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How to Cover a Cake with Sugarpaste: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners
How to Cover a Cake with Sugarpaste: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners
By Kay Bourke, Founder of Beau Products
Kay has been handmaking sugarpaste in Long Crendon, Buckinghamshire since 2005. Beau Products is a certified nut-free artisan producer and Great Taste Award winner, trusted by home bakers and professionals across the UK for over 20 years.
Covering a cake with sugarpaste
Covering a cake with sugarpaste means rolling out a sheet of pliable sugar paste and draping it smoothly over a prepared cake to create a clean, professional finish. It is the most widely used technique in celebration and wedding cake decoration. The process involves kneading the paste until warm, rolling it to an even thickness, lifting it over the cake, smoothing it down without folds or air bubbles, and trimming the excess at the base. Done correctly, it takes 10–15 minutes and produces a result that looks professional even on a first attempt.
New to sugarpaste? This guide focuses on how to cover a cake with sugarpaste. If you have mastered that, maybe check out our step-by-step guide: How to Smooth Sugarpaste For A Professional Finish .
Covering a cake with sugarpaste is the skill that unlocks everything else in cake decoration. Once you can do it — and do it smoothly — every other technique becomes possible. Sugar flowers, painted designs, textured panels, tiered wedding cakes: they all start with this.
I've watched thousands of bakers learn this technique over the years, and the same anxieties come up every time. Air bubbles. Elephant skin. Tears at the edge. The paste too dry, too sticky, too warm. Almost all of these problems have the same root cause: the paste wasn't kneaded long enough, or the base coat wasn't smooth enough to start with. This guide addresses both.
Follow these steps carefully for your first attempt. By the third cake, it will feel natural.
What You Need Before You Start
Ingredients
- Sugarpaste — in your chosen colour. See the quantity guide below.
- Base coat — either a thin, smooth layer of ganache, buttercream, or marzipan applied to the outside of the cake. This is not optional: sugarpaste needs a sticky, smooth surface to adhere to. A bare, uncoated sponge will cause the paste to dry out and crack.
- Icing sugar — for dusting your work surface to prevent sticking.
- Vegetable shortening (optional) — a small amount on your hands if the paste becomes too dry to knead.
Equipment
- Non-stick rolling pin — at least 30cm long. A short rolling pin makes it very difficult to roll an even sheet.
- Non-stick mat or smooth work surface — a large silicone mat is ideal.
- Cake smoothers — flat plastic or acrylic paddles used to smooth the paste once it is on the cake. You need at least one; two makes the process much easier. This is the most important tool most beginners don't own.
- Sharp knife or pastry wheel — for trimming the excess at the base.
- Cake board or turntable — working at a comfortable height with a rotating turntable dramatically improves the finish.
- Small paintbrush — for brushing away excess icing sugar.
Kay's tip: Cake smoothers are the single piece of equipment most beginners skip and most wish they'd bought. You can smooth sugarpaste with your hands to a reasonable finish, but the pad-flat surface of a smoother creates a professional, polished result that hands simply cannot replicate. A good pair costs less than £10 and will last for years.
How Much Sugarpaste Do I Need?
This is the question we get asked most often, and the answer depends on the size of your cake and how deep it is. The quantities below are for a standard round cake approximately 10–12cm (4–5 inches) deep. For a shallower cake, reduce by around 20%.
When in doubt, always buy slightly more than you think you need. Running short mid-covering is one of the most avoidable problems in cake decorating, and a little extra paste keeps well in its sealed packaging.
| Cake size | Sugarpaste needed | Beau pack size | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 inch / 15cm round | 350–500g | 500g | One 500g pack is usually sufficient |
| 8 inch / 20cm round | 500–750g | 750g or 1kg | Buy 1kg for confidence — excess stores well |
| 10 inch / 25cm round | 750g–1kg | 1kg | Standard size for a celebration cake |
| 12 inch / 30cm round | 1–1.25kg | 1kg + 500g | Or use our 2.5kg bulk pack |
| 8 inch square | 750g–1kg | 1kg | Square cakes need slightly more than equivalent round |
✦ BEAU RECOMMENDS
Beau Sugarpaste — 50+ handmade colours, available from 100g to 10kg
Freshly made to order in our certified nut-free facility in Buckinghamshire. Our customers consistently tell us Beau sugarpaste rolls further than other brands — meaning a 500g pack covers more cake than you'd expect.
→ Choose your colour and size at beauproducts.co.uk/collections/sugarpastes
How to Cover a Cake with Sugarpaste — Step by Step
These nine steps cover everything from preparing your workspace to the final polish. Read through all of them before you start — understanding where you're going makes each step easier to execute.
Step 1
Prepare your cake base
Your cake needs a smooth, even, slightly sticky coating before the sugarpaste goes on. The three most common options are: a thin layer of ganache (the most professional finish — ganache sets firm and gives the sugarpaste a perfectly smooth surface to adhere to); a layer of buttercream (more forgiving, easier for beginners — apply, chill until set, then apply a second smooth layer); or a coat of marzipan (traditional for fruit cakes — brush the cake with apricot jam first to help it adhere, then smooth the marzipan and leave to dry for 24 hours before applying sugarpaste).
Whatever you use, the surface must be smooth before the sugarpaste goes on. Any bumps, crumbs, or irregularities in the base coat will telegraph through the sugarpaste and be visible in the finished cake.
Step 2
Set up your workspace
Lightly dust your work surface or silicone mat with icing sugar. Not heavily — a light, even dusting is what you want. Too much icing sugar dries the paste out and causes cracking. Have your rolling pin, smoothers, knife, and a small bowl of icing sugar for dusting within reach before you open the sugarpaste.
Room temperature matters more than most bakers realise. Sugarpaste is best worked in a cool room (around 18–20°C). If your kitchen is warm, the paste will become soft and sticky and much harder to handle.
Step 3
Knead the sugarpaste until smooth and warm
This is the step most beginners underestimate, and the root cause of most cracking problems. Take the sugarpaste out of its packaging and knead it firmly with your hands — fold, press, turn, repeat — for at least 2–3 minutes, until it is soft, warm, and completely smooth. It should feel like warm plasticine: pliable without being sticky, with no cracks or dry patches when you fold it.
If the paste feels dry or cracks during kneading, rub a tiny amount of vegetable shortening on your hands and continue. Do not add water — water will make the surface sticky and streaky.
Kay's tip: Beau sugarpaste is made fresh to order, which means it is consistently soft and easy to knead. If you've been using paste that has been sitting on a shelf for months, you'll notice the difference immediately — kneading time halves and cracking almost disappears. Fresh paste is genuinely one of the most underrated factors in getting a good finish.
Step 4
Roll out the paste to an even thickness
Roll the kneaded paste out on your dusted surface. You are aiming for a consistent thickness of about 4–5mm (roughly the thickness of a pound coin). Thinner than this and the paste may tear when you lift it; thicker and it will look heavy and may bulge at the base.
Roll in different directions — not just back and forth — to keep the sheet as circular as possible. Lift and rotate the paste every few rolls to prevent it sticking to the surface. The sheet needs to be large enough to cover the top of the cake and hang down all the sides with 5–7cm to spare around the base.
How to measure: place your rolling pin across the centre of your cake and measure the total width needed: the height of one side, plus the top diameter, plus the height of the other side, plus 10cm total for overhang. A 20cm round cake that is 10cm deep needs a rolled sheet of approximately 50–52cm across.
Step 5
Lift and drape the paste over the cake
This is the moment most beginners find nerve-wracking, and it becomes easy once you know the technique. Lay your rolling pin across the centre of the rolled-out paste and fold one half loosely back over the pin. Lift the rolling pin (with the paste draped over it) and carry it to the cake, positioning the fold approximately over the centre. Unroll the paste gently off the pin across the top of the cake, letting the sides fall naturally.
Do not press down yet — just let it sit where it falls. If the paste is noticeably off-centre, you have a few seconds to gently reposition it before it starts adhering.
Step 6
Smooth the top first
With the paste draped over the cake, use a cake smoother (or the flat of your hand) to gently work across the top surface, pushing out any air toward the edges. Work from the centre outward. If you see a small air bubble, push it toward the nearest edge rather than trying to smooth it in place — trapped air under the paste will eventually cause the surface to lift.
The top should be smooth and flat before you work down the sides. Take your time here — correcting problems at the top is much easier than trying to fix them once the sides are done.
Step 7
Work down the sides — without pulling
This is where beginners most often go wrong. The instinct is to pull the paste down to smooth it against the sides — but pulling creates stress in the paste and causes tears and elephant skin (the wrinkled, textured surface that indicates the paste has been stretched too far).
Instead: use your hands to gently lift the excess paste at the sides outward and away from the cake, then smooth downward into the gap between the paste and the cake surface. You are coaxing the paste to lie flat rather than dragging it into position. Work around the cake, a section at a time, lifting the excess and smoothing it down evenly.
Any folds that form at the base are normal and are cut away in Step 8 — don't try to eliminate them by pulling upward.
Kay's tip: The most common mistake I see is bakers trying to smooth the sides by pulling down on the paste. The paste tells you what to do: it wants to hang. Your job is to guide it into place, not force it. Think about pleating a fabric rather than stretching it — and remember that any paste still sitting below the base of the cake is a resource you can use, not a problem you have to eliminate yet.
Step 8
Use the smoothers to achieve a professional finish
Once the paste is lying flat all around the cake, take your smoothers and work over the surface firmly but without pressing so hard that you indent the paste. Use a circular motion on the top and long, vertical strokes on the sides. The smoother warms the surface slightly and compresses any remaining imperfections.
Work around the cake multiple times. The finish improves with each pass. At the top edge, use one smoother held vertically on the side of the cake to press firmly into the corner — this sharpens the top edge and gives a clean, professional right angle.
Step 9
Trim the base and finish
Hold a sharp knife flat against your cake board and run it around the base of the cake to trim the excess paste. Keep the knife flat — angling it inward will leave a visible gap between the paste and the board; angling it outward will cut into the bottom edge. A pastry wheel gives a slightly cleaner cut than a knife for this step.
Once trimmed, use your smoother one final time to press the base edge flat against the board. Use a clean, dry paintbrush to sweep away any icing sugar visible on the surface of the paste. The cake is now covered and ready for any decoration.
Common Problems and How to Fix Them
| Problem | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Cracking when rolling | Paste not kneaded enough, or paste has dried out | Knead longer. Add a tiny amount of vegetable shortening if still cracking. Never add water. |
| Elephant skin (wrinkled texture) | Paste stretched rather than guided when covering sides | Cannot be fully undone. Start again if severe. Prevent by lifting excess outward rather than pulling downward. |
| Air bubbles under the paste | Air trapped during the draping stage | Pierce with a clean pin at a shallow angle, press flat, smooth over the hole. Small holes disappear almost invisibly. |
| Paste sliding or sagging on sides | Room too warm, or base coat too soft | Chill the covered cake for 15–20 minutes. Work in a cooler room in future. Ensure ganache base is fully set before covering. |
| Sticky surface, paste marks easily | Condensation, or too much moisture in the base coat | Leave the covered cake at room temperature to crust over before adding decorations. A light dusting of cornflour can help. |
| Visible bumps under the paste | Uneven base coat, or crumbs not sealed properly | Cannot be fixed once covered. Apply a second, smoother base coat next time and chill until completely firm before covering. |
| Paste sweating after covering | Taken from a cold environment into a warm room too quickly | Allow the cake to come to room temperature gradually in a cardboard box. Do not refrigerate decorated cakes unless essential. |
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you need to refrigerate a sugarpaste-covered cake?
No — and in most cases you should not. Refrigerating a sugarpaste-covered cake causes condensation to form on the paste as it comes back to room temperature, making the surface sticky and causing any metallic dusts or lustre finishes to dull. Store covered cakes at room temperature in a cardboard box (not a sealed plastic container, which traps humidity) and they will keep well for 3–5 days. If the filling requires refrigeration (fresh cream, unstabilised mousse), cover the cake and refrigerate, but allow it to come to room temperature gradually before serving.
Can you cover a cake with sugarpaste the day before?
Yes — and for most professional bakers, covering 24–48 hours in advance is standard practice. The paste has time to firm up slightly, making it easier to add decorations without marking the surface. Store the covered cake at room temperature in a cardboard box. For the best results, add any further decorations (sugar flowers, painted details, piped borders) on the day of the event or the evening before.
Why does my sugarpaste crack after covering the cake?
Cracking after covering almost always comes from one of three causes: the paste was not kneaded long enough before rolling (leaving dry areas that crack as the paste is handled); the paste was rolled too thin (under 3mm is fragile); or the covered cake was moved from a cold to a warm environment too quickly, causing the paste to expand unevenly. Start by checking your kneading — the paste should feel completely smooth, warm, and supple before it goes near a rolling pin.
Can I re-cover a cake if the first attempt goes wrong?
Yes, in most cases. Carefully peel the paste off the cake — it usually comes away cleanly from a ganache or chilled buttercream base. Smooth over the base coat again if necessary, allow it to firm up, and start the covering process from scratch. The removed paste can be re-kneaded and re-used as long as it hasn't picked up crumbs or significant colour contamination. Most bakers who cover cakes professionally have done exactly this at least once.
What is the difference between sugarpaste and marzipan for covering cakes?
Marzipan is made from ground almonds and sugar; it has a distinctive almond flavour and a slightly firmer texture. It is traditionally used on fruit cakes (Christmas cake, wedding cake tiers) as a first layer, with sugarpaste applied over the top once the marzipan has dried. Sugarpaste is the final, decorative layer in almost all cases — it can be coloured, shaped, and decorated in ways marzipan cannot. For sponge cakes, only sugarpaste (over a ganache or buttercream base) is used; marzipan is not typically applied to sponge.
Is Beau sugarpaste suitable for people with nut allergies?
Yes. All Beau Products sugarpaste is made in a certified nut-free manufacturing facility in Long Crendon, Buckinghamshire. No nut products are handled in the same facility. This makes Beau sugarpaste one of the few artisan options genuinely suitable for bakers catering to guests with nut allergies. Always check any other ingredients you are using in the cake, filling, and decoration.
Your First Covered Cake
The first cake you cover with sugarpaste will not be perfect. Neither was mine, and I've been doing it for 20 years. But it will be better than you expect, and the second one will be noticeably better than the first.
The things that make the biggest difference are: genuinely good paste that is fresh enough to knead easily, a smooth base coat that is properly set before you start, and cake smoothers. Get those three things right and the technique takes care of itself.
If you get stuck at any point — a question about quantities, a specific problem with your paste, or advice about which colour to choose for a particular occasion — email us at hello@beauproducts.co.uk or call 01844 202166. We've been answering questions like these for 20 years and we genuinely enjoy it.
✦ BEAU RECOMMENDS
Ready to cover your first cake?
Browse Beau's 50+ handmade sugarpaste colours — from classic Ivory and White to bold Black and Navy, and every shade in between. Available in 100g taster packs through to 10kg professional packs, all freshly made to order in our certified nut-free facility.
→ Choose your colour at beauproducts.co.uk/collections/sugarpastes
Published by Beau Products · beauproducts.co.uk · The Sweet Edit by Beau