{"id":416384,"date":"2026-07-29T10:25:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T10:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/416384\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T10:25:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T10:25:11","slug":"l-a-s-on-the-cutting-edge-of-cake-here-are-9-decorating-tips-from-an-expert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/416384\/","title":{"rendered":"L.A.’s on the cutting edge of cake. Here are 9 decorating tips from an expert"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Rose Wilde\u2019s West Adams garden is a living, growing hub for L.A.\u2019s vanguard of cake making and decorating. It\u2019s teeming with tomato plants, passion fruit vines, roses, lavender, cosmos, herbs and chickens for eggs.<\/p>\n

On a recent July morning under a gazebo in her backyard, the master gardener, preserver and pastry chef behind online bakery Red Bread<\/a> supplied 16 student decorators with 6-inch layer cakes and several quarts of Swiss meringue buttercream, tinged pale green with tomato leaf oil.<\/p>\n

A large catering pan filled with the tomato leaf frosting sat next to whole tomatoes, strawberries and bunches of sunflowers, chamomile blossoms, craspedia and fresh tomato leaves. These are the telltales of L.A.\u2019s most progressive cakes: florals, herbs and fresh fruit and vegetables. <\/p>\n

When it comes to cake, Paris is known for technical mastery and trompe l\u2019oeil extravagance, Tokyo for pristine cake architecture and geometry, and Seoul for minimalism and pastel hues. <\/p>\n

Time 1 hour <\/p>\n

Yields Makes about 3 cups, enough for one 6-inch layer cake <\/p>\n

Los Angeles is on the cutting edge for an aesthetic pioneered by a handful of micro-bakeries led by expert pastry chefs<\/a> with an eye for beauty. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have access to more than anyone else anywhere,\u201d said Wilde, who was a lawyer before the baking life took over. \u201cAbundance and seasonality, how can you not? There\u2019s too much to be inspired by.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the middle of a cake renaissance and reinterpreting trends such as intricate, Victorian-era Lambeth piping<\/a>, L.A.\u2019s most prominent cakes are described as fluid, natural and perfectly imperfect. <\/p>\n

\"Rose \"El <\/p>\n

Rose Wilde, the pastry chef and founder of Red Bread bakery, decorates a berry cake in the L.A. Times Kitchen. (Catherine Dzilenski\/For The Times) <\/p>\n

\u201cLet the seasons lead,\u201d Wilde said of L.A.\u2019s cake style. \u201cAbundance over precision, lots of asymmetry, soft architecture, and we have a lot of botanical knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holding a pastry bag fitted with her favorite Ateco 796<\/a> protruding cone tip, Wilde instructed her class: \u201cDon\u2019t stick to the rivers and lakes that you\u2019re used to. Look for inspiration anywhere and everywhere. Your style comes with practice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here are Wilde\u2019s tips for decorating cakes that will make your buttercream dreams come true: <\/p>\n

\"Rose <\/p>\n

Rose Wilde spreads tomato leaf buttercream on top of a three-layer cake, using a cake turntable.<\/p>\n

(Betty Hallock \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Use a cake turntable. It\u2019s worth making an investment ($10 to $70) in a rotating cake stand, which has a raised platform and allows you to spin a cake 360 degrees smoothly and continuously.<\/p>\n

Make sure your cake is stable. The weight of your cake should be supported by your buttercream: If you\u2019re working with olive oil cake, for example, heavy buttercream is going to stabilize it better. Give yourself a solid base so you have the calm and time to decorate. If your cake is not structurally sound, it\u2019s going to start sliding and melting. She builds the layers of cake with frosting in between and freezes the whole cake overnight. <\/p>\n

Have your tools laid out. Choose piping tips before the cake is in front of you. Have your pastry bags filled with buttercream and any decorating items \u2014 flowers, fruit, sugar pearls, jams, any powders you want to play with \u2014 at the ready and within reach. \u201cSet up your artist space, if you will,\u201d Wilde said, \u201cso you can allow yourself to have the time and space to decorate. If you pull out your cake, then choose your tips, you\u2019re just burning time while the cake is melting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Wilde \"Rose <\/p>\n

Wilde encourages students to practice piping buttercream on a tray or parchment paper before starting to decorate her cake. (Betty Hallock \/ Los Angeles Times) <\/p>\n

Start with a crumb coat. A first, very thin layer of frosting smooths out the surface of the cake, fills in cracks and crevices, and locks in the crumbs. It should be thin enough to see through it. <\/p>\n

Get the \u201cfirst pancakes\u201d out of the way. Use a tray or a sheet of parchment to practice piping on. \u201cGet those \u2018first pancake\u2019 swirls out of the way,\u201d Wilde said. \u201cSo you\u2019re not putting all of your hopes and dreams into the first squeeze. You can always scrape that back into your bowl.\u201d You can just make buttercream (no cake necessary) and practice piping to see \u201chow this tip or that tip looks.\u201d You should play.<\/p>\n

\"Rose <\/p>\n

Rose Wilde uses her offset spatula to spread buttercream on top of a cake during a cake decorating workshop in her backyard.<\/p>\n

(Betty Hallock \/ Los Angeles Times )<\/p>\n

Use an offset spatula correctly. \u201cI always see people on TikTok using it wrong,\u201d Wilde said. Use the back side of the offset spatula. To frost a cake, put a generous dollop of frosting on the top and use either the tip or the bend of the offset spatula as an anchor in the center and spin the cake on your turntable, pushing the frosting away. To spread buttercream on the sides, use crescent-moon-shaped motions with the spatula. If you just go back and forth, it\u2019s a rough motion for cake, Wilde said. The sweep of a \u201cC\u201d shape softens the friction of moving frosting.<\/p>\n

Move around. \u201cA lot of students stay in the same position, stiff, moving only their hand and arm,\u201d Wilde said. \u201cI am bending, cocking my head as I move my offset spatula,\u201d even when using a turntable \u201cso I can see what I\u2019m doing.\u201d There is more movement than you think to decorating a cake. Look at it from all sides. If you\u2019re not moving around enough, you\u2019re just decorating one side.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Share via Close extra sharing options <\/p>\n

Use the rule of odds. Wilde said she thinks a lot about composition and relies on odd numbers, which force the eye to move around the entirety of the cake to try to resolve a pattern, creating dynamic visual interest.<\/p>\n

Let your mistakes guide you. Fight perfectionism. To take the pressure off, don\u2019t be married to one particular outcome. Wilde encourages cake decorators to let the design come organically. Even if you have an exacting plan, you can pivot when your buttercream is nicked or there\u2019s a gap or air bubble. \u201cThat\u2019s the perfect place for a flower or a petal,\u201d Wilde said. \u201cWhen faced with the tyranny of a cake blank canvas, mistakes can be a great open door to creativity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rose Wilde\u2019s West Adams garden is a living, growing hub for L.A.\u2019s vanguard of cake making and decorating.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":416385,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[79071,166556,30708,166560,67454,24087,166558,2303,48,52,51,47,50,49,1741,166557,36395,166559,166561,3166,41771],"class_list":["post-416384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-back-side","tag-buttercream-dream","tag-cake","tag-cake-turntable","tag-edge","tag-fresh-fruit","tag-herb","tag-l-a","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-lot","tag-offset-spatula","tag-pastry-chef","tag-rose-wilde","tag-student-decorator","tag-tip","tag-wilde"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416384\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}