cake decorating tips

Cake Ideas – Preparing for the Graduation Cake Rush

Cake ideas start coming around in May for 8th grade promotions and high school and college graduations. This is one time of year when everyone seems to want their cakes on the same day or couple of days. This definitely takes some planning and preparation. The last few years, I have had orders for 25 or more cakes to be done in about 3 days. The first time I had that many orders, I baked and decorated a certain number of cakes per day – till exhaustion, with only 4 or 5 hours of sleep between. The next year, I did it with a whole new routine. The week before all the cakes were needing to be decorated, all the cakes were baked and stuck in the freezer, and many batches of decorators icing were mixed up and put in the refrigerator. Then the week prior to the graduations, the number of cakes to be decorated each day (usually 6 or 7) were taken out of the freezer the night before. That way it was just a matter of decorating cakes for the day and no baking was involved. That made things go so much smoother! It's much easier to concentrate on one thing at a time, like either baking OR decorating – not both 😉 So how do you prepare the cake for freezing? In one of my earlier posts, I explained how I line my cake pans with waxed paper before baking. Once baked and cooled, I dump the cake out on the waxed cardboard and leave that waxed paper on them to seal them for freezing. I also have 1/4" boards I put under those cardboards to help support the cake to keep it from splitting. I then insert the whole thing – cake, cardboard, and 1/4" board into a white unscented 13 gallon tall kitchen trash bag and seal it up. This helps protect the cake in the freezer. Pull the cake out of the freezer the night before and let it thaw in the bag overnight. This is also the time to set the frosting out of the refrigerator so it will be softer for spreading the next day. The next morning, take the cake out of the bag and remove the waxed paper from the cake. This whole process has kept the moisture sealed in the cake. Doing cakes for graduation if you have several orders can be a little stressful, but if you can establish a routine that works for you, it will go much smoother. If you have any other cake decorating ideas for the graduation rush, please feel free to post them here as a comment to share with others.

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Cake Ideas – Mother’s Day Cakes

Cake ideas turn to the feminine side for Mother's Day, which is the second Sunday in May. Many people try to have a family get-together on that day to honor mothers. Often times they treat her to a meal out so she doesn't have to cook. And then in the afternoon they continue the celebration with refreshments of some kind. What a perfect time to have a decorated cake on hand – made just for her! So what are some cake ideas for Mother's Day? Well, first of all, it would be a good idea to find out ahead of time (not the day before if you plan to surprise her) what her favorite cake flavor and colors are. This way you will have something made especially to her liking. Decorations of flowers, ribbons, or bows can be applied to the cake for that feminine look for the cake. With an edible cake image, many pictures can be chosen from to put on the cake. Some ideas for that could be a picture of her when she was young (before children) like her high school graduation, a comparison of her in younger years and a current photo side-by-side, a family picture with her children, her with her favorite pet, or something in reference to her favorite hobby or interest. Below are a couple of cake ideas that can be used for Mother's Day. These photos are in reference to a birthday, but it can still give cake decorating ideas as to what can be used for your masterpiece for this yearly occasion.

Old Graduation Pic interest in cats

So with the approach of Mother's Day, get the facts and materials you will need to make that special cake: favorite cake flavor, favorite color(s) for decorations, and favorite photo if using edible cake images. Remember, your mother loves you so much and this cake will be a little token of how much you love her. 🙂

Cake Ideas – St. Patrick’s Day Cakes

Cake Ideas for St. Patrick's Day are generally geared towards something green. The cake itself can be made green by adding green food coloring to a white cake mix. When applying the icing, it can be frosted in green or frosted in white and then trimmed with green. Of course there are a few cake pans out there that can be used for the holiday theme. There is a Care Bear pan, a shamrock pan and a horseshoe pan, of which the latter can be turned the one way to look like a good luck Irish horseshoe and turned the other to make a rainbow where you can find the pot of gold. To accent the cake, gold, foil-wrapped coin candy can be scattered around the base of the cake to make it look like someone got into the pot of gold.

There are also gold sprinkles or shamrock confetti that can be added for a little glitter or glamour when decorating cakes.

Sometimes little trinkets for St. Patrick's Day can be found to add to the cake or placed on top of cupcakes that are baked in gold foil cupcake papers.

Maybe you are of primary Irish descent or at least can trace your lineage back to include some of it in your ancestry. Keep the Irish event as a tribute to your family history by celebrating this sometimes almost overlooked holiday. Have fun with it and even put up St. Patrick's Day party decorations. But most of all, remember to wear green so you don't get pinched!

Cake Ideas- Valentine’s Day Cakes

Cake ideas start to be sought when Valentine's Day approaches in order to make a treat for those special someones. A decorated cake for that holiday can make it memorable, no matter what the age of the recipient. What are a few ideas for the cake itself? Well, pink and red are usually associated with Valentine's Day. So how about using Strawberry or Cherry Chip cake mix for a pink cake or a Red Velvet cake mix for a red cake! Or you can always use a White mix and add red food coloring a few drops at a time to get the shade you desire. The frosting can be white or pink and then use any of the various shades of pink and red for the trimmings, writing, and decorations. The decorations on the cake can be any variation of things to spruce it up. Ideas for that could be red or pink artifical flowers, Valentine confetti, a cake topper, or fresh strawberries (don't put these on till ready to serve 😉 ). Since hearts are usually associated with the holiday, a heart-shaped cake definately fits the occasion. If a heart pan is not available, you can actually make a cake in that shape by pouring half the batter in an 8" square layer and the other half in an 8" round layer. After they are baked and removed from the pans, turn the square layer with a point on the bottom like a diamond. Cut the round layer in half and place the cut side of each half of the round layer against one upper side of the square layer, making it look like it has Mickey Mouse ears. What shape do you see? A Heart 😮 ! Heart-shaped cupcakes or ones in Valentine cupcake papers make great individual servings or something special for school parties. Any shape of pan can be used for a Valentine's Day cake and the decorations will give it the character needed for the special occasion. You can use any of the items listed earlier for decorating the cake, or you can also use colored decorating sugar, red hots, or candy conversation hearts that are in season for the holiday.

Cake Ideas – Decorating With Candy

Cake ideas can include candy such as plain old M&M's and Hershey's Kisses for decorating cakes. However, you can purchase these candies for those special occasions, and they will definately make a conversation piece. When my husband and I celebrated our 25th anniversary, we ordered M&M's that said 'Daryl & Linda' on some and 'Happy 25th' on the others. We had chosen the colors of silver (or course) and light blue or light turquoise for our anniversary colors to work with for the celebration. (We also used gold and yellow M&M's for my parent's 50th Anniversary and purple and lavendar ones for our son's wedding.) Several months before our party, we had received an email advertising for personalized M&M's, and we thought that was just too unique of an idea to pass up. Checking the website now, they have more options available than they did almost 2 years ago – including 22 colors! Our anniversary is April 10, so I was able to start picking up Christmas decorations on clearance in the right colors (silver garland and bells and blue balls, etc.) that we wanted for decorating for the event. See some of the table decorations in the pictures below.

Another place that has some really cool ideas for candy that can be served with your decorated cake as a little garnish, or scattered on the tables as a colorful decoration, is a store called 'Candy Warehouse.' You deserve to check out this store. You can search for candy by the type, the occasion, and by color of it – or the wrapper. Another place you can shop for specialty candy and tons of party decorations is the Oriental Trading Company. They have all kinds of stuff that we used for our anniversary, including individually wrapped dinner mints in silver foil that had anniversary greetings printed on them and 25th anniversary balloons. And since Valentine's Day was only about two months prior to our anniversary, I was able to find the 'Love' tag Hershey's kisses. One thing the papers that came with the M & M's said was to not store them in a refrigerator, but rather keep them in a small styrofoam cooler, as getting chocolate cold makes it turn a whitish color – and then they wouldn't have been very pretty for the party and people would have thought we were serving them old candy 😉 . So as you can see, sometimes you can think 'outside the box' and come up with some really great options that will enhance or compliment your cake ideas.