Cake decorating ideas and tips

Easy Cake Decorating Ideas: Add Piping

An easy technique to give your cake a sophisticated look is to pipe your frosting through a pastry bag. There are different types of bag tips that will get you different looks on your cake:

• Round tips are used to make lines, dots, and writing.
• Star tips are used to create stars, shells, flowers, decorative borders, and rosettes.
• Leaf tips are used to make leaf shapes.
• Basket-weave tips are used to make lattices and ribbon-like lines and borders.

Easy Cake Decorating Ideas: Add Creative Toppings

Instead of achieving the perfect look for your cake with piped frosting, you can get a creative look by adding fresh fruit, purchased cookies, and nuts. Here are a few creative cake-topping ideas:

• Whole small berries
• Sliced fruit
• Pecan, cashew, or walnut halves
• Sliced or slivered almonds
• Chopped hazelnuts, pistachios, or peanuts
• Toasted or raw flaked or shredded coconut
• Gingersnaps
• Cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies

Cake Decorating Tip: Be sure to serve cakes embellished with cookies or fresh fruit within two hours.

Easy Cake Decorating Ideas: Use Baking Decorations

Check out the baking aisle at supermarkets, crafts stores, or specialty food stores for some of these edible garnishes. Here are a few that you'll find, plus tips on how best to use them:

• Nonpareils: Available in mixed or single colours, these tiny opaque balls add a touch of color and texture to your cake.
• Coloured decorating sugars: Choose from a wide variety of colors of coarse sugars, such as sparkle sugars, or finer-grain sanding sugars to add sparkle to your cake.
• Pearl sugar: These small, opaque white balls of sugar add a unique texture to cakes.
• Edible glitter: This flaked coloured sugar adds a glistening look to cakes.
• Jimmies: Also called sprinkles, these tiny cylindrical decorations are available in single or mixed colours.
• Confetti: These colourful, flat cake decorations come in many shapes for just about every occasion and holiday.

Cake Decorating Tip: Use stencils to create shapes such as hearts with edible glitter, decorating sugars, or nonpareils.

Easy Cake Decorating Ideas: Use Candy

Decorating a cake with candy provides you with tons of creative ideas. Here are a few types of candy that can easily 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

Cake Decorating Basics: Choosing the Frosting

Before getting started on any cake decorating, you'll have to choose a frosting. You can easily whip up a homemade frosting, or if you're tight on time, use store-bought frosting (it's just as good!). Keep in mind that creamy frosting varieties work best for piping, and whipped frosting varieties spread and swirl smoothly and evenly.

This article originally appeared on www.bhg.com