Christmas Tree Cake Decorating and Baking Tutorial

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Christmas Tree
with Paul Bradford
Skill level: Intermediate
HD Lessons: 15
Decorating time: 2 hours (over 2 days, for drying time)
Now Playing
06:45

1. The Design and the Structure

To start us off Paul shows us step by step how to make the stand for the cake. You may want to get another pair of hands for this part but we’re sure you would be able to manage this fairly straight forward construction.
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11:10

2. Building and Carving the Cake

It’s ganache time! First of all however Paul shows us how to build up a steady cake and then it’s onto the carving and the ganaching! If you’re not sure how to get that nice fine point for the top of the cake then stay tuned for a little trick. We recommend inviting some friends round to help with the spares to take away any unwanted temptation.
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07:27

3. Smoothing the Cake and adding Sugarpaste

It’s all in the title really.but well worth a watch. Bare in mind that if it all comes together as planned you won’t be seeing any of the sugarpaste anyway so try not to get carried away with getting it seamless.
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06:24

4. Preparing and Icing the Board

In this lesson Paul shows us how to ice the board and as always he has some trick up his sleeve to make this a hassle free and straight forward exercise. Again, don’t get too caught up on perfectionism here as the board will be largely covered so once again just relax and have some fun.
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06:27

5. Adding Rice Paper to Cake

Now the fun really begins. In this lesson Paul begins to bring the design to life in a very simple but precise way. This stage requires quite a bit of time and attention to detail so get your focusing caps on have a cup of something hot and tasty at the ready.
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05:08

6. Making Hanging Snow Flakes for Cake Board

Now the cake is really coming to life isn’t it? You could stop here and have a lovely looking cake but why stop when we can make it completely spectacular?! Now it’s on to the the little things that really add the wow factor to the overall design.
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02:41

7. Making Snow Flakes for Christmas Tree

Here wee see how to make cute little snow flakes that will eventually be attached to the Christmas tree. Paul shows us a nice way to add extra bling and cuteness to the flakes that you can copy or change to your creative taste. Creative license has been given!
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02:29

8. Making Snow Flakes for the Board

In this lesson Paul begins to make some pretty fallen snow flakes for the bottom of the board that will then be beautifully arranged to really add to the overall design.
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14:09

9. Arranging the Snow Flakes on the Board

This really is an example of organised chaos and requires more than just making a bunch of snow flakes and sticking them any old place. Each one has to be pondered upon and dwelt over for at least 5 seconds. Have fun!
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03:25

10. Making Hanging Decorations for Board

It just keeps getting prettier and prettier and there’s still more to come! Now we’re on to adding beautiful hanging snow flakes to the board. Watch and learn how Paul gets them to hang securely without losing their prettiness.
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03:01

11. Attaching the rest of the Rice Paper

Don’t panic! Paul hasn’t finished with those hanging snow flakes quite yet. We need to get rid of those ugly glue marks and hide the cake board. Now it’s onto adding more pretty rice paper to bring it all together.
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04:43

12. Finishing off the Cake

We’re almost there! Ins’t it looking gorgeous? Well of course it is. Remember those cute snow flakes Paul made with the silver balls in the middle? Well now he’s going to start adding them and as well add some other touches that really complete the cake. One word…ribbon.
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03:18

13. The Final Touches

The final touches! So now it’s time to put the star on top of the cake and of course give it a little spray. I am sure you will agree that this cake is stunning and would be a great addition to your skill set. Go on, give it a try!
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02:34

14. Other Ideas

You can really see Paul get excited here with all the potential variations of this cake. There is a lot that can be done and the key word is “illumination” Just imagine this baby lit up. Wow! Imagine this cake twice the size and lit up AND at a wedding…double wow. Ok, I’m spoiling it now. Over to you Paul.
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01:01

15. Pro Lesson

The Pro lesson for the Christmas tree cake tutorial covers the costs, time to make  and a chat about merchandising the cake.

Join Paul as he shows us how to make a beautiful festive cake perfect for Christmas celebrations. Not only does it look beautiful but it is big feeder as well as of course being completely delicious. In this tutorial you will learn how to make a two 2 level cake stand using cake drums and a circular piece of wood, carving and ganaching a tree shape as well as covering with sugarpaste  As well you will learn how to create beautiful effects with rice paper. This would be a great cake to add to your CV and will come in handy every year without fail!

Paul Bradford

Paul Bradford

Paul Bradford´s mission is to ‘Empower people to achieve their cake decorating dreams’ by providing a range of cake decorating courses and online tutorials through their website, which currently teaches 195,000+ students.  
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