Tutorial Preview
Bite sized
Watch Paul make his Coral Reef cake in just one minute!
Highlights
Highlights from the Coral Reef cake course.
1. Carving the cake
In lesson Paul takes you through the stages to get the basic shape of the coral reef and ganache the cake off camera for the next lesson.
2. Ganaching
Off camera Paul applied 2 thin coats of ganache to the cake. In this lesson we finish covering the cake and board with ganache then smooth it all off.
3. Creating the chocolate coral
Time to get creative as Paul shares his cool technique to making the coral using ice and ganache!
4. Texturing the cake
To give the coral some time to set Paul adds texture to the cake to give it a rocky effect.
5. Adding the chocolate coral
The coral has now set and is ready to be placed on the cake.
6. Airbrushing
Paul brings out the airbrush and begins to add some colour to the coral.
7. making the gravel
In this lesson Paul uses a very interesting technique to make the gravel for the coral reef. Make sure to have a blender handy!
8. Making soft coral
Paul uses modelling paste to add more variations of the coral to the cake.
9. Making the fish
Paul shows you how to make different types of fish for the coral reef including the famous clown fish.
10. Airbrushing the coral
Time to bring out the airbrush as we begin to give colour to the coral.
11. Painting the fish
In this lesson Paul uses paint to bring the fish to life. You’ll be shown how to paint the clown fish, zebra fish and Paul’s very own fantasy fish!
12. Bringing it all together
All the hard work has finally paid off as it’s time to bring this magnificent cake together.
13. Other ideas
Some more ideas for the Coral Reef cake.
14. Pro Lesson
Everything a Pro needs to know about making and distributing a cake like this.
Coral Reef Cake Tutorial
Learn how to make this coral reef cake with the multi-award winning Paul Bradford. With lots of cool skills and techniques to learn, this is one cake tutorial that will take your cake decorating to new depths.
Inspired by a trip to the coral reef in Australia, this cake is perfect for fans of the sea.
In the following tutorial, you will learn how to:
- Carve cakes
- Make a coral from chocolate
- Create a sugar paste coral
- gravel & airbrush
- And much, much more
Don’t forget to share your interpretations of this wonderful cake with Paul and the rest of the CakeFlix community on our Facebook group.
View hundreds of more world-class tutorials only at www.cakeflix.com.
Coral Reef Wedding Cake downloadable tools and ingredients
Other US to metric and Metric to US
Cake
- 8” square chocolate cake
- 6” square chocolate cake
- 6” round chocolate cake
Cake Drum
- 14” round
Ganache
- 1.4kg white chocolate ganache
Sugarpaste
- 150g Ivory
- 500g White
- 50g beige
- 50g pink
- 50g bottle green
- 50g brown
- 50g blue
- 50g purple
Modelling Paste
- 1kg
Luster Dust Colours
- Sugar Flare; Royal Gold, Gold Rush, Antique Gold
- Fractal Colors Sparkling Gold
Petal dust colours
- Rainbow dust black magic
- Rainbow dust lemon tart
- Rainbow dust snow drift
- The sugarmill orangeade
- The sugarmill sherbet lemon
- Sunflower sugar art orange
- Fractal colours lagoon blue
Airbrush Colours
- Skin tone pallet – ethanol based – Spectrum Flow
- Peach Melba – ethanol based – Spectrum Flow
- Red – ethanol based – Spectrum Flow
- Sky blue – ethanol based – Spectrum Flow
- Lavender – ethanol based – Spectrum Flow
- Hot Pink – ethanol based – Spectrum Flow
- Orange – ethanol based – Spectrum Flow
- Turquoise – ethanol based – Spectrum Flow
- Latte – ethanol based – Spectrum Flow
- Mint green – ethanol based – Spectrum Flow
- Light blush – ethanol based – Spectrum Flow
- Sage green – ethanol based – Spectrum Flow
- Smokey blue – ethanol based – Spectrum Flow
Other
- 28% minimum cocoa
- 2kg white chocolate
Knives
- Palette knife (large and small)
- Sharp cutting knife
- Serrated knife (large)
Modelling Tools
- PME set
Paint brushes
- Large fan brush
- #6 paintbrush
- #3 paintbrush
- #1 paintbrush
Cakey Tools
- Plastic cake smoothers
- Rolling pin
- Acetate smoothers
Other
- Airbrush
- 96% alcohol
- 26 gauge white florist wire
- Wire cutters
- 1 wooden bamboo dowel
- Cocktail sticks
- 3 bags of cocktail ice
- Blender
- 2 large deep baking trays
Comments
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Loved this tutorial Paul, made me giggle when you was telling the story of the both of you going snorkeling (you wanted other people in front of you so if there’s sharks they’ll get eaten first ? also you laughed at David ?
I have a returning customer contact me as she wants me to make her wedding cake next year, she is getting married in Antigua but wants a party at home so I’m hoping I can persuade her to have this or similar, as I so want to make it. Im even contemplating making it for an ornament ? such a joy to watch, thank you xx
Loooove this tutorial, especially for the joy it gives you to make it!!
Thank you, I learned a lot!!
Loved this one! Was very pleased with my end result and that’s all down to your excellent tutorial!
Brilliant! Thanks for having a go and sharing x