The Art of Vintage Cakes
Shells & Swags:
The techniques behind consistently delicious cakes and showstopping vintage designs, step by step.
What My Students Say
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"Communication was top-notch and the final outcome was even better than we imagined."
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“A professional team that delivers on their promises.”
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“Their attention to detail and commitment to quality truly stood out.”
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“Every detail was thoughtfully executed. We're thrilled with the outcome.”
Design 1: Two-Tiered Off-White Cake
Design 1: Details
Design 2: Dark Heart-Shaped Cake With Lettering
Design 3: Hot Pink Dome-Shaped Cake With Fresh Flo
Design 2: Lettering
Design 4: Baroque Square Cake
Design 4: Details
What You’ll Learn
You'll master the chocolate and vanilla chiffon sponges, whipped milk chocolate ganache, fruit fillings (compotes and coulis), mascarpone whipped cream, and a stable Swiss meringue buttercream, with exact gram measurements and ratios for each.
Recipes
You'll work through the full range of vintage piping techniques, and bring them together into complete designs: a two-tier Swan Lake cake with white chocolate swans, a romantic heart cake, a dome finished with fresh flowers and berries, and a fully layered square cake with sharp corners.
Decorating
You'll learn to shape cakes into hearts, domes, squares without extra tins, how to properly assemble tiered cakes (boards, dowels, central dowel), how to judge buttercream texture for different tasks, and how to troubleshoot common issues, from air bubbles to split buttercream.
Practical tips
Your Questions, Answered
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I designed this course with three kinds of bakers in mind:
Beginners who want to learn vintage decorating properly from the start, without needing lots of tools (a handful of piping tips is enough).
Improvers who can follow a tutorial but want consistent results: stable buttercream, clean bases and neat piping every time.
Decorators experienced in other styles, like sugar-paste or rustic designs, who want to add vintage buttercream to their skills.
That said, anyone with a love for cake decorating is welcome to join <3
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No. We start with the sponges and buttercream and build up step by step. If you've baked a cake before, you're ready.
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Four complete vintage designs: a two-tier cake with chocolate swans, a heart cake with lettering, a dome cake with fresh fruit and flowers, and the detailed "Barocco" square cake. More importantly, you'll have the techniques to create designs of your own.
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Yes: chocolate and vanilla chiffon sponges, whipped chocolate ganache, strawberry compote, whipped mascarpone and Swiss meringue buttercream, plus scaling charts for 4" to 10" cakes.
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Yes. You get a downloadable coursebook to follow along with every module, printable piping templates to practise on, and ready-made scaling charts.
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A stand or hand mixer, basic cake tins, piping bags and a few piping tips. I show my favourites in the course, and you'll find a full list of tools and suppliers in each module.
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It's pre-recorded, so you can watch at your own pace and come back to any lesson whenever you need.
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Yes, once you join, the course is yours to keep.
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Yes. Feel free to e-mail me on katie@katieslittlebakery.com with any question you might have.
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Of course! The price is in pounds and your bank converts it automatically. All recipes are in grams.
meet your instructor
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meet your instructor |
Ekaterina (Katie)
Hi, my name is Katie! I’m a cake decorator with over 5 years of experience, specialising in romantic vintage and floral cakes.
Over the years, I’ve had hundreds of happy clients, dozens of collaborations with brands including Pinterest, LookFantastic, Paula’s Choice, Kenwood, LG, and more, gathered over 50 million views across social media, and built a community of 300,000+ followers - all thanks to my signature vintage-style cakes. And I’m so happy to share my knowledge and passion in my carefully crafted course Shells & Swags.
The techniques behind consistently delicious cakes and showstopping vintage designs, step by step.