Snowflake Cascade Cake

How to Make my Snowflake Cascade Cake

Icy shades of blue and purple create a beautiful watercolor buttercream effect with silver accents. This cake style is perfect for a winter wonderland (or ONEderland) party; or add a couple of well-known snow and ice princesses, and you won't be able to "Let it Go"!

What You Need

Find supplies and materials links at the bottom of this page
Fondant (find my recipe HERE, or any type will work)
Snowflake cutters
Edible glitters
Rolling pin
Cornstarch
Your favorite cake and buttercream frosting recipes (find all my recipes HERE) or mixes
Cake pans - 5" or 6" sizes
Cake decorating turntable
Offset spatula
Cake smoother/scraper
Piping bags
Piping tip - small open star tip

Step 1: Making Fondant Snowflakes

Find my full DIY homemade Marshmallow Fondant recipe and tutorial HERE, or you can use store bought or your own favorite recipe.

Divide out 3 pieces of fondant, and knead in coloring:
White: no coloring.
Light purple: 1 drop violet/purple gel coloring.
Light blue: 1 drop blue gel coloring.
Silver: 1-2 drops gray or a small dot of black gel coloring.

Dust your surface in cornstarch to prevent the fondant sticking, and roll out each piece of fondant, 1 at a time. I used snowflake plunger cutters to cut out 3 or 4 small and medium snowflakes from each color. I have also used open style cutters to create snowflakes as well. I'll link all of these options below.

I lightly sprayed each of the white, purple, and blue snowflakes with pearl edible shimmer spray, and the gray snowflakes with silver edible shimmer spray. You could also brush these with luster dusts, pearl dusts, or sparkle dusts to achieve this as well. Links for shimmer products I like to use are below.

Allow these to dry uncovered at room temperature out of sunlight for a few hours or overnight. They don't need to be completely hardened, just dry enough to maintain their shape.

Step 2: Baking the Cake Layers

Mix up your favorite cake recipe (find all my recipes HERE), or use a boxed mix and prepare as per directions.

Decide which flavor(s) and size to bake. This design works well on any cake size. A very tall or very short cake will have a different look. I chose to make a 3-layer 6" cake for this design, but sizing is of course entirely your choice. My recipes can be found HERE, or you can use a preferred recipe, a boxed cake mix, or purchase a cake from a grocery store to decorate and skip this step.

I like to add parchment circles to bottoms of cake pans for easy release. You may also cut circles from rolled parchment paper instead. Spray the bottoms and sides of cake pans with nonstick cooking spray/canola spray.

Divide the cake batter evenly among the three cake pans, filling them approximately 1/2 to 2/3 full.

Bake as directed by your recipe or mix package. Layers will be done once a toothpick comes out clean from the center.

Run a knife around the edge of the pan to allow the layer to release more easily. Allow layers to cool completely before decorating if you are decorating shortly after baking. Otherwise, while still warm, wrap the layers in plastic wrap and store in the freezer in airtight container until ready to decorate.

Step 3: Making Buttercream Frosting

Mix your favorite buttercream frosting (find all my recipes HERE) in a stand or hand mixer on low to medium speed, or use prepackaged frosting.

Divide buttercream into four bowls: 1 large and 3 smaller bowls. Color as follows:
Light blue: large bowl (at least 3-4 cups of the buttercream): 4-5 drops blue gel coloring. Add 2-3 tsp of your recipe's liquid ingredient to thin the consistency a bit for easier frosting/spreading.
Violet: small bowl: 2 drops violet or purple gel coloring.
Turquoise: small bowl: 2 drops turquoise or teal (or 1 drop blue + 1 drop green) gel coloring.
Royal blue: small bowl: 4 drops blue and 1 drop violet/purple gel coloring.

The colors will deepen with time, so buttercream may be made a day or two in advance and stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container.

If refrigerating, allow buttercream to warm up a bit at room temperature before using to make piping easier. Keep covered until ready to use. Stir well just prior to using to press out air bubbles.

Step 4: Stacking and Crumb Coating

Using an offset spatula, spread a little of the light blue buttercream onto the cake board, and place first layer down. Spread more of the blue buttercream onto the first layer, and then add the second cake layer. Repeat this on the second layer and place the third layer upside down on top (placing the top layer upside down gives a sharper edge to the top of the cake).

Spread the buttercream over top of the cake with offset spatula, continuing with the sides of cake as shown in video.

Once the cake is covered, use the cake scraper to smooth the sides (see video), leaving a thin coat of buttercream. This may take several passes.

Use your offset spatula or an angled spatula to pull the extra buttercream on top in toward the center to create a sharp edge.

Chill the cake in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes or until the buttercream is set and firm to the touch.

Step 5: Frosting the Final Coat

Spread a generous amount of the light blue buttercream over the top of the cake and continue spreading over the sides, keeping the spatula straight against the sides.

Smooth the buttercream with your scraper. It is helpful to warm up the metal under hot water (wipe dry) to soften and smooth the buttercream. This may take several passes.

Create the top edge by pulling off extra buttercream in toward the center with your offset or angled spatula just like when crumb coating.

Chill the cake in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes or until the buttercream is set and firm to the touch.

Once the cake is cold and set, use your offset spatula to dot the purple, teal, and royal blue buttercream frosting colors all over the sides and top of the cake. Smooth these out with your scraper to create a water color effect (see video).

Step 6: Preparing to Decorate

I used piping tip 864 for this border (comparable to 4B), but any small to medium sized open star tip will give a similar effect. Place your tip into a piping bag and cut off the tip of bag, so the piping tip sticks through, but stays in place.

Using a spoon or spatula, add each of the three colors from the small bowls of buttercream frosting to the same piping bag. It is helpful to place the piping bag into a tall glass and fold over when filling with multiple colors.

Pipe a little buttercream back into one of the bowls until you can see all three colors coming through the tip.

Step 7: Piping the Buttercream Spiral Border

With medium pressure, start by piping a short line of buttercream onto the top of the cake near the edge to anchor it.

Without picking up the tip, pipe a continuous spiral by moving your hand counterclockwise and maintaining steady pressure. Move slowly and pipe each new rotation so that it is touching the last rotation (see video).

If you need to reposition your hand grip or push down the buttercream, pull off the cake by pulling the piping in toward the center and continue on top of the "tail".

Step 8: Adding Decorations

Arrange the fondant snowflakes in a diagonal cascading pattern (or where desired) across front of cake and into border. The fondant should stick to the buttercream on the cake, but piping a small dot of buttercream to the back of each snowflake can help attach them if needed.

Pipe drop stars throughout the snowflake design by squeezing piping bag to attach buttercream to cake and then releasing pressure fully before pulling off.

Add sprinkles using fingers or a tweezers around snowflakes and drop stars as well as throughout border and on top of cake.

Finish by lightly spraying a few mists of pearl shimmer spray or dusting a little sparkle/luster dust over the cake.

Optional decorating ideas:
Use alphabet embossing stamps to add a personalized message onto the buttercream (or create a fondant plaque or topper - click HERE for an example).
Add plastic snow or ice princess figurines on top, or create a fondant snowman too.

Supplies and Materials Links

Homemade DIY Marshmallow Fondant recipe and tutorial
Recipes for cakes and buttercream frostings
Gel colorings: Chefmaster Liqua-Gels or Americolor Gel-Pastes: Amazon Storefront
Snowflake plunger cutters: various brands: Amazon Storefront
Small Snowflake Cutter: Custom Cutters and Embossers: custombakingbyerin.com
Shimmer sprays, sparkle and luster dusts, edible paints: Wilton, NY Cake, Wilton, Sweet Sticks, and various brands: Amazon Storefront
Cake pans, offset and angled spatulas, scraper, turntable: Fat Daddios, Wilton, Ateco, NY Cake: Amazon Storefront
Tip 864: Ateco: Amazon Storefront
Tip 4B: Wilton: Amazon Storefront
Other piping tips and bags: Wilton, Ateco, various brands: Amazon Storefront
Sprinkles and sprinkle mixes: Sweets & Treats, SprinklePop, SimplySucre, various brands: Amazon Storefront
Alphabet embossing stamp sets: Custom Cutters and Embossers: custombakingbyerin.com

I would love to see your snowflake cakes! Tag me @erin.cakesandcupcakes on Instagram, TikTok, or Facebook!

Note: purchases made from links on this page may result in my earning a commission.