Tropical Sunrise Wedding Cake Decorating and Baking Tutorial

To kick things off Raewyn shows us how to paint all the sheets of wafer paper, in preparation for being cut out to form the petals and leaves of the flowers. The templates are available for download in the templates section.

In this lesson, Raewyn starts to assemble some of the flowers using the templates available in the section below. She simply cuts out squares, stacks them into a little pile and then cuts into them around the template to create multiple leaves and petals in one go. She then shows us how to attach them using piping gel and different ways to dry them.

Here Raewyn goes on to assemble more of the flowers, with slightly different techniques for each one. All very simple and quick to do with truly impressive results.

Here Raewyn demonstrates even more techniques to create stunning flowers.

In this lesson Raewyn shows us how to make the peony flower using the templates available in the templates section. Once you have it all made up it’s time to move on to steaming them and tuning their shapes.

Here Raewyn shows us how to steam and shape the flowers. Raewyn simply uses a kettle but of course you can purchase a steamer like this one. Or you could put tin foil over a boiling pot of water and put a small hole in it to allow the steam to come through.

In this lesson, Raewyn shows us how to cut, stack and add support to the tall cake. Later on the cake is going to be ganached, so you want to make sure that it’s neat – as once it’s covered in sugarpaste there is no going back. A simple way to make sure of this is by using a large metal scraper and going around the cake, making sure it’s even.

Here Raewyn demonstrates how to ganache the cake and end up with a wonderfully smooth finish. Raewyn adds dark chocolate ganache to this cake but, of course (for children especially) you may want to use milk chocolate ganache. If you’re unfamiliar with ganache then watch our in depth tutorial on using ganache. You’ll need a large palette knife to apply the ganache to the side of the cake and don’t hold back. You may find it handy to have a turntable for this section to save you having to constantly manoeuvre around the cake.

In this lesson Raewyn demonstrates how to cover a tall double barrelled cake with ease. Raewyn uses the technique where you wrap the rolled out sugarpaste around the rolling pin and then go straight onto the cake with it. You can go over the cake with a little bit of shortening or water before applying the sugarpaste too, which helps it stick. The good thing about shortening is it allows you a little time to adjust where you’ve placed the sugarpaste.

Raewyn is using water colours and the overall technique is very relaxed – there’s no strict shape or design. All you need to watch out for (unless you like the effect) is avoiding drip marks.

Raewyn adds the second tier and goes onto to create a draped flower arrangement, which looks just lovely. Raewyn cuts up and uses plastic straws, as opposed to using posy picks, which she finds makes things easier.

Here Raewyn shares some other ideas you can try your hand at when making this cake. We’re sure you have some of your own great ideas and we’d love to see what you come up with.

Please share your pics with us on our Facebook page as well as Raewyn’s.

In this lesson, Paul shares some insider information about the cost to make this cake, as well as pricing, portions and other vital information for any professional cake designer.