How to Make Chevron Design on Cakes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In this post, I will be explaining my method of making chevron designs on cakes without the use of molds or cutters. In place of these tools, I make use of a ruler, a sharp blade/cutter and a lot of mathematical calculations to create the chevron designs. While it is not the easiest design to execute as it is time consuming and entails a lot of brainstorming, it can be perfectly executed with the few tips I share below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

TOOLS:

(1) Rolling Pin

(2) Ruler

(3) Blade/Cutter/X-Acto Knife

(4) Paint Brush

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE PROCESS:

(1) You will need draped cake tiers for this design. Drape your cake tiers with fondant and place them in the fridge to set while you work on other elements of the design. Strive to have a perfect fondant cover on your cake tiers. If you end up having tears or elephant skins on the sides of the draped cake tier, do not sweat it as the sides will be covered with other layers of fondant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

(2) Next, roll out white and another colored fondant, in this case grey. Roll them out as thinly as possible and leave them to air dry for about an hour. The fondant should be soft enough to cut without breaking and firm enough to pick up without stretching or losing shape. This step is very important. Do not work with soft fondant here or you will not achieve sharp lines and perfect patterns.

 

 

 

 

 

 

(3) When the fondant is dry enough to work with, use a ruler and blade to cut out a straight base and perpendicular side (90 degrees) on both fondants.

 

 

 

 

 

 

(4) Next, cut out a strip of white fondant with a zigzag top and a straight base. The zigzag top should look like adjoining triangles. Gun for acute, isosceles or equilateral triangles. For better accuracy, it is best to measure the angles, height and sides of the triangles and make them uniform as this first cut will be used as a guide for all other cuts on both the white and colored fondant. This is where you have to do a lot of calculations. Luckily, your ruler should help out with this. Brush the side of the cake with a bit of water and wrap the base with this strip of fondant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TIP: You might wonder why I am making strips of both white and colored fondant. The easiest way to achieve the chevron design is to drape the cake with white fondant and stick colored chevron cutouts on it. This method will however not provide a perfect finish. The white strips help provide balance, precision and uniformity to the design.

(5) Next, cut out a zigzag strip of grey fondant. Start off by cutting out a strip of grey fondant with a zigzag top and a straight base using the same measurement as the white strip used around the base of the cake. With that portion of grey fondant marked, follow the pattern and cut out a zigzag strip of grey fondant and stick this on the cake, above the white strip.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(6) Continue this process of cutting out zigzag strips of fondant and sticking them on the cake alternating between white and grey fondant until you get to the top of the cake tier or the number of strips you want. Always start with a white base and finish with a grey zigzag strip.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(7) With the design done, use a fondant smoother to smooth out the surface of the tier. You can brush the grey portion of the design with silver luster dust mixed with vodka if you want it glossy. Complete the cake design as needed. For a complete tutorial on how the chevron cakes featured in this post were made, click here.