Embellishing a cake with homemade frosting or store-bought toppings can make a special occasion even more memorable. Not only do you have the freedom to choose the exact flavor and texture of the cake, but you also get to customize the frosting to perfectly match your taste and the occasion. Plus, the sense of accomplishment from creating something beautiful with your own hands is incredibly rewarding.
Whether you're a beginner or an experienced baker, decorating a cake can be a fun and creative process. From simple to elaborate designs, the choice is yours. You can opt for the latest cake decorating supplies or keep it classic with a few well-placed candy decorations. The key is to enjoy the process and let your creativity shine.
Decorating a Cake with Piping
To achieve a professional look, use a pastry bag with a large star tip. Tint each layer of frosting a darker shade to create an ombre effect. With a few basic decorating tools, you can easily add intricate designs to your cake. Here are some essential decorating tips:
- Star tips are perfect for making stars, shells, flowers, decorative borders, and rosettes.
- Leaf tips are ideal for creating leaf shapes.
- Round tips can be used to make lines, dots, and writing.
- Basket-weave tips are great for lattices and ribbon-like lines and borders.
- Flower tips can be used to make cake flower decorations.
Decorating a Cake with Frosting
Once you have your cooled cake recipe and the crumb coat or base layer of frosting applied, it's time to get creative with your piping bag. Here's a step-by-step guide to help you get started:
- Fit a pastry bag with the desired decorating tip.
- Fill the pastry bag about two-thirds full of frosting.
- Fold the corners over and roll the bag down to the frosting.
- With one hand, grip the bag near the roll above the frosting.
- Apply pressure with the palm of your hand, forcing the frosting toward the tip.
- Use your other hand to guide the tip of the bag.
Decorating a Cake with Creative Toppings
For a quick and easy way to decorate a cake without investing in a lot of cake-decorating tools, consider using purchased cookies, fruits, and nuts. By arranging these toppings creatively, you can create a stunning cake in no time. Here are some ideas to get you started:
- Whole small berries
- Sliced fruit
- Pecan, cashew, or walnut halves
- Sliced or slivered almonds
- Chopped hazelnuts, pistachios, or peanuts
- Toasted or raw shredded or flaked coconut
- Gingersnaps
- Cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies
Test Kitchen Tip
Our Rainbow Pinwheel Cake is a colorful delight. To achieve clean lines when decorating with nonpareils, use strips of waxed paper to provide borders.
Decorating a Cake with Cake Decorations
Explore the baking aisle at supermarkets, crafts stores, specialty food stores, and online for a variety of edible garnishes. Here are some popular options and tips on how to decorate a cake with them:
- Nonpareils: These tiny opaque balls come in mixed or single colors and add a touch of color and texture to your cake.
- Colored decorating sugars: Choose from a wide variety of colors of coarse sugars, such as sparkle sugars, or finer-grain sanding sugars, also sold as luster dust or pearl dust, to add sparkle to your cake.
- Sprinkles: Also sometimes called jimmies, these tiny cylindrical decorations are available in single or mixed colors.
- Edible Confetti: Also called edible accents, these colorful, flat cake decorations come in many shapes for just about every occasion and holiday.
Test Kitchen Tip
Gumballs are a fun choice for this creative cake.
Decorating a Cake with Candy
Decorating a cake with candy offers endless creative possibilities. Here are some types of candy that can be arranged to make decorative patterns and borders:
- Miniature candy-coated chocolate pieces
- Chocolate-covered peanuts or raisins
- Jelly beans
- Gumdrops
- Licorice strips
- Fruit rolls or leather
- Peppermint sticks
- Whole or crushed malted milk balls
- Sour fruit-flavor straws
- Candy Corn
Before you can start decorating, you must generously spread the base frosting along all sides of your cake. Try this Vanilla Sour Cream Frosting recipe.
Cake Decorating Basics: Choosing the Frosting
Before starting any cake decorating project, you must choose a frosting. You can quickly whip up a homemade frosting or use store-bought frosting if you're tight on time. Keep in mind that creamy frostings work best for piping. For a classic frosting, try our Creamy White Frosting; because it's made with shortening, it's perfectly white, making it a great "blank slate" to build upon.
Test Kitchen Tip
How to Color Frosting
There are three ways to add color to frosting (one also adds flavor!).
- Paste or gel food coloring is highly concentrated and comes in a variety of colors (you can find it at hobby stores and specialty cooking stores). A little goes a long way with this type of food coloring; swirl a toothpick into the coloring and mix well with your frosting. Add the color little by little until you have your desired hue.
- Liquid food coloring is more commonly found in grocery stores and is usually packaged in a set of four colors: red, yellow, green, and blue. To use, stir drops of food coloring into the frosting (mix and match the primary colors to get creative hues!) until you achieve your desired color.
- To skip the artificial dyes, follow our instructions for naturally coloring frosting using fruits and vegetables. Because this method uses blended fruits and veggies, it will add a little bit of flavor to your frosting. Feel free to get creative mixing up your colors, but you can also follow our guide for using strawberries, peaches, mangoes, and more to make pink, purple, yellow, and green frosting.
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