Chocolate Cage Tutorial

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Once upon a time, chocolate-cage-tutorial-cakeI made this cake, complete with a Chocolate Cage.

And then I posted it on Facebook.

About a gazillion of you said you, too, wanted to know how to decorate a cake in such a fashion. So, here I am, willing to offer you a chocolate cage tutorial.

There’s really not all that much to it, to be honest. It just LOOKS fussy and complicated. Truth be told, if you can throw some icing on a cake, the chocolate cage will only add a few short minutes of extra time. And, if you can’t ice a cake so well, no problem…no one’s really going to see those mistakes anyway, as they are hidden by the cage.

Now, I did NOT take step by step photos when I made the original cake, which was a deep, dark chocolate cake with a hint of hazelnut, chocolate ganache, strawberry whipped cream, and chocolate covered strawberries as a garnish.

It was pretty incredible, if I do say so myself. If you all want the recipe, tell me here in the comments, and I will take one for the team and REMAKE that cake. And I’ll eat it. But then I will blog about it and give you the recipe.

Team player, y’all.

 

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The Chocolate Cage Tutorial

To change things up, for this chocolate cage tutorial, I made a lemon cake filled with blueberry whipped cream and iced it with sweetened whipped cream. For the chocolate age, I tinted white chocolate.

Let me stop right now and tell you something.

If you are a virgin in the world of chocolate, I’m going to recommend that you do not start your cage making experience by using white chocolate. And, if you do, don’t try to tint it. Why? White chocolate is more difficult to work with. It’s temperamental to melt (if it gets too hot, throw it out, you’re done), and if you use a tint with too much liquid in it, that white chocolate will seize up in a heartbeat. Add to that it dries faster, which means you have little time to work with it.

Now, I did all right on mine, though it DID dry on me before I could wrap the cake. My solution? A quick trip to the oven for a few seconds got it back to where I needed it. But again, just know that working with dark or milk chocolate will be much, much easier.

I kid you not. I love you guys, so I’m not trying to trick you.

Now, let’s move on to the cage making extravaganza.

Step By Step

First things first – make your cake. In case you aren’t a big baker, use a box mix. Just take my advise and add a bit less water and one extra egg. That will make the cake richer and sturdier. You want this.

I made my cake in 3 six inch cake pans, so that it’s taller. And that’s one box mix, in case you are curious. Once I leveled each layer, the stacking began. As you can see, I piped a border of the plain whipped cream to keep the blueberry whipped cream contained in the center. From there, I added the second layer with the same technique, and finally, the top.

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I use wooden skewers or a strong drinking straw to keep my cakes standing straight and tall, and to keep them from wiggling as I decorate them. Just measure the height you need and insert the skewer in the center of the cake from the top. Pretty easy stuff. Once that’s done, I iced the cake in the plain whipped cream, and into the refrigerator it went to cool.

How To: The Chocolate Cage

Now comes the cage.

Roll out a piece of parchment paper large enough to fully wrap around the cake. Now, I like my cage to be taller than the cake, so if you want the same thing, be sure the width of your parchment extends as high as you want it to. For my 8 inch tall cake, I made my cage 10-11 inches tall.

Once your chocolate is JUST melted (not too runny, not to hot, just melted), load it into a piping bag. Snip the end just a bit, leaving a fairly small hole for the chocolate to pipe through. If it seems too small, snip a little more. You don’t want the cage to be too fragile, so don’t make the piped lines too tiny. There’s your warning.

Now, pipe all manner of swirls onto your parchment. It will look something like this:

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Again, more is better, you don’t want it too fragile.

The next step is the most difficult. You need to watch the chocolate.

Just – watch it.

It will start to set, losing it’s shine. Once it’s almost dry, but when you pick up the parchment it still bends freely, it’s time to apply it to the cake.

Applying the Cage to the Cake

Take that parchment, chocolate facing the cake, and wrap it around the cake. Do. Not. Scoot. It. In. To. Place. Put it where you want it the first time. If you wiggle it, it will smear. No good. Just tackle it with volition, and gently press it into the sides of the cake. The extra part at the top will hold up fine, really. It will be okay.

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Back into the fridge with it.

In about 5 minutes, it will be all set. You can leave it longer, but I have this sneaky feeling you won’t be able to wait it out.

Carefully, very carefully…start peeling the the parchment away.

Voila! You have made a chocolate cage! Now decorate it however you like. For this blueberry cake, I piped some more whipped cream, added a bit more blueberry cream to the center, and added a few fresh berries. I also added another piped chocolate flourish. Nothing too fancy.

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So did that help? Are you ready to do it yourself?

Feel free to ask me any questions you like, I’m here!

Helpful Tools for Making a Chocolate Cage

 

 

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