Bakers and lovers of cake everywhere, you need to meet Katherine Sabbath (if you haven't already). The Australian high-school-teacher-turned-cake-decorator has amassed more than 112,000 Instagram followers with her drippy, trippy, Lisa-Frank-meets-Tim-Burton confections. Her frosting style's so distinctive it even has its own hashtag—#KatherineSabbath, which pulls up 2,200+ photos, ranging from homage cakes to nail art—and while Sabbath's the first to say she doesn't feel she's "the dessert queen," like the Daily Mail reported, the neon-ganache-coated designs she specializes in are popping up in bakeries all over Australia, and it's only a matter of time before they take over Pinterest feeds in the U.S., too.
You don't have to wait for your nearest über-trendy boutique bakeshop to jump on the trend to enjoy it, though: Sabbath swears you can make these cakes yourself (she's completely self-taught!).
This cake features layers of caramel mudcake, white chocolate and raspberry cheesecake, salted caramel fudge and Nutella mousse.
Tip #1: Start with an Excellent Mud Pie. Er, Cake. Mud Cake.
Topsy-turvy cakes are only cool when they're deliberately off-kilter. The accidental kind is just a nightmare, as you hold your breath, shellac the cake with frosting, and pray the layers don't slide apart. To prevent that from happening, try baking a mud cake.
Yup, you read correctly: Mud cake. It's a rich, Australian cake that's much denser than your typical cake, so the layers rise pretty evenly, Sabbath says. The texture is almost brownie-like, though if you're not into dark chocolate—or you want to experiment with rainbow layers—you can add food coloring to a white chocolate or caramel mud cake.
Try this mud cake recipe from one of Sabbath's favorite vloggers, My Cupcake Addiction.
Tip #2: Prep Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself.
Being preoccupied or feeling rushed causes most baking failures. "If I'm wishing I were someplace else, that's when I take the cake out of the pan before it cools completely, and then the cake splits because the butter hasn't hardened," Sabbath says.
To ensure you have enough time to literally play with your food, Sabbath recommends baking the layers a few days in advance, covering them in plastic wrap and freezing them. Mud cakes will last up to six months frozen, Sabbath says, and buttercream frosting can be made a few days in advance and frozen too. Just thaw it to room temperature before you start getting your frosting artistry on.
Tip #3: Mine Your Childhood for Fresh Ideas.
That flourescent ganache that drips down the sides of Sabbath's cakes? It was inspired by her love of Goosebumps books as a kid—and a desire to drown anything in ganache (a girl after our own heart!).
Tip #4: Respect the Fickle Mistress That is Ganache.
Before making the ganache, throw that cake—either naked, if you like the rustic look, or frosted, if you prefer to treat your dessert like a lady—in the fridge. A cool cake is critical to keep the ganache from running all the way down the cake and turning into a gloppy mess.
Sabbath uses a 50-50 mix of heavy cream and dark or white chocolate. "Get the cream very hot before gradually adding in the chocolate," she says. Use white chocolate and stir in a few drops of gel food coloring to create a neon ganache—water-based food coloring messes up the thickness of the ganache, so avoid it like a creeper on Tinder.
Tip #5: Make it Rain, Not Pour.
Though the ganache looks as if it were poured from a divine chalice onto that gem of a cake, the key to mastering the look is by spooning it on instead, Sabbath says. Let the ganache set for about 10 minutes, so it's thicker and easier to work with, and use a tablespoon to gently drip strings of ganache along the side of the cake. Once Sabbath has gussied up the perimeter, she fills in the center of the cake.
Tip #6: Go 'Easy' on the Cake Toppers.
Use what you have on hand—chocolate-covered pretzels, meringues, lollipops, sprinkles, cotton candy, Runts candies, fresh fruit—to finish off the top of the cake. These decorations already have flair, so you don't have to be the Michaelangelo of fondant to create a work of art.
Another trick Sabbath loves: Creating white chocolate candy bark and breaking it up into jagged pieces, then using it to create geometric designs and sugary mountain ranges atop her cakes.
Tip #7: Succumb to a Cake Crush (or Several).
Sabbath regularly turns to other members of the cake community for baking techniques and inspiration. Some of the bakers she loves: Bakerella, My Cupcake Addiction, Raspberri Cupcakes, Sweetapolita, Coco Cake Land, Rosanna Pansino and The Cake Blog.
Follow Delish—and Katherine Sabbath—on Instagram.
Candace Braun Davison
Deputy Editor
Candace Braun Davison writes, edits, and produces lifestyle content that ranges from celebrity features to roll-up-your-sleeves DIYs, all while relentlessly pursuing the noblest of causes: the quest for the world's best chocolate chip cookie.
