We’re excited to welcome our newest contributor, Erin Gardner, owner of Wild Orchid Baking Company! She’s here today with her first of many tutorials to help you achieve more with less. Gorgeous cakes using creative techniques!
I’ve always believed that great cake decorating doesn’t have to mean using intricate techniques or buying fancy tools (well at least not all the time). Sometimes the best tools can be found right in your own fridge or pantry. This project uses a fridge staple – celery – to create an oh-so-pretty rose pattern with a hand-painted feel. Take a look through your own fridge and see what you can create with what you have on hand. You’ll never look at your veggies the same way again!
CELERY STAMP ROSE CAKE
a DIY by Erin Gardner
Supplies
- 1 bunch of celery still attached at the base
- Knife
- 2 small bowls
- Foam craft brushes
- Pink gel color
- Green gel color
- Rubber bands
- Fondant covered cake
STEP 1 : Make the rose stamp. Cut your celery bunch all the way through about 3 inches up from the base where the stalks are attached. The base of the bunch is now your rose stamp. Set aside the extra celery stalks.
STEP 2 : Make the leaf stamp. Take 2 of the cut pieces of celery and place them together so that the open parts of the celery face each other creating a leaf shape. Use a rubber band to secure the celery stalks together.
STEP 3 : Squirt about a dime sized amount of pink gel color into one of the small bowls, and green gel color into the other bowl. Begin with the rose and apply a thin even coating of pink color to the celery stamp using a foam craft brush.
STEP 4 : Press the celery stamp onto the surface of the cake. Roll the stamp back and forth a little bit when stamping on the rounded sides of the cake. Repeat the stamp to create the rose pattern. Wipe down the stamp every so often with a paper towel to remove any excess color.
STEP 5 : If your stamped rose needs a few more “petals” use the extra pieces of celery to add them where needed. Apply the color to the end of a single celery stalk and stamp on extra petals.
STEP 6 : Brush green gel color onto your leaf stamp and add leaves in between your roses where ever you like.
TIPS : If your celery stamp doesn’t quite make the rose pattern that you’re looking for, or if your supermarket only has cut pieces of celery available, don’t sweat it! Cluster up cut pieces of celery so that they form the rose pattern you’re looking for. Secure the bunch with rubber bands just like you did for the leaf stamp.
To use the same stamping technique to create cupcake toppers, start by rolling fondant onto your counter top to about 1/8-inch thick. Stamp the fondant with roses and leaves. Use 2” circle cutters or a drinking glass to cut circles from your rose patterned fondant. Place the circles on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and let them dry out overnight. Use the circles to top freshly frosted cupcakes.
VENDORS & CREDITS
Cake & Tutorial: Wild Orchid Baking Company
Photography: Mark Davidson Photography
Learn more from this baker: Hand Stamped Cakes with Erin Gardner
What? Really? Oh my gosh, how gorgeous!! Who would of known….Celery sticks!!!
That is is awesome!!! Thanks for sharing this creative out of the box idea!!!
Yaneri
What a brilliant idea! I’ve never thought of using vegetable stamps with food coloring, with texiles etc. sure.. but this is really unique!
xo Julia
This is genius. Thank you for sharing.
So clever! And beautiful!
Beautiful idea!! Looks amazing and designer haha
So lovely! I adore this. Thanks for sharing this idea! xo
OMG just too clever. Thank you so much for sharing.
Great idea!!
thank you for sharing with us
best regards fron madrid, Spain
How clever and absolutely gorgeous!
wow, fabuloso!!!
this is SO COOL and clever… and most of all, looks lovely! what a great idea. welcome, erin! great post! ^__^
Thanks for sharing. I am very glad to have found you.
This is a whole new level of crafty! I was never a huge celery fan before (unless peanut butter is involved) but this has given me a new perspective!
I can’t wait to try my own celery prints! : )
first thanks for sharing, who will think to use the celery in such a beautiful craft, u r a genius girl.
My My My My My My WORD! This is absolutely FABULOUS. Lol. I would have never imagined this. I would have been admiring cakes just like yours and wishing I could do the designs as such. Thank you so much for sharing this, now I’m eager to go do it. Lol.
Sometimes I think that these types of cakes only exist in fairytales, but now I have proof that they exist in this world. this specific cake is a work of art. Pure genius. w=What more can I say?
Oh my gosh! Now I too can be an artist. Thank you so much.
Hi, I know this is a random question but being that celery has such a strong smell does it get on the cake or does it taste like it even a little?
You can also use celery sticks to make leopard print. My daughter does this when doing leopard print hair dying
Thank you for the tutorial …
I love to visit this blog, very useful for my onlne cake shop
This is genius!! But what if I do not have a fondant covered cake but only have an cake which is covered in cream?
Briliant idea!
Btw, can i use butter cream or only for fondan?