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Updated on February 2, 2022 by · This post may contain affiliate links ·

Cactus Cake Trio Tutorial

Skill level: Intermediate

Guest instructor Sara Weber returns for not one, not two, but three awesome, realistic cactus cakes in edible pots.

Each cactus is unique and features a host of tips and tricks, as Sara walks you through the process step-by-step. Learn to make three different realistic cacti, edible flower blossoms for each, and three different decorated pots, featuring a dipped pot, an intricately carved pattern on a pot, and a terrazzo tile pattern that's sure to be one of those "how did they make that?!" moments for your guests at the special occasion.

Sara showcases how to make the structure for the prickly pear, and how to protect and cover your structure in a food-safe way. There's tons of tricks and tips in this tutorial, so let's get our tools together and let's get started!

3:54:57 Minutes of Instruction

What You Will Learn

  • Learn how to create three different realistic cactus cakes in plant pots
  • How to plan out and structure these cakes using wooden dowels
  • Learn how to create a tall, ball and prickly pear cactus from edible materials
  • How to make edible soil
  • Learn how to make three different decorations for edible plant pots

Three cakes sculpted to look like cacti in plant pots

Tutorial Chapters

  1. Overview of the structure 0:33
  2. Measuring the pots 2:20
  3. Cutting the dowel rods 4:53
  4. Covering the dowel rods 7:05
  5. Finding the cake board center 8:25
  6. Adding the dowel rods 10:54
  7. Cutting the thick dowel rods 13:08
  8. Carving and crumb coating the cakes 22:19
  9. Putting the cakes on the boards 33:57
  10. Adding the ganache 39:20
  11. Paneling the cakes with fondant 53:13
  12. Coloring the fondant terrazzo tiles 1:07:39
  13. Coloring the modeling chocolate 1:15:24
  14. Making the fondant terrazzo tiles 1:17:55
  15. Paneling the terrazzo pot 1:30:14
  16. Decorating the dipped pot 1:45:28
  17. Decorating the carved pot 1:57:19
  18. Making the marble bases 2:06:49
  19. Making rice treat cactus toppers 2:09:23
  20. Carving the rice treat base 2:15:39
  21. Making the chocolate ridges 2:19:48
  22. Covering the tall cactus in fondant 2:25:40
  23. Covering the ball cactus in fondant 2:31:22
  24. Making the prickly pear cactus topper 2:43:38
  25. Shading the cacti 2:59:23
  26. Making the cactus spines 3:07:03
  27. Making the spines for the ball cactus 3:10:51
  28. Decorating the tall cactus 3:12:25
  29. Adding the prickly pear spines 3:18:07
  30. Making the flower toppers 3:20:29
  31. Decorating the ball cactus 3:41:46
  32. Finalizing the prickly pear cactus 3:45:56
  33. Making and adding the soil 3:49:03

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About Liz Marek

Liz Marek is a professional cake artist and recipe developer who has been teaching baking and cake decorating since 2008. She founded Artisan Cake Company in Portland, Oregon in 2009 and now runs Sugar Geek Show, where she publishes kitchen-tested recipes, food science explanations, and step-by-step tutorials.

Liz is best known for sculpted and hyperrealistic cakes. She won Netflix's Is It Cake? Holiday 2 in 2025 with a hyperrealistic Santa cake, and has competed on and won Food Network cake competitions. Cake Masters Magazine named her one of the top 10 cake artists in 2017. She is the author of Artisan Cake Company's Visual Guide to Cake Decorating and a graduate of the Oregon Culinary Institute.

Her focus is on explaining not just how a recipe works but why it works, so bakers can troubleshoot instead of guess. Every recipe on this site is tested before it's published.

Liz teaches full-length cake tutorials, including sculpted and hyperrealistic cakes, at Sugar Geek University.