I’m becoming a little bit obsessed with terrazzo. It’s exactly the kind of design I like for cakes because it’s SUPER forgiving aka you don’t need to be an artist to make it look good.
If you don’t know what terrazzo is, it’s a type of flooring where a bunch of small chips and bits of different stones are all mixed together. I think it was popular back in the 70’s or 80’s, and I’m pretty sure in real life I’ve only seen it in older buildings. But now it’s starting to pop up more and more, so I think it’s going to become trendy again! I even included terrazzo cakes in my Trends to Look Out for in 2020.
I’ve seen a few other terrazzo cake designs, but mine in 100% buttercream. I used Swiss meringue buttercream for this cake, although I think you could use any kind of buttercream you like. To get the terrazzo pattern onto my cake, I simply created the pattern on a piece of parchment paper, then transferred it to my cake and smoothed everything out.
You can watch the whole process in the video below or read on for more detail instructions.
How to Make a Buttercream Terrazzo Cake
Measure and Cut a Transfer Paper
To transfer the terrazzo pattern onto your cake, you will need to cut a piece of paper that fits around the sides of your cake.
The cake I used was 6 inches in diameter and about 4 3/4 inches tall. I also included the width of my frosting, which I knew would be about 1/4 inch thick.
So to figure out the circumference of my cake, I multiplied the diameter (6+1/4+1/4) times 3.14 and ended up with about 20.41 inches. Knowing the height of my cake was about 4 3/4 inches, that meant my transfer paper would need to be about 20 1/2 inches by 4 3/4 inches.
I used parchment paper for my template because that’s what I had, but you could also use wax paper or acetate.
Create the Terrazzo Pattern
For my terrazzo design I picked out a pastel color palette. I decided to make the background a light pink, while the design would be darker pink, blue, yellow, and white.
You only need a very, very small amount of each color to complete the design. But since it’s kind of hard to color very small amounts of frosting, I made extra. You can always store the leftover buttercream for another project.
To apply the design to the paper I used a small palette knife to dab on bits of buttercream. A spoon, a paintbrush, or a piping bag would also work. Again, this is a super forgiving design with no exact shapes to make!
A few tips for getting the best design:
- vary the size of your little buttercream dabs to make the design look more realistic
- keep the dabs of buttercream thin so that they will be easy to press onto your cake later
- try and have fairly even spacing throughout the design
If you want some very tiny specks on your design, melt a little bit of the buttercream and use a paintbrush to splatter the buttercream onto your paper.
Once the design is finished, set it aside while you frost your cake.
Frost the Cake
You’ll want to frost your cake with a really smooth, even layer of frosting. You’ll be pressing the terrazzo design into this base layer of frosting, so it’s important to start off with a nice base.
Do not chill the frosted cake, as you want the buttercream to be nice and soft when you apply the terrazzo design.
Briefly Chill the Terrazzo Pattern
When you’re just about finished frosting the cake, place your terrazzo design into the fridge for 2-3 minutes. You want the design to be just slightly firmer than the buttercream on your cake. This way you will be able to press the design into the frosting, but it won’t be so stiff that it doesn’t bend with the curve of the cake.
Apply the Transfer
Grab the transfer paper by the corners and carefully lift it towards the cake.
Start by getting one short end lined up on the cake, then gently smooth the paper on the whole way around.
Once the paper is on the cake, you need to press the pattern into the buttercream. I used a fondant smoother but you could use anything flat. Just be careful not to push any sharp edges into the buttercream.
Once the design is smoothed out, transfer the cake to the fridge or freezer and let chill until the buttercream is completely firm.
Remove the Transfer Paper and Add Finishing Touches
Once everything is chilled and completely firm, you can peel away the paper!
If you’re impatient like me and you end up peeling the paper away too soon, you might end up with a rougher texture. It’s easy to fix though, just gently scrape around the cake with a hot spatula or cake scraper. This will take away the outermost layer of frosting and make everything look nice and smooth.
At this point you can add any finishing touches or leave the cake as is. I didn’t add any terrazzo pattern to the top of my cake, so instead I piped a quick border with a Wilton 4B.
If you wanted to have the terrazzo pattern on top as well, you can use the same method with a round of parchment paper.
And that’s it! I thought this was a pretty easy design overall. If you try it out, take a picture and tag me @bakingbutterlylove on Instagram so I can see!
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