decorating cakes

Cake Ideas – Edible Image Decorations

Great cake ideas can produce great results. Sometimes we invent those ideas in a 2-D effect rather than in 3-D. Basically it's like drawing a picture on a cake. That is where the edible image frosting sheets are so wonderful. Cake ideas have changed over the last few years with the introduction of these edible image frosting sheets. To think you can make decorated cakes with a thin sheet of frosting that has been run through a printer after generating the image on a computer is awesome! After decorating cakes the traditional, time-consuming way, we were ready to make the transition with eagerness. We researched the possibilities and found all we needed to get started was the necessary printer that would accomodate the frosting sheets. It had to be a new printer of a certain brand and model that had never had regular ink run through it. Then all we had to purchase was the food coloring ink cartridges and the edible image frosting sheets. It was not a bad investment at all for what we could now produce with much less time and effort.

This is a sample of what can be done with edible image cakes. This particular one was made for mine and my husband's 25th wedding anniversary. The program allows you to put your own photos on the edible frosting sheet that is designed on the computer and printed off. We will be posting other pictures regularly so you can see the possibilities with this way of decorating. We do know that with the edible image frosting sheets and all the possibilities, you can set to flow freely your cake ideas.

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Cake Ideas – The Traditional Decorations

"Squeezing all those stars example!"

Cake ideas can be a dime a dozen, but when it comes to getting it just right for the occasion, you may have to explore several options for decorating cakes. There is the traditional decorating that uses piped icing to make the design itself and the writing. Before we started doing edible image cakes, we did decorating the hard ways, as we call it. One way was squeezing out those thousands of stars all over the cake till it was completely covered. The other way was that we would get a picture of the design wanted, whether from a printed paper copy or a napkin that would be used for the party. We would tediously draw the design on the cake icing with a toothpick. Then we would load up frosting bags with various colors and accomplish our feat. After decorating in this manner for many years, we started hearing about a new style of decorating cakes with edible image frosting sheets. More of that is in our posting about decorated cakes called "Cake Ideas – Edible Image Decorations."

Cake Ideas – Trimming the Cake

Decorated cake ideas can be found online, in books, or you can use your imagination to come up with your own that will brand you. Applying the trim on the cake is the first step to the finished product once the cake is frosted. The base edge trim is usually done with a star or round tip. The star tips used are tips #16 thru #22, and the round tips used are #8 thru #12. The size will depend on the look you are wanting and where you are applying it. Generally the larger size of tip is done for the base of the cake and a smaller size is then used on the edge where the top and sides meet. The star tip can be used to make the star or shell border, and the round tip makes a bead border. Most of the time we will use a smaller version of the same tip design to trim the top edge as the bottom. Sometimes it is hard to get that top edge consistently covered with the icing, so using the correct tip and pattern will help cover that edge. We personally prefer to use tip #18 and do a reverse rope pattern around the top edge. If you look in a Wilton book, it will show the rope pattern which looks like commas stacked next to each other. We do one "comma" one direction and then go in the undercurve and bring it around to a "reverse comma," then another comma and so on. Once you get the hang of it, it is pretty easy because it is just a flick of the wrist one direction, then the other. The trim is where you can use colored frosting to get the look you want. Depending on the theme or top design, you can make the bottom border one color and the top border a different color, or you can alternate the stars, shells, or beads back and forth between the two colors. Or if you don't want to distract any from the top design, you can just do both borders in white icing. Another option here is if you frosted the cake with white icing, you can use the food color spray from Wilton or Betty Crocker or Wilton to change the color of the icing. That should be done before applying the borders, and then those can be done in white, which really accents the cake. These are just a few cake ideas when decorating cakes to personalize your masterpiece.

Cake Ideas – Frosting the Cake

There are several cake ideas when it comes to actually frosting the cake. At this point, the icing is probably already mixed up. There are several kinds that can be used, so it is totally a personal or customer preference. There's decorator icing, buttercream frosting, and rolled fondant. We have personally never used the latter kind. We prefer to use the tranditional decorator's icing with butter flavoring added. You can get more detail of this on our post entitled "Cake Ideas – Coloring the Icing." Well, it's finally time to get the icing on the cake after all the preparation and baking. The first thing we do is apply some icing under the bottom edges of the cake where it may not be setting flat on the board or plate. This helps fill the void where you are going to be putting the trim around the base of the cake. We sometimes thin the icing down a bit for actually frosting the cake just so it spreads on easier and is less likely to tear the cake or pick up any stray crumbs. One of the biggest things I have struggled with in the past with decorating cakes was getting the frosting smooth. We were told to use a frosting spatula dipped in hot water. Just by experiment one day, we tried using ice water to dip the spatula in, and we actually thought it worked better. Then a while back we were visiting with a fellow cake decorator and she asked us how we smoothed our frosting. We told her the two methods we had tried and she asked if we had ever used a pastry roller. Wilton actually carries something similar called a quick easy fondant smoother. Once the cake is frosted, you let it crust over just slightly and then use this roller on the top and then around the sides. We couldn't believe how slick that worked! We recently saw a video that had another cool trick. They laid a smooth dry paper towel over the slightly crusted frosting and used a fondant smoother, also available from Wilton, to 'iron' the frosting! They said if you wanted your frosting to have a texture or look lacey, just use a paper towel with a texture to it and that would imprint into the frosting. Now that the cake is frosted, the next step in making that beautifully decorated cake is getting all the trim and decorations on. The finished result can include many cake ideas which we will be sharing.

Cake Ideas – Crumbs and Glazing

A Glazed Cake

Here are a couple of cake ideas to use before applying the frosting for your decorated cake. Make sure to brush off any loose crumbs. If you don't do this, you will end up with the crumbs showing in the icing. If this happens with a white cake, it's not as bad though as with chocolate cake when it can make it look like you've used a chocolate chip frosting 😉 A damp paper towel can be used to pick up any loose crumbs from the cake and from the board or plate it is setting on. There generally aren't too many crumbs to deal with if it's a cake that has just been turned out of the pan, but if you have to do any cutting or trimming of the cake, that can be a different story. So if you are wanting to seal those crumbs, it is best to glaze it. To glaze the cake, just take some of the same icing you will be using on the cake and thin it down with a little water to a very easily spreadable consistency. It will not matter if crumbs get mixed in during this step because they will be covered up when applying the frosting. It is best to let the glaze do some drying at this point to let it start to crust over a little. There are many steps to take in getting your desired finished product when decorating cakes. Eliminating and covering up crumbs are just a couple of cake ideas that will help you produce your masterpiece.