Does your classic carrot cake need a makeover? I’ve got three carrot cake decorating ideas for you to take your favorite Easter cake from boring and old-fashioned, to cute and modern!
Need a carrot cake recipe? Try my Simple Carrot Cake.
The Textured Petal Effect
I just LOVE this piping technique. You’ve probably seen a buttercream petal technique before, even if you didn’t know it at the time. This technique involves piping dots of buttercream in rows, then dragging them out with a spatula to make them look like scales or petals.
You can use a large round tip to make smooth petals, but an open star tip gives the petals an awesome texture. I like to use a Wilton 4B.
Pretty much any type of buttercream will work for the textured petal effect, even Cream Cheese Swiss Meringue Buttercream! And because it works with cream cheese buttercream, it’s great for carrot cake! Textured petals will make your carrot cake look elegant, while easily hiding any little piping mistakes.
To make the textured petal effect:
- Put your frosting in a piping bag fitted with a large open star tip like a Wilton 4B.
- Pipe a single row of dots all the way around the base of your cake. Try to keep the dots as even as possible.
- Using a spatula or a small spoon, carefully drag away from the center of each dot at an angle until the frosting tapers off.
- Continue piping rows of dots and then dragging them out until your whole cake is covered.
Candied Carrot Sprinkles
I have a confession: the first time I tested these candied carrots, I ate them all and they never made it onto a cake! Also, they only take about 10 minutes to make. So they’re tasty and easy to make, that’s a win in my book!
Candied carrot sprinkles are crunchy and slightly sweet. The bright orange looks great piled up on a layer cake, or sprinkled over frosted cupcakes.
To make these candied carrot sprinkles:
- Shred some extra carrot while prepping for your cake. You can shred them with the smaller or larger holes, but the finer shred will make them clump together a bit more during the cooking process.
- Bring about a cup or so of simple syrup (equal parts water and sugar) to a simmer in a small pot. The amount of syrup isn’t important, just make sure you have enough to cover the shredded carrot.
- Dump the shredded carrot into the syrup and cook at a simmer until the carrots are slightly softened. This should only take a few minutes.
- Strain shredded carrots. You can save the now carrot-flavored syrup to candy more carrots, or use it to sweeten drinks!
- Heat a few tablespoons of oil in a large pan. Fry the sweetened, shredded carrots until they start to crisp up. Stir the carrots around as they fry to prevent large clumps from forming.
- Transfer the carrots to a paper towel-lined plate to drain away the excess oil. Once they’re cool, they’re ready to use!
- Use these just like you would regular sprinkles. You may need to break them apart if they start to clump up while cooling.
Palette Knife Painted Carrots
Carrots are probably the easiest thing you could paint with a palette knife, especially since the palette knife painting style is a bit more abstract. As long as one end of your carrot is pointy, it’s gonna look like a carrot!
I did a mix of yellow, orange, and purple carrots, but obviously you could just go with orange if you’re not feeling adventurous. 🙂
To paint carrots with a palette knife:
- Before painting the cake, frost it with a nice smooth coat of frosting and let it chill in the fridge until the frosting was firm. This makes it easier to paint without messing up the base layer of frosting.
- Color a small amount of buttercream orange, yellow, purple, and green. You don’t need very much “paint” at all for this technique.
- To actually paint the carrots, grab a small bit of buttercream with your palette knife and dab it onto the cake, making one end a bit pointy and the other end a bit wider.
- Finish the carrot by feathering out a bit of green buttercream with the tip of your palette knife.
- Vary the colors and positions of your painted carrots for a balanced look.
- If you mess up, you can easily scrape the frosting off your chilled cake and try again!
No Comments