What Is The Lambeth Cake Decorating Method?

Trends and styles tend to be circular. Aesthetics rise in popularity, fall out of fashion, and then, often but not always, return in new ways. One style that has recently enjoyed a resurgence in popularity is the Lambeth method of frosting. The ornate style of decorating cakes, originating in 19th-century Europe and popularized by American baker Joseph Lambeth in the 1930s, has recently appeared on the Food Network and all over Instagram, but what exactly is this famous method?

Lambeth piping goes by several names, but whether you call it Victorian piping, English overpiping, or Lambeth piping, the idea is the same. Intricate and ornamented designs resembling rococo architecture or theater curtains and traditionally frosted with royal icing adorn the cake, which often boasts a cornucopia of colors and textures. To achieve this effect, bakers will generally begin with a cake covered in fondant to provide a clean, edible easel to work on, then lay down a first layer of piped frosting that outlines the initial cake concept, followed by a second layer — the aforementioned "overpiping" — to enhance and add intricacy to the design, and finally, a round of fine detail work.

The style became popular when Lambeth brought the technique back from his time in England and published the popular "Lambeth Method of Cake Decorations and Practical Pastries" in 1934, though overpiping was being written about by European pastry chefs as early as the late 1800s.

If you're an amateur pastry chef and the detail, time commitment, and steady-handedness required for a Lambeth cake seem like a lot, well, that's because they are. Piping a cake in this style can take up to five hours or even more. But just because it's difficult doesn't mean that it's impossible, only that it will require determination to work through. Here are some pointers to consider when trying your hand at this beautiful technique.

While the traditional method calls for royal icing, the modern variation tends to use buttercream, which stays softer after drying. Royal icing tends to dry much harder. Buttercream doesn't capture extremely intricate details as well as royal icing, though, so the choice is yours between texture and aesthetic. If you do choose buttercream, make sure you know the differences between French, Swiss, and Italian buttercream, as French buttercream won't pipe as well as the Italian or Swiss versions.

A cake turntable is key to keeping clean lines in your icing, but if you don't happen to have a turntable, a lazy Susan is just as effective for decorating cakes. A steady hand and consistency in icing are arguably the most important parts of the process, so anything that allows you to keep a consistent flow of frosting will be invaluable. And if you do end up with a few minor flaws along the way, don't worry. Sprinkles are a great ingredient to strategically hide messy frosting.