June Cake Decorator Spotlight
Brittanie Bakes
I am delighted to bring you Brittanie, @brittanie.bakes who is the June Cake Spotlight Decorator! She is known as “the cake mom” in the Instagram baking community because she always goes out of her way to help people out by sharing useful tips in her stories and helping through direct messages.
Hi Brittanie! Tell us about yourself.
Hello! I’m a baker/maker with a hardcore need to collect birthday candles and sprinkles, and I love creating things for others to enjoy! I spend some days working at a dental office, but most revolve around the two dudes in my life(my husband and son) and making a sweet mess in the kitchen. I love learning new skills(balloon twisting and modern calligraphy, anyone else?) and helping others along in their creative endeavors. Baking is therapeutic for me, and the perfect creative outlet! @brittanie.bakes started as a photo journal for the things I was making, and in less than a year has turned into something amazing that I never could’ve dreamed of!
How did you start making cakes?
They were initially an add on with my previous business, but those were only decorated with piped on rosettes and ruffles, and mainly something I avoided advertising. After a bit of a break from the baking world, I started playing around with cake scrapers and drips. I jumped at opportunities to make cakes for a few family events, and then made dozens to give away just for the practice. After moving back to Virginia I started taking orders again, and I still make cakes up just for fun as well!
Which buttercream do you like to work with?
I’m an American buttercream gal all the way! It’s all I’ve ever worked with, and at this point, I’ve gotten pretty good at manipulating it to get the desired results. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!
What is your favorite cake decorating technique?
Stripes, sprinkles, and drips! Maybe it’s the years completely covering cakes with piped details that helped me realize how much I love a smooth cake. When you get those stripes lined up just right, and the drip falls perfectly, the only thing that makes it even better is beautiful sprinkles!
Which cake decorating tools are must-haves for you?
I absolutely love my Evil Cake Genius cake combs! Stainless steel makes getting gorgeous stripes and clean cake tummies a breeze. Other tools I use would include an offset spatula, my aluminum cake turntable, and a new favorite is my Cake Katana.
Where do you look for cake inspiration?
It really can pop up everywhere, but my regular favorites for inspiration are candy and stationery stores! The variety of colors in candy shops is so exciting, and I definitely love including additional sweets on the things I make. And stationery stores, holy smokes! The patterns in gift wrapping and cards are such a boost to my creativity. It never hurts to buy a little from both to take home and play around with!
Do you have any advice for fellow bakers?
Love what you do, make friends along the way, and be true to yourself. Things don’t always go right, but keeping at it is so important. So much of this is trial and error, but I think that’s what makes it fun. Seeing the improvement is such a confidence boost! And if you can find a great support structure to cheer with you during the victories and root you on during the struggles, it makes everything so much better!
Recently, you hosted a massive sprinkle drip and striped cake collaborations. Can you describe the experience of hosting them?
Oh goodness, it was so incredible! The sprinkle drip one grew quickly, which left me monitoring multiple groups full of amazing creators helping each other. I streamlined the information process with text photos to help them stand out, kept a running list of participants, and let the groups interact however they wanted. By the time the striped cake collaboration came around, I felt much more confident in the process. I was even able to put together a troubleshooting group on the side in the last week for those people who were still running into snags and wanted to ask one-on-one questions. Posting Day for both was an absolute whirlwind, and I’m so grateful for everyone that jumped in on the fun. Skills were stretched, friends were made, and it was an excellent way to bring the caking community together! (Brittanie, you forgot to add that some of the sprinkle drip cakes were featured in a recent Cake Masters magazine issue!)
What is your favorite activity besides cake decorating?
I’m a sucker for watching movies! I love snuggling up with my kid at home and binging a trilogy or two, as well as scooting out on my own and checking out something new in theaters. It’s such a wonderful mental break from everything for those few hours.
Do you have a favorite cake flavor?
Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting! I love a dense cake, nothing too sweet, and who doesn’t love cream cheese frosting?!
Cakes I’ve Made
Mohawk Cake
This little beauty is half covered in either the Blush sprinkle mix or lovely blue drips, and both are joined in the middle with a sweet frosting mohawk.
Chocolate Dream
Breaking away from all the recent pink cakes to bring you some dreamy chocolate on chocolate action! I had to give those three-toned crispies another chance to shine, and this cake seemed like the perfect opportunity. I also switched things up by throwing some dimensional stripes on this bad boy.
Black & White Oreo Cake
Oreos have my heart, especially when they’re on this black and white cake! I can’t get enough of the freckled frosting stripes.
Popsicle Drip Cake
If one dripping popsicle on a cake is fun, just imagine how much better two would be!! You don’t have to imagine, I made the thing. These dueling cake-popsicle drips are exactly what I saw in my head, so yay for that! Throw in a pretty pink mini cake and what more could you need?
Black Gumball Cake
This cake includes peacock blue stripes, an upside down sprinkle drip, lots more sprinkles, and shiny black gumballs.
Wicked Witch Cake
Green and black were my main focus for this cake, and incorporating stripes with lots of black frosting swirls was a must. I played around with isomalt for the first time to create the black sail, a representation of her black dress constantly flowing in the wind. I can definitely see more sails in my future!
Grayscale Striped Cake
For my cake, I went grayscale, up to the point where it’d be difficult to tell if the photo was in color or black and white. I think it was successful! Merging gray and white stripes are held in by the black, all topped with super white swirls.
Cactus Vibe Cake
Sometimes it’s so refreshing to play around with a completely different cake design than you’re used to. It was super calming to sit down with this little cake and apply sprinkles! I wrestled with this cake for a few days, kinda loving it, then kinda not. In the end, I’ve decided that I love the minimalistic cactus vibe it has.
Doughnut Cake
My Doughnut Cake is made of a bunch of little individually decorated 4″ cakes stacked up! I carved them, frosted and smoothed out the sides using ABC, then used a drip consistency to “glaze” each one, and sprinkles or a drizzle were added as the final touch. Then they were stacked on top of each other because who doesn’t love a cute stack of doughnuts?
Waffle Cone Cake
I did this ice cream for an Ice Cream Cake Collaboration. “Americone Dream” is one of my favorite flavors, incorporating vanilla ice cream and chocolate covered waffle cone pieces. Pretty sure I ate the entire bag I picked up of Waffle Chips, except for the few I drizzled with chocolate and added to this cake. A thick chocolate drip, and buttercream with a waffle impression wrap this baby up nicely!
Creative and beautiful cakes, Brittanie! Thank you for sharing a little bit about you and your cakes.
Make sure to follow her Instagram to stay updated on her upcoming creations and discount codes for Sweetapolita!
Check the past cake decorators!
