Cake Decorating Ideas

Practice Practice Practice

As with anything in life, expertise comes through repetition and cake decorating is no exception. The ability to gracefully handle a piping bag will take some practice to develop. But this is not to say that decorating a cake is only for the experts. There are great cake decorating ideas available to people at all skill levels. The basic equipment that you will need is:

• A palette knife
• Two offset palette knives, large and small
• A large piping bag (disposable piping bags are available)
• Piping tips

I would advise the beginner to get the large and small offset palette knives because the offset handle makes working with icing easier.

For the advanced cake decorator, you will want to have:

• A turntable (A cake sized pedestal that turns to facilitate rotating the cake as you decorate it)
• An icing comb (a plastic or metal three-sided comb that is textured differently on each side)
• A plastic scraper to smooth out the frosting
• A sugar dredge (a large cup with a perforated top for dusting cakes)

If you are a novice cake decorator, don’t let this list intimidate you. All of these items are available at your local craft store. Piping bags are cheap and you can get the basic piping tips for about 50 cents each, sometimes less. I would advise a plain piping tip about 1/8 inch wide for lettering, a star tip for borders, a leaf tip for making leaves, and a rose tip for making flowers.

Before you start to decorate your cake, you should fill the piping bag and practice a few times on a sheet of parchment paper. This will let you scrape up the used icing and reload it into the bag, saving icing.

Simple Cake Decorating Ideas

Once you have your cake made and cooled, it is time to decorate your cake. First, you will have to get some icing. You can use any icing that you like, making your own or using store bought. I like to make my own because I can control the ingredients and the consistency.

Frosting Tips

After you decided on the icing that you want to use, get your offset palette knife and gently spread a thin layer on your cake. There may be crumbs on this layer and that is ok. The reason you spread this thin layer, appropriately called the crumb layer, is to give you a better base on which to spread the next layer on the cake cleanly. After applying the crumb layer on your cake, let it rest in a cool place so the icing can set. Placing the cake in the fridge will speed this process. Once the crumb layer is dry to the touch, you are ready to spread on the next layer of icing.

If you want your cake to be smooth, use the plastic scraper to smooth out the icing. If you want to have your icing textured, use the icing comb and gently drag it over the icing to add the texture you want.

Borders Add Interest

To add an attractive border around the edge of your cake, place your star tip in your piping bag, fill your piping bag with icing and twist the open end of the bag so the frosting will be forced out of the tip. Place the tip directly on the frosting and gently squeeze the bag so that a small amount of icing comes out of the bag. Slowly pull the piping bag away from the icing and you should have a small star. If you do this completely around the cake you will have an attractive border all the way around. Try experimenting with different tips to develop different effects.

Other cake decorating ideas can be done with the same basic equipment. If you make a ganache and fill your piping bag with it, you can pipe it onto your cake in the same manner. For more chocolate options, you can gently melt your chocolate using a Bain Marie and then fill your piping bag with this chocolate. With a thin plain tip on your piping bag, pipe the chocolate out onto a Silpat or a sheet of parchment paper. Let this chocolate dry, carefully lift it off the paper, and place it on your cake for a spidery swirling chocolate effect.

The ways to decorate a cake are endless and really only limited to your imagination.

Decorate With Flowers

You can make flowers out of marzipan or fondant that can be bought at crafts stores. Candied flowers are beautiful, tasty, and fun to make and eat. If you are short on time, most supermarkets will carry pre-made cake decorations, but I think that with a little time and some practice you will be able to decorate your own cakes in the most fabulous ways.