SIZE: 12” two-layer and 8” three-layer stacked cake
SKILL LEVEL: Moderate/Advanced
Let your Spring spirit soar with this buoyant kite cake!
1. At least two days ahead, prepare the clouds and the kite. Print and cut out the kite pattern (available here) or create your own.
2. Start with the clouds. Roll out white fondant and cut a variety of forms either free-hand with an X-acto knife or with specialty cutters. Allow to dry over night on a curved surface, such as the side of a 4” or 5” polystyrene dummy or a large can or glass.
3. For the kite, roll out a piece of white fondant slightly larger than the paper pattern. Tile the striped pattern from the Summer Variety Designer Prints™ Sheets (Item #45395) on your fondant. For more detailed instructions, see “Designer Prints™ Application to Fondant” in Lucks’ Resource Center under Tips and Techniques.
4. With your cutting tool and using your pattern as a guide, cut the precise kite form and allow to dry.
5. When the clouds are dry, spray the concave side of each with Lucks Pearl Shimmer Airbrush Color (Item #43706) and again allow to dry. Turn over and repeat this process on the convex side of each. Let dry.
6. Ice each cake tier and enrobe in fondant. Before stacking the tiers, airbrush the 12” round with Lucks Neon Bright Green Shimmer Airbrush Color (Item #45531). Respray with sporadic touches of Lucks Green Shimmer Airbrush Color (Item #43730) for added dimension.
7. Airbrush the 8” tier irregularly with Lucks Blue Shimmer Airbrush Color (Item #43708) or similar to lend the appearance of a cloudy sky. (You can always mix Gel paste colours with the Pearl Shimmer to create your own pallette).
8. When completely dry, stack and stabilize the tiers.
9. Mix lime green icing using Lucks Neon Brite Green Liqua-Gel (Item #45275) or Americolor Electric Green in a white icing base. Use a #5 plain round tube (Item #12753) to pipe short blades of grass around the base of the top tier and long blades around the bottom tier.
10. Roll out more fondant, and cut a handful of cloud forms to apply around the 8” tier with a light application of water. Spray clouds with Pearl Shimmer Color. Then, to the remainder of the rolled fondant, apply half a strip of the paisley pattern from the Summer Variety Designer Prints™ decorations with a light mist of water. Use a small flower cutter to cut out approximately 15-20 paisley flowers and attach to intermittent stems on the 12” tier, as shown, with small dabs of water and a ball tool.
11. Attach the kite form to the top edge of the cake with a small, moistened ball of fondant. To create the cross bars on the kite, either pipe before application to the cake with a #4 plain round tube (Item #12752) in royal icing and let dry, or pipe with buttercream or royal icing after application to the cake.
12. Using a #4 tip and white icing, pipe a wavy kite string. The kite tails can either be piped with a #4 tip and icing tinted with Lucks Pink Airbrush Color (Item #41542), or cut from fondant or gum paste tinted pink.
13. Arrange dried clouds in concentric layers on the top of the cake. Depending on their form, i.e., how evenly the bottom of the clouds rest upon the cake top, they may need to be supported with rolled balls of white fondant, or they may be attached with royal icing.
Decorating idea by Charra Jarosz
Cakes Around Town