This 50th Anniversary Cake was the perfect order to help me share a short tutorial for How to Make Shimmery Buttercream. More specifically, Shimmery Buttercream Roses!
But this could technique and spray could be used on any buttercream, not just piped roses! I'm asked about this often and while this won't get you full-blown glitter or bling - you will get a beautiful shimmer on your cakes that's 100% edible.

One of the big hot-button issues in cake decorating is edible vs non-edible vs non-toxic vs FDA approved glitters and shimmers and lusters and dusts.
Well I'm not going to get into that today, but I will say that for this look, I use 100% edible, FDA approved food sprays. Here are a few brands I've tried and liked...
COLORED FOOD SPRAYS
My favorite is PME brand and I've used the Silver, Gold, Bronze and Pearl. There are differing opinions on this, but I love the smell of this brand and the coverage I get from it. The gold is really pretty!!
Another brand I've used often is Wilton. The fumes from Wilton are ... whew - strong! Like, be-sure-you-open-a -window-and -have-a-fan-going strong. But Wilton is cheaper than the other options, AND easy to find at Walmart and other craft stores. So for convenience, I've used it many, many times. In addition to a rainbow of "regular" colors, they also have Gold, Silver and Pearl (although I don't love the gold as much as other brands!)
Another brand I've heard great things about (but haven't personally used) is Chefmaster brand. They also have Silver, Gold and Pearl.
One last thing I'll mention is this New Wilton Glitter Spray that is also labeled as edible. I'm pretty excited to get my hands on some of it and see how it works! I've found Silver and Gold on Amazon.
PME Edible Lustre Spray - P...Shop on Amazon
PME Edible Lustre Spray, Go...Shop on Amazon
Wilton Silver Color Mist - ...Shop on Amazon
Wilton Edible Gold Glitter ...Shop on Amazon
Reynolds Cut Rite Wax Paper...Shop on Amazon
Okay... now let's get on with the tutorial!
How to Make Shimmery Buttercream Roses
This is a terrible picture but it's the only one I have of the cake before I started adding the shimmery buttercream. At this point I had baked, chilled, filled and frosted the cake.
I'd also cut out the letters using these Groovy Clickstix Letter Cutters , sprayed them with Gold Spray and let them dry, then placed them on the cake.
My only request from my client was that phrase, "Remember the Summer of 1967" and that it include gold decor. I decided putting the cake on a gold board then adding gold accents would be an elegant but simple design. My client loved it, by the way!!
In addition to the gold spray mentioned above, you'll need wax paper (or parchment paper) and buttercream in a piping bag with a 1M or Ateco #825 Piping tip. You'll also want to put your wax or parchment paper on a cookie sheet or some other stiff surface you can move to the freezer. I used a stiff cutting board like this one.
FREEZE THE PIPED BUTTERCREAM
Pipe the buttercream roses and stars onto the wax paper. Then freeze them! I put the cutting board into the freezer for about 15-20 minutes to get the flowers frozen solid.
While these were in the freezer, I piped some white roses onto the cake directly. I have no pictures of this, but you can see them in the background of the gold ones above ⬆
USE LIGHT, QUICK SPRAYS
From here you'll want to work quickly. Take the frozen buttercream roses out of the freezer and give them a quick spray with the gold spray. Don't saturate the color on the flowers - it won't take a lot to get a very pretty gold coat.
Let them dry for just a few seconds, then begin placing them on the cake! I continued to mix with some fresh piped white roses and stars until I got a look I loved. And you're done! It's a beautiful easy effect with lots of shimmery and shine ❤️️
Isn't that beautiful? I was so proud of this cake when it was finished. The cake was made to celebrate a 50th Anniversary!!
Cake Details...
- This was 9" round cake baked in my favorite Magic Line pans.
- White Almond Sour Cream was the cake flavor and it was covered in vanilla buttercream.
- The cake was presented on this gold scalloped 10" round cake board.
- As previously mentioned, I used PME Gold Spray.
- The letters were cut from the lowercase Groovy cutters, uppercase Groovy cutters and Groovy number cutters.
Alrighty, that's all I have for you today! I hope you'll make a cake like this and if you share on social media, tag me so I can see 🙂
Happy Caking!
Rose
Here are some other 50th Anniversary Cakes with gold that I think you'll love! Click on the images to read the blog posts with all the details!
Alana
Such a fun cake! It is beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing all of your knowledge, skills and experience with us!
Rose
Thank YOU Alana!
Marla
This groovy cake is awesome thank you!! But I am an amateur. How did you make the letters the exact same color as the gold flowers? Is it fondant or what?
Rose Atwater
Thank you! I cut them out of fondant, then sprayed them with the same gold spray!
nellie
this is so amazing
can you please help me bake a dinosaur cake
Nura
I really loved the idea of mixing white roses with the gold roses.❤❤❤ The cake just makes simple look elegant
Rose
THanks so much Nura!!
Saundra
Thank you, love the cake.
Kamna
That was a beautiful cake. You said the flavour was white almond sour cream. That means you put almond essence in the batter or icing or almond powder and sour cream in the icing. Another thing,if I want a particular flavour cake, should I put essence in the icing or in the cake batter,say pineapple or blueberry..? Thanks.
Rose
If you'll click the links in the posts, you'll find my recipes and all the ingredients for each. Thanks for stopping by!
Kamna
Thank you. Rose.
Tobias
Thanks so much u so helpful
Lillieth Evans
Hi Rose ,Always enjoy your cake decorating ideas along with your well information. I wanted to make a 16 inches slab cake in silver and pink for my mother's birthday in the summer all goes well .I would be grateful for some info how to get the silver to shine.. I would appreciate the list of ingredients.
Thanks.
Rose
You'd need an edible silver spray or dust that could be mixed with extract to paint it.
Janice Mastin-Kamps
What were the letters made from please?
Rose
Homemade marshmallow fondant - recipe here.
judy
what size letters did you use. Apparently there are a number of sizes.
Rose
Really? I've only evver seen the Funky Letter Cutters in one size. They're just 1-2" tall, depending on the letter.