In this blog post, I’m going to show you how to make a leopard print stencil cake.
My inspiration behind this cake was for my daughter’s 10th birthday.
The day before the party, I started baking my cake and preparing the buttercream.
I like to use American buttercream which is quick and easy to make.
If you want to try it out grab it here.
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In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to:
- Build a 3-layer cake
- Apply leopard stencil design
- Add finishing touches
What you’ll need to decorate the cake:
- Buttercream
- Leopard Stencil
- 10 year cake topper
- Fake flowers (purple and pink)
- Bench scraper/icing smoother
- Offset Spatula
- Turntable
The Cake:
I wanted this cake to be fun and colorful, I chose to go with funfetti cake flavor.
To make funfetti cake flavor, I added 1/4 cup of sprinkles to my vanilla cake batter.
Baking the cake:
I baked my cake in two 6-inch pans.
To prevent the cake from sticking to the pan cover the bottom of the pan with parchment paper.
If you notice a dome at the top of your cake layers after they are baked, trim that off so that you are left with an flat and straight surface on the top of the cake.
Once the cake is baked and cooled, remove it from the pan, and began leveling the cake layers.
Let’s get started.
Step 1: Building a three-layer cake
Once the cake layers are leveled, it’s time to fill them with buttercream.
Filling cake layers:
Be sure not to overfill the cake layers, especially if the filling you’re using is runny.
If there is too much filling, it can ooze out the cake and make a big mess.
Stacking cake layers:
After filling the first layer with buttercream, line up the second layer, and then repeat the same steps for the third layer.
Crumb coating:
Crumb coating not only locks in the crumbs; it’s literally the foundation of a cake.
Read next: How to Crumb Coat a Cake
Smoothing:
I call this part smoothing because this is where we will spend time smoothing the icing and creating those sharp edges on the top of the cake.
Here are two helpful blog posts to help you with smoothing a cake:
How to Create Smooth/Sharp Buttercream Edges
Step 2: Applying leopard print stencil design
Let’s talk about the leopard stencil design now that the cake building is complete.
Tip 1: To avoid running out of buttercream in the middle of decorating the cake, make sure to set aside extra.
Tip 2: Tip 2: Before using the stencil, make sure the cake is cold.
This is crucial because the stencil design may smear if the cake is too soft.
Hold the stencil against the cake and use your other hand to start spreading buttercream on top of the stencil.
Once it’s filled with buttercream, lightly use the icing smoother to scrape off the excess frosting.
You may need to do this a few times.
Then, carefully peel away the stencil.
Next, line the stencil up against the cake where you just left off, and start the process again of spreading the buttercream on the stencil, scraping it off, and peeling it away.
Keep doing this until the entire cake is filled with leopard print.
Place the cake in the fridge to chill.
Don’t worry if it doesn’t look right; you can easily scrape it off and start again.
NOTE: This was actually my first time using a stencil, and I think it came out pretty good.
I had a few smudges, but I did not stress about them.
With practice, you can only get better.
Step 3: Placing the finishing touches
Once my cake was chilled, I placed the topper and the flowers on the cake.
Watch the video below to see how I decorated this cake:
Want to stay connected? You can find me on Instagram @heavenmycake