Read The Busy Girls Guide to Cake Decorating for Free Online Page B

colour.
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    â€œEnsure that your base sheet of sugarpaste is thick enough to begin with. The rolling required to inlay the coloured blossoms means it will end up much thinner than you started with.”
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    2 Roll out the white sugarpaste to a 5mm ( 3 ⁄ 16 in) thickness to form a large rectangle. Take the cut-out blossoms and randomly place onto the white sugarpaste to create a sheet of floral-patterned paste.
    3 Roll gently over the sheet with your rolling pin to thin the paste to 3mm ( 1 ⁄ 8 in) and to inlay and seal the yellow blossoms into the white sugarpaste.
    4 Coat the tops of the cupcakes with a layer of buttercream.
    5 Cut out six fluted circles from the patterned sugarpaste and place on top of each cupcake with the edge of the circle evenly overhanging the cupcake case.
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TIP
    Any variety of colour combinations and shapes can be used to form a sheet of sugarpaste to work with for lots of different projects – try stars, swirls and butterflies.
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Bijoux birthday
Modelling a miniature cake
    A mini birthday cake sitting on a beautifully decorated mini-cake looks ever so cute … who could resist this? Break down the individual modelled parts and it’s a doddle too!

Get it together…
    6.5cm (2 1 ⁄ 2 in) round mini-cake, prepared for covering
    15cm (6in) round cake card
    Sugarpaste: lime green, white, light brown and red
    Buttercream
    Coloured sugar sprinkles: stars and small balls
    Basic equipment (see Equipment )
    1 Roll out the white sugarpaste to a 3mm ( 1 ⁄ 8 in) thickness and use to cover the cake card (see Covering a board with sugarpaste ).
    2 Roll out the lime green sugarpaste to a 5mm ( 3 ⁄ 16 in) thickness and use to cover the mini-cake (see Covering a mini-cake ).
    3 Place the covered mini-cake in the centre of the covered cake card, securing with a dab of buttercream. Set aside to let the sugarpaste dry.
    4 Roll two balls of light brown sugarpaste around 3cm (1 1 ⁄ 8 in) in diameter. Flatten each ball into a disc. Spend time shaping each so that they are roughly the same shape and thickness.
    5 Flatten a ball of red sugarpaste into a thin disc to create the jam filling. Indent the edges of the ‘jam’ circle slightly using the end of a paintbrush.
    6 Repeat for the icing on top of the cake using white sugarpaste, making the disc slightly smaller than the top of the cake. Stack the pieces together to form the cake. Moisten the icing of the miniature cake with a tiny bit of water and sprinkle lightly with the ball sprinkles.
    8 To create the candle, roll a tiny sausage of lime green sugarpaste and flatten each end slightly. Take a yellow star from the sprinkles, insert one point of the star into the end of the candle and position in place on top of the miniature cake, securing with a dab of water.
    9 Decorate the sides of the cake using white star sprinkles, applying a dab of water to the back of each star before pressing lightly into place. Roll a long sausage of lime green sugarpaste and wrap around the base of the cake, trimming neatly at the back.
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TIP
    If you’re struggling to get the candle to keep its shape, form it around a piece of dried spaghetti, but do make sure you warn whoever will be eating it!
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Swirling stars
Creating a deckle edge
    A fluted cutter is used in this design to give a textured edge to the swirls. Stars are a great motif that can be used in a myriad of colours for any number of different occasions.

Get it together…
    Six cupcakes baked in purple paper cases
    Buttercream
    Sugarpaste: white and mid-purple
    Cutters: round (same size as cupcake tops), large and small stars, graduated fluted round cutters
    Edible silver glitter
    Basic equipment (see Equipment )
    1 Trim the domes from the tops of your cupcakes if necessary and spread a thin layer of buttercream on the top.
    2 Roll out the white sugarpaste to a 3mm ( 1 ⁄ 8 in) thickness. Using a round cutter the same size as the top of your cakes,