Category: Tutorials

The Best (FDA Approved) Metallic Gold Buttercream Finish

October 24, 2018
by Whitney
comments 4
Metallic gold buttercream cake tutorial

For years, I’ve been seeing my Instagram caker friends post photos of metallic gold buttercream cakes. Like, really shiny ones. After doing a bit of research into how to get the look, I decided to order the Rolkem Super Gold luster dust and try my hand at it. I’ve seen a lot of cake makers use that mixed with a little vodka to paint their buttercream cakes for a flawless metallic look. Here’s the thing though, while I was absolutely blown away by the shiny gold finish, I realized that there has been a recall on Rolkem Super Gold because (the batch I ordered at least) contains high levels of copper, which is not the healthiest for consumption. It’s FDA approved in some countries, but not the USA, so I wondered if after swooning over this amazing gold finish I could actually find a comparable option that is FDA approved worldwide.

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Spooky Black Buttercream Halloween Cake

October 1, 2018
by Whitney
comments 5
Halloween cake by Sugar & Sparrow

This was originally a guest post that I wrote for SprinklePop’s blog. It’s too good not to re-share over here, because this Halloween cake is such a fun and easy showstopper to create. Enjoy! 

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I’m one of those people who starts making big plans for costume ideas months ahead of time and watches all the scary movies as soon as they hit Netflix. So when I saw some sneak peeks of SprinklePop’s Halloween sprinkle lineup, I couldn’t help my brain from bursting with spooky cake ideas! I got my hands on the Monster Mashup sprinkle mix as soon as it hit the shelves and got right to work on planning the ultimate Halloween cake.

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Gradient Rainbow Buttercream Cake Tutorial

September 17, 2018
by Whitney
comments 2
rainbow buttercream cake by sugar and sparrow

If you’ve been following along on my Instagram, you know that I’ve been completely nerding out on my Americolor Nifty Fifty Kit. Having 50 beautiful food color gels in my collection has been a complete game changer when it comes to coloring buttercream (and all the edible things!) and I’ve gotten to create some really cool, colorful cakes since getting the kit. You can see a few of the cakes I’ve created, real life color swatches, and read more about the kit in this post, but today I want to talk about this gradient rainbow cake. Can you believe it features 20 different colors from the Nifty Fifty Kit? I am in love.

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Sprinkle Filled Gender Reveal Cupcakes

September 7, 2018
by Whitney
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gender reveal cupcakes by Sugar and Sparrow

This was originally a guest post that I wrote for SprinklePop’s blog. It’s too good not to re-share over here, because these cupcakes are just so fun and and my favorite gender reveal idea ever.

A few weeks ago, I got to help celebrate a super special moment in my friend’s life: revealing the gender of her sweet little baby to come! I can’t tell you how exciting it was to help celebrate and be part of the big surprise. Gender reveal parties are so much fun and I’ve seen tons of creative ways to make the big reveal even more spectacular. I wanted to translate that excitement into cupcake form, and lucky for me, SprinklePop just released a new line of Solid Sprinkle Mixes that were the perfect color to represent either gender!

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Sky High Cookies & Cream Ice Cream Cake

September 5, 2018
by Whitney
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cookies and cream ice cream cake by sugar and sparrow

Cake and ice cream. They’re undoubtedly a perfect pairing when you serve them side by side, and even better when you combine them into one big beautiful ice cream cake! Since I don’t actually own an ice cream maker, I hadn’t yet ventured into the world of making ice cream before (let alone an ice cream cake). That is, until I discovered The Curious Creamery Ice Cream Cake Kits. These amazing creations are made for people like me, because there’s no ice cream maker required! Just whip up the ice cream mix according to the instructions, layer it with some delicious cake (which is also included in the kit), freeze it all together, and you’re good to go!

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Sprinkled White Chocolate Cupcake Toppers

August 20, 2018
by Whitney
comments 6
sprinkled white chocolate mini discs by Sugar and Sparrow

This cupcake topper tutorial originally appeared as a guest post on SprinklePop’s blog. It’s too good not to re-share here – it’s one of my favorite looks for topping cupcakes and so easy to whip up. Enjoy!

One of my very favorite mediums for creating cake and cupcake toppers is white chocolate. Not only is it versatile and easy to work with, it actually tastes good. And with some pretty additions like this eye-catching Sea Glass sprinkle mix and a food color gel marble effect, it’s downright beautiful! PS: the thing I love about these SprinklePop sprinkles is that they actually taste good too (the larger sprinkles are actually Sixlets!), so you get pretty color and texture without sacrificing flavor – a total win win!

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How To Make A Spatula Painted Cake

August 13, 2018
by Whitney
comments 2
colorful buttercream cake by sugar and sparrow

A few months ago, I got the opportunity to try this spatula painted buttercream technique on a wedding cake and it was so much fun! I had a beautiful buttercream color palette to work with (terracotta + blush + cream + burgundy) and wanted to create something eye-catching and different. Using this technique turned out to be so easy and beautiful and I couldn’t wait to try it again. So naturally, after getting my hands on this amazing AmeriColor Nifty Fifty color gel kit, the first thing I thought to do was create a spatula painted cake with another fun color palette!

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10 Easy Ways To Frost A Cupcake

July 9, 2018
by Whitney
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10 ways to frost a cupcake

When I first started baking cupcakes, frosting them was as simple as using a butter knife to heap the buttercream on top. Sure, you can do some cool stuff with a butter knife (can you really?), but the right piping tips and techniques make all the difference when it comes to decorating cupcakes that look uniform, professional, and sometimes too pretty to eat. My very first piping tip was the ultra-versatile Wilton 1M, and it’s still one of my go-to’s for creating buttercream designs on cupcakes. Today I’m going to talk about four of my favorite piping tips for decorating cupcakes, the 1M tip included, and 10 easy (and eye-catching!) looks you can create with them.

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How To Frost A Cake With Smooth Buttercream

June 28, 2018
by Whitney
comments 7
how to get wrinkles out of buttercream

One of the most frequent questions I get as a cake decorator is how I get my buttercream cakes so smooth and sharp. To answer you, I’m going to be completely candid here and not pretend that my cakes are absolutely flawless every time. The truth is, with most of the cakes I design, there are plenty of opportunities to hide small flaws in the buttercream finish. A ganache drip over this crease, sprinkles around that bottom edge, and before you know it the cake appears flawless with all those problem areas covered up! Ok, maybe that’s just me being lazy creative. Despite that, I have developed some skills and learned some tips over the years that help me get pretty darn close to a flawless buttercream finish, and I’m excited to share them all with you!

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Chocolate Geometric Shapes Tutorial

June 22, 2018
by Whitney
comments 2
white chocolate matcha cake by sugar and sparrow

I wouldn’t consider myself a chocolatier per se, but I am a big fan of making simple geometric chocolate shapes (mainly circles and triangles) to top my cakes and cupcakes with. It all started when I saw the chocolate shard trend take off on Instagram and it made me wonder how hard it could be. The good news is, it’s pretty darn easy if you’ve got a plan and some good tempered chocolate to start with.

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