How to make a Basket Weave Decoration on a Cake

Thank you for taking a few moments to leave your comments and for all your compliments regarding the Basket Weave Cake. They are of great motivation for me to continue to share with you what I like and do as hobby....and that is to share my recipes in this Blog. Your visits and comments are always welcome. 


Today I would like to share in a more detailed manner the Basket Weave Technique. I hope to encourage you to do this at home. It was one of the first techniques that I learned and one that I personally love. I hope that this entry would be very helpful, and any suggestion or idea that you can contribute is more then welcome : D 

Para leer esta entrada de como hacer la technica de Cesta o Canasta en un Bizcocho en Español clic aquí. 

The size or shape of tips may be changed to suit the style you are trying to achieve. Keep in mind that the smaller the tip, the more work and time it will take to decorate the cake.  The following is only a guide. 

Basket Weave Decorating Tips of Ateco:  (These are double use tips, meaning that you can use either side of these tips to achieve different styles)

# 48 # 46

Note: There are bigger Basket Weave decorating tips like the # 898, # 789 and #790, but the tips I listed above and use for this post are the ones that are used most frequent. 

Start with a cake that has been crumb coated and frosted on top. You would then have to measure and mark the spaces on the cake where you want the row of basket weaves to go. This will ensure that the spacing is right and at even distance. 


You can make the markings with wooden skewer or a decorating spatula. There are no set rules for dividing your cake, do it as you please. For a tighter basket weave make your markings closer together and for a looser weave mark them farther apart. 


For a square or rectangle cake you could us a ruler to make the markings, or eyeball it. For the round cake it is easier to divide in half, then in quarter and so forth. I am sure you can come up with a right way for you. I have learned that "a good decorator makes things aesthetically pleasing and not necessarily perfect".

Option I Basket Weave Technique in a Cake: 

Tips: # 48 and # 46

Above: Tip # 46

Below: I mark spaces with tip # 48 to know where the next line will go.

It is pretty much the same thing over and over again, but alternating the spaces.

Option II Basket Weave Technique in a Cake:

Tips: # 48  and Round Tip # 6

• You could use tip # 22 to do a Rope o Shell border.
 

• To see the Wicker Basket Weave Tecnique clic here. 
















I recommend: http://cooksdream.com/store/tipslbask.html

  

I would love to hear about your experiences in using this technique and feel free to share photos of your Basket Weave Cake in our group in Facebook. YES yours and mine.

I invite you to visit my other blog, Living in God's Grace.
 

Crumb Coat

En español clic aquí.

A crumb coat is used as the base to get a smooth even surface for you to frost.

Having a smooth surface without any small crumbs makes your cake a much nicer and easier place to work on. It helps to avoid having crumbs everywhere on the cake and damaging the clean and white appearance of the frosting.

There are different methods recommended in what to use as a crumb coat. Some decorators use a thin layer of piping gel or apricot jelly to help secure the surface. If you choose to use the apricot preserves I suggest you warmed it slightly. You can also use this method to prepare a cake for fondant.

Another type of crumb coat is to use thinned frosting or buttercream. I always use  Dominican Frosting / Italian meringue or Buttercream to crumb coat. The suspiro/meringue does not stick well to the cake if you use gel, jelly or preserves as a crumb coat, so don't use these if you are going to frost the cake with meringue. When using suspiro, frost as soon as you finish crumb coating. For all other frosting, you could wait a few minutes or following day for to frost. I leave you with the following pictures of how I crumb coat and I hope that it will be of much help to you. 

Note: As you practice and acquire experience, this step could be omitted and only done when necessary. By placing a large amount of frosting, you can easily glide the spatula without touching the cake to prevent crumbs from sticking.

Steps: First use a pastry brush or fingers to brush off any loose crumbs on the cake. Then seal the surface of the cake with a thin layer of the crumb coating.

See No crumbs on Frosting!

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Cake Leveling

Si quieres leer esta entrada en español clic aquí.

Using a Serrated Knife

Place the cake on a cake board, and then place the board on a cake stand. While slowly rotating the cake stand, move the knife back and forth across the top of cake in a sawing motion to remove the crown. Try to keep the knife level as you cut

                                                                 
Using a Cake Leveler

Place the cake on a cake board. Position the ends of the feet on the large cake leveler into the notches at the desired height. With legs standing on the work surface, cut into the crusted edge using an easy sawing motion, then proceed by gently gliding wire through the cake. Torting is easy with this tool

Torting the Cake

Once your cake is baked, use a Cake Leveler or Serrated knife to cut off crowns and to torte into equal sections for filling.Follow the same directions as Leveling. To separate layers, carefully slide the top torted layer onto a Cake Circle. Repeat the process for each additional layer.

 Next Technique:
Crumb Coat for a Smooth Cake Finish

Carboard Circles for Cakes

Si quieres leer esta entrada en español clic aquí.

These circles are made of corrugated cardboard with the same shape of the cake. If you are going to cover the cake with fondant or need cardboard as a divider between levels of a tiered cake, you’ll need to cut the same size of the baking pan you made the cake in. If the
cake is going to be frosted with any type of icing and will have borders, then a 1 to 1 ½ inch allowance is needed all around.

The following pictures will give you an idea of how to do them yourselves. I prefer to make my cardboards two or three layers thick to give it more support and to allow me to use a decorative ribbon all around the edge. They can be covered with aluminum. Since I make many cakes for neighbors, I have made a few of ½ inch thick plywood in the sizes I most commonly use. It could also be covered with colorful decorative contact paper to match with the decorations of the cake.