September’s Cake Decorator Spotlight
For September, I am featuring Sophie, @sugarcoatesbakery from Maryland. She has the most beautiful party cake designs that are perfect for a special occasion! Also, she is the queen of rope border videos. Her videos are so nice to watch! Read on to learn a little bit more about this month’s cake decorator.
Can you tell us a little bit more about yourself?
I am a mom of 4 – boy, girl, boy, boy! And we live in Baltimore, Maryland. We live in a really awesome neighborhood that is full of kids and all three schools are within ½ a mile of our house, so we get to be out walking/biking often. I am super lucky that I get to stay home with my kiddos and do my cake stuff
How did you get started with making cakes?
I am often asked this question and for lack of a better answer, I often say “ I just really like eating cakes’ Haha! Honestly, I am not even sure how I got here. I started out just making cakes, cupcakes, and cookies for friends and family and it took off from there. Side note: Baltimore has a nickname of Smalltimore because everyone knows everyone even though it isn’t really a small town. This has really helped me in most of my orders are word of mouth and it has kept me very busy!
What is your favorite process of baking/cake decorating?
Eating the cake scraps! Haha, kind of kidding! My Favorite part of the baking/cake decorating process is knowing that I am making someone smile/happy! As silly as that may seem, it makes me so happy to know that my small (yummy) contribution to a celebration makes other people happy too!
Do you have a favorite cake trend?
My favorite style is fairly simple and classic! I am a big fan of less is more for my own cakes. Oh, and I have a slight obsession with rope borders!
What are your most used cake tools?
- Turntable
- Flat bench scrapper
- Small offset Spatula
- Wilton 1M tip
Do you have a memorable cake that challenged you?
Oh man, the most memorable cake challenge still haunts me… I worked my tush off for a huge order 25+ cakes. I was so proud of how the cakes looked and that I had finished them all! The next day as the cakes were being delivered around town some issues came up and many of the cakes fell apart or slide apart or whatever you want to call a total disaster. Needless to say, it was crushing! I cried. A lot! I was fully ready to throw in the towel and not make cakes anymore. Eventually, I dried my tears and got back in the kitchen and learned how to avoid this issue so that it would never happen again. I also made sure to appreciate how hard I worked on all of the cakes and that it still was a big accomplishment!
Where do you find your inspiration from?
I find a lot of my inspiration from colors – often colors from the sprinkle mixes I plan to use on cakes. As silly as it might seem, I have a goal to spend more time browsing Pinterest for cake inspiration and ideas. However, since most of my cakes are for actual customer orders, there isn’t as much time to just play around with cakes for fun.
Do you have advice for someone who is starting out with her cake decorating journey?
Practice and patience.
What are your favorite cake and buttercream flavors?
I am super simple – I am a big fan of vanilla bean cake with vanilla frosting! Shockingly, I am not a chocolate fan at all!
What do you love to do besides making cakes?
Being with my kiddos and husband! My littlest friend is actually snuggling up against me as I type up the answers to these questions. Quality time together is my favorite!
My Favorite Cakes
Ruffle Cake
Here is a simple, clean cake with sharp edges and ruffle border around the bottom using a Wilton 104 tip.
Rainbow Border Cake
This cake is everything that makes me happy in the world of cakes!
Rainbow Striped Cake
A bright and fun rainbow stripe cake is here for all to enjoy! Here are the cake details… 8” cake frosted in American buttercream. I used a stripe comb for the stripes, gel colors for the rainbow colors and my favorite 1M tip for the rope border.
Rainbow Ice Cream Cake
Put it all of my faves together and you get one super fun and beautiful cake!
Pink Ombre Cake
This is one of my favorite cake styles. Here are the cake details. Three layer 6” cake frosted in American buttercream. Pink ombré effect made with gel colors and white chocolate ganache drip made using white chocolate chips!
Pretty Pastel Cake
This is simple but still beautiful which is a style that I really enjoy.
Lovely Sprinkle Cake
Three 8” layers of delicious funfetti cake frosted in American buttercream. I use royal blue for the frosting and pink to color the white chocolate drip. Both colors look so nice for a lucky girl on her birthday! And I used my favorite 1M tip for the rope border!
Beautiful Buttercream Textured Cake
Making this cake and seeing the final product made me so happy.
Beautiful Watercolor Cake
Some of my favorites for this pretty cake…watercolor look, white
chocolate ganache drip and chunky rope border.
The Cake details are three 6” vanilla bean cake layers using Domino Golden Sugar for my sugar instead of their traditional white sugar. I frosted the cake with my American buttercream recipe using their powdered sugar. For the outside decorations I did one of my favorite styles – watercolor look with white chocolate ganache drip and a rope border around the top of the cake. So pretty!!!
Thank you, Sophie, for doing this interview! Beautiful cakes.
Give her a follow on Instagram to stay updated on her future cakes!
