Foundational · Beginner · $97
Everything that goes into a beautiful first cake.
Bake, fill, mask, decorate. The complete A-to-Z foundations course for anyone who can follow a recipe but hasn’t yet made the leap to building a cake that looks like one you’d buy. Vanilla cake, Swiss meringue buttercream, salted caramel, and three classic decorating finishes.
Skill Level
Beginner
Lessons
11 lessons
Length
~3 hours
Hero · Cake Decorating 101
What You'll Learn
Five fundamental skills, taught from scratch.
No sugar flower experience required. No prior cake decorating required. Just the willingness to bake, follow along, and end up with a cake you’re genuinely proud of.
01
Bake a vanilla cake that actually works
My studio’s vanilla cake recipe. The one I use for real client work. Texture that holds up to stacking, flavour that holds up to time.
02
Swiss meringue buttercream
The smoother, less-sweet, professional buttercream that defines luxury cakes. Plus how to flavour it, fix it, and rescue it from the fridge.
03
Salted caramel & simple syrup
Two things every cake should have. The salted caramel for the drip and the filling. The simple syrup that keeps your sponge moist for days.
04
Assembling & masking
How to stack, fill, and mask a cake so the sides are smooth and the top is sharp. The technique that makes the difference between “homemade” and “bakery.”
05
Three classic decorating finishes
Pearls. Simple vintage piping. The bakery-style caramel drip. Three finishes you can mix and match for almost any occasion, from a birthday to a baby shower.
Why Cake Decorating 101
The course for anyone who's ever said "I'd love to, but I can't bake."
You can. You just haven’t been taught yet. Cake Decorating 101 is the foundational course I built for friends, family, and Academy members who came in saying “I love your work, but I don’t know where to start.” It’s the prerequisite to every other course in the library, and it’s the one course where prior experience genuinely doesn’t matter.
This is the same content I teach in my Toronto studio when someone books a hands-on private lesson. Vanilla cake from scratch. Swiss meringue buttercream from scratch. Salted caramel from scratch. Then we stack it, mask it, and finish it three different ways, so you walk away with a complete cake you’d be proud to put on a table.
“Alexandria is an exceptional teacher, knowledgeable and genuinely passionate about her craft and about helping others master the techniques.” · Rachel Dolphin · Academy student
And if you’ve thought about doing this for years but kept waiting for the right moment, this is the cheapest, lowest-risk way to actually start. Three hours, $97, your first real cake at the end of it.
The Curriculum
What you'll watch, lesson by lesson.
Eleven lessons across four modules. Approximately three hours of paced video. Yours to keep, forever.
Module 01
Setup & Ingredients
1 lesson
- ▷Ingredients, equipment, and what you actually need
Module 02
Baking & Components
5 lessons
- ▷Vanilla cake (Alexandria’s studio recipe)
- ▷Swiss meringue buttercream
- ▷Salted caramel
- ▷Simple syrup
- ▷Flavouring basics for buttercream
Module 03
Building the Cake
2 lessons
- ▷Assembling the cake (stacking and filling)
- ▷Masking for smooth sides and sharp edges
Module 04
Three Classic Finishes
3 lessons
- ▷Pearl decorations
- ▷Simple vintage piping
- ▷Bakery-style caramel drip
Bonus
Buttercream Rescue
1 lesson
- ▷Softening buttercream from the fridge or freezer
Downloads
Recipes & lists
3 downloads
- 📄Vanilla Cake Recipe
- 📄Swiss Meringue Buttercream Recipe
- 📄Salted Caramel & Simple Syrup Recipes
when you're ready
Yours to keep, forever.
Pay once. Watch in your kitchen, on your phone, or with a friend. No subscription, no expiry, no platform that disappears.
Cake Decorating 101
$97 one-time
Lifetime access. Watch as many times as you like.
- ✓11 lessons across four modules
- ✓Approximately 3 hours of paced, in-depth video
- ✓Studio recipes: vanilla cake, SMBC, salted caramel, simple syrup
- ✓Full assembly and masking demonstrations
- ✓Three finishes: pearls, vintage piping, bakery-style caramel drip
- ✓Bonus: rescuing buttercream from the fridge or freezer
- ✓All recipes as downloadable PDFs
- ✓30-day money-back guarantee
If the first lesson doesn’t land for you, email me within 30 days and I’ll refund you in full. No questions, no friction.
What Students Say
“This is the cake that my husband and I made for our son’s wedding. We love your gumpaste recipe and tutorials. You have certainly inspired us, even though we are just hobby bakers.”
Noel J · hobby baker
What You'll Need
Almost nothing.
You can start this course with what’s already in your kitchen and at most one quick trip to a craft shop.
The essentials
- ✦Gum paste, store-bought is fine to start
- ✦A ball tool (or a clean paintbrush handle)
- ✦A foam pad (or a folded kitchen towel)
- ✦Floral wire, 24-gauge for the petals
- ✦Florist tape, white or green
The nice-to-haves
- ✦A small rolling pin
- ✦A veining or Dresden tool
- ✦A pair of small needle-nose pliers
- ✦A set of petal dusts, any soft-pink and yellow
- ✦A small paintbrush for dusting
Once you’re enrolled, I’ll send you my full Sugar Flower Starter Kit PDF with affiliate links to everything I personally use. You don’t need it to start, but it makes the second flower easier.
Your Teacher
Hi, I'm Alexandria.
I founded Finespun Cakes in Toronto in 2015 and have spent the last decade designing wedding cakes and teaching sugar flowers to over 1,000 students worldwide.
I trained at Le Cordon Bleu, studied under Ron Ben-Israel in New York, won an American Cake Award, and was named one of Wedluxe’s Top 10 Wedding Cake Designers in Canada.
My courses are taught the way I wish someone had taught me, with every step shown, no gatekeeping, and no rushing through the parts that actually matter.
a smarter way
Why buy one course when you could have all of them?
Cake Decorating 101 is included in the Finespun Academy at $29/month, along with every other course, over 100 studio recipes, all seven studio tools, and live time with Alexandria every month.
After three months in the Academy, you’ve already gotten more than the price of this single course. Most members stay much longer.