Chinese Lantern Cake Tutorial by Julie Rogerson

Follow this step by step tutorial to make your very own Chinese Lantern Cake. Chinese Lanterns are a means of artistic expression, they are used in China during celebrations, festivals and especially at Chinese New Year. Send a message of happiness, good fortune & everlasting love!

You will need:

 Katy Sue Design moulds:

• Lucky Money Bag
• Double Happiness

 Equipment:

• Internal support structure (I used ‘CakeFrame’)
• Ribbon cutter (useful but not essential)
• Extruder gun (useful but not essential)
• Circle cutters
• Red 15mm ribbon (for board)

 Edibles:

• 2 6” half sphere chocolate sponge cakes
• Chocolate buttercream
• Chocolate ganache
• Black sugar paste
• Red sugar paste
• Red flower paste
• Yellow flower paste
• White flower paste coloured gold (I used Sugarflair Autumn Leaf paste)
• Gold colour dust (I used Rolkem super gold)
• Edible glue

Follow this Step by Step Tutorial

Step 1

Cover baseboard with black sugar paste and build internal structure for cake.

Cover baseboard with cling film to protect the sugar paste.

Step 2

Secure bottom half of sphere cake to small platform using buttercream, then fill with buttercream and place top half onto structure.

Step 3

Cover the sphere cake with one layer of ganache, chill, then give it a final coat, using a flexi smoother to create a flat surface. Once set, brush hot water over the ganache and then cover with red sugar paste.

Step 4

Mix equal amounts of red sugar paste and red flower paste, roll thinly and cut out strips approximately 2cm wide using a ribbon cutter. Starting at the bottom of the cake, stick the strips on using water, overlapping by a small amount each time until you reach the top. It is easier to do the front and back separately, joining at the sides.

Step 5

Roll a little yellow flower paste into a thin rectangle and stick around the bottom part of the internal structure. Then using an extruder gun, make thin sausages of yellow flower paste and stick around the base to make a tassel.

Step 6

Repeat, but this time, stick tassels onto a thin strip of flower paste, sticking it around the bottom of the lantern in small sections.

Step 7

Cover the top of the lantern with a circle of black sugar paste.

Step 8

Cut out strips of gold coloured flower paste for top, bottom and sides of lantern. Dust with the gold powder and stick onto lantern with edible glue.

Step 9

Make decorations using the Katy Sue Moulds – Lucky money Bag and Double Happiness (1 lucky bag, 2 double happiness symbols and 8 circles cut from various parts of the moulds), then paint details with gold dust mixed with a little vodka.

Step 10

Attach the decorations to the lantern/board using edible glue. Then stick the red ribbon to the edge of the board to finish.

Big thanks to Julie Rogerson from Julie’s Cake in a Box! Visit Julie’s website here www.juliescakeinabox.co.uk and Facebook page here www.facebook.com/juliescakeinabox.