How to make a basket-of-berries cake

I would like to share how I decorated the basket-of-berries cake. To see the actual posting, click here. The decorating techniques can be changed to personal preference by changing the color of the icing or filling the top of the basket with buttercream, fondant or gum-paste flowers. Enjoy decorating your cake and dont forget to share your experiences and tips with me.

Decorating a basket-of-berries cake:

Single layered easy two egg 8" round cake- 1
Vanilla buttercream frosting - 1 3/4 cups
Strawberries - as needed
Cake board - to assemble the cake
Basket-weave tip and open star tip, decorating bag
Curved craft wire to shape the handle

Method:

If the baked cake is highly domed, trim it down to form a slighlty smaller dome. (My cake was pretty much uniform on top).

Cut the round cake along its diameter into two to form two semi-circles.

Place one of the semicircles top down. Spread about 1/4 cup of frosting on the cake half.

Place the other half over the frosted half, so that the flat cut surfaces are aligned.

Now cut the curved side of the cake sandwich, parallel to the flat side of the cake so that it forms a level base when the cake is placed vertically.

Dab a tablespoon of icing over the cake board and keep the cake basket vertically with smaller flat surface touching the cake board.

Now crumb coat the entire surface of the cake with a thin layer of thin consistency icing.

Allow the icing to crust for a few minutes.

Color the rest of the medium consistency icing with orange color and incorporate well.

Place the basket-weave tip in a decorator's bag and pipe the basket-weave around the cake.

If you are not familiar with this technique, check this out.

Replace the basket-weave tip with a star tip and pipe stars around the upper rim of the cake.

Make a handle using a curved wire and ribbons or thread gumpaste balls on the wire to from a beaded handle.

Insert the edges of the wire, covered with foil, towards the narrower ends of the upper rim.

Place the strawberries on the basket cake to complete the decoration.

Slice and serve!!