Black and Gold New Year's Cake

This black and gold New Year’s cake provides both a beautiful and tasty way to ring in the new year. With a modern design and flavors of vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry, I hope this cake helps motivate your own cake creations.

Want more cake inspiration? Check all of the designs and flavors I have under my cake tab.

Black and Gold New Year’s Cake

Cake decorating is a hobby of mine. I enjoy making cakes for all occasions…well, except weddings. Too much pressure.

For a school auction, I donated a cake for any occasion…well, except a wedding. A friend purchased the auction item and requested a New Year’s cake. This modern, black, and gold New Year’s cake is the result of her request.

I’ll share step-by-step instructions on how to make this New Year’s cake come to life.

For a cake-baking tutorial, visit this post. This gives my best hacks for baking.

Materials Needed to Make this New Year’s Cake

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Cake – Any flavor works, but I made my favorite white velvet cake.
Buttercream Frosting – Here’s my favorite.
Chocolate Ganache – Here’s the one I used.
Squeeze Bottle
Filling – I made a strawberry filling like this.
Happy New Year Cake Topper
Lindt White Chocolate Balls
Lindt Extra Dark Chocolate Balls
Edible Gold Pearl Sugar Sprinkles
Gold Luster Dust – see note
Vodka – see note
Edible Gold Star Sprinkle Mix – I bought my mix at Michael’s during the Christmas season. I have linked to something similar on Amazon, but not the exact same thing.
Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips or Candy Melts
Chocolate Texture Sheets – I couldn’t find the exact one I used, but I linked to something similar.
Cake Decorating Turntable
Decorating Tool Edge for Cake Sides
Cake Spatula

Note: I tried to use a new product by Satin Ice called luster brush to paint my Lindt white chocolate balls gold. If found it a bit too watery. I then brushed on top of this product with the gold luster dust. In the past, I have used gold luster dust applied with a tad bit of vodka to get better gold coverage. I would recommend this method. Another option would be using an edible gold spray paint like this. I used it on a cake once, and it worked great. Check out the results here.

How to Make this Black and Gold New Year’s Cake

This cake has four layers. You will want to stack your layers four high with filling in the middle. If doing a softer filling like the strawberry filling I used, you will want to do a frosting dam around the edge. Then, put your filling in the center (pictured above).
Next, do a crumb coat. Not sure how to do that? Read this post.
After refrigerating your crumb coat, pull it out and add a thick layer of frosting around the edge. I use a large pastry bag fitted with a ribbon pastry tip to do this step.
Using your decorating tool for edges, press the tool at a slight angle against the cake, squared with the bottom of your turn table, and begin moving the cake in a circle slowly to get your cake edging. I like to run my tool under hot water to get a more smooth edge. I used the rounded edge of the tool.
Next, make your chocolate ganache and add it to your squeeze bottle. Drip the ganache along the top edge first, dripping it down the sides, and then fill the top, smoothing it with your cake spatula. Here’s a great tutorial for learning how to make and do a ganache drip top.
Sprinkle your gold ball, star, and sprinkles to the top edge of your cake.
Paint Lindt white chocolate balls with gold luster dust and vodka, mixed together into a paste. Alternatively, use gold, edible spray paint.
Make chocolate shards. Follow the instructions here to temper chocolate or use candy melts, following the directions on the back. Spread this chocolate on your chosen texture sheets. Allow hardening in the refrigerator.
Once hardened, peel the plastic sheet away from the chocolate. Allow the chocolate to warm slightly before cutting it into sharp rectangular designs. Dust some of the chocolate shards with gold luster dust.
Stick your Happy New Year’s sign toward the front of your cake. Add a combination of dark chocolate and textured shards with gold textured shards sticking up from the cake behind the sign. Lindt balls in both gold and dark chocolate can then be added to your cake. Add some large, gold sprinkles to areas of the top.

Happy New Year! I hope you feel motivated and inspired to create your own designs. Tag @meaningfulmama on your social media shares if you do. I’d love to see your creations.