Easily Airbrush a Vintage Botanical Garden Cake and Garden Cookies (Cake Stencils, Cake Stenciling)

Welcome to the next installment of Confection Couture’s tutorial for our new cake stencil product line! In this video we demonstrate how to airbrush your fondant cake using our Vintage Botanicals cake stencil and Garden Elements cookie stencil using just your green thumb. These Confection Couture Stencils are perfect for elegant garden and summertime parties!

Before you start stenciling, you just need to bake your cake and coat it in fondant. After this just prepare your airbrush and get to stenciling! Below is everything you will need to do this at home:

• Vintage Botanicals Cake Stencil
• Air Genie Airbrush System
• DecoPac Airbrush Food Coloring
• 3 Ounce Plastic Bottle Dropper
• Tapered Baker’s Spatula
• Cookie Magnets
• Garden Elements Cookie Stencils
• Stencil Genie
• Glad Press n’ Seal

To start we want to create a lighter green than what comes in the bottle. Mix Amerimist Lemon Yellow with Leaf Green in a plastic bottle dropper. Try adding the yellow to the bottle first and then slowly mix in the green. Check the color as you go, adding green as needed. It’s easier to mix a color darker than it is to make it lighter.

Load your airbrush and test the color on a piece of paper towel. Adjust the airflow of your Air Genie airbrush system to a medium-low setting for when you are ready to begin airbrushing the cake. This is a good time to get used to the color spray of the airbrush. Fine tune the air flow as needed, but as a general rule you won’t need to go up more than halfway in most cases.

Before you get to airbrushing the cake, you will need to prepare the cake stencil itself. Confection Couture recommends storing your cake stencil in a round storage container so that it retains a curve.

Keeping the stencil in a jar or small round cake pan when not in use is ideal.

Apply a light coat of vegetable shortening to the back using your tapered baker’s spatula. Evenly coat the back with a thin layer of shortening and make sure that there are no clumps.

 

Press the stencil firmly to the surface of the cake and insert 4 sewing pins into the corners of the design. Start on the left or right side of the stencil and insert the sewing pins into the top and bottom of the design.

The pins should be inserted through the holes in the design so that the stencil does not shift as you smooth it out to the other side of the cake. Push in the other two pins so that the stencil design lays completely flat against the cake. If there are a couple spots where the stencil does not lay completely flat, do not worry! You can use a chopstick, skewer, or other tool to hold these sections down as you stencil.

The last step is to add a piece of Glad Press n’ Seal to the top and side of the stencil to protect the rest of the cake from excess over spray.

You may be able to tell from the image above that we nearly forgot about this step. Luckily we noticed this before any food coloring could go past the stencil boundaries.

The airbrush is fairly precise even if you are coloring by the edge of the stencil. It is still best not to take your chances with over spray or you could end up coloring outside of the stencil.

 

Now that you have protected the rest of the cake with Glad Press n’ Seal you are ready to airbrush. Test the airbrush on a piece of paper towel once more to prevent accidentally spraying any excess food coloring. It is always a good idea to do this just in case a drop of food coloring unexpectedly pools at the airbush tip. Holding the airbrush in one hand and a chopstick in the other, begin to lightly color the cake through the stencil. Use the chopstick to hold the stencil flat in any spots where the stencil might not. Stencil some light green leaves here and there but leave room for dark green leaves.

After airbrushing the light green leaves, run some vodka through the airbrush until it runs clear. Give the airbrush a second to dry before loading it with green Amerimist from another bottle dropper. Test it on a piece of paper towel and begin to stencil other leaves in green, just as before. Try embellishing some light green leaves with touches of dark green to give the design depth.

Once you have stenciled all of the dark green components, get ready to add a few touches of brown. Run vodka through the stencil until it comes out clear. Give the airbrush a second to dry then add the Chocolate Brown Amerimist food coloring from a dropper bottle. We added a touch of yellow to the food coloring to lighten it up. Add a touch of brown here or there to the stems of the design for additional depth. Try to imitate nature!

Now that you have added the three colors of food coloring, remove the pins to one side of the stencil that holds it in place then gently peel it off the cake surface. Check out how well the colors of the cake design work together to bring these plants to life!

To keep stenciling the cake, you will first want to rinse of the stencil and pat it dry with a piece of paper towel. Place the stencil right beside the design you had just stenciled and airbrush the design just as before. Continuing the stencil design is easy, just don’t forget to put the Glad Press n’ Seal back in place on the top and sides of the stencil.

Notice how the last bit of exposed fondant is smaller than the stencil design. To stencil this section, you will want to mask off a portion of the stencil so that it fits between the other two repeats of the design. Pin the stencil in place, cover the exposed parts of the cake with Glad Press n’ Seal, and complete the design by airbrushing the last section of the design.

Now don’t forget to stencil the top of the cake! Once more, rinse then dry the stencil before you isolate a section of the stencil with Glad Press n’ Seal. Center the stencil design and use cookie magnets to hold the stencil flat in place. Color the design so that it matches the rest of the cake to give it an irresistible finish!

Once complete you will have the perfect dessert for your next garden party. Go above and beyond by pairing this cake with Confection Couture’s Garden Elements cookie stencils! Together with this cake, the cookies really tie everything together. Visit www.confectioncouturestencils.com to browse our other products and check out the video below for a step by step walk through on how to airbrush this cake for yourself!