Starry Night Cake
Intro: Starry Night Cake
Vincent Van Gogh painted "The Starry Night" in June 1889. It is one of the most recognized paintings of all time.
The famous painting is now at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
Looking closely at the painting, it appears to me that the brush strokes look like piped frosting so I thought the design would be simple enough to create some edible art. Don't get me wrong, it was time consuming, but I thoroughly enjoyed the process. It took me about 4 hours from start to finish.
This same technique can be used to make other art cakes, think about some works by Picasso! What about a Jackson Pollack cake? The possibilities are endless! The most important thing is to have fun!
STEP 1: Ingredients & Supplies
For this instructable you will need the following:
Cake mix
3 large eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 bag powdered sugar
3 tubs canned frosting
vegetable shortening
food coloring
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9" x 13" cake pan
quart size freezer bags, decorator bags, piping tips, star tip for shell border
Print-outs to refer to for design and colors, I was able to find a coloring page.
STEP 2: Bake Cake
Grease and flour a 9" x 13" cake pan.
Bake cake according to package directions.
Allow the cake to cool for 10 minutes, remove from pan and let cool completely before frosting.
STEP 3: Frosting
Frost cake with a thin layer of white frosting.
STEP 4: Outline
Print out the black & white copy of design.
Fold the paper into fourths and draw lines onto the fold lines.
Place a toothpick in the center of cake so it will be easier to trace 1/4 of the cake at a time.
Using another toothpick, outline the design onto the top of cake in the frosting.
I used store-bought canned frosting for the design
Use food coloring to dye frosting into these colors into 9 separate containers:
light yellow, medium yellow, dark yellow,
light blue, medium blue, dark blue,
black, grey and green.
I purchased a blue and black tube of frosting because it can be difficult to get dark colors.
Place dyed decorator frosting into quart size freezer bags.
STEP 5: Outline Areas With Frosting
Cut a very small corner off of the bag of blue frosting.
1. Outline the sky area with dark blue
2. Outline the moon and stars
3. Outline the cypress trees on the left side of cake with black frosting.
4. Outline the mountains and village and shrubbery with black frosting.
STEP 6: Sky and Mountains
Fill in sky and mountains with different shades of blue frosting.
STEP 7: Village & Shrubbery
Fill in the buildings with gray and blue
Fill in the shrubbery with green frosting
Place a few dark yellow dots in the village windows for light.
STEP 8: Cypress Trees
Fill in the Cypress trees with grey (and/or brown) frosting in vertical lines.
STEP 9: Shell Border
The frosting for the shell border needs to be thicker so it will hold it's shape so canned frosting wont work for this.
Make a batch of white frosting for the shell border using the following recipe:
3/4 cup vegetable shortening
4 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup water
Mix until combined, add a small amount of water if you need it.
Place frosting into a large decorator bag.
Using a large shell tip, frost a shell border around top and bottom edges of cake.
Another option would be to use a wide flat decorating tip and dye the frosting brown, then make a brown "Frame" around the top edge of cake. Use your imagination!
17 Comments
gkanak2027 2 years ago
lukehayes05 3 years ago
you have such talent for art on cake!!
If i could, i would deffo try this!!:)
gypsygirl72 5 years ago
katvanlew 5 years ago
gypsygirl72 5 years ago
offseidjr 7 years ago
If he were alive, Van Gogh would be impressed with your masterpiece!
katvanlew 5 years ago
MichelleI13 7 years ago
katvanlew 7 years ago
This Instructable focuses on the decorating of the cake. You are certainly free to bake your cake with whatever recipe you choose.
HollyMann 7 years ago
This is so beautiful!!!!! :)
Ethan1023 7 years ago
This is a beautiful painting...
nancyjohns 7 years ago
I love it.
buildandsewandstuff 7 years ago
You are so talented! I've made decorated cakes for the kids for years, but nothing like this. My favorite Van Gogh painting, too!
rxima 7 years ago
this is amazing :)
Slippery arm 7 years ago
NZ craft girl 7 years ago
Wow, this is just amazing... great job!
katvanlew 7 years ago
Thank you, I had fun making it!