Gather your supplies!

You will need:

• Gold leaf transfer sheet/s

• A Caking It Up stencil

• Flexible head silicone spatula. 

• Medium consistency, room temperature buttercream (all types of buttercream)
  
  The consistency is similar to room temperature,  smooth peanut butter spread. Make sure your buttercream isn’t too soft though, or the buttercream will smudge underneath the stencil.
  
  Stencilling is all about achieving the right consistency buttercream. Before stencilling onto your cake, mix the buttercream by hand to knock out any air bubbles that may have formed. This ensures a nice smooth final look.

• A cake scraper.
  
  I prefer the Caking It Up acrylic cake scraper. The bevelled edge is particularly helpful in removing excess buttercream from the stencil, giving the perfect finish. 

• An iced buttercream cake.
  
  Your cake needs to be very cold/firm to the touch before attempting to stencil onto it. When buttercream is applied to a very cold cake, it immediately starts to set the stencilling in place, giving a clean crisp look once stencilled. Ideally, your cake should be chilled in the freezer 25 minutes prior to stencilling. It’s best to have all of your supplies ready to go before taking your cake out of the freezer.

You’re ready to stencil!

•  Chill cake in the freezer for 25 minutes, prior to stencilling and adding the gold leaf transfer.

• Remove gold transfer sheet from packaging, gently press onto the cake’s surface. 

• Once you’ve added the gold leaf, use the paper it came on to gently rub over the gold leaf. This ensures it has adhered to the cake properly and won’t pull away when you remove your stencil.

• Gently hold the stencil to the cake, be mindful how long you’re holding/pressing the stencil with your hand/fingers to the cake. Your warmed hands will melt the buttercream underneath. Try using the very tips of your fingers.

• Work quickly so your cake remains cold.

• Only use a small amount of buttercream at the tip of a flexible head spatula at any one time.

• You only need a thin coating of buttercream. Adding too much at once may result in smudging/unclean stencilling.

• Once the gold leaf area has been covered in buttercream, gently scrape off the excess with a cake scraper.

• Don’t press/push the cake scraper into the cake or you’ll smoosh your beautiful stencilling.

• Let the stencil pull away naturally at first, then slowly pull away the remaining, gently and in one direction. 

• Make sure you’re using edible, gold leaf transfer sheets. I have used Cake Craft brand.
  
• Caking It Up, Harvest stencil used.
  
  

Produced by Casey from Cake by Casey Lee