Gravity Defying Sea Turtle Cake Decorating and Baking Tutorial

In this lesson, Danielle shows us how to put the gravity-defying board together. You should assemble this away from your food. 

Here, Danielle makes the structure ‘food safe’ and then adds pieces of wire to create a structure for the head and flippers.

In this lesson, Danielle makes the fins from sugarpaste mixed with tylose powder and then secures them to the structure with bamboo skewers. She then forms the head with homemade rice krispie treats. Yum!

In this lesson, Danielle adds the cake to the top of the structure and carves it to shape. She then adds a nice thick layer of ganache to the cake and sets it aside to set before covering it.

Danielle now brings the turtle to life by creating its face using simple techniques that very quickly turn a piece of sugarpaste into a turtle.

Here, we see just how nicely you can blend and cover a cake using a mixture of sugarpaste with a little white modelling chocolate.

It’s always a good idea to have a picture to hand to use as a reference. As no matter how well you think you know something, you can easily forget importanr details.

Using a simple modelling tool Danielle then shapes the famous diamonds. Turning her cake into a turtle shell.

Using green and yellow airbrush paints Danielle begins to bring colour to the turtle and builds it up slowly. Always start slow and try not to add too much at a time.

In this lesson, we learn a great way to paint the shell with speed and accuracy using one of the cheapest tools there is. Watch to find out!

In this lesson, Danielle finishes painting the turtle’s head by adding extra detail to the eyes as well as adding character and age to its face. In this final lesson, Danielle creates the coral in a very clever way using tin foil and 8” cake pop sticks. She then covers them in lovely coloured sugarpaste and finishes it all by adding some sand to the scene.

Danielle shares some other ideas you can try out during this project. We’re sure you’ve some of your own, and we’d love to see what brilliant alterations you’ve made.

Share your pics with us on our Facebook page.

In this lesson, Paul shares some insider information about the cost of make this cake. She also discusses pricing, portions and other vital information for any professional cake designer.