Sugarpaste CakeFlix Diploma
For the past few years, buttercream cakes have dominated our social media feeds. We’ve seen rustic finishes, palette-knife flowers, vintage piping and deliberately imperfect textures everywhere. Meanwhile, sugarpaste, often called fondant, has sometimes been
dismissed as dated, too sweet or something guests simply peel off before eating.
But cake decorating trends have a habit of coming full circle. Designs are becoming taller, bolder and more detailed again, so could sugarpaste be ready for a comeback? Did it ever really go?
Paul has never fallen out of love with sugarpaste
Anyone familiar with Paul Bradford’s work will know that he has always preferred covering cakes with sugarpaste onto ganache. For Paul, it provides the perfect canvas on which to create sharp edges, clean lines and intricate decorative finishes.
His love of ganache began at Truly Scrumptious Designer Cakes when Liz Russel came over from Planet Cake in Australia to work alongside him. Liz introduced Paul to using ganache beneath sugarpaste and, quite simply, he has never looked back.
At the time, using ganache this way wasn’t nearly as familiar to UK cake decorators as it is today. Paul quickly appreciated the strength and stability it brought to a cake. Once set, ganache creates a firm, beautifully smooth foundation that makes covering with sugarpaste much easier.
As Paul would tell you, a great sugarpaste finish starts long before the sugarpaste touches the cake. If the ganache underneath isn’t level, smooth and properly prepared, the covering will expose every bump rather than hide it.
Why did buttercream become so popular?
Buttercream feels approachable, tastes familiar and suits the relaxed decorating styles that have become popular online. It can be piped, textured, painted and coloured, while small imperfections often add to its charm.
Buttercream cake tutorial
Sugarpaste is less forgiving. It can tear, crack, stretch or develop the dreaded elephant skin. Achieving sharp edges takes patience and practice. But that challenge is also part of its appeal. Learning to cover a cake properly gives decorators a skill they can use across everything from wedding cakes to novelty and sculpted designs.
Our friends Valeri and Cristina from the Queen of Hearts Couture Cakes (makers of the buttercream cake tutorial) have clearly shown what a cake artist can do when covering a cake in buuttercream . The art, the skill and finesse make for a special finish.
Why sugarpaste still deserves its place
Modern sugarpaste can be rolled much more thinly than the thick coverings many people remember from supermarket celebration cakes. Paired with a well-made cake and delicious ganache, it doesn’t have to overpower the flavour.
It also offers creative possibilities that are difficult to achieve with buttercream alone. Drapes, bows, panels, embossed patterns, painted details, models and precise geometric finishes all benefit from the smooth, stable surface sugarpaste provides.
Paul is also firmly of the view that the finish should suit the design. Buttercream is perfect for some cakes, while ganache and sugarpaste are the better choice for others. Cake decorating doesn’t need a winner and a loser.
So, is fondant making a comeback? We think it probably is, although perhaps it never truly disappeared. As decorators rediscover structured cakes, vintage details and ambitious designs, sugarpaste is once again showing exactly what it can do. Preference is often motivated by personal choice rather than trend, but trends have seen movement in both directions so both certainly have their place.
What do you prefer: buttercream or sugarpaste?
