Blog

Fondant stone texture on a cake with a gold geode crystal

Making a  fondant stone texture on a cake is one of my favorite techniques because there's not really a wrong way to do it. Re-creating natural textures is super fun and easier than you think. This fondant stone texture was inspired by the work of Jasmine Rae Cakes who is pretty much the master of stone textures. I love the addition of the small flowers that she uses a lot in her work. It definitely softens the look of the stone texture. 

I am creating this stone texture with fondant but you can also make a stone texture with ganache or buttercream. My friend Christine Leaming has an awesome tutorial for making a marble buttercream texture on cakes.

Lately, cakes that resemble stone or concrete have really been taking off in popularity. I've made so many cakes that resemble rock and stone that I'm starting to think that stone texture on cakes is the new rustic birch cake. I'm 100% ok with that. 

What tools do you need to make a fondant stone texture cake

Making the fondant stone texture is really easy. Like for real. This is what you need to make a stone textured fondant cake. 

1. 6" cake, frosted with buttercream and chilled until firm (watch my how to make your first cake tutorial)
2. White, black and grey fondant
3. Some old dried fondant (I left some grey in an open zip-lock bag for two days)
4. Sanding sugar
5. Culinary torch
6. White food coloring
7. Gold dust (I use TMP super gold which is non-toxic or you can use edible artist decorative paints which is edible but not quite as shiny)
8. Rock candy
9. Geode crystal mold (optional)
10. Isomalt or lollipop sugar (about 6 ounces)
11. Small flower mold
12. Aluminum foil

How to make the gold geode

The first thing we want to do is make the gold geode. I used to cut out a wedge of cake, add on some buttercream and then painstakingly add rock candy one by one! Such a mess! Now I just roll out a piece of fondant, push the rock candy into the surface and then apply that whole chunk to the area where I cut out the cake. 

For the gold crystal on top of the cake, I poured some extra isomalt that I had leftover into my large crystal mold. This mold is kind of expensive because it's so big but there are two other sizes (medium and small) that would work just as well!

Let your sugar crystal cool completely before taking it out of the mold.

How to make the fondant stone texture

I'm adding some fondant to my chilled cake in pieces. Almost like we are paneling because you want to leave some of those raw and torn edges visible. Don't worry about any tearing or holes, those actually make the cake look better. Check out the full video tutorial below for a demonstration. 

1. So to make the stone texture, all you have to do is kind of marble together some white, grey and a TINY bit of black with your dried out fondant. I rolled mine out to about ⅛" thick to start with. 
2. Then add some sanding sugar on top and push that into the surface of the fondant with your rolling pin. 
3. Next, you'll want to torch the surface of the fondant a bit so that you get a nice crackle texture when you roll it out more. 
4. Lightly brush the surface of the fondant with some white food coloring.
5. Let it dry for a bit then roll out the fondant to 1/16" thick. 
6. Attach the fondant to the cake (spray the buttercream with water if it's not sticking) Don't be afraid to let some natural tears and gaps happen.
7. Use some of your leftover fondant to make some flowers with your mold. Cluster them on top of the fondant with a little water anywhere you think looks nice. Finish by lightly brushing with some white food coloring.

Finishing the fondant stone texture cake

The last thing was placed the large sugar crystal mold on top of the cake. This kind of finishes the look of the cake and makes a nice focal point. I mixed some of my gold dust with some everclear until it's about the consistency of chocolate milk. Thick but not... too thick? you want it to cover the sugar evenly. 

Then paint over the rest of rock candy geode and any of the areas where there are gaps in the fondant. This gives the illusion that there are veins of gold running through the stone. 

And that's it! That's how you make fondant stone texture on a cake. Obviously you can switch up this design and do a lot of creative things with that stone texture. If you use this tutorial, please tag me @sugargeekshow so I can see them! I love to see what you creative people can do!

Panel A Square Cake In Fondant And Keep Those Sharp Edges And Corners

Have you ever spent forever getting the perfect buttercream edges on your square cake only to cover it in fondant and lose all that hard work? Sometimes a soft corner on a square cake is just fine but if you're making buildings or just need SUPER sharp edges, maybe you should try paneling! 

Paneling is also a great way to cover your cake in fondant without the stress of the fondant tearing on the corners. Some beginners prefer paneling over covering with one piece of fondant. You can also panel with modeling chocolate! Yum! 

What is paneling?

Paneling is simply covering your frosted cake and chilled cake in multiple pieces of fondant or modeling chocolate instead of one. You can also panel round cakes in fondant. I also like to panel double barrel cakes that are super tall. 

How do you panel a square cake in fondant?

What You Need

• Square cake frosted and chilled until the buttercream (or ganache) is very hard
• Fondant or modeling chocolate 
• Brand new razor blade or x-acto blade
• Rolling pin
• Fondant smoother
• Cake cardboards 
• Ruler
• X-acto blade
• Parchment Paper
• Turntable 

Step 1

First, we need to roll out our fondant to about ⅛" thick. Try to keep your fondant in the shape of a square. I am paneling an 8" square cake. We're going to panel the top of the cake first to reduce the visible seams from the front of the cake. Trim your fondant into a square about 9"x9" so you have a little excess to work with. Place the fondant in the freezer for about 10-15 minutes.

Step 2

Roll out another piece of fondant in the same way. I measured my cake and it's about 5" tall and 8" wide so I cut my fondant to be 6" tall and 9" wide. Make sure the bottom is trimmed nice and straight so that it lines up with the bottom of the cake easily. Place the fondant onto a cake board and into the freezer. Make three more of these panels for the other sides of the cake until you have a total of four fondant panels. 

Step 3

Take your top panel out of the freezer and lay it on top of the cake. It should be very firm and not bend. Work quickly because the cold fondant can start to sweat. Make sure your room is as cold as possible when doing this technique to reduce sweating. 

Place a piece of parchment paper on top of the cake and then a cardboard round. Flip the whole cake over so that you can trim the fondant to the exact size of the cake (see video for demonstration). Don't worry, flipping a chilled cake does not harm it in any way. I have flipped cakes up to 16" in size. After that, they get a little too heavy to flip. 

After trimming away the excess fondant, flip the cake back over. 

Step 4

Take your next fondant panel and place it against the side of the cake. Use your fondant smoother to press the fondant to the buttercream and make a good connection. If you are using American buttercream or ganache, you may need to mist the surface with water before attaching the fondant to get it to stick. 

Now use your sharp razor blade to trim the excess fondant off. The trick is to keep the blade flat against the side of the fondant as a guide as you cut. 

Step 5

After trimming your fondant, you may notice a gap between the side panel and top panel. To close this gap, use your fondant smoothers to push the two edges together. If your fondant is getting too sweaty, you can dust it with a cornstarch poof to help soak up some of the moisture. 

Repeat this process with the remaining three panels and you're done! 

Paneling a square cake this way is a bit more time-consuming than covering a square cake in one piece of fondant but it does result in super sharp and clean corners so the extra time is worth it. 

Visual learner? Watch my video tutorial on how to panel a square cake using fondant

Room Temperature Ingredients Equal Recipe Success

Taking the time to bring ingredients to room temperature (about 70ºF) can feel annoying and often times even I forget. You might be tempted to just skip this step but trust me, recipe success depends on room temperature ingredients. These are my tips for quickly bringing ingredients to room temperature quickly. 

Do I really need room temperature ingredients?

If you've made any of my recipes (or most recipes in general) you may have read that you need room temperature ingredients. Usually, things like eggs, butter, and milk but can also include ingredients like sour cream, egg whites or mayonnaise. 

The reason behind all this warming of ingredients? Creating an Emulsion. When you combine two or more ingredients that don't normally mix together (like oil and water) and getting them to stay mixed, you've created an emulsion. 

Mayonnaise is a great example of a simple emulsion. If you just mixed egg yolks and oil together with a fork, the oil would separate from the eggs. But if the oil is added slowly while continuously whisking, the oil and egg yolk becomes a new mixture and it will not separate. This is the emulsion. 

What happens when you don't have room temperature ingredients?

When ingredients are different temperatures, they do not like to mix. Bringing ingredients to the same temperature helps them to combine together. The reason recipes often say "room temperature" is because most ingredients in a recipe are room temperature already unless they have been refrigerated. 

If you don't bring ingredients to room temperature, you end up with cold chunks of butter in your frosting, uneven baking, flat cakes, and curdled buttercream. 

If you've ever tried to combine cold fruit reduction or curd with buttercream you may notice the two do not mix well and it appears curdled. 

But if you warm the fruit up a little and then mix it with the buttercream, suddenly it all comes together.

When all the ingredients in your recipe are the same temperature they come out better. Cake batters are smoother and ingredients and air are distributed evenly. Cakes and cupcakes rise better and have a better texture. 

Sometimes in my Cake Newbs baking group, someone will post a photo of a cake with an oily, wet layer at the bottom and ask what went wrong. 99% of the time the reason is that one of their ingredients were not room temperature. Usually the eggs. This causes the batter to curdle and split during baking. The oil settles at the bottom, the cake has a coarse texture and doesn't rise very well. 

How do you bring ingredients to room temperature?

Usually, you would bring anything cold to room temperature a few hours before you need to use them. Depending on how hot or cold your room is, this could take quite a while. I don't know about you but I very rarely think about bringing ingredients to room temperature until it's too late.

Don't worry, you can still warm up your ingredients really quickly using some simple methods. 

How to bring butter to room temperature

Butter is a very common (and delicious) ingredient in most baked goods. Depending on what you're making, it's usually at room temperature. The reason? Well, it's really hard to get butter to combine with anything when it's cold and hard as a rock. 

Butter is one of the most common oil-based ingredients that we use in recipes to create all kinds of emulsions. Here are some of the most common. 

• Creaming butter with sugar to trap air and develop a cake structure
• Creaming butter with cream cheese and powdered sugar to create cream cheese frosting
• Whipping butter with egg whites and powdered sugar to make easy buttercream

If you're thinking ahead, you can take your butter out of the fridge and leave it on the countertop overnight to allow it to come to room temperature. 

You can also cut your cold butter up into cubes and leave it at room temperature and it will soften in about 30 minutes on its own. In a hurry? Fill a glass bowl with hot water for 5 minutes, then drain the water and dry the bowl. Place the bowl over the butter and it will be room temperature in a few minutes. 

Short on time and lazy? (That's me). I put my butter in the microwave while it's still wrapped in paper. I buy my butter in the big 1 pound blocks so I start with 30 seconds then rotate the butter and reduce my power to 50% and continue heating in 10 second increments until it's softened. 

For smaller cubes of butter, you'd use less time. Butter is properly softened when you can impress your finger into the surface and it leaves an indent but the overall cube holds its shape.

The risk with microwaving is that you can easily over-heat it and melt your butter. Melted butter has the same problems as cold butter and does not combine well with other ingredients so be careful. 

How to bring cream cheese to room temperature

Have you ever read a recipe that said to use room temperature cream cheese and you thought nah... I don't really need to. So you just put the cold cream cheese in the bowl with the butter and thought if you just mixed it long enough it would all work out only to discover lumps of cream cheese that would NEVER mix in? 

Yea.. me either *cough*

So yea if you want to bring your cream cheese to room temperature just cut it into cubes and put it on a warm plate or on the oven while it's preheating. It only takes about 15 minutes to warm up. 

How to bring eggs to room temperature

Cold eggs can ruin a buttercream or cake batter really quickly. When you add cold eggs into softened butter, they can cause the butter to harden in chunks and ruin your emulsion. Cold eggs also do not whip up very well so if you're trying to make a meringue or trap a lot of air, bring your eggs to room temperature first. 

For eggs in the shell, I place them into a bowl of warm water for 5-10 minutes. Usually for as long as it takes me to scale out my other ingredients for the recipe. 

For egg whites, I measure them out in a measuring cup and then place the measuring cup into a bowl of warm water. 

How to bring milk to room temperature

This one is super simple. I just microwave it after I measure it out in my glass measuring cup. Usually, 30 seconds is enough for about 8 ounces of milk. If you have a super-powerful microwave go for less time or reduce the power. 

Other ingredients like sour cream, mayonnaise, and fruit curd

Usually, you don't need a lot of these ingredients in recipes so you can get away with taking them out about an hour before you need them and they will warm up pretty quickly.

If you're short on time, measure out what you need and place into a warmed bowl (warm with hot water for 5 minutes then dry). 

What about hot ingredients like ganache, freshly made curd, and custard?

Sometimes room temperature means cooling the ingredients instead of warming. For instance, in my chocolate cake recipe, you have to add boiling water to cocoa powder and then let it cool. This can take an annoyingly long time to cool. Same thing with chocolate ganache if you want to use it as a frosting. 

The best way to cool down hot mixtures it to pour them into a large, cold pan. I like to use large cake pans. This spreads the mixture out so it has more surface area exposed to the air and allows the heat to disperse quickly. 

You can also put the mixture in the fridge to speed things up but be careful or you might have the opposite problem on your hands. 

How to make a square cake with acrylics

Get a perfectly square cake with acrylics in half the time. I'm using my white cake recipe and easy buttercream but this process also works great with chocolate ganache or white chocolate ganache. 

What are square acrylics?

Acrylics for cake decorating are basically square (or round) pieces of plastic that allow you to create perfectly smooth icing on your cakes. You'll have the exact same amount of icing all the way around your cake, and extremely sharp edges. Acrylics are food-safe, durable and clear. 

It's a little bit more prep work to use acrylics than the upside-down technique, but it makes the process of getting super sharp corners that much easier and saves a lot of time. 

Tools you will need to make a square cake with acrylics

• Two acrylic discs in whatever cake sizes you are making. For a 6" square cake, I use 6" acrylics because my cakes tend to shrink a bit and I trim them. 
• One square cake cardboard. I trim mine down from a quarter sheet board but you can purchase square cake boards.
• Painters tape (or any tape will do, I like painters tape because it releases easily)
• Parchment Paper
• 2 bench scrapers taller than your finished cake tier
• Turntable
• Offset spatula

I have already pre-baked my two square cakes, let them cool and trimmed off the brown edges (optional) and cut them in half length-wise.

I am frosting with my easy buttercream recipe. If you want to learn more about making a cake from start to finish, check out my how to make your first cake tutorial. 

Where can you buy square acrylics?

Cake Safe has great acrylics for square and round cakes as well as a lot of info on how to use their products. They are made of high-quality ¼" acrylic. 

How to use square acrylics

Lots of people have complained about acrylics sticking to their cakes. It's very important to understand that the acrylics are meant to be a guide for your scrapers but they need to be properly prepped first.

I wrap mine with parchment paper so that they don't stick, other people just cut a piece of parchment to the same size as the acrylic.

1. Cut a square piece of parchment that is 2" bigger than the square acrylic. Cut the corners off of the parchment, fold the sides onto your acrylic, and tape it down. Make sure your parchment is flat and tight with no wrinkles.
2. Your cake board should be a little smaller than the acrylic so that the buttercream covers the cake board. For a 6" cake, my boards are 5 ¾" square.
3. Place your first acrylic tape side down onto the turntable with a non-skid underneath. 
4. Put a little bit of frosting on the acrylic then put your cake board on top of the acrylic and center it. *NOTE* you can also crumb coat your square cake on the cake board FIRST then place it onto the acrylic. 
5. Then place your first cake layer on the cake board and put an even layer of frosting. You can use a piping tip if you're not comfortable with putting ¼ inch buttercream right on there. Just make sure your buttercream layers are even and flat. 
6. Continue layering cakes and buttercream.
7. Place a thick layer of frosting on your second acrylic and place that on top of your cake. Push down to make a good connection. Use a level to make sure the acrylic is level on top of the cake. 
8. Use your bench scrapers to make sure the top acrylic lines up with the bottom acrylic. 
9. Fill in the sides with more buttercream and chill until firm. About 20 minutes. 

How to get sharp edges using square acrylics

Once your cake is chilled, now it's time to refine those corners!

Use your offset spatula to add more buttercream to the corners. Use the bench scraper to sharpen the corners. I start at the corner and pull towards the center of the cake. Do not go all the way past the second corner or you will ruin it. 

Repeat this process until your corners are pretty sharp. Chill for another 15 minutes. 

To get those REALLY sharp corners, I do a final pass with one more coat of buttercream and this time I warm up my metal bench scraper in hot water, then I dry it off. This warm bench scraper gets the corners really sharp and also get's rid of any bubbles on the surface of the buttercream. 

Chill one more time in the freezer for 10 minutes. 

How to remove square acrylics without them sticking to the buttercream

Now that our cake is chilled, we can remove the acrylics. The first thing I do is flip my whole cake over so that the cake board is facing the top. Don't worry, this won't hurt the cake. It's nice and chilled. 

Remove the tape carefully, unfold the parchment paper and remove the acrylic. Carefully peel away the parchment paper. 

Place a cake board on top and flip the cake back over so the cake board is on the bottom. 

Repeat the process for the top acrylic. Fill in any wrinkles with more buttercream and smooth out your edges. 

I was amazed at how sharp these corners got! All I had to do was touch up the top with a little buttercream to fill in a few wrinkles. I used a long bench scraper to smooth out that edge again. 

Keep the cake chilled until you need it. 

Can you make bigger square cakes with acrylics?

Yes, you sure can! I have used acrylics for cakes up to 12" but I don't often make really large cakes. You can also use ganache instead of buttercream for a very firm outside layer on your square cakes. Ganache is easier to cover in fondant without getting soft corners and holds up against humidity better. 

Recipe

Print Recipe

5 from 1 vote

Square Cake With Acrylics Tutorial

How to get sharp edges with buttercream or ganache using square acrylics

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Cook Time30 minutes mins

Chilling45 minutes mins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings: 1 cake

Author: Liz Marek

Equipment

• Square Acrylics
• Parchment Paper
• Tape
• Two Bench Scrapers
• Level
• Square Cake Board
• Offset Spatula

Ingredients

Square Cake Edible Materials

• 2 6" White Cakes Chilled and trimmed
• 6 cups Easy Buttercream Or ganache

Instructions

How to use square cake acrylics

• Cut a square piece of parchment that is 2″ bigger than the square acrylic. Cut the corners off of the parchment, fold the sides onto your acrylic, and tape it down. Make sure your parchment is flat and tight with no wrinkles.
• Cut a square cake board. Your cake board should be a little smaller than the acrylic so that the buttercream covers the cake board. For a 6″ cake, my boards are 5 ¾″ square.
• Place your first acrylic tape side down onto the turntable with a non-skid underneath. 
• Put a little bit of frosting on the acrylic then put your cake board on top of the acrylic and center it.

  *NOTE* you can also crumb coat your square cake on the cake board FIRST then place it onto the acrylic. 
• Then place your first cake layer on the cake board and put an even layer of frosting. You can use a piping tip if you’re not comfortable with putting ¼ inch buttercream right on there. Just make sure your buttercream layers are even and flat. 

  Continue layering cakes and buttercream.
• Place a thick layer of frosting on your second acrylic and place that on top of your cake. Push down to make a good connection. Use a level to make sure the acrylic is level on top of the cake. 
• Use your bench scrapers to make sure the top acrylic lines up with the bottom acrylic. 
• Fill in the sides with more buttercream and chill until firm. About 20 minutes. 
• Use your offset spatula to add more buttercream to the corners. Use the bench scraper to sharpen the corners. I start at the corner and pull towards the center of the cake. Do not go all the way past the second corner or you will ruin it. 
• Repeat this process until your corners are pretty sharp. Chill for another 15 minutes. 
• To get those REALLY sharp corners, I do a final pass with one more coat of buttercream and this time I warm up my metal bench scraper in hot water, then I dry it off. This warm bench scraper gets the corners really sharp and also get’s rid of any bubbles on the surface of the buttercream. Chill one more time for 10 minutes.
• Now that our cake is chilled, we can remove the acrylics. The first thing I do is flip my whole cake over so that the cake board is facing the top. Don’t worry, this won’t hurt the cake. It’s nice and chilled. 
• Remove the tape carefully, unfold the parchment paper and remove the acrylic. Carefully peel away the parchment paper. 
• Place a cake board on top and flip the cake back over so the cake board is on the bottom.
• Repeat the process for the top acrylic. Fill in any wrinkles with more buttercream and smooth out your edges. 

Video