I have been wanting to make a shag cake for over a year. I just didn’t have a reason to make one until this weekend. My little sister had a big birthday and I thought a shag cake would be perfect to celebrate her day. I first saw shag cakes on a baker’s Instagram account that I follow. Do yourself a favor and follow Alana Jones-Mann for beautiful, precise and cleverly decorated cakes.

My shag cake cannot compare to the great Alana Jones-Mann but it was relatively easy to do and I will definitely be doing it again to perfect my skills. It does require some specific tools, TIME and patience.

Supplies

• Cake layers - I made this white cake from Sallys Baking Addiction and it was amazing. If you are new to cake decorating this is a great recipe to use because the layers are pretty solid and easy to work with.

• Frosting - I used the buttercream frosting recipe that was suggested in the white cake recipe and the consistency worked well.

• Piping bags - when I make sugar cookies I prefer tipless piping bags but for this kind of decorating I prefer a regular disposable piping bag like these. I have reusable piping bags they are just kind of a pain to wash in my opinion and I like the convenience of tossing the bags when I’m done.

• Couplers - couplers are the white plastic things that help keep your piping tip secured to your piping bag and sealed so you don’t end up with a big frosting mess. I use Wilton couplers.

• Piping tips - I used a Wilton #233 tip. This is a tip you would use to create a grass effect.

• Food coloring - I prefer gel food coloring and I most often use AmeriColor that I order on Amazon. I used white, ivory, blush, deep pink and I used a little lemon yellow to create the colors for the cake.

Decorating

Start by frosting the cake layers. I decided to use 3 of the 4 6-inch rounds. I could have used all 4 but the taller the cake the more unstable it is and I didn’t want to fuss with reinforcing the structure. If you don’t know how to frost a layered cake you can check out all my tips here.

Once the cake is frosted use a toothpick or a skewer to mark the pattern you want on the cake. I went with just a random pattern.

If you want equal amounts of color on your cake I suggest weighing the frosting. I knew I wanted 4 colors in equal amounts so I weighed the leftover frosting and divided into smaller bowls to mix the color.

It’s not critical to weigh the frosting, you could just eye ball it.

Next add food coloring to each bowl and mix thoroughly. I add ivory to my colors to mute them and make them less bright. I use white to lighten up colors when I’ve added too much color. Blush food coloring is barely pink and also helps mute colors like pink and orange.

Once the colors are mixed you can prep the piping bags. Cut the end off your piping bag and insert the large part of the coupler into the bag.

Put your piping tip on top of the coupler covering the end of the piping bag.

Secure the piping tip with the coupler ring.

To load the piping bag without making a mess stick the end of the bag into a cup or a small jar and fold the open end over the cup. This allows you to use both hands to add the frosting and prevents frosting from getting all over the bag vs just down on the end where the tip is. Carefully unfold the end of the bag and twist the ends so you can squeeze the bag without frosting spilling out.

Make sure to keep the end of the piping bag twisted. Put the piping tip very close to the surface of the cake and gently squeeze. Once the frosting is touching the cake keep slowly squeezing and move the piping bag away from the cake and then stop squeezing. You want to get that grass effect. Practice on a plate or some parchment paper to get the hang of it.

Fill in each section you scored with a different color. Try to pipe as close together as possible. You may have some holes to fill that are too big to fit the piping tip in. Fo these sections I filled a tipless piping bag (you can use a regular piping bag) with leftover frosting and piped individual strands to fill in using the same technique as with the piping tip. Put the tip of the bag close to the surface of the cake, gently squeeze and pull the tip away form the cake.

Ta-da! That’s it. Not much to it. Just takes a long time especially if you’re decorating a larger cake. This was a relatively small cake.