Sewing Basket Cake Decorating and Baking Tutorial

This is something you don’t see too often….Paul using lemon cake and buttercream.

It’s for a family member so he breaks from his usual chocolate cake and ganache and quickly reflects on why, as a cake decorator, he prefers ganache.

NOTE: Paul later decides to transfer the cake onto a decorated board so it would be a good idea to place the cake on a card at this stage.

This is a slightly different covering arrangement so Paul prepares the lid then starts to create the patterns on the side panels using the impression mat.

Paul then adds the side panels, knitting them together with seamless joins which is all pretty straight forward. Of course, you can choose whichever pattern will go best with your design.

You’ll start to see the basket coming together now by adding the side panels, lid and finishing off with the decorative trims. Spot Paul’s suggestions for covering up those little mistakes!

You can use coloured sugarpaste, but you’ll get a better finish with the airbrush so Paul reaches for his trusted IWATA. He then layers the colours to give the basket character.

This is the time-consuming part and if time permits it’s better to prepare all your moulds and allow them to set overnight before painting them the next day.

Paul’s prepared a lot off camera, but in this lesson runs through all the different moulds he’s used and explains his painting techniques.

A very simple but effective technique to create the cotton reels and of course you choose the colours that best compliment your design.

The ball of wool is the centrepiece for the sewing basket and you have two choices when it comes to covering to get the wool shape.

Paul chooses the quicker method by creating the wool pattern using an impression matt or you could create the wool using individual strands from the extruder.

This is where all your time and hard work pays off when you start to add the decorations. This will come down to your own eye for design, but Paul talks through his thinking behind the placing of many of the pieces.

Time to really bring the cake together placing the last of the decoration pieces on the cake and finishing with the ribbon and all those important final tweaks and touches.

Paul shares with us some other ideas for cakes you could create with what you have just learned.

We look at everything you need to know for selling a cake like the sewing basket design.