Gather your supplies!

You will need:

• Gold lustre dust.

• Rose spirit or lemon extract.

• A brand new soft bristle paint brush.

• Lustre spoon to easily remove the perfect amount of lustre dust.

• 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 if you are using a larger stencil.
  
  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. 

• If you are using a cookie stencil I just use my spatula to remove excess buttercream.
  
• 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 lustre paint or dry lustre dust.

• Mix up gold lustre and rose spirit in equal parts. Always use a small container with a lid so the lustre doesn’t dry up or thicken. If you find that your lustre has thickened, add a drop or two more of rose spirit.

• Gently hold the stencil to the cake, be mindful how long your 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.

• 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.

• Gently scrape off the excess buttercream with a cake scraper, if using a large stencil. If using a cookie stencil, using your spatula to even the surface is fine, but a cake scraper would work too.

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

GOLD LUSTRE PAINT

• Use a brand new clean, soft bristle brush.

Dip your paint brush into the gold lustre paint, gentle swipe the brush across the stencil. Make sure it’s coated well.

DRY LUSTRE DUST

• Use a brand new clean, soft bristle, dry brush.

Dip the brush into the dry lustre dust, gentle tap off excess then gently dab the brush over the areas you’d like covered. Make sure it’s coated well.

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

• Make sure you’re using edible gold lustre dust. I have used the Faye Cahill brand.
  
• Caking It Up Prism cookie stencil used.

Produced by Casey from Cake by Casey Lee