Since the drip cake craze started, I have been looking at photos of them in awe. I have wanted to learn how to make one for a while.
A few months ago our friend won a drip cake course at a charity auction. She gave the course to me as a gift and I was over the moon!
The course was with the Odiham Cake Company. Cake designer Gareth Jones has been delighting people with bespoke cakes since the business started 5 years ago. I couldn’t wait to go on the drip cake course and learn from the master!
When I arrived Gareth was just finishing a drip cake for a 30th birthday. It was amazing! I knew that mine would never look anything like that but I was excited to give it a go!
Gareth had already baked the chocolate cakes and, as we levelled them, I got to taste some. It was so delicious! I had to find some will power otherwise there would have been nothing left to decorate!
We layered the cakes with buttercream and applied our first crumb coat. Whilst we waited for that to set Gareth taught me how to make a chocolate sail.
We crinkled up the cellophane and put them in the fridge. I looked forward to seeing how it looked when it had set.
Gareth then applied 2 more levels of buttercream to his cake. I had to apply 3 to mine as I struggled to get it smooth.
Whilst our cakes were in the fridge we made chocolate truffles to decorate them with. I don’t have any photos of this as our hands were covered in chocolate. It was messy but fun.
When the buttercream had set and our cakes were flawless we moved them to their cake boards. This was very nerve wracking as I am very clumsy and I had visions of my flawless cake in crumbs on the floor.
The buttercream crinkled slightly at the bottom of the cake. I panicked but I soon learned that buttercream was much easier to fix than icing.
We then dabbed coloured buttercream around our cakes to create a marble effect. This was supposed to be done randomly. I have always known that I had a problem with random. This becomes apparent every time I try to display children’s work or decorate a Christmas tree. At first my blobs of buttercream were very organised and when I smoothed my cake it was stripy rather than random. I had to be brave, close my eyes and blob buttercream haphazardly.
Next we dripped! Using a piping bag we drizzled warm chocolate ganache around the edge of the cake. Every so often we would hold the piping bag in one place to create the drips.
We then filled in the top of the cake with the ganache.
Then came the decorations. We added our chocolate sails and then randomly placed truffles, buttons and chocolate sticks on the cake.
Again I struggled to do random. Luckily Bob arrived j ust in time! She helped me to cover the cake in truffles. At first I panicked as my un-random design went out of the window but then I saw how much Bob was enjoying it.
I loved our finished cake! It was very busy but when you give a 5 year old a tray of truffles and tell them to go crazy what do you expect.
I had an amazing day! Gareth and his wife were so lovely! They made me feel very welcome and we had lots of fun!
I loved learning how to make a drip cake and I am now planning a rainbow Trolls drip cake for Bob’s 6th birthday. I won’t have Gareth to help me this time so I am hoping some of his talent has rubbed off on me. Watch this space!
It looks wonderful Charlotte and of course Bob! Can’t wait to see her birtday cake xx
Oh my goodness that looks so delicious and so pretty. Well done you! I’d have such a hard time not licking my hands constantly.
Your cake looks lovely! I love the drip cake trend – the cakes look fab x
I’d love to go on a cake making course. I’m not very artistic!
My god, this cake looks epic! Well done!! x
That’s one of the most amazing looking cakes I have ever seen!
Wow that cake is amazing, I wish I was as talented as you! And I had to laugh when you said you had to close your eyes and dab to get the random effect.
I love drip cakes. My mum and sister make them all the time. Yours looks fab, Jo x
This looks like a fab experience, looks like you had fun 🙂 x
The cake looks amazing. I wish I had more patience when it comes to decorating.. I should look into some classes.
This looks so much fun – well done, your cake looks awesome!
I wish I was good at baking your cake looks awesome and this looks like a fun experience
What an amazing fun event. I would love to do a cake course. How fun!
Wow this cake looks amazing, you did such a great job. I hope you were allowed to take the cake home to eat after x
This looks like so much fun but also the cake looks so good it’s making me hungry X
This looks absolutely amazing! A job well done! I want to try it one day as I keep seeing videos of different drip cakes on instagram
Wowowow! Your so lucky to have a course as a gift! I am still learning to cook and bake and still looking for ways to learn more. That cake is awesome! I will look forward on your next cake for your daughter’s birthday!
I love this! It’s so clever and artistic. You made a great cake, bet it tasted delicious!
Wow, what an experience. I would love to do something like this.
I love your cake, it looks so amazing! It’s put me in the mood to bake today x
I always look at drip cakes in AWE! they are a proper work of art and you did a fab job!
That looks like so much fun, and the end result is just fabulous. I love how you have decorated yours. I bet it was super yummy too! x
This looks amazing! I love the drip icing technique. Now if only I still had my baking gear I’d give it a shot myself. Not sure those truffles would last long enough to get on the cake though 😀
Your cake looks fantastic! I love the fact your daughter went to town on it too, you both look like you had loads of fun.
You have done a really great job, the cake looks amazing! I bet it was delicious as well. I think that your next cake, the rainbow one, will looks as good at this one.
That looks great and super easy to I must try this next time I make a birthday cake. Looks like you guys had a great time.