Square Wedding Cake with Gold Lace - Tutorial

Here is a gold lace square wedding cake I designed and made for a sweet couple not too long ago. The cake itself was a 3 tiered one and the theme colors were white and gold. And it was square because that was what the couple wanted. The bride did not want too many flowers on it but favored lace patterns. Hence I designed a square cake in white and decorated it handmade lace patterns in gold.

A 3 tier square cake in white fondant and gold lace and white gum paste flowers

An elegant square wedding cake

How to Decorate a Square Wedding Cake with Handmade Gold Lace

These were the main supplies I used for this square wedding cake:

Cake - The cake consisted of 3 square cakes measuring 6 inches, 9 inches, and 12 inches. The height of each tier was 6 inches. I used my butter pound cake recipe for the first 2 tiers while the 3rd tier was made using my chocolate cake recipe. Since my recipes were calculated to yield cakes with a height of approximately 4 inches, I multiplied each recipe by 1.5 times.
Buttercream - Each cake tier consisted of 3 layers of cakes, sandwiched with buttercream. I also used buttercream to crumb coat the cake.
Fondant - I used Satin Ice white to cover the cake. I also used the same to cover the cake board. For the gold lace and cake borders, I used ivory colored fondant.
Gum paste - I used Satin Ice gum paste in white to make the sugar flowers.
Gold sugar dragees - These dragees were tinted in gold and I used them as the flower centers.
Extruder tool - The extruder was used to extrude even fondant strips for the lace as well as for the border of the cake.
Gold ribbon - I used gold ribbon for the sides of the cake board. The ribbon was purchased from a local craft shop and is non-edible.
Shortening - shortening was used to stick the lace onto the cake.
Fondant glue - I used this to stick the sugar flowers onto the cake. I used this instead of shortening to avoid the flowers from sliding off the cake due to their weight when transporting the cake.

And this was how I put this cake together:

I made the lace and the flowers a few days ahead. I have put together 2 separate tutorial posts on how to make the gold lace and the sugar flowers.
And then I baked the square cakes. As usual, I leveled, layered, and filled each cake layer with buttercream. I then crumb coated the cakes and covered them with fondant individually.
Once covered, I stacked them using bubble straws as support. Next, I completed the borders. For this, I used my extruder tool and a large circle disc.

And this is how I normally loosely roll my strip so that it does not lose shape when I lift it to put on the cake.

I attached the fondant strip to the wedding cake with shortening.

Using a small brush to brush a cake border

And this is how I slowly unroll the strip as I stick it around the square cake.

Attaching fondant strip border to a cake

To stick the ends of the strip together, I cut off the excess, apply some shortening to the end, and then stick them together. I use a thin spatula to smooth the joining so that the joint is not too obvious.

Cutting excess fondant with a sugar craft knife

Using a brush to apply shortening to a fondant strip

Attaching border to the square wedding cake

Here is another method that I use when I need to work with long strips of fondant for borders. I use the extruder tool, extrude the strip around the cake borders. This helps me to estimate the length required for the strip. Once I have the required length, I cut off the strip from the extruder and then gently attach it around the wedding cake, as shown.

Covering the square wedding cake board

Once the wedding cake borders were done for the first and second tiers, before I put on the border for the third tier, I covered the square cake board with fondant. I used a total of 4 separate strips and joined each the corner angle as shown below. I then attached the gold ribbon around the cake board.

The corner of a cake board covered in fondant.

Square cake board

Attaching the lace

Next was the lace. I attached it to the sides of the wedding cake. I have a separate post that explains in detail (with step by step photos) on how I made and attached the lace to the cake. Click here to read about it.

A top tier of a square cake with the sides decorated in gold fondant lace

Once that was done, I then added on the flowers (click here to for the tutorial). I attached these to the wedding cake with fondant glue. I used a total of 5 flowers on the cake - 1 for the top tier, and 2 each for the second and third-tier.