Cake textures, finishes and effects

Texture and finishes play a big part in cake design and adding certain icing finishes has become increasingly popular, particularly on wedding cakes.

Since the discovery of fondant, cakes have been elevated to a new level of edible art. While a beautiful smooth finished cake is elegant, with fondant you can also have additional textures to make a truly beautiful photo-worthy cake.

In this blog we explore different kinds of textures, finishes and effects:

• Ruffles
• Floral
• Quilted
• Dragees
• Stencil
• Confetti
• Gold Leaf
• Crystal Flakes
• Shimmer
• Swags
• Watercolour
• Lustre
• Bark
• Lace

Ruffles

Ruffles or frills create a beautiful scrunched fabric like texture. They come in different forms, and look great in any colour.

Each ruffle is rolled out, cut, and depending on the type of ruffle might be individually textured. Ruffles are a labour of love as they take time but look stunning when finished.  We can even create an ombre effect, which looks beautiful! These are great for all types of cake and are popular for wedding cakes.

Floral Textures

A romantic addition to any cake, our flower textures look stunning. They can be done as rose ruffles, mixed florals or a simple flower

Quilted

Quilted cakes suit all occasions (see some of our quilted wedding cakes), a simple texture that elevates a cake to look sophisticated and elegant.

Dragees / Sprinkles

Dragees are tiny sugar balls, sometimes called sugar pearls. They come in various different sizes in metallic, white or coloured options. These can be used as individual decorations to partially or completely cover a whole tier. Sprinkles or 100’s and 1000’s are miniature sugar strands, shapes or micro edible balls. Most often found on kids cakes or cupcakes.

Fun fact: Sprinkles are called funfetti in America which we think is a great name!

Stencil

Stenciling is a trend on the rise, it comes in lots of designs and gives a subtle finish to the cake tier

Confetti

This is a real party texture. These are tiny sugar discs with a subtle shimmer finish. Confetti comes in white, gold or rainbow colours. Cheaper than dragees, these can cover a cake completely or as a cascaded effect to give a fun and interesting texture.

Gold Leaf

Why not add a touch of glamour by adding gold or silver leaf to your cake?

Crystal Flakes

Crystal flakes can be done in lots of colours and add a shimmer texture to your cake that catch the light and give a real party feel.

Shimmer glitter

Glitter shimmer squares are tiny microcrystal squares with a pearlescent finish that shimmer in the light and make the cake look like it glitters.

Swags

We can create swags of icing, placed equidistant around the edge of a cake they give a regal texture, often popular on our princess or wedding cakes. We can also fold the icing to resemble draped fabric hanging down the cake in swags.

Watercolour

With food colouring we can add a watercolour effect to your cake. It is a great effect to add some fun, inject some colour and give the cake a more rustic effect.

Lustre

Lustre finishes are completely smooth and give a metallic or pearescent effect to your cake.

Bark

For something completely different we can even make the cake look like bark. Either a knarly old tree stump or a light, bright silver birch, who knew there were so many different types of bark? This realistic texture makes these cakes a real talking piece; wonderful for a rustic wedding.

Lace

Cake lace is an edible icing containing glucose and starch. It begins as a paste which is poured in pretty moulds. Once set it keeps its shape but is soft and flexible allowing it to wrap around a cake. It creates a beautiful texture with added glamour.

Textured Cake Gallery

More of our textured cakes can be seen in our wedding cake gallery.

Remember you don’t have to choose just one texture, if you want dragees, ruffles, flowers AND quilting, then have it all!!!