I love the new trend with using nonpareils to cover the sides of cakes but my goodness it can get messy. I searched google and youtube for as easy method but only saw examples of balancing tillted cakes over large bowls but then something caught my eye and triggered my brain. All you need is a small square (about the height of your cake) non-stick cooking spray, and a paper plate. Poor some nonpareils onto the plate. Just a touch of cooking spray onto your waxed paper. Lay the paper on the plate and press gently. Lift the waxed paper off the plate and it will be covered with your decoration. Line waxed paper up with the bottom on your cake and gently run your finger up and down the paper pushing them onto your freshly frosted (not crusted) buttercream. Remove the waxed paper and repeat as needed around your cake. (You will need to respray only about every 3-4 times) It is super fast and easy to cover your cake. Filling spots that were missed is simple too. I could not believe how easy it was. I took pics to make a tutorial but my camera and computer are not on speaking terms right now for some reason. Posting it here so you don't have to wait to try it! Seriously only took about 10 minutes to cover a 2 tier cake and almost no mess to clean up

Cool - thanks for sharing that!

thank you for this! i am about to attempt a sprinkle cake this week and this is a HUGE help!!

Thanks for posting this! I love that technique and am anxiously waiting for a chance to try it!

Can not wait to try this method! Sounds ingenious Thanks for sharing.

Thanks so much! When I made a giant Peep cake for Easter I covered my kitchen and dining room with yellow sprinkles! I am ALL for a better way! YAY.
Theresa

Yay! Glad I could finally help someone with a tip after all the tips I have received on this site. Hope it works out beautifully for all of you too!

Thank you so much for this tip. I just finished a cake and I wanted colored sugar on the side of the cake and what a mess, got fed up and put the cake in the fridge. I am going to try your tip tomorrow when I finish the cake.

Thanks for sharing

Ooh great idea, thank you! One of my friend's birthdays is today and I'll be seeing him on Friday so may very well use it for his cake!

Great idea! Thanks for sharing!! I haven't tried the sprinkle thing yet, but hope to soon.

AThankyou so much!! I'm getting ready to do my daughter's birthday cake and was wondering how many hours it was going to take me to accomplish this.

really? no one wants to stick with throwing the sanding sugar sideways at the cake? 

AOhhlala! So glad I stumbled upon this great tip!!

AThat is excellent! I tried to freeze mine first, then roll it in a pile of them, but I think I had to squeeze too hard and I made my cake a little wonky.

Thanks for bringing this up again.  Older thread, but great tip.

Yippee!  It worked!  Thanks!  Blue sprinkles added a nice touch to my under-the-sea cake!

Thanks for this

This is a great tip! I know this is an older post but I have a question...Do the sprinkles bleed onto the sprayed wax paper? Maybe nonpareils don't bleed? help me out :)

Cake4court, I have the same question. I think sprinkle cakes look so cool but couldn't figure out how to get 'em on there. Thanks so much, thread starter, for posting this! :)

Thanks, this was a great tip!!!  I didn't have wax paper on hand but used aluminum foil and it worked fine!

To the person who asked about the sprinkles bleeding, mine didn't until I tried to mess with them too much.  The initial spray and picking them up was fine, but if I tried to use my hand to scoot them around on the cake at all they bled and ran.  Just for what its worth.  :)

Thanks Betccqlz! I'm doing a quickie gratis cake for mom to take to her dentist tomorrow  so I get full design control... I'm going to try this!

A candy cake for a dentist - perfect!!!  How about putting some jawbreakers on top so he can put it out in his waiting room for repeat customers!!!  I know my dentist would laugh at that.  Me - I broke two teeth once on a single Red Hot Dot!  I will not eat that candy again!

Please post the finished product!

T

LOL theresaf!! Believe it or not I didn't take pictures of the whole cake... just didn't love it. I was using leftover icing (had only green, orange, and yellow) and the colors looked pathetic. But I took a picture of the side so I can tell my customers I'm doing this now... I ended up using nonpareils instead of sprinkles, and the sprayed parchment paper worked LIKE A CHARM!!! I'm thinking this may actually be FASTER than smoothing buttercream to a near-flawless finish.

wow that looks awesome, can't wait to try this for a bridal shower this weekend :)

Haha thanks. it really was easy peasy as promised! Good luck - I'm sure it will come out great! :)

Any updates on whether sugar sprinkles bleed? I can't wait to try this!

That is awesome. I need to try that! Thanks!