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www.howdini.com decorating a cake is easier than you think. Watch baker and author Liv Hansen for Betty Crocker Kitchens shows how it 's done. After you practice a little, you 'll be installing the tubes like a pro. Pipe cake decorating ideas and leans …

Ginger Parker asked:


Beautiful cakes are not just for big bucks on extra-special occasions. You can learn easy cake decorating ideas that you can do yourself to make even an ordinary boxed cake mix look extraordinary. With a few simple tools and techniques and the easy cake decorating ideas in this article, you’ll be able to make a beautiful cake yourself at home.

Icing The Cake

Most of the time, you’ll want to start with smooth icing all over the cake as the base for all of these easy cake decorating ideas. To get a smooth surface, make sure the cake is completely cooled and your frosting is not too thick. Thinner icing will spread more easily and end up with a smoother finish.

First, put a very thin layer of frosting all over the cake. This is called the crumb coat, and it will keep crumbs from getting mixed in with the frosting that you’ll see on the finished cake. At this point, you can refrigerate the cake to set the crumb coat and make it easier to apply the top coat.

Next, use an icing spatula to put on the second coat of icing. Start with a large amount of icing in the middle of the top of the cake and spread it toward the edges. When the top of the cake is completely covered, cover the sides of the cake. To smooth the sides, hold the spatula straight up and down and hold the edge against the cake as you spin the plate.

For the best look, try to get the frosting as smooth as possible all over cake. For the top of the cake, hold the spatula perfectly horizontal. For the sides, hold it perfectly upright. Try dipping the spatula in hot water and drying it before gliding across the frosting for even smoother results.

Getting smooth, even icing on your cakes is probably the hardest part of cake decorating. Practice these techniques until you can get perfectly smooth frosting, and you might find that you don’t even need any other cake decorating ideas for an elegant, beautiful cake.

Easy Cake Decorating Ideas & Tips

For a simply elegant cake with a really easy technique, dust your frosted cake with powdered sugar. Try using a stencil for a themed or geometric design on the top of the cake. Remember making paper snowflakes as a kid? Make one to fit the top of your cake and use it as a stencil for a one-of-a-kind powdered sugar design.

If you want a more detailed, three-dimensional design, you can buy ready-to-use decorations and cake toppers in just about any theme you can think of. Candy flowers and letters, sprinkles in special shapes, and even small toys can be used to top your cake.

For an especially tasty look, sprinkle the cake with candy, nuts, shredded coconut, or chocolate shavings. Or use fresh fruit, like a simple ring of strawberry slices or an elaborate pattern of a few kinds of fruits. For a different style, decorate only the sides of the cake and leave the top smooth, or surround a simply frosted cake with fresh fruit or flowers.

Another option is to use a decorating comb or decorating triangle to add texture to the frosting. A decorating comb is a simple piece of plastic or metal with a variety of shaped edges. You drag the comb along the frosting to leave a textured pattern in the frosting. This is a great option if you’re having trouble getting your icing as smooth as you want it to be.

Anyone Can Master These Easy Cake Decorating Ideas

These easy cake decorating ideas will help you make all your cakes more beautiful and are simple enough for anyone to learn. Master these techniques, and then consider taking cake decorating classes locally or online to learn more advanced cake decorating ideas and techniques like piping with a pastry bag and using fondant. Even if you stop with these easy cake decorating ideas, you’ll still be making beautiful cakes for every occasion.


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Cake decorating ideas are plentiful on the web. In fact, after you have baked your cake, the next step is to decorate the cake to look more attractive. Cake decorating ideas are the most difficult part of the whole thing. This is more so if you are not an artist. Some people are naturally gifted, so for them decorating a cake is very easy. But for those who have no idea how things are done, cake decorating becomes a huge task. Baking a cake becomes very easy than to decorate it.

Cake decorating can be fun if some of the basic things are taken into consideration. For example if you are baking a cake for your child’s birth day then you can zero on the cake decorating ideas that are related to kids.

If the cake is baked for a tea party then the cake decorating idea should correspond to the ‘tea’ theme.

Likewise if it is a wedding cake then lots of thought process goes in to the final design on the wedding cake as it is the most significant occasion in one’s life. Everyone wants something very special for the wedding cake.

The cake should be decorated according to the occasion. If you are throwing a Valentine day party the decoration on the cake should reflect the spirit of valentine, so red roses are a must for the cake decoration.

If you want to bake a cake for your loved one then a heart shaped cake decorated with some edible flowers in yellow and red colors look great on a white back ground.

The type of icing you choose to decorate your cake can also make it look different. The trick is to get a perfect icing. If you are confident about making the icing at home then go head otherwise you get ready made icings in the market. Make use of them as it becomes that much easier to put icing on the cake.

Cake decoration idea depends on the shape of the cake as well. If a cake is baked in a shape of a shell then all you have to do is to match the colors while decorating it. It could be a white chocolate cake with some filling like butter cream and the Fondant icing will cover it. Then you can paint the lines with coco powder.

If you want to bake a cake that looks like a favorite cartoon character then you have to look for the correct mould in which you will bake the cake and then use edible or food colors to make the character look real.

You can use candies of different colors and arrange them to form a flower. It looks fabulous. You can also take into consideration the theme of the party. Cake decorating ideas can flow once you know the theme of the party. If the party is to celebrate summer then you can decorate the cake with sunflowers.

You can use some external things to make the cake look yummy. Some beads, confetti etc can take cake decorating on the other level. In other words let your imagination run wild, visualize a scene and you can transfer it on the cake.



By: Muna wa Wanjiru

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expertvillage asked:

The tools needed to decorate cake in this free howto video clip.