Bring the charm of the seaside to your next cake with this realistic chocolate beach buoy cake tutorial from Three Tiers for Cake. Husband-and-wife team Rachael and Matt Morris, known for their creative carved cakes and appearance on Netflix’s Sugar Rush Season 2, share their step-by-step process for creating this rustic buoy cake using sponge cake, ganache, and modeling chocolate. Designed with beginners in mind, this forgiving carved cake embraces an intentionally weathered finish, making it easier than ever to create a realistic nautical centerpiece that’s perfect for beach weddings, summer celebrations, and coastal-themed parties.

Edibles:

• Ganache
• Baked and cooled sponge squares
• Modeling chocolate
• Cornstarch
• Graham crackers
• Petal dust: white, selection of blues, and red
• Grain alcohol or lemon extract for making edible paint
• Piping gel

Equipment:

• 4 cake boards
• Hot-glue gun
• Ribbon
• Medical paper or aluminum foil tape
• Dowels
• Bubble tea straws
• Cranked palette knife
• Parchment paper
• X-Acto knife
• Modeling tools
• Scissors
• Smoothers
• Silicone mold: rope
• Silicone mold: starfish and shells (optional)
• Round cutter
• Paintbrushes

Build a Support Structure

1. Using four cake boards stacked and secured together with masking tape and hot-glued ribbon around the edge, pop out the centers of the top 3, leaving the bottom board closed.
2. Using medical paper or aluminum foil tape, food-safe your dowels and tape them together securely. We used 4 thin dowels taped together because they fit the hole perfectly. Fill the hole with hot glue. Place in your rod and allow it to cool.
3. Food-safe your board by covering anywhere the hot glue touched with aluminum foil tape.

Stack Your Beach Buoy Cake

1. Ganache the bottom of the board where the cake will sit.
2. Cut out holes in the center of your cake squares using a small round cutter. I cut my squares to 4 x 4 x 2. The holes make it easier to slide each cake square over your dowels so that your cake won’t crack.
3. Using bubble tea straws or wooden dowels, insert 2 on opposite corners for support approximately halfway up your cake.
4. Cut a template for your support board out of parchment paper. I cut a 2 x 2 piece of parchment paper, fold it in half, then cut off the center point to give me a template for my board that would fit over my dowels.
5. Food-safe your center cake board by covering both sides liberally with ganache and sliding it down the dowels. Continue stacking and filling your cake.
6. Cut the top at a gradual angle approximately one-third of the way down from the top. Leave a small square at the top (approximately 1-inch-by-1-inch square), so it does not look like the tip of a pyramid.
7. Ganache the top and chill until hardened.

Cover the Cake

1. Roll out your modeling chocolate, using cornstarch liberally under it as you roll, but be sure to brush off the excess on the underside before attempting to attach it to the cake or it will not adhere to itself or the cake very well.
2. Wrap the modeling chocolate like you would fondant (modeling chocolate is our preference) around the cake.
3. Gently pinch the seams together; any overlap can be cut off using an X-Acto knife through both layers. Remove the bottom layer and butt the seams up against one another and smooth the seam.
4. Using scissors, snip the excess off each corner, being careful not to take too much at once or you will leave a gap. You can also use your fondant smoothers pressed together one on either side and pinch until the modeling chocolate pops off. This will also help to see all the modeling chocolate together using either the scissor method or the smoother method.
5. Smooth your seams using the flat edge of a tool—when working with modeling chocolate we find modeling tools really helpful.
6. Using the heat of your hand, smooth out the modeling chocolate.

Add Decorative Textures

1. Put deep cracks into the buoy then texture with lighter, thinner lines all running vertically.
2. Make 2 fondant or gum-paste ropes using a silicone mold. Wrap them together to make the rope thicker. Attach them to themselves with water, then paint them with petal dust and grain alcohol or lemon extract. We used a light brown and yellow mix.
3. Using a round cutter, cut out the hole for the rope near the top.
4. Using a fluffy brush and pale blue petal dust, run the brush side to side over the cake to highlight the cracks and corners.
5. Using silicone molds make a starfish and shell and dry dust with petal dust.
6. Make a parchment-paper collar. Using a quilting pin to hold it in place, wrap it around the cake.
7. Using white and red petal dust and grain alcohol or lemon extract, make a paint and paint a white stripe on top and a red stripe on the bottom.
8. Using the same white paint, paint on No. 68 or whatever “number” you choose—this could be the birthday number.
9. Go back over the dried cake with 3 pale blue highlights over the painted areas.
10. Roll a small log of modeling chocolate. Flatten with your fingers.
11. Place into the hole to conceal any cake you can see where you cut out the hole for the rope.
12. Attaching with water, add fondant rope into the hole.
13. Frost or ganache your board, then cover any ganache or frosting with crushed graham crackers and add your starfish and shell. Drop a little piping gel onto the graham cracker sand.

This tutorial originally appeared in the July/August 2020 issue of American Cake Decorating.

Three Tiers for Cake

Husband-and-wife team Three Tiers for Cake wowed us on Netflix’s Sugar Rush season two with their flair for creativity and amazing flavors! Rachael and Matt Morris are custom cake artists specializing in carved, gravity-defying, and custom wedding cakes in the Lake Norman–Charlotte area.