Cake Trend: Hand-painted Cakes
Art + cake is a match made in heaven. Wedding cakes are transforming into works of art with hand-painted details so realistic, you won't believe they are edible! Buttercream and royal icing is always popular but in 2018, we're seeing them take on a whole new look with lots of textures and palette knife techniques.
To incorporate art into your wedding, look to your favorite paintings, patterns, even fabric to inspire you! Incorporate colors, textures and themes. You can go bold and graphic or delicate and natural. The great thing about art is it's all up to your interpretation!
Claudia Prati of CLAUDIA PRATI TORTE CREATIVE created this stunning cake using what she calls a "materika" technique. It's a mixture of painting and 3D texture and is totally stunning!
About this cake:
"I was inspired by the 2018 Pantone ultraviolet color. I love hydrangeas and all the blue/violet shades they have and I love to paint this flower with my "materika" palette knife technique so I decided to decorate 2 of the four tiers with painted/palette knife royal icing hydrangeas. My goal was also mixing royal icing traditional scrolls and laces with the "materika" textures and painting. I used over-piping to decorate the first tier and I painted it three times to achieve a more antique finish."
Claudia Prati started working as a sugar artist in 2010, becoming part of the birth of the cake design trend in Italy.
She started teaching in 2012. In 2013 she recorded 18 episodes of the Detto Fatto br0adcast Rai2. She has been a tutor and judge in many Italian exhibitions. She has studied under several royal icing artist such as Eddie Spence, Kathleen Lange, Kelvin Chua.
Claudia is the author of "Manuale della ghiaccia reale" the first Italian book totally dedicated to royal icing. She was awarded in Birmingham with the first gold of the "International" category in 2015 with a cake inspired by Venice. Gold in 2016 at Cake International Birmingham in the "Christmas" category with a blue and white royal icing lace cake called "silent night".
In 2017 experimenting the palette knife she created "Materika" a personal technique that includes palette knife, royal icing or buttercream and painting.
Watch Claudia demonstrate her gorgeous Materika technique courtesy of Saracino
