Sugar Geek University - Hyper-Realistic Cake Tutorials
Who is teaching you
Hi, I am Liz Marek. I have been teaching cake decorating since 2008, and every technique on this page is one I use on camera.
I won Netflix’s Is It Cake? Holiday 2 with a hyperrealistic Santa, and I have competed on Food Network’s Halloween Wars, Super Mega Cakes, Duff Till Dawn and Ridiculous Cakes, plus Disney’s Foodtastic and won them all. In 2022, I was inducted into the I.C.E.S. Hall of Fame, and Cake Masters Magazine named me one of the Top 10 Cake Artists in the USA.
None of that is a different skill set from what you are about to learn. It is carving, structure, and knowing how cake behaves when you cut into it. That is the whole game. So let's get started!
Have a question about a tutorial? Join our facebook group Sugar Geeks.
Have a question about a tutorial? Join our facebook group Sugar Geeks.
A cake that people refuse to believe is cake. That is the whole game here, and it comes down to a handful of techniques: molding real objects, coloring and pouring isomalt, painting texture, and knowing which details sell the illusion.
Start with the free ones below. Each is a single component you can practise in an afternoon, and every one of them turns up again inside the full tutorials.
FREE TO WATCH
Fondant Pepperoni Tutorial
How to make fondant pepperoni that actually looks greasy and curled at the edges. The exact technique that goes on the realistic pizza cake.
Making Fondant Hamburger Patties
Building a burger patty out of fondant, with the char marks and crumbled texture that sell it as meat.
Realistic Stone Painting with Fondant
A one-minute look at painting fondant so it reads as rough stone rather than smooth sugar.
Isomalt Eye Tutorial
Casting a clear, wet-looking eye in isomalt. This is where transparency starts if you want glass, liquid or ice on a cake.
Easy Special Effects for Cakes
A grab bag of realism effects you can add to almost anything, in under twenty minutes.
Realistic Edible Eyeball Tutorial
A quick edible eyeball, start to finish. Small, fast, and the results look alarmingly real.
Realistic Cat Food Cake
A cake that looks like a bowl of wet cat food. Nobody wants to eat it, which is exactly the point.
Realistic Candle Cake
A realistic candle cake, including the part where it goes wrong and how I saved it.
Edible Leather
How to make edible leather, for anything that needs to look worn, stitched or tanned.
Homemade Jello
Clear, firm homemade jello. The base for anything that needs to look like liquid caught in the act.
Pancake Cake
A cake that looks like a stack of pancakes and tastes like them too.
Ready for the rest?
Everything below this point is inside Sugar Geek University. Full-length tutorials, start to finish, nothing skipped, and something new from me every month.
MEMBERS ONLY
Burrito Cake
My award-winning realistic burrito cake, the one that has gone viral more than once. This version has a twist, and it went to the Great American Baking competition.
Taco Cake
Guest instructor Joyce Marcellus builds a taco cake, bringing several techniques that carry over to any realistic food build.
Pulled Pork Sandwich Cake
Guest instructor Timbo Sullivan of Cakes by Timbo brings his own style and tricks to a pulled pork sandwich that looks good enough to order.
Realistic Pizza Cake
Kristin Eagles carves and decorates a pizza so convincing you may catch yourself saying momma mia. Crust, cheese, sauce and pepperoni, all edible.
Turkey Dinner Cake
Kristin Eagles makes a turkey cake that has guests asking whether they are having second dinner.
Giant Apple Pie Cake
A realistic apple pie cake with edible filling, an edible pie dish and a proper crust. Built for a Thanksgiving table.
Hamburger and Gummy Beer Cake
Candy lettuce, tomato, onion, cheese and patties, plus a beer glass gummy. Uses many of the tricks from Food Network’s Ridiculous Cakes.
Root Beer Float Cake
Guest instructor Mitchie Curran makes edible root beer bottles, an edible bottle holder, an edible glass mason jar and ice cream that is not ice cream.
Breakfast in Bed Cake
A pancake cake that tastes like pancakes, a gravity-defying syrup bottle and candy breakfast, using tricks from Food Network’s Ridiculous Cakes.
Air Jordan Shoe Cake
The most iconic shoe there is, in cake. Shaping, layering the panels, the laces, the polish, and a shoe box to sit it in.
Realistic Beer and Steak Cake
Shannon Patrick Mayes of The Sweet Spot builds a realistic beer mug and a sculpted steak, with the lifelike detail that sells a backyard BBQ.
Realistic Sugar Crabs
The huge sugar crab boil from my Super Mega Cakes episode that won team Duff $10,000. Ninety minutes: molding a real crab, coloring and pouring isomalt.
Realistic Blackberry Cake
Realistic blackberry gummies on a blackberry cake, made for a brand deal with the Oregon Berry Commission. Molding the berries, the container, the assembly.
That’s the whole realistic cake library.
Join and you get all of it, plus sculpted cakes, wedding cakes, sugar flowers, cookies and sugarwork, with something new from me every month.