Good morning friends! Are you ready for some buttercream cake inspiration!??!! – Ombre’ style??
I have a new cake crush. It’s buttercream. I don’t know if it loves me…but I really want it to. I’m not very good at it yet…but I really really want to be. I feel a little beat up after playing with it, but I think it’s cuz it exposes all my flaws.
I think I need to let go…”Let it go, let it go!” Yes…I’m still singing that song!! LOL! I think it’s because it’s truly become the theme of my life!
What do I need to let go of?? – my desire for perfect lines, perfect edges, perfect colors, perfection in general…etc etc etc.
Can you say OCD??? – yes…that’s me. I like my fondant. I like ganache. I LOVE my modeling chocolate. I like my scalpel and quilter’s ruler. I love clean lines and perfect transfers. But I don’t want to be so crazy anymore and I think buttercream might be my answer for teaching me to be more free!
Hahahahahaha!! It sounds good at least!
One of my sweet sweet friends turned 40 a few weeks ago and we all gathered at a cabin home for a girls weekend to celebrate her. Of course I had to make her a little cake, but it was during the two weeks that my daughter was turning 5, my husband was turning 41 and my sister in law was turning 40 (remember the Wonder Woman cake??), so I had VERY VERY little time, but a strong desire to do something because it was going to be an awesome weekend with my besties!!
These ladies are phenomenal! I’m so blessed to be apart of their lives. I can tell you without hesitation I would do anything for any of them…and they would do the same for me too. It’s amazing to be apart of such a large company of women who are totally like minded, who have amazing kids, who love Jesus with their whole hearts, who I would trust with my kids lives if anything happened to me, who would have my back and be there for me in any situation! They have shown themselves to be so faithful! We have all seen each other through some low lows and some high highs and there’s no one I’d rather spend my time with besides my own family of course! I’m so blessed and I thank the Lord for the grace and love He has poured out upon me through these ladies. I love you girls!! I can’t wait to grow old with you!! LOL!!! xoxo!
OKAY…so, back to buttercream…and why I can see myself falling in love with it.
It’s just easy! – and so much quicker! Although…THIS cake wasn’t quicker because my OCD side was roaring to life and I kept trying to re-do it…for like FOUR hours!! – O H M Y G O O D N E S S.
Pray for me. I need it people. I’m learning but I’m sorta crazy.
Here she is…Suzanne’s little birthday cake…
…in her purple ombre’ glory with all the imperfections I could muster. From bubbles to smears, to fading colors, etc etc etc. It’s all there for the world to see. And you know what?? – I’m going to be okay with it because it will only get better from here!!! And because Suzanne didn’t care!!!! LOL!! Yay for sweet and easy to please friends!!!
I’m staying positive!
I used Swiss-meringue buttercream which I know is one of the hardest to use because of the air bubbles and high fat content (it’s hard to color because there are no sugar crystals in it for the color to latch onto…so, it just wants to separate like oil and water). I also used purple which is one of the HARDEST colors to get right and to not fade. So…I had most everything working against me, but her colors were purple and black that weekend…so, I went with it. ;)
I ended up trying a few other textures I had seen online…I’ll post more of those inspirations in a sec so you can see what REALLY COOL buttercream cakes should look like. LOL! I created three shades of purple (four if you count the white top) and piped each separately onto the cake about 1″ in height all the way around. I then started smoothing and smoothing it around and around to blend the colors together. They really didn’t smear as much as I wanted. But, alas…oh well! Letting it go!
I then played with a few textures and figured out I just love clean and smooth lines too much and ended up with this. I used a palette knife and started at the very top of the cake. I spun the cake while pressing the tip of my knife onto the buttercream and swirled it all the way around to the bottom. I then went back to the top of the cake working from the outside in and did the same thing while I spun the cake I used the palette knife to give it that swirled look. Then I had to get my kids from school so I was done! LOL!! It’s all I could do. I had to leave it bubbles and all.
I am happy with how it turned out. It was super fun!! BUT, the purple tasted TERRIBLE!!!! OH MY GOODNESS it was so nasty! I think I’m super sensitive to dye because I literally had to wipe the darker purple off after we sang Happy Birthday and before I cut the cake. I just couldn’t serve it. Is this normal!??!?! Does dark colors really taste SO horrible or are there certain brands that don’t have issues like that!!?!? Anyone…anyone?!?! I’d love some advice on that since I really have no experience with dark buttercream colors.
Alright…now on to the REAL inspiration!!!! These are PURTY cakes I was trying to resemble!!! I hope you find some inspiration here and try some buttercream of your own!!
This cake is by “Style Sweet”! SO pretty…this is what I wanted!! She even has a tutorial…click HERE.
Here’s another one by the same gal!! She’s on a roll! Here’s another tutorial from “Style Sweet”…click HERE.
And a few fun video tutorials of fun buttercream techniques: Click HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE or watch them below…
Two more!!! My buttercream cake crushes are the “Queens” of buttercream…Valeri and Christina from Queen of Hearts Couture Cakes. They are Queens…for real! – they rock the piping bag! They also just released their second Craftsy class and it is AWESOME!! Check out these gorgeous buttercream cakes for your inspiration. THIS is what makes me want to learn…these cakes are gorgeous!
And…
The chevron and the knit…oh be still my heart!!!!! I can’t wait to try these!!!
If you want to find out more about Valeri Valeriano & Christina Ong’s newest class called “Unbelievable Buttercream Techniques“, then click HERE and save $10!!
Thanks for looking! Hope you found some fun inspiration!!
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Your cake looks amazing! Just gorgeous. Thanks for the shout out, too xoxox
Beautiful cake!
Try Sugar Flair concentrated food colour. I find that I get the darker more intense colours better than the other brands, especially with buttercream icing.
For smbc try candy color- it mixes in very easy and funny things don’t happen to your smbc. The nasty taste though- I’m not sure what will help with that. Perhaps if you use candy colors, concentrated colors and need less( which I noticed to be the case), it won’t leave that horrid after taste. The cake is pretty!
I’m curious to know what coloring you used that ended up tasting funny? Americolor? I’ve had great success with Candy-N-Cake powder food coloring. (here’s a link – I’m not affiliated with them, fyi: https://www.ckproducts.com/categories/276/Powder-Color-Cake-n-Candy) It gives a rich, vibrant color and doesn’t change the taste or consistency of your icing (disclaimer: I’ve never used it with SMBC though!) I’ve used it with fondant too and I actually prefer it to the gel colors – especially for black and red. Your cake is precious and you’d never know you fussed with it for 4 hours – that’s definitely something I’d do! The simplest cakes always end up being the ones I make a big deal over, haha!
It was good ol’ Wilton! – that’s why! Thanks for the recommendation on the other colors!! Would love to try it!
The cakes looks beautiful. I too am use to working with fondant and have a bit of OCD so I shy away from buttercream at times because I always want my cakes to look perfect. But you’ve inspired me to go for it. I have to sharpen my skills. Also a lot of Wilton’s colors taste gross. I use americolor. You don’t get that nasty inky taste on your tongue and it will produce beautiful vibrant colors. Can’t wait to see your next buttercream creation!!!!
My daughter loves the colors and wanted these for her birthday cake. I’m curious was this straight purple or did you mix another color with it? Thanks for any help!
Thank you for always sharing your finds and obsessions Jessica! I’ve learned so much from you, I have all your Craftsy classes! Sorry if I sound like a stalker but I really do appreciate it!!
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