Add some fruity summer fun to your next cake using coating chocolate and everyday tools! This bright and cheery cake design was inspired by all the fun fruit patterns I’ve seen popping up this summer, from Rice’s tutti fruitti print kitchenware to Studio DIY’s fruit-shaped balloons. To create these fruit shapes I decided to use coating chocolate and some simple marbling techniques. Using coating chocolate allowed me to add details to the fruit shapes, but still have a smooth and shiny finished product. Don’t sweat it if you’re not a pro-piper! Those little tap, tap, tap-a-roos help to smooth over any wobbly lines. Every piece of real fruit is different, so don’t worry about making yours absolutely perfect.
How to Make a Summer Fruit Cake
The following supply list contains affiliate links that enable me to keep whipping up these tasty treats to share with you! Thanks for your cakey support. 🙂
Supplies
- Coating Chocolate: Dark Green, White, Red, Black, Bright Pink, Yellow, Vibrant Green, and Orange (or tempered chocolate that’s been tinted)
- Parchment paper
- Piping bags (optional)
- Heating pad (optional)
- Paper towels
- Heavy duty aluminum foil
- Small tray
- Toothpicks
- 6″ round cake finished with bright yellow buttercream
Step 1:
Plug in the heating pad close to your work space and turn it up to high heat. Cover the pad with paper towels and place a sheet of aluminum foil on top of the paper towels. Cut a couple dozen small (3″ x 3″) parchment paper squares to make your candy fruit on.
Step 2:
Melt the various shades of coating chocolate in separate heatproof bowls. Pour each shade of chocolate into a parchment paper cone or piping bag. As each bag is filled, place it on the heating pad between the paper towels and foil to keep the candy warm and fluid as you work. I used most of the coating chocolate colors as-is, except for the coral-y red tone that I used to make the watermelon, strawberry, and papaya. To make that color I combined about a cup of red coating chocolate disks with a dozen bright pink disks.
Step 3:
Place a parchment square on a small tray or cutting board. Pipe each fruit design as follows:
Watermelon
Pipe a puddle of dark green chocolate. Pipe a ring of white chocolate just within the outer edge of the green puddle. Fill in the white ring with the coral-y red chocolate. Steady the paper with your fingertips and gently tap the tray against your work surface to smooth and combine the colors. Pipe black dots all over the red circle. Use the tip of a tooth pick to pull the tiny piped circles into teardrop shapes. Give the design a final tap to smooth it over.
Kiwi
Pipe a slightly oval-shaped puddle of vibrant green chocolate onto a small piece of parchment paper. Pipe a smaller white oval in the center. Tap the tray to smooth and combine the colors. Pipe small black dots around the edge of the white oval. Use the tip of a tooth pick to pull the tiny piped circles into teardrop shapes, just like the watermelon. Give the design a final tap to smooth it over.
Strawberry
Pipe a rounded triangle of red coating chocolate onto a small piece of parchment paper. Pipe tiny yellow dots all over the triangle. Use the tip of a toothpick to to pull the tiny piped circles into teardrop shapes, with all the teardrop points facing down. Tap the tray to smooth the piped lines. Pipe two larger dark green dots on top of the triangle. Use the tip of a toothpick to pull the dots out and over the top of the strawberry to form the leaves. Use the tip of the toothpick to pull a tiny stem up from between the two leaves. Tap the tray to smooth everything out.
Citrus (Grapefuit, Lemon, Lime)
Pipe a large circle of whatever color you’d like on the outer edge of your citrus fruit. Fill the circle with white coating chocolate. Pipe a ring of colored dots around the outer edge of the white circle. Tap the tray to smooth and combine the colors. Use the tip of a toothpick to pull each dot towards the center of the circle to make the citrus segments. Give the design a final tap to smooth everything over.
Papaya
Pipe the coral-y red coating chocolate in the shape of an 8 with a fat bottom. Pipe a long, thin yellow oval through the center of the shape. Tap the tray to smooth the lines out. Pipe lots of tiny black dots on top of the yellow oval. Tap the tray to smooth the dots out. Use the tip of a toothpick to pull the tiny dots into teardrop shapes. Give the design a final tap to smooth everything out if needed.
Each of the fruit I made were about 2″-3″ in diameter. Make yours as large or as small as you like. As you finish each fruit shape, carefully slide the pieces of parchment paper onto a flat surface for the shapes to dry. Allow the fruit shapes to completely harden before using them to decorate a cake or cupcakes.
Step 4:
Carefully lift the hardened fruit shapes from the pieces of parchment paper. Slice a few of the finished shapes in half using a sharp knife. Use the candy fruit shapes to decorate a buttercream finished cake, cupcakes, or even a fruity ice cream sundae. Smear a dollop of buttercream onto the back of a fruit shape to help it adhere to the cake or cupcakes if needed. Use fruit shapes right away or store them in an airtight container at room temperature until the coating chocolate’s expiration date.
For more fun and delicious cake designs using chocolate, cookies, and candy, check out my latest book – Erin Bakes Cake! It’s available for pre-order now wherever books are sold.
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