How To Paint Leopard Print on your Cake

Posted by kendra_83

This tutorial shows you how to get the hand-painted leopard print look as seen here and in my cake photos. Im sure Im not the first or the only one to do it this way, but after being asked by several people for tips I decided to put my method in writing. Feel free to credit or link to any other tutorials on this subject.

List of Materials

• fondant-covered cake
• turntable
• vodka
• black gel color
• chocolate brown gel color
• Super Gold Luster Dust
• Copper Pearl Dust
• small, flexible brush
• wide, flat brush - a fan brush works best
• two ramekins for mixing paint

This technique begins with a fondant covered cake. I first brush the cake with vodka to get rid of any excess cornstarch and to ensure a smooth and flawless surface. Let the vodka dry completely before moving on to the next step. This should take about five minutes.

Mix your gold paint. I used some Super Gold Luster dust, a tiny drop of chocolate brown gel color and some Wilton copper dust thinned with a small amount of vodka to get it to a thin, easily paintable consistency. The brown and copper tones down the color and gives it an antiqued quality. You can eliminate the chocolate brown and/or copper if you prefer.

Using a flexible brush, apply the gold to the cake in a random pattern similar to the photo. Just smudge it on and dont worry about making the shape perfect. In fact, all the shapes should be slightly different. Dont over-think it!

Next, mix up some black or chocolate brown gel color and add a little vodka to thin it.

Paint the black color over the gold spots in a random manner like so. Again, dont over-think it. Wiggle your brush a little to give it a more natural look. You dont want it to be perfect. Next, paint more black spots on the cake in the bare areas.

When you finish painting on the gold and the dark spots, dip a wide, flat brush in your remaining gold paint that has been thinned with more vodka. A fan brush is better for this but any wide, flat brush will work. Just make sure to fan the bristles out and ensure that the brush isnt too wet. Using a back and forth motion, lightly swipe the damp brush across the cake while turning the turntable in one direction to blur and smear the spots. This gives the cake a more natural look. I hope you enjoyed my first ever tutorial! You can find my newly launched Facebook page here: http://facebook.com/customcakesbykendra