BECOME A MEMBERshop individual tutorialscake & cookie planner
full tutorial libraryinstructorsfreebies vault
LOGIN
Holiday

Wafer Paper Christmas Tree & Plaid Tutorial

sugar how-tosrecipessugar toolssugar lifestyle
share or save for later

Ice Perfect Cakes every time!

Learn Avalon's secret hack for creating perfect iced cakes every time - for free!

Full video and easy buttercream recipe inside!

This tutorial was actually a paid tutorial in my online school from two years ago. However, I wanted to give it as a gift to you this year! Cause… tis the season and I love showing appreciation for all of you who have been loyal readers.

We’re right smack-dab in the middle of THE SEASON. Annnnd all your friends are asking you to make a cake…right? Because you’re the “cake person”. So, nope, no break for you my friend 😉 However, this tutorial is a super fun – and easy – Christmas Cake tutorial for you!

Hope you can find these techniques useful in other cakes besides Christmas cakes too.

As always, if you enjoy this tutorial be sure to let us know in the comments! 🙂

Wafer Christmas Tree

You'll need:

spruce branch
  1. Following the directions in the video above, make approx 30 spruce branches. It takes some time, but it's a good, mindless activity while catching up on your favorite show 😉
spruce branches

2. Twist together 4 spruces. One should be pointing up, while the other three fan out in equally spaced directions.

twisted spruce branches

3. Using floral tape, tape them to a skewer (or thin dowel).

spruce branches tape on skewer

4. Start adding extra branches, taping as you go down the skewer. You want to make sure you use your shortest spruces towards the top and gradually get bigger as you go down. You want the number of branches in each layer to increase as your make your way down the skewer. For example, I started with a layer of 3 at the top, the next layer I will do 4, the later after that will be 5-6, and so on.

tree of spruce branches

5. Once you have all 30 branches, move them around and trim them to achieve your desired tree look!

straw in the center of cake

6. Push straw down in through the center of the cake. This straw will take out the excess cake in the center. Remove straw and throw away (because it's filled with cake and we need it to be clean and clear). Put another clean straw in it's place. Do this on both tiers and their boards. On the bottom tier you want the straw to also go through your baseboard.

battery pack

7. Make "feet" for your base out of foam core or wood blocks. I'm using 2 1/2" thick pieces. They need to be taller than the battery pack! Hot glue feet and battery pack to the board.

feet for the base

8. Feed the LED light strand through the straws, first the first tier and then the second. I have this upside down for demo purposes, keep it right side up.

Once you have it up through the second tier, string your lights just as you would on any christmas tree!

Tiny Ornaments

What you'll need:

piece of wire
  1. Cut off a piece of wire approx 1 1/2" long.
hook wire

2. Bend over one end of the wire with your needle nose plyers to make a hook. Make a ball of fondant to your desired size. Push the wire through the ball of fondant.

ball in the hook wire

3. Create a hook on the other end and then push the ball down onto the hook until it's flush.

ball dipped in shortening

4. Brush with a little bit of water or shortening and then dip into your glitter!

ornament
  1. For our next ornament, we are going to repeat the same steps except we are not going to make a hook for the base.
shaping the ball

2. Put a little shortening on your hands and start to shape the ball to a point on both the bottom and the top.

trim the ball

3. Trim.

adding luster to ball

4. Add luster!

Pearl Plaid

What you'll need:

whole cake
  1. Coat your entire cake with a thin layer of shortening. Place a piece of wax paper over the top. I like to flip mine over, but you don't have to. And yes, you can flip real cake over, needs to be chilled. 🙂 This will protect the top while we get crazy with the luster dust!
horizontal strips on cake

2. Start placing your horizontal strips. I start with the bottom and make sure it's flush with the base. Be sure to SMOOTH your wax paper to the surface so that it is nice and adhered! You don't want any luster sneaking in where it shouldn't be.

Then line the next strip flush to the top edge of the cake. For the middle strip, I carefully eye ball it. The great thing about shortening is that it is forgiving, so you can move it around as needed.

brushing the cake

3. Next, take your fluffy brush and start dabbing on the luster. You want to load it up, and then lightly brush away. Because we have shortening all over our cake, this will stick nicely to the shortening.

clean stripes on cake

4. Remove the strips to reveal nice clean stripes! Now... on to the vertical...

vertical strips

5. For the vertical strips, I will actually add a little bit of shortening the wax paper itself. This helps because the areas that have the luster on them aren't as sticky anymore. When adding the vertical strips, pay attention to keeping the revealed width the same size as the horizontal. A right angle triangle can often help make sure those lines are straight.

Repeat with the luster dust.

pearlized plaid

6. Ta-da! A pearlized plaid.

Wafer Paper Snow

What you'll need:

  • Wafer paper (great time to use your scraps!)
  • Coffee/spice grinder
Penguin-17
  1. Rip up wafer paper and put into the coffee grinder, you want to stuff it full so they don't just fly all around when you turn it on. Pulsing the grinder also helps break up the larger chunks.
Penguin-18

2. Easy peasy light and fluffy snow!! Images courtesy of the lovely Kara Andretta from Kara's Couture Cakes! Go check out her adorable Penguin tutorial when you can 🙂

Check out the free Glitter Letter Blocks Pictorial

EDIBLE-LETTER-BLOCKS-TUTORIAL-CAKE-AVALON-CAKES-GLITTER
Avalon Cakes Christmas Tree Tutorial Wafer Paper (12)
Avalon Cakes Christmas Tree Tutorial Wafer Paper (14)
Avalon Cakes Christmas Tree Tutorial Wafer Paper (9)

Ice Perfect Cakes every time!

Learn Avalon's secret hack for creating perfect iced cakes every time - for free!

Full video and easy buttercream recipe inside!

 Published: 12/15/2017

Last modified on January 27th, 2023

meet the author

Avalon YARNES

Avalon Yarnes is multi-award winning cake artist and educator. Her work has been featured on tv shows, in magazines, books and more. She has been named one of the top 10 Cake Artists in America by Cake Masters Magazine and Dessert Professional Magazine. She's always cooking up something innovative that she can share with her students. Learn with Avalon here inside Avalon Cakes Online School of Sugar Art, where her (and her friends) teach you how to make incredible art with of cakes, cookies and more!

hey there

MY SUGAR COVERED FRIEND

I'm Avalon -- and I'm not your typical cake decorator. I'm obsessed with fusing the world of ART and CAKE. Sugar is my canvas. If you're down to get messy and dive into a whole new level of cake, take my virtual hand, cause I've got so many secrets I want to show you! learn more>>

Let's be Friends!
GET NEW POSTS via EMAIL
Don't miss a thing - connect with me

are you ready

to be a
next-level cake artist?

Join 1000s of others in our Online Cake School and learn how to make incredible sugar art!

click here to get started
AND WHAT THAT SAYS ABOUT YOU.
Curious? Take the Quiz
all our free cake resources in one place
get inside the vault
GO FROM CAKE NEWB TO CAKE GURU

learn with avalon

Fast track your cake skills to the next level! How? Inside our Online Cake School.
Fortified with years of experience, Avalon (and her amazing friends), will take your virtual hand and show you the skills to becoming an amazing cake artist, all while saving you time (and money)!
Learn More >>

Comments

Questions? Comments? Or Just wanna tell a girl how you feel?
Shoot me a line or two!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

some of our latest freshly baked content inside the online cake school

Browse Entire member Library
copyright 2020 avalon cakes | disclaimer | terms | privacy policy
menu-circle linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram