How to make a Knitted Sweater Cake

This fun sweater cake is a versatile project that is great for Father’s Day and Christmas Cakes!

281353_477013642342271_655458373_n

 

Supplies:

Buttercream frosting

Cake, 9-by-13-inch

Diamond-shaped cookie cutter

Fondant, ½  pound

Food grade tissue paper

Gel color, various colors

Gumpaste, ½  pound

Icing spatula

Paintbrush, small

Piping bag, 12-inch

Piping tip, #3 round

Pizza cutter

Plastic wrap

Printed collar and star template

Ruler

Scissors

Shirt box

Stitch tool

Toothpick

1. I torted the cake and filled it; note that I actually leave the dome on top. I think this is the way shirts rest inside a gift box, they are not completely flat. I trimmed the edges of the cake with my kitchen scissors.

2. Crumb coat.  I always crumb coat my cakes and then chill.

3. Cover in buttercream. If the sweater is blue, then I will use blue to cover the cake, this way I don’t need to make the loops so tight to cover the white buttercream.

4. Using the template, cut the collar from a rolled piece of gumpaste.

548792_477004832343152_166749332_n

5. Use the stitch tool to make a stitch impression all around the collar.

6. Roll a piece of plastic wrap to make a sausage.

7. Flip the collar piece over, with the wide edge closest to you.

8. Place the rolled plastic wrap at the top edge of the collar piece.

9. Fold the collar over the plastic wrap.

10. Form the collar. This is what you should get after you fold it. The plastic wrap will help you to hold collar’s shape.

11. Use a small piece of fondant to cover the cake that will show through the back of the collar.

12. Transfer collar to the cake. First brush water on the cake, then placing collar in desired position.

13. Take the plastic wrap off and fix the collar, make it round and give it some movement.

14. To better hold the shape, put some cotton or food grade tissue paper underneath the edge of the collar. Let dry.

15. Using cutters, mark a design on your chilled cake. I used diamond-shaped cookie cutters.

16. Using a cut-out paper pattern, mark the design by poking with a toothpick.

17. Color your buttercream in desired colors.

18. With a #3 round tip, pipe small loops to outline your design. This looping technique produces the effect of the knitted sweater. The loops don’t need to be perfect; knitted sweaters are not perfect .Once the outline is piped, fill in the design by piping small loops in horizontal rows.

19. Using a ruler and a toothpick, mark your buttercream with horizontal guidelines to create a reference mark to pipe straight rows. I use the diamond cutter to mark my zig-zag lines.

20. Chill cake.

21. Continue piping small loops in horizontal rows until you cover all your cake in loops.

22. If desired, create a small fondant bow tie. http://cakecentral.com/b/tutorial/simple-bow-tutorial

23. Present the cake in a shirt box with tissue paper.

Star Template

Collar Template

 

Comments (4)