Great Cake Decorating Ideas

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Adding frosting or trimming in fancy designs to a cake to make it more attractive can be simple or elaborate as you like. Cake decorating ranges from elaborate, such as a wedding cake with flowers and scrolls of frosting, to the simple, such as cupcakes sprinkled with small decorative candies.

Decorating a cake makes it more appealing. One that is beautifully done arouses more interest, tempts the appetite, and adds a special touch to many occasions. Birthday, wedding, and anniversary cakes, for instance, contribute to the decorations and festive atmosphere of the occasion.

It is easy to see that cake decorating is an art. Those who enjoy creating and displaying a masterpiece realize a special reward for the many hours of work that they’ve spent in preparing a delicious, attractive cake. Classes, special instructions, and books on cake decorating will help a persona learn and perfect this art. As with other arts, practice is necessary to learn and to keep these skills.

Both frosting and trimming are used to decorate a cake. Fancy designs fashioned with frosting can be made after careful study and practice. Until this art is mastered, simple designs, such as borders, can be piped on cakes for that special, personal touch.

Trimming may be purchased or created from household items and foods. Stores carry a wide selection of dolls, animal figures, and holiday items to be used on top of and around the cake. Common, household items when combined with a little imagination make clever decorations. Use some of these ideas to decorate your cake. Combined with other ideas, these can make for different and original decoration ideas.

A crisscross trim: Spread a creamy butter frosting over the cake. Cover the top with parallel lines made by drawing the tines of a fork through the frosting. At right angles, draw the fork through the frosting again, leaving one half inch space between the strokes.

Some tinted coconut: Place shredded or flaked coconut in a jar with a few drops of desired food coloring. Cover the jar and shake until all of the pieces are uniformly colored.

The coffee coconut: In a pint jar, mix 1 ½ teaspoons each of instant coffee powder and water. Add on 3 ½ ounce can of flaked coconut. Cover the jar and shake well. Spread the coconut on a baking sheet and toast in a 300 degree oven for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

A gumdrop bow: Between sheets of waxed paper, roll out two large gumdrops in long strips. Cut the strips in half lengthwise and trim to ½ inch wide. Arrange the loop of the bow by bringing the ends of one strip together. Place two loops on the frosting. Place a small strip over the center to cover the seam. Complete the bow by adding two strips for the streamers.

A train cake: Bake the cake in juice cans. Frost each cake, use round peppermint candies for the wheels, cut gumdrops into squares for the windows, and link cars together for the train. The engine is made by placing a small square of cake on top of the first car. The caboose, of course, is bright red.

A Halloween cake: Make a spider web by drizzling melted chocolate in circles on top of a frosted, round cake. Draw a knife lightly from the center to the edges of the cake to make a web effect.

The art of cake decorating is not confined to cakes. The same techniques can be used on cookies, pastries, petits fours, and other desserts by using your imagination.