When my cousin came over for her wedding cake consultation we spent most of the time talking about what she wanted for her cupcakes! Once we got the the small cake for the bride and groom to cut it was easy. Sticking with the metallic theme she was looking at gold and silver painted cakes, then I showed her a silver leafed cake and she fell in love! We decided to go with GOLD and I LOVE how it turned out!
TA-DA! do you love it? I love it! How amazing would this look on a full 3 or 4 tier wedding cake???? I used 24 of the 25 sheets the booklet came with to cover this 8 inch cake. It took me about 20 mins to cover the whole thing, so it’s a pretty fast way to go once you get your groove. BUT expensive.
I recently added a full video tutorial so YOU can make this gold leaf cake too!
Then the finishing details! The lace and flower! It was actually supposed to be a different flower, but the florist apparently didn’t understand the SCALE we wanted the flower. the one he left was this puny 2 inch bud… so I raided the centerpieces to get this big fluffy hydrangea instead! The cake was a lovely centerpiece for all the cupcakes and most important the bride was happy with it!
Janel@nelliebellie
You made a stinking gold leaf cake!! How cool is that?
You are talented!
Ashlee
It’s it totally fun!!! I loved making it, it turned out even COOLER than I’d hoped it would!
Christine
Hi Ashlee!
I have never used fondant and so I am more of a fan of swiss meringue buttercream. I am not trying to cover my entire cake but would like to put pieces of gold leaf on it. What is the best method for this? Please help. Thanks!
Christine
Ashlee
you can add the gold leaf to buttercream, I just wouldn’t do it super early, wait until closer to the event, that way if the buttercream starts to eat away at the gold it won’t be very much
Barbara
This cake is gorgeous!! Thanks for the tute!
Barbara at Chase the Star
Ashlee
Thank you so much! I love how well it turned out!
Paula@SweetPea
Beautiful! I’ve never seen this technique on a cake.
Ashlee
pretty fun huh?
DJG
Hi! I came across your cake when I was looking up info on gold leaf on a cake. Gorgeous photos and cake. I just wanted to mention, though , in case you get a request for one in the future — hydrangeas are a toxic flower and should never come into contact with food. Which stinks because it’s my favorite flower, actually. 🙁 Also on a practical side, apart from the toxicity part, hydrangeas are very thirsty, and they will tend to wilt very quickly when they are out of water. So for both reasons, I just make sugar hydrangeas for my cakes. 🙂
Ashlee
yes, i know. which is why I used a cake pick for the flower (with water in it to keep it alive long enough), and why I had the bride and groom cut the other side for their cake cutting. The only reason they wanted a cake to go with the cupcakes was for their cutting. we took it to the family “after party” and ate it oursleves, so I was able to cut that section that the petals touched out to be safe.
Crystal
I was just wondering, where did you buy your gold leaf? I found some websites but I am not sure which site if safe to buy it from.
Ashlee Prisbrey
where I buy EVERYTHING amazon! http://amzn.to/XcJJbH they also have silver leaf!
Tala
Gratitude for sharing!
Ashlee
your so welcome! I hope you enjoy trying it.
Catia
Hi, you are amazing. I have 7 children and am a self taught baker. I happened upon your cake as I am making my sons wedding cake this month followed by my own vow renewal the next day! I chose silver leaf for my cake. I was wondering if you would be so kind as to tell me the dimensions of your cake and ribbon size. I only bought on booklet with 25 sheets as you mentioned and want to make sure I have enough. How tall is your cake? Many thanks and keep doing what you love, wish I had the courage to venture out as you have!!
Catia Castro
Ashlee
Mine was just an 8 inch cake for the bride and groom to cut. it was 6 inches tall and the ribbon was about 1 1/2 inches. I bought a booklet of 25 and used 24 sheets, and it BARELY covered it, so no mistakes! Good luck and have fun!
Kristin
You did an amazing job and great tutorial. One question, do you think it would work as well on buttercream?
Ashlee
no, no no NO. The grease from the buttercream would totally NOT work with the goldleaf. it would dissolve, discolor, shrink, etc… it would be very bad.
Jacki
Hi there! I’m a few months behind but wanted to mention that I’ve put silver and gold leaf on buttercream cakes, completely covered and it worked out fine. Very successful results.
Ashlee
that’s interesting! I would have expected the oils in the buttercream to eat away at the foil, it’s so sensitive to that, you can’t even touch it without it breaking down. Good to know, thanks for sharing!
Esther Rabb
Hello: I am getting ready to do a 4 tier wedding cake with gold leaf and was interested in just doing buttercream w/o the fondant. Any additional advice, you said you gold leaf did not turn. Was you icing homemade with butter, mine is. Please advise. Esther
Ashlee
how did it go? personally I still wouldn’t risk it, but I’m interested to hear your results!
Katina
Hi I love your cake I’m hoping you can help me out here. I’m doing a cake in January 2014, but I want to practice first. The cake will be 6×6 or 7×6 do you think that one booklet will be enough to cover the entire cake? Do you think practice is necessary if you have never worked with gold leaf?
Thanks
Katina
Ashlee
this one was an 8 inch cake about 5 inches tall. and I used an entire package of 24 sheets on this cake, with half a sheet extra and only one mistake. If you haven’t worked with regular gold leaf before you might want to practice first, the side is super easy, cause you don’t have to touch the sheet. The top was a bit trickier cause you want to slide it off without touching it or ripping it. maybe even if you just try one on the top of a practise cake to see how it goes, I totally messed up my first sheet, but after that it went perfect. One package would be enough for the smaller cake with a few sheets left to maybe practise with a bit.
Jackie
Would it be possible to insert a long fondu or kabob stick in the middle of the cake to use as a stabilizer, then remove with final gold leaf covering the hole?
Ashlee
I’m not sure why you’d need to add a kabob stick? you cake should be stable with the ganache and fondant, if it’s wobbly you’ll have trouble with the gold leaf as the cake wiggles. that said, yes, if you make a hole you can cover it with the last gold leaf, BUT since it won’t have anything to stick with you’ll probably still have a hole in the end.
Cin
This is so lovely I am speechless. Thank you so much for sharing this!! – I found it through Cake Central.
Ashlee
thank you so very much! I’m glad someone shared it so you could find it. I just LOVE the effect!
Sian
Hi, I really love your cake and am hoping to do the same for my wedding cake later this year! Two quick questions: what size gold leaf sheets did you use and how far in advance can you decorate the cake? I want to give myself plenty of time for mistakes!
Ashlee
they only come in one size that I’ve seen, 3 3/8 x 3 3/8. once you frost the cake with ganache and add the fondant it will actually stay good for a few days (as long as you don’t have a filling or frosting that needs to be refrigerated – you don’t want to refrigerate a cake once you’ve put fondant on). You can always practice with the silver leaf too, it’s cheaper than the gold.
Monica Cavallaro
Thank you so much for the information, I was searching everywhere for some decent info to complete a special cake for a customer – drove me bonkers! Will let you know how I go with silver leaf instead. Much in your gratitude – Monica xx
Ashlee
I used the same technique with a silver cake back in December and it worked the same way (but cheaper) I hope your cake turned out great!
Kelly
Is it ok to keep a gold leaf covered cake in the fridge?
Ashlee
I’m not sure, I NEVER refrigerate cake, EVER. (or any bread) it dries it out and the last thing I want is to serve dry cake. Once I put on the ganache and fondant there just isn’t any reason to refrigerate (or freeze, freezing is okay, NEVER refrigerate) a cake. Personally I wouldn’t risk it (and don’t freeze once you add fondant or when it thaws it will condensed on the outside and be ruined).
Linda
Great tutorial! Thanks for posting it. I just used it to cover a 12″ tier with edible silver leaf. What a fun medium.
Ashlee
YAY! I love how amazing the end result looks too! glad you found it useful!
Liz
Can you use imitation gold leaf on the cake?
Ashlee
imitation gold leaf? I’ve never seen it or tried it! I’d have to see it, do you have a link?
Em
Hey, i am making a cake for my girlfriends birthday, she wanted a silver glitter cake so i was planning on covering the fondant in silver leaf, then covering that in silver sugar crystals, but was wondering if i painted over the leaf with extract to stick the crystals would it peel the leaf off? 🙂 Thanks
Ashlee
painting over the silver leaf WILL degrade it and scratch some, not all, of it off. But you couldn’t just use vodka/alcohol cause the silver leaf won’t get tacky the way the fondant does with alcohol. So I’m assuming you’d be using something like piping gel to get the crystals to adhere, and if your covering it that thick you wouldn’t need to start with the silver leaf. You probably wouldn’t need anything, but if you really wanted something underneath you could just start with grey, or air brush it silver for much cheaper and cover over the top. Does that make sense? or help?
Christine
hi. Great tutorial! I noticed on Amazon that there are many different types of edible gold leaf for sale with different price ranges. Is there one in particular that works well for you? I don’t want to buy the cheap one only to end up with a cheap product that looks bad but I also don’t want to buy the expensive one if I can get away with using a cheaper version.
Thanks
Ashlee Prisbrey
I bought this one http://amzn.to/1LbExh5 I haven’t tried anything else
Melissa Stephens
Hello!
How far in advance can you add gold leaf to a cake to store in the fridge? I am not covering the whole cake in gold leaf… Just around the top corners.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Ashlee
never EVER store cake in a fridge, or any baked good for that matter, freezing is okay, the counter is okay, but the refrigerator will dry out and ruin cake. Although I wouldn’t freeze a cake after you put the leaf on the cake, never freeze a cake after you put the fondant on, when it thaws it will condense and get wet and ruined. Once you cover a cake with fondant it should be fine on the counter for a few days.
Anna lisi
Hi,
Loved your tutorial. ….beautiful cake. I have to quote a cake.similar to yours and.I wanted to know what size were each sheets of.gold. I
Ashlee
3-3/8″ x 3-3/8″, it took all but one sheet in this packet to cover this 8 inch cake (6 inches tall)
tulsi
mam can i use gold leaf directly on wipped cream cake insted of fondant
Ashlee
whipped cream isn’t a stable frosting so no. Fondant is first and non greasy. You could try it over ganache as it also becomes stiff and non greasy, but buttercream is greasy and even after it crusts it’s so soft, and whipping cream wouldn’t work at all
Kimberly Kelly
Can you roll out the fondant and apply the gold leaf when it is flat? Testing, of course, that it is the correct diameter to avoid waste or shortage. Your tutorial makes me wonder if it’s necessary, but wanted to see if you’ve tried it.
Ashlee
no, when you put fondant on a cake you are stretching, pushing, pulling and tweaking it into place, that would never work.