Naked cakes are rustic and beautiful, and require half of the effort of frosting a cake completely! Follow these exact tips below to create your own elegant naked cake design!
A naked cake is exactly what it sounds like, an undressed cake! You’ve likely seen one at a wedding or party, decorated minimally with flowers or greenery. The idea was popularized back in 2013 by Milk Bar owner, Christina Tosi who sought to let the flavors of the cake show for themselves on the outside! Now bakers and cake designers everywhere thank Christina for this genius idea because, I’ll let you in on a little industry secret, it’s probably the easiest cake design you could make!
In order to make this naked cake design you will need–
Frosting, cake and 10 minutes! It’s really that simple.
Start with chilled cakes.
For the best results, use cake layers that have been chilled in the fridge or (preferably) the freezer. When the cake is chilled, it binds together better which will make for less crumbs in your final result. A naked cake is basically just a crumb coat but because there will be no more layers of frosting, you want as few actual crumbs as possible.
Level the cake layers properly.
Before frosting, make sure to level your cake layers evenly. When frosting a cake normally, there is room for some error if your cake is a bit crooked. Since the naked cake is the final result, you’ll want to pay extra attention to leveling the cake layers evenly.
Fill the cake with more frosting than normal.
I normally fill my cakes with about ½ inch of frosting for the perfect ratio of cake to frosting with my 2 inch cake layers. However since there will be minimal frosting on the outside of the cake, I recommend filling the cakes with about ¾ inch of frosting in the middle.
Other than cake and frosting, you will need a large offset spatula and a bench scraper or putty knife to complete this naked cake design. Find a full list of tools here if you are unfamiliar with these items.
Follow the above steps and you will have a gorgeous naked cake, ready to be decorated with flowers, greenery, candy, ganache drips, anything you want!
If you are more of a beginner and want a step-by-step guide on how to frost a cake, check out my blog post with detailed instructions on the process! To achieve the naked cake look, you will follow the steps in that post all the way through the crumb coat, then you’re done!
Happy Decorating!