My two latest YouTube videos show how to make this gorgeous all-buttercream gift box cake, filed with buttercream flowers, topped with a floating lid and some cute buttercream tassels to finish. This blog post provides a bit more info that couldn’t be included into the videos.  If you’re ready for all the details, read on!

First off, this is quite a complicated project. I know a lot of beginners watch my channel, I’d just like to warn everyone that if you’ve never baked, carved, stacked, dowelled or smooth-iced a cake before this probably isn’t a tutorial you want to jump straight into.  It will take some practice to get these basics right before you can get the correct result.  This tutorial is more aimed at the intermediate level, where you have the basic skills but want to learn how to apply them to make a gift box cake.  That’s not to say you can never give it a go if you’re a beginner – just be aware it’ll probably take you a really long time, and the result may not be as perfect as the tutorial shows. If you’re happy trying anyway, cake on!

Here are the videos you’ll need to watch:

More info:

1. Baking the cakes

I used two shallow 10×15″ (26x38cm) rectangular pans each filled with 1kg of Victoria sponge cake batter then baked.  They were a bit larger than required for a 6″ cake, so you could use a 9×13″ pan (and a bit less batter, say 850g) instead if that’s all you have.  You could also use any cake recipe you’re happy with, such as pound cake – just be sure not to overbake.  I lined the bottom of each pan with parchment/baking paper to prevent sticking.

Once the cakes are baked and fully cooled, cut them as shown to get at least 5 x 6″ square layers. You will have some cake left over, that’s ok.  Keep those cuttings until you’re finished as you may end up needing some of them.

If you have 6″ square pans you prefer to use instead, please do.

To see how to put the two “2” halves together to make a square, watch the video.

2. Buttercream recipe

I used one and a half batches of my SEBC buttercream.  You can see how to make it, here:

The recipe is up on this blog, here: http://wp.me/p6NrT5-dY

I used half a batch to make the flowers (you’ll end up with some spare but that’s far better than running out half way through, and you can choose the prettiest flowers afterwards for your cake), coloured half a batch blue for the outside, and the rest I left white for the filling/ crumb coat.  Once it was all coated & filled, I coloured all the leftover SEBC green for the leaves, and a little pink for the tassels.

On protein powder:

Seeing as so many people have asked about it, I tried making SEBC without using protein powder, and used that to cover the outside of the cake. The flowers are made with regular SEBC, the protein powder variety. There are important differences between the two, and I’ll be making a video about that later – so be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel if you want to see it. For now I’d really recommend using the original recipe with protein powder if you can, for ease of use.

Colours used:

Wilton gel colours-
Rose,
Sky blue
Leaf green
Yellow
Orange

Sugarflair gooseberry (optional)

Piping nozzles used:

Small & large petal tips such as wilton 104 & 123
Any star nozzle
Any writing tip such as no. 1 or 2

You’ll want to chill the cakes each time you finish smoothing one of them, to help keep the shape.  This is where using the right buttercream recipe really helps, the protein powder keeps the buttercream firmer at room temperature and stops you accidentally ruining your beautiful finish.

The flowers and tassels need to be frozen solid so you can handle them like I’ve shown in the videos.  You can make them days or even weeks in advance if you need to, as long as you put them in an airtight container before you freeze.

Other notes:

You can use any flowers or leaves you like. Check out some of my other vids for inspiration –

You may need to trim some of the flowers down to make sure your lid sits level and balanced.  The cake “ramp” we make on top of the box is to give the lid support and something to rest on, so your flowers shouldn’t come up over the top of it. I had to put the lid on, see where it needed to be adjusted, remove it and trim as necessary a few times to get it right.

Make spare buds, or green buttercream for leaves to fill the gaps once you’re done arranging the flowers. Start with the larger ones first and add the smaller ones as you go along.

If you liked this tutorial you can subscribe to my channel here: https://www.youtube.com/c/FFEAbySawsen?sub_confirmation=1

Any other questions, feel free to pop them in the comments of the YouTube videos and I’ll try my best to get round to answering them.

Best wishes,
Sawsen

 

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Thank you 🙂