⛄ Simple Cake Tutorial- This happy little Frosty the Snowman Cake is decorated entirely out of buttercream from his top hat to his festive scarf. You can make up to four mini 3-layer snowmen cakes, all from one ¼ sheet pan--I'll tell you how below!
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🎥 Quick Cake Decorating Video
Watch me make this snowman face cake:
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⛄ Cut Your Mini Cakes out of a Sheet Pan
My buttercream snowman face cake is inspired by the simplicity and cuteness of making buttercream faces on the sides of cakes (I'm sure you've seen similar designs with unicorn and animal cakes). He's made out of three small layers of cakes.
Using a 2.6" circle cutter, I cut out three round layers of my Vanilla Almond Cake. With this size cookie cutter you can cut up to 12 small circles of cake out of a ¼ sheet pan, so you can make up to four mini 3-layer cakes with just one cake! This is perfect for making a series of character cakes, as I did with my Mini Buttercream Santa Cake.
You could also use this design to make a larger buttercream snowman cake!
👩🏻🍳 Recommended Tools and Equipment
You can switch up the piping tips and get similar results, and feel free to have fun with the design. Here are the tools and equipment that I used and recommend to make this cake:
- one 2.6″ cookie cutter to cut out the layers of cake (or any round cookie cutter around 2.5-3″)
- 4″ mini gold cake board
- a small offset spatula for frosting the cake and smoothing out Santa's hat
- a bench scraper to smooth out the final coat of frosting on the cake (I prefer bench scrapers that are flat on both ends so it can rest right against the cake board as you use it)
- 12″ disposable piping bags (I prefer the 12" size for small piping details)
- Couplers and Coupler Rings
- #10 Round Tip for the snowman's black eyes
- #12 Round Tip for his carrot nose
- #14 Star Tip for the red and green scarf
- #352 Leaf Tip for the holly on his hat and scarf
- #4 Round Tip for the holly berries on his hat and scarf, for the ribbon around his hat, for his dot mouth.
- #809 Round tip for piping on the black top hat.
Thanks for Reading. ❤️
📖 Recipe & Step-by-Step Instructions
Mini Buttercream Snowman Cake
Ingredients
- 3 small round cake layers Cut out of your favorite moist cake recipe baked in a ¼ sheet pan. You can get up to 4 mini 3-layer cakes when using a 2.5 or 2.6" round cutter. (I used my Vanilla Almond Cake with added Christmas Jimmy Sprinkles in the cake batter (fold the sprinkles in right before spreading it into the pan to bake so the sprinkles don't bleed).)
- 1 cup(s), approximately Buttercream frosting for filling and frosting the cake (I used my House Vanilla Buttercream)
- 2 cups, approximately Buttercream for piping the decorations (I used my Perfect Practice Buttercream Frosting)
Instructions
Crumb Coat your Mini Cake
- Cut out 3 small round cake layers (I used a 2.6" round cutter), and layer 1 mini 3-layer cake with your preferred buttercream. I used a 4" mini cake board as the base of the cake. Crumb Coat the cake in white vanilla buttercream, then allow it to set up in the freezer for 10 minutes.
Prepare Your Buttercream Colors
- Divide the remaining vanilla buttercream and dye with a few drops of gel food color as follows (I describe what drops of color I use below. You can find all of these colors in this gel food color set, but any gel food color should work. It only takes a few drops to achieve a bright color, although black and red will require more dye).--¾ cup(s) dyed black (I used Coal Black)--½ cup(s) buttercream dyed bright red (I used Super Red)--½ cup(s) buttercream dyed bright green (I used Leaf Green and Lemon Yellow)-1 Tablespoon(s) buttercream dyed Orange (I used Sunset Orange and Lemon Yellow)
- Fill four 12" disposable piping bags with Couplers and Coupler Rings in every color (black, red, green, orange). You'll also need 1 piping bag without a coupler--fill that bag with an #809 Round tip and black buttercream.
Decorate Your Mini Snowman
- Frost your crumbed cake with its final coat of white buttercream. A bench scraper helps with this.
- Use the black buttercream with a #10 Round Tip for Frosty's black eyes. Use the orange buttercream with a #12 Round Tip to make his carrot nose, then the black buttercream with a #4 round tip.
- Use a #809 Round tip for piping on the black top-hat, then smooth it out with a small offset spatula. Pipe a red ribbon around the hat with a #4 round tip. Alternate using the red and green buttercream and the #14 Star Tip to make the snowman's scarf.
- Use the green and a #352 Leaf Tip for the holly leaves on his hat and scarf, then pipe red holly berries with the #4 round tip.
- Refrigerate, then allow the cake(s) to come back to room temperature before serving. Watch me make this Snowman Cake in my Video to see each step in action!
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