Tips & tricks for how to use cake stencils
1. Plan ahead
Planning ahead and knowing your end design is essential. Sketch your ideas out a few times and figure out where you’d like certain design elements to go. Always remember, though, that what works in a sketch may need to be adjusted on the actual cake — a 2-D drawing is completely different from an actual cake!
2. Start small
If you’re a complete novice when it comes to using cake stencils, then don’t get too ambitious right away. You’ll set yourself up to fail if you choose stencils with indicate patterns, plan to stencil a five-tier cake or attempt to stencil a design in an ombré royal icing pattern.
Start small. Opt to stencil flat fondant disks and lay them on top of buttercream cupcakes, or try a simple pearl pattern to edge around a single tier.
3. Get attached
Holding or attaching the stencil to the cake can be the toughest part of stencil. There are different ways to do this, but it all depends on how you like to work. Here are a few options:
Sticky fondant
Since we can’t use pins for real cakes, we rely on the fondant surface being a little tacky, which generally holds the stencil in place.
Toothpicks or cocktail sticks
If your fondant has lost its tackiness, you can replace dressmaker pins with thin toothpicks or cocktail sticks. Remember that you’ll be left with holes that you’ll need to hide.
Shortening
Some decorators use Crisco or another form of shortening to stick the stencil onto fondant. Just dab a little shortening on each corner of the stencil and press it to the cake, like this:
