We've all seen the amazing book-inspired cakes all over our socials, but Karina (@dulceriatoscano) wanted to gave this one a darker, moodier twist! With aged-looking pages, vintage brown-tan frosting, piped green vines, roses, and little bats, this cake looks like it belongs in an old library you wouldn't dare step into at night.
She, of course, used our Frosting Sheets to help bring those eerie book pages to life, including a little detail that makes it look like one of the pages is actually turning!
Here's how Karina created this dark, moody book cake.
Start with a 4-inch cake and cut it in half. Place the two halves on your cake board to create the shape of an open book.
Next, carefully slice off the outer edges to create flat surfaces that will resemble the edges of the book's pages. This gives you a cleaner shape to work with when adding the printed details.
Step 2: Frost Your Cake
Once your cake is shaped, cover it with a light brown-tan frosting.Karina chose this warm, muted shade to give the cake an aged, vintage-book appearance. A slightly weathered-looking color palette is a great starting point for creating that dark, mysterious atmosphere.
To take the book effect a step further, use a cake comb along the exposed edges to create fine, textured lines that mimic the look of individual pages. This extra detail helps give the sides of your cake that realistic, layered book-page appearance!
Step 3: Create Your Spooky Book Pages
Now for the fun part! Create or choose a design featuring old, spooky-looking book pages, then print it onto a paper2eat Frosting Sheet using edible ink.
You can customize the pages to fit your cake's theme, whether you're going for an old forgotten book, a mysterious storybook, or something straight out of an eerie library.
Step 4: Apply the Printed Pages
Carefully place your printed Frosting Sheets onto the cake to create the look of aged book pages.
Karina also added another printed piece overlapping the top to make it look like a page was turning and used a bit of buttercream to keep that top page looking curled. This little detail gives the cake a more realistic, dimensional appearance and makes the design feel like a moment frozen in time.
Step 5: Pipe the Roses and Green Vines
With the book pages in place, it's time to bring the whole look together some more with a few piped details!
Karina piped winding green vines and leaves onto the cake and added roses to build on the dark, moody aesthetic. These floral details give the design an almost enchanted feel, as if the book has been sitting untouched in an old, mysterious library.
Step 6: Add Some Bats
To complete the look, Karina then added a couple of little bats she made out of fondant to the cake. These final touches added character to tie the decorations together with the aged book design.
And there you have it! A dark, moody book cake with spooky printed pages and enchanting decorative details. With paper2eat Frosting Sheets, you can create custom edible book pages that bring your own cake designs to life, without having to pipe or paint every tiny detail by hand.
