Cake Decorating 101

It must be really hard to learn cake decorating! I'll bet that's what you think when you see the gorgeous cakes in the bakery window. You will be surprised to know that, actually, it is not! Sure, it helps to have your own sense of flair and creativity, but really, practice and knowledge are more important.

With a trip to the bookstore or library, you can gather all you need to get started. Just pick up a few good books on how to learn cake decorating, and peruse them to familiarize yourself with the various techniques and terminology. That's the first step. Once you feel you are familiar with the concepts, you will feel more confident to work on some of the recipes and instructions the books give on creating lovely cakes.

You can find what you need to learn cake decorating on the internet. Cake decorating websites have excellent instruction, information, and resources to help you learn cake decorating. It is really terrific to have all that information amassed in one location. What's more, you will find simple, easy to follow designs to get you started.

Imagine how thrilled your friends and relations will be the first time you bring one of your creations to a get-together. Everyone loves a beautiful cake at a party. It just makes every occasion more special. When your loved ones find out about your new skill, you are bound to become extremely popular!

Your local junior college or other community organizations may offer courses in cake decorating. Of course, it is wonderful to work in a classroom with a teacher because you can have all your questions immediately answered.

Once you have done all your homework and learned your new skill, you can set your imagination free. Whatever you can dream, you can do. Honor your loved ones with special cakes designed to commemorate special occasions or accomplishments or to highlight a favorite hobby or vacation destination. No guest of honor will ever feel more honored than the recipient of one of your beautiful, unique creations.

So you can see that if you learn cake decorating, you will have an excellent way to present your friends and family with special, unique gifts. You just need to take a little time and put in a bit of effort, and you will soon be using your new talent to delight your friends and relations with gorgeous cakes for every occasion.

Did you know that the first cakes baked in America where small loaves of sweet bread? Look how far we have come. Home bakers should not be intimidated by the elaborate cakes being made today. You do not need to be a pastry chef to make beautiful cakes, you just need the know-how and practice. Of course the right tools will go a long way in your cake decorating endeavors. Here are a few ideas you might like to try.

Every cake worth merit starts with a smooth icing. The cake needs to cool completely before they are iced and decorated. To keep crumbs from ending up in your icing and ruining the look of your cake, start with a thin base coat of frosting that is not quite as stiff as the regular layer will be. Once this coat is on, set the cake in the refrigerator for 20 minutes. This will set the icing and any crumbs will be caught in this first layer. Now you can spread a regular layer of icing without worrying about crumbs.

Use an icing spatula to apply and smooth the second coat of icing. Once the icing is on the cake, start smoothing on the sides by running the spatula around the perimeter of the cake. One trick for smoothing the frosting is to dip the metal icing spatula in cold water, this will aid in smoothing the frosting. To smooth the top, dip the spatula in cold water and holding it horizontally over the top of the cake. Start at the point farthest from you, holding the spatula in both hands, skim the top of the icing by bringing the spatula straight toward you.

Simple Designs

Some cake decorators say learning to smooth the icing is the hardest part of cake decorating. Practice will make you a pro in not time. Once you have it down, show it off, even a cake without many decorations that is clean and smooth will make an perfectly elegant offering.

Instead of icing, cake tops can be dusted with powdered sugar. You can choose to use a stencil for a more decorated appearance, or just the powdered sugar for a clean look.

Edible decorations are a beautiful yet simple cake decorating technique. The use of sprinkles, candy, nuts, and coconut pressed into the icing before it sets, will make your cake stand out.

To apply a textured look for your cake decorating, use a small cardboard comb, available in baking supply stores.

Piping is achieved by using a pastry bag fitted with a metal tip that is held on by a coupler. This is your most important tool for cake decorating. You can make lines, words, shells, flowers, and many other designs on the top or sides of the cake. Fill the bag with no more than 1 cup of icing at a time, twist the top of the bag and keep steady pressure when piping the design. Use your other hand to guide the tip. It is wise to find out everything you can about piping before you begin.

Fondant a smooth white paste, is used in complicated cake decorating. Fondant is kneaded and rolled to cover cakes with a sleek smooth layer of icing. It is also used to make designs that are 3-D. It is less tasty than buttercream, but the cake will look sleek and elegant.

You need to bake a cake for a extraordinary occasion, you know you are creative, but you need a good theme to work with. Every celebration includes a cake to be shared among the guests and family members. It is tradition to have a cake baked by a bakery, or to have a relative bake a cake for the event. If you happened to be the chosen baker, you'd like to have some some good idea for your next piece of art.

Please note that we have some good cake decorating ideas for you here:

- Characters: You have many famous characters to make use of for cake decorating. You can make any cake special by drawing in Dora the Explorer, or Blues Clues. Or you may want to cut up the cake to make this cake into a favorite character.

- Themes: Possibly you might like to go with a 50's theme, underwater adventure, sport theme, or a roaring 20's theme for your cake decorating. Use your creativity and find a theme that will thrill the person you are creatively designing the cake for, and the guests . You may want to have a fancy dress party in that theme. Have fun whatever you decide to do.

- Motor Cakes: Boys are unremarkably wild about trucks, cars, fire engines, boats, tractors, helicopters, or airplanes. Again you can use your cake decorating expertness to make a farm with a a racing strip, 3-D tractor, or a scene showing firemen putting out a fire. Naturally it all hinges upon what the primary birthday boy is fond of.

- Animals: You might as well use an animal theme by molding the cake to appear as any animal, or draw in a scene using animals. It could be a zoo scene with several animals or pick out one animal and decorate the cake with other decorations showing where it came from. Just be creative.

- Food: Perhaps you are making a cake for the grand opening of an Italian restaurant. You could create a scene portraying the building, or when it is for the chef opening the restaurant, a scene of the kitchen with different Italian dishes will be fun to do. You can also create the cake to look like hot dog, taco, a hamburger etc... When it comes to cake decorating using a food theme, only the sky is the limit.

- Holiday Themes: I recall when bunny cakes went hot at Easter, Wilton has pans and decorating supplies for all holiday cake decorating designs. A heart on Valentine's day, or a 4 leaf clover on St. Patrick's day is very appropriate to imply happy holiday mood.

- Your Own Creation: If you have been engaged in cake decorating for quite some time, or if you are a novice with an sensuous flair, you can create your special cake based on the theme or the celebration.

Whatever cake you make will be the center of attention as cakes commonly are at a celebration. It has become tradition to have a excellent cake at every celebration. Acknowledging that you are the one who is tasteful enough to attain this cake, and the kudos you will pick up from others, will give you a bushel of satisfaction.

Nearly every social event offers food in the celebration, birthdays, anniversaries, and weddings, are but a few of the events where food is an important part of the celebration. This article is about the wedding cake. A wedding is a way to celebrate the union of two people who are starting a life together. People come to eat and drink and a great deal of work is put into the preparation for this day. The wedding cake is often the focal point of the event. There are times that it is considered bad luck not to have a piece of the wedding cake.

There are specified rules for cutting the wedding cake that are a part of tradition. For instance, at a wedding reception, it is traditional to cut the wedding cake just before dessert is served, if the wedding reception takes place during lunch or the dinner hour. However, if the reception is held during tea or cocktails, the cake is cut just after all of the guests arrive. It is tradition for the bride and groom to cut and eat the first slice together, as a symbol of their choice to be together. The rest of the cake is sliced by the maid of honor or a family member.

Choosing a wedding cake is quite a task. Tradition calls for a white cake with white frosting for weddings. In this day and age, couples are choosing their favorite flavor. This has bakeries and cake decorators striving to offer a larger selection of cakes. Chocolate, fruit, yellow, pound, and marble are some of the cakes made for modern weddings.

Some wedding cakes offer a different flavor for each layer. White icing, while still ordered, has made way for a wider selection of frostings. Chocolate, mocha, lemon, and any other flavor you can imagine are used for wedding cake decorating. It is possible to customize your cake using all of your favorite flavors. How the wedding cake is decorated is a personal choice as well. You can have just about anything you can dream up put on a wedding cake including, fruit and even real edible flowers.

The wedding reception is the most anticipated part of the wedding. And everyone looks forward to seeing the cake cut and sharing it with the bride and groom as a symbol of good will and a hope, that as a couple, the bride and groom will be prosperous and fertile.

If you would like to become a cake decorator, there are several ways you can go about it. There are hundreds of books out there that will teach you how to decorate cakes, from the simple to the ornate. Another way to learn cake decorating, is to purchase one of the many videos or DVD's that will take you, step-by-step , through the cake decorating process.

The best way to learn cake decorating is to take a class. While DVD's, videos, and books are highly popular and informative, taking a class will help you move along faster. You will be able to get immediate feedback from the teacher, and they can see where you might be going wrong and correct you before the project is ruined.