Cozy Sweater Weather Cake Tutorial for Home Bakers

Have you ever wondered how the professional makes those beautiful cakes? The baking pros take inspiration from the most unlikely of things like your favorite winter sweater! 

Today we are talking about how to a cake into a sweater fit to stand the cold weather.  

This Sweater Weather Cake is made with tender semi-homemade vanilla cake layers filled with creamy vanilla buttercream decorating to look like your favorite winter sweater. 

For this tutorial, we will focus on the design and decorating of the cake, so that’s why I chose to use a simpler cake and buttercream recipe. But you can use any cake recipe you’d like. 

I have also created a how-to video below so you can see what I’m describing below. It’ll help complete the full tutorial to make it easier to replicate at home. 

The vanilla buttercream is colored with a light ivory gel food coloring, but you can get creative and use any gel food color you’d like. Then you will use a combination of small piping techniques like overlapping hearts, thin lines, twisted ropes, and dots. The combination of these four piping techniques that are piped tightly together create the effect of a chunky sweater!  

This cake tutorial was made for the intermediate bakers, but don’t let that distract any beginner baker since I know that you will be able to make this cake as well! It’ll be fun for you to try out new piping techniques. And you know if you happen to make a mistake then you can scrape off the buttercream and start again or turn a mistake into a happy accident! That’s what cake decorating is its trying new things and challenging yourself! 

Tips for Success: 

• Read through all the ingredients and instructions so you can get a better idea of how much time and what you need to make this cake.
• You can bake the cake layers ahead of time. Wrap the cake layers in plastic wrap and freeze up to one month. 
• You can make the buttercream a day ahead and refrigerate it overnight. Then take them out to come back to room temperature. Make sure the buttercream is at room temperature before re-whipping.
• A single batch of this cake recipe makes three, 6-inch round cake layers or two 8-inch round cake layers. Double the cake recipe to make enough cake batter for three, 8-inch cake layers.
• Food coloring gets darker over time, so it’s best to gradually add the food coloring, which is best for lighter colors.  
• Serve cake at room temperature. 

What Tools You’ll Need to Make This Cake: 

• 5-quart, Stand Mixer with mixing bowl & paddle attachment
• 4, 6-inch cake pans
• Offset spatula 
• 8-inch or 10-inch white cake board 
• Serrated knife or cake leveler 
• Turntable 
• Cake scraper or bench scraper
• Piping bags and couplers (I use reusable silicone bags)
• Piping tips – (Ateco tips #6, #17, #11, #233)
• Whisk or sifter
• Rubber Spatula
• Non-Stick Cooking Spray and Parchment Paper
• Ice Cream Scooper with Trigger Release (for dividing cake batter evenly)
• Squeeze bottle
• Cake Stand, optional
• Ivory gel food coloring

Here’s how to make an ivory sweater weather cake to get you through those cold winter nights! 

Let’s Get Decorating! 

How to Make Foolproof Vanilla Cake Layers 

1. Preheat oven to 350 °F. Spray three 6-inch round cake pans with non-stick spray, line the bottom of each pan with parchment paper and spray again. Set aside.
2. In a medium-size bowl, whisk and stir together the cake mix, all-purpose flour, and salt. Set aside. 
3. In the stand mixer bowl fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter, oil, and sugar on medium-high for 5 minutes.
4. Add eggs, one at a time to the stand mixer bowl and beat on medium until well incorporated.
5. Turn the mixer on low and add half of the flour mixture to the butter mixture until fully incorporated. 
6. Add the vanilla and milk and beat on low until incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Finish by adding the remaining flour mixture and mix on medium for another 30 seconds. 
7. Evenly distribute the cake batter among the three cake pans and bake for about 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of each cake comes out clean or with just a few moist crumbs.
8. Remove cakes from the oven and let cool in pans for 10 minutes before inverting onto cooling racks to cool completely. Wrap cakes in plastic wrap and place into the freezer to chill for 30 minutes. 

How to Make Creamy Vanilla Buttercream 

1. In the stand mixer bowl fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
2. Turn the mixer to low and gradually add the powdered sugar, followed by the cream, salt, and vanilla extract. Mix until combined. Mix until incorporated completely. Scrape down sides of the bowl. 
3. Add 1-2 drops of ivory gel food coloring to dye the buttercream a light ivory color. 
4. Turn the mixer to medium-high and beat the frosting for about 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Turn the mixer on low and mix for 2 minutes to push out any air bubbles. 
5. Prepare 2 piping bags with couplers and ½ cup to ⅔ cups of ivory buttercream. You’ll need the one of each piping tip – Ateco #32(french star tip), #17 (closed star tip), #11 (round tip), #6 (small round tip), and #233 (grass tip). 

How to Assemble the Cake 

1. Remove the cake layers from the freezer and unwrap the cake layers. Next, use a serrated knife to cut off the dome of the cakes to make the layers flat and even. 
2. Add a small amount of buttercream onto the center of the cake board. Layer one vanilla cake, cut side up onto cake board. Add a 2/3 cup of vanilla buttercream over the cake. 
3. Place another cake layer cut side down over the top. Repeat the process for another layer — Crumb coat with ivory vanilla buttercream and freeze for 30 minutes. 

How to Make Cake Look Like a Sweater

1. Add a thin layer of ivory buttercream all over the cake. Use an offset spatula to fill in any gaps with more buttercream. Then use a cake scraper to smooth out the sides of the cake. Use the offset spatula to make the top edges sharp and smooth. Freeze for 15 minutes. 
2. Next, with the cake scraper, mark 1 large column followed by 3 small columns all around the cake. 
3. With the #32 piping tip, pipe a diagonal shell on the left of the center on the large column. Then pipe another diagonal shell on the right of center, slightly overlapping the previous shell, so you create a heart pattern. Repeat this step and continue to pipe shell hearts on all the large columns. 
4. Next, with the #6 piping tip, pipe straight lines on the column mark you previously made going from the top to the bottom of the cake.  
5. Then with the #17 piping tip, start from the top of the cake and the small middle column, pipe a twisted rope. Move your wrist counter-clockwise while squeezing the piping bag down the cake. Repeat this step and continue to pipe on the remaining middle columns. 
6. With the #11 piping tip, pipe 8 dots per column on the remaining small columns. 
7. On the top of the cake, pipe two rows of twisted rope borders with the #17 piping tip. 
8. To create the sweater puff balls, insert a toothpick into each marshmallow, with the #233 grass tip pipe all over the marshmallow. Start by pressing the piping bag on the marshmallow and while squeezing pull the bag away from the marshmallow creating a grass-like effect. Repeat this process all over the marshmallows. Then insert each marshmallow into the side of the cake.    
9. Finally, use the #11 tip, pipe two sweater drawstrings connecting to the marshmallow puff balls, then pipe a bow with buttercream on top of the cake. 
10. Serve cake at room temperature! 

You May Also Enjoy: 

• How to Make a Winter Wonderland Snowflake Cake (tutorial)
• How to Cut & Serve Cake (free guide)
• Common Baking Mistakes & How to Avoid Them (free ebook) 
• How to Decorate Your First Cake (free course) 
• Cake Decorating for Beginners (online course)
• Cake Decorating Tool Kit (24-piece kit with free shipping) 

This ivory sweater weather cake is impressive with its techniques but still tastes incredible. You will feel like you have accomplished an excellent cake challenge when you are done. I can’t wait to see your cake creations! 

Happy Baking! 

Hey, if you liked this tutorial, you really should check out, Cake Decorating Creator Program, my online cake course. I coach you on everything I teach on these cake tutorials so that you can uplevel your baking and decorating skills. We 10x it so you get the results you want most. Like any new skill, it’s important to learn from the ground up to build a foundation, so take on any cake challenge. It is an investment your future self will thank you for. Check it out at XOKatieRosario.com/online-cake-course. I will see you there.

Watch The How-to Video Below: 

 

 

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