Grapevine Cake

7 1/2" oval spice cake, buttercream frosting, apple cinnamon filling

Techniques Used-grapes, vines, leaf borders

Focus-casual frosting coat, grapes, vines,

I found this idea in my Wilton Cake Course 1 book, but it's no longer available. 

I was interested in learning how to frost the cake so that it had slight waves in it.  It was harder than I thought.  I found out that I needed to put more frosting on than usual (I tend to make thin coats).  It was a good experience, and maybe I will do that again.  Here's a picture below of the cake with a wavy coat.

I learned with the vines that I had a hard time doing them free hand.  I ended up taking a toothpick and imprinting the design first.  I think I should've added more vines or grapes, but it was good practice.  Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of just the vines.

The grapes were easier than I thought.  I learned that at the top of the clump, try to put 2 or 3 grapes in the first row instead of 1 grape.  Then I just made each row bigger by one and then smaller more gradually towards the bottom.  Then to add some volume, I added smaller rows of grapes on top of the ones I already made.  Then three leaves are added at the top.  Grapes are time consuming, but not difficult.  Here is one grape cluster up close.

This cake was decorated April 2009.