Drips can be made in a variety of colors by adding gel food coloring to white chocolate ganache. My go-to ratio to make white chocolate ganache drips is 1 cup of white chocolate to ¼ cup of heavy cream.

There are two methods you can use to add drips to a cake. The first method uses a spoon to slowly push the ganache over the edge of the cake to make each drip. This method is great because it gives you a lot of control over each drip, and all you need is a spoon.

The second method uses a plastic squirt bottle. I find using a plastic bottle is a bit faster and easier than a spoon, but you can make beautiful drips using either method.

Whatever method you use, make sure your cake is properly chilled and that your frosting is firm to the touch before adding the ganache. This will help the drips set properly and prevent them from running all the way down your cake.

I highly recommend making a test drip with your ganache before you cover the entire cake. Make one to two drips on a chilled cake, then wait a couple minutes and see how they look once they’ve set.

If you like the way they look, then go ahead and add drips around the rest of the cake.

If they’re too short, you might want to heat your ganache in the microwave for 5 seconds to make it thinner.

If your drips are too long, you might want to let the ganache cool a bit more or add in an additional tablespoon of white chocolate.