Vintage Wedding Cake

Wanting to decorate a Vintage Wedding Cake?

If you’re giving any thought to decorating a vintage wedding cake - whether it’s a single or multi-tier cake - I learned a TON decorating this one - and I’ll walk you through how to do it yourself!

FIRST thing I want to tell you is that if you’re intimidated by the look of it, don’t be. This style is shockingly forgiving; your piping does not have to be flawless to look perfect and gorgeous!

Backstory:

So last month I got a request from a friend for a white vintage (or Lambeth whatever-style-you-want-to-call-it) cake for a wedding. I told her I’d do a practice run before booking the order. Really I’d be lying to say I wasn’t worried. This style isn’t one of my go-to decorating styles, and the amount of piping involved looked a little intense.

But! One test run was all it took to feel like I have my feet under me - and she was happy with the look of the practice cake. I’m calling it a win!

Considerations:

If you’re considering making a cake like this for a large event like a wedding – or even a larger anniversary celebration, graduation, or Quinceanera – I have a different post (and almost identical content in video form)  covering a few things to consider before making a cake for a big event like a wedding. There are a lot of factors involved to make sure everything goes to plan (e.g. recipe/ingredients, considering a ‘practice cake,’ transport/storage at the venue, etc).

So - let’s get into it!

Since this style can look complicated (it’s not, but it looks like it is) – I broke this process down into 8 steps.

I’ll put full details here up top in the post, and more condensed instructions in the recipe card. (I’m doing this so you have something easier to work from if you like to print recipe cards. Like I do.) The supply list with piping tip numbers (and links) is down in the recipe card as well.

(Disclosure: As an Amazon associate I may earn from qualifying purchases, and my posts often contain affiliate links. If you click a link and make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you!) 

Said 8 steps in brief: (click to jump to each section)

ALSO, before I forget to mention this - the cake in the videos on this page is a practice cake. For the real thing I’ll definitely use a thicker cake board / cake drum. Buying these in-person is ideal - I’ve ordered online and had them show up warped. I can tell you from assembly-day experience that that’s super annoying if you don’t have time to get a new one.

1. Frost + smooth cake(s); dowel if needed

First things first. Get the cake frosted. 😉

So there are about a thousand video tutorials and classes available online that cover frosting a cake and getting the sides straight. (I’ll be honest: my assumption is that if you’re looking into making a cake like this one, you probably have at least some basic knowledge of how to get a cake frosted.)

But in case you’re on shaky ground where frosting is concerned – here’s a post + embedded video on getting your cake tiers frosted and smooth. Plus a couple other posts with parts that were helpful to me when I was first getting started frosting cakes.

https://intensivecakeunit.com/frost-a-cake-with-smooth-buttercream/

https://chelsweets.com/how-to-frost-a-cake-smoothly/

https://sugarandsparrow.com/smooth-buttercream-cake-tutorial/

Next – if you’re decorating more than one tier – time to get the whole thing supported.

Think of a multi-tiered cake as a block tower – but with soft, squishy blocks. What happens when you put something heavy on something soft and squishy…? You got it; it deforms or collapses completely. No bueno. So to prevent this – we add ‘dowels,’ (I use straws) for internal support. 

(Seriously. Do NOT skip this step. I say this as the idiot that tried it once. My top tier sank into the base tier and almost tipped completely over.)

You can see in the video here I used milkshake straws cut to the height of the base tier, and then one regular straw in the center to help keep the top tier centered. This is helpful for assembly and really helpful for transport. See this post and / or this quick video if you need more details than the video provides! 

Okaaay! So now with the tiers frosted and stacked - we’re ready to decorate!

2) Mark and pipe the bottom swags (swags meaning the little swoopy things around the cake. Start with the star tip zig-zag one)

Mark the bottom swags: You can see in the video - I got lucky and a plastic cup I cut in half matched the 3.1” measurement I needed to mark out my swags. I doubt everyone will be lucky enough to have a Dollar Tree cup laying around that matches their cake size – so a parchment paper round or ring creased in sixths or eights and placed on top of the cake is a great way to ‘mark out’ the swag lines so they’re even.
(If you get nerdy like me and want to do the math and use a ruler, an 8-inch circle has about a 25 inch diameter - if you divide that by 8 you end up with 3.1 inch swags. 2.4 inch for the 6-inch tier.) 

Pipe the bottom swags: I used a Wilton #16 (a small star) tip for the bottom swags. Because of the multi-layer swags and the decorating I was going to do at the top of the cake, I left about an inch of space above the bottom ‘swag.’

Also! You can see in the video that I propped my turntable up a bit with a measuring spoon. Put something sticky underneath the cake board if you do this.  You do not need the whole cake sliding off the turntable! That’d be a really bad day.

This first swag was the most challenging to pipe - I did a quick practice on a paper plate and that was helpful. I started at the top edge of the swag and piped a really close up-and-down-zig-zag pattern following the line I’d marked with the cup. I made it a bit narrower at the top of the swags and a bit narrower at the bottom in the middle.

(If you’re decorating more than one cake tier – save yourself some time and headache and do all the swags of this style now! I didn’t once and changing out all the piping tips again for the top tier was a pain.) If you’re feeling unsure or need a bit more guidance please refer to the YouTube video. 🙂

On to step 3!

3. Pipe 2 ‘ruffley’ swags (petal tip) 

Next pipe the 2 ‘ruffley’ swags. (I didn’t know what else to call them. 😉 ) Using the first swag as a guide, add another 2 layers of frosting ‘ruffle’ swags above the base swag. Repeat for each tier if needed.

These are fairly straightforward - but the piping did take a little practice to get the hang of. I kept the narrow part of the petal tip toward the top of the cake. If your hand was zig-zagging up and down for the first swag, picture it zig-zagging up and down and in and out a bit as you pipe this one. That makes that ruffley look a little more pronounced.

Bam. Done. Next!

4. Large borders (base/middle/top) w large french star tip

(This was probably the easiest step for me!)
Now, with a large French star tip, add a border at the cake base, (between tiers if needed), and around the top. (If you watch the video closely you can see a bit of evolution in my piping technique here; I was trying to pipe it kind of continuously at first but eventually found it easier and cleaner to pipe just one bit at a time.)

5. Small border with small star tip

Okaaay! Making progress! Now time to bring the small star tip back for a second smaller border around the top edge of each tier. (Again, I used a paper plate back for a practice run first.) Place the piping tip gently against the cake edge, and pipe small ‘loops’ in a continuous pattern around the top edge of each cake tier (below the French star border).

A lot of this piping you can kind of do in whatever order you want - but I’d leave this border until toward the end just because it’s positioned in a spot that’s easy to bump when you’re working on other parts of the piping.

6. Pipe teardrops at the top of each swag

Add a teardrop at the top point of each swag – place the piping tip gently against the mid-point of the top of the swag and pipe frosting until a large ‘drop’ forms.

(Again - not a bad idea to practice on a paper plate if you're new to piping this shape. Mistakes at this stage are a little harder to pull off and correct because of all the frosting already on the cake!) 

Gently pull the piping bag upwards and away from the cake, leaving a ‘teardrop’ shape behind.

7. Pipe a small rosette at the top of each teardrop

Now pipe a small rosette at the top of each teardrop. (Same piping tip; thank heaven. If you’re getting sick of switching piping tips at this point, you’re not alone!) That said though – this IS probably the easiest step of the detailing. (Also the reason I didn't include a photo at this step; I couldn't get a shot that showed the piping pattern better than the photo below this text.) 

Almost there!

8. Last step – add the flower petal + sugar pearl designs in the open spaces.

In the open space underneath the swags, use a small round tip to decorate with a small 3-point flower petal + sugar pearl design. (See photo for details; I used a Wilton #3 tip.)

I found it easiest to pipe one petal in the center and then the two on the right and left, and then press the sugar pearl into the center below the ‘petal’ design. I piped a small 3-point flower-petal-ish design with a #3 small round tip - and added a sugar pearl in the center. 

And that’s everything! If you made it this far you are AMAZING; I know that was a lot of text!

Any questions leave a comment or email me; either will go straight to my inbox.

Because I’m at home with my kids most days, I leave the majority of my phone notifications off so I can be present for them. But once they’re in bed I’ll get back to you! I rarely take longer than 48 hours to respond to an email.

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