GEODE INSTRUCTIONS

You will need:

Scissors

Clean, empty bowl

Clean plate

Offset spatula (or butter knife)

Small sharp knife

A dab of vodka, light rum, or any clear flavored extract

Cake stand (optional)

Included:

Cake board

Vanilla buttercream frosting

Strawberry frosting (or cookies and cream if delivered via USPS)

Package of geode candy

Food grade, non-toxic metallic lustre dust

3 layers of cake

Mini paint brush

Prep work:

Leave all buttercream at room temperature, you don’t want this to be cold
Keep the cake in the fridge or freezer for at least an hour before you plan to start decorating
Read through the instructions

Let’s Begin…

Start by gathering all the items you need and getting your decorating space organized. If it’s cold in your home and the buttercream is still a little stiff, pop it in the microwave for 4 or 5 seconds. This should be all it takes. You don’t want to melt it, but decorating a cake is much easier with a warm to room-temp frosting.

1

Using your scissors, cut off about 1” of the tip of the flavored buttercream. Take your cake board out and put it in front of you to begin decorating. Put a dollop of buttercream on the middle of the board. this will be used to secure your first layer of cake to the board.

TIP: The cake in front of you is pre-cut into three layers. In order to get the best looking cake you will want to follow the order of cake layers instructed.

2

Identify where each layer is and remove the top layer of the cake, setting it aside on the clean plate. Take the middle layer of the cake and put it on your cake board. Make sure it is centered and push it down in the middle a little to make sure it is stuck with the buttercream dollop to the board.

3

For your first layer of frosting, start from the middle of your cake, and make a swirl toward the outer edge.

Then use your offset spatula or the back (straight, flat side) of your butter knife to smooth out the frosting and fill any gaps. The frosting between layers does not need to be very thick.

If you find that the frosting is too thick on this first try, don’t worry just use the knife to evenly scrape some off and save that excess frosting in your bowl.

4

Now you’re ready for the second layer of cake! Take the slightly rounded top layer of cake and flip it upside down to place it on top of the cake you’re creating. This will help ensure the cake stays level, so take a moment to get down with the cake at eye level and check the layer of cake you just added is flat on top and not leaning. If it is leaning you can use a hand to press lightly on the higher side until it appears flat.

Using the same swirl and smooth technique as the first time, add your second layer of cookies and cream frosting.

5

For the final layer of cake, I find it best to flip the layer upside down so what was once the bottom of your cake in the package becomes the top, this will help keep your corners sharp and not too rounded when you do your final layer of frosting later on.

Again I would recommend getting down so the cake is at eye level and checking to make sure the top is flat and not leaning.

Now if you have gaps around the outside of your cake you can use the excess buttercream from the filling to fill those in so the sides of the cake are more or less smooth and straight. At this point you don’t need it to be perfect.

Congrats! You’ve now finished layering your cake. Now take a break, hit pause, and put the cake in the fridge to chill for 10-15 minutes so the filling sets up….

After the cake is chilled, bring it back to your work station and cut the tip of the vanilla buttercream. Only cut about ¾’’ from the bottom. Start small since you can always cut off more. I like my final buttercream for the outside to be nice and soft because it will make smoothing out the cake easier.

Starting from the bottom, pipe the frosting in rings around the cake until you reach the top.

Using your spatula or the flat side of your butter knife, smooth out the rings of frosting and save any excess you scrape off in your bowl. There may be small uncovered patches, for now that is okay.

When you smooth the cake be sure to keep the spatula or knife straight up so that the sides of your cake are straight. If you accidentally scrape off too much that’s okay! Just use the tip of your spatula or knife to fill in the patch and try again

Starting from the center of the top of the cake, create a swirl pattern outwards toward the edge of the cake then smooth the top of the cake using your spatula or butter knife.

Now is the time to use the excess buttercream to fill in the patches on the sides or top, and smooth out your cake.

Tip: Once any bald patches are filled with buttercream, run your knife under HOT water and use the hot knife to smooth the cake. The water on the knife will repel the fats in the buttercream and the heat will help smooth things out.

Pop the cake in the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes

Be sure to reserve 2 tbsp of frosting for later!

Once your cake is chilled you’re ready to start the decoration

Start by marking out the design for your geode incision with a knife:

Tips:

Start small! The incisions don’t need to be as big as you think

Using the edge of the cake will make placing the geodes easier

I recommend a 2:1 ratio of width of your incision to depth of your incision

Making it an asymmetrical shape adds interest to the geode

11

Using a sharp knife cut out your geode incision

12

Using your reserved vanilla buttercream, cover the exposed cake and flavored buttercream to give you a white surface to start your geode on.

Tip: You will want to cover ALL exposed cake and interior buttercream with a good helping of vanilla buttercream so that the geode candies have a good surface to stick to

Now comes the part where you need patience. Find a comfortable chair to sit and work in, put on some good music and let the geode begin…

Tip: I like to start by pouring the geode candies onto a surface where they can be easily seen and picked up - like a baking sheet. Then I pull out the largest geode candies and reserve those. Next, I find the longest sharpest looking geode candies and set those aside.

13

It’s easiest to start from the inside crevice and work your way out, starting from the tightest spots to fill while the incision is widest and not filled with other candies you can easily knock off. If you sorted out your geode candies, start by putting the longest sharp ones right along the inside crease. They don’t have to stick out much, so don’t worry if they get a little buried in buttercream to start with

14

Working at your own pace, start working outward on either side filling the incision with geode candies

(apologies for my poor cameraman skills, hard to film and geode at the same time!)

It takes time, just be patient and eventually you’ll start to see the geode taking shape…

Once you reach the outside of your incision it’s time to use the large geode candies you reserved at the beginning. Line the outside edge with your large geode candies.

Tip: It looks best and more geode-y if the large geode pieces “spill out” a little bit so they’re actually almost lining the outside of the incision

Now it’s time for your cake to chill once more!

Put your cake in the refrigerator or freezer for at least 30 minutes so the geode candies set up and the buttercream gets cold enough to paint on

Once your cake is chilled, it’s time to use your gold lustre bag. Carefully cut off the top of the bag, and the gold lustre is already mixed with a bit of alcohol. Depending on your preferred consistency you may decide to add more for a finer paint. Personally I prefer a thicker paint to I only have to do one coat of the metallic. If you prefer a thicker metallic, leave the bag open and set it inside a bowl to keep from spilling. After about 30min some of the liquid will have evaporated.

For a thinner metallic: Get out your liquid of choice - I use vodka, but any clear alcohol or clear extract like lemon or almond will work. Water works too but high proof alcohol or extract work best because they evaporate fastest.

Pour a teaspoon of your liquid of choice into a small vessel that makes it easy to drop or pour slowly - typically I use a small bottle cap.

Tip: You want to drip the water into the gold lustre SLOWLY you do not need much liquid at all. Too much liquid isn’t the end of the world, but it means you’ll have to do multiple coats of metallic or wait patiently (like a few hours) for some of the liquid to evaporate.

Start by dripping in 4-5 drops of liquid, use your paint brush to mix the liquid with the powder at the bottom and also use your brush to scrape some of the metallic off of the sides of the bag. The mix should be pretty thick and look like melted liquid gold.

Using the tip of your paint brush, paint the finest line along the outside of the geode candies, you can always go back and make the line thicker but start out small and work your way up. You can use the metallic to add drama to the cake by making lines strategically thicker in some places.

Suggestion: if you have extra gold liquid left over, one of my favorite things to do is simply flick your paint brush making a splatter pattern on the cake. Super fun yet elegant.