Essentials for decorating a cake

Baking is always fun and needs some creativity to work it. I always enjoy baking beautiful cakes at home. Had attended cake decorating classes a few years back and now I find it getting evolved on me almost therapeutic.. I have made countless birthday cakes by now.

There are a few things you should keep in mind while decorating a cake or even making one. These are very basic but go a long way to get a good cake in shape. One of them is the good icing. I think icing is the most important part of decorating a cake. It has to be of the right consistency, too thin and it will not make the desired look and feel of the design and too thick and it will not spread finely and evenly. According to the design of the cake we have to match the consistency of the icing. There are some patterns which look beautiful and rich with thin consistency and there would be other designs like floral designs and flowers which need a thicker consistency to hold up the design.

The other thing that comes to my mind while decorating a cake would the positioning of the decorating bag when you hold it. In some cases you want to hold it upright while some of it requires it to tilt a little at around 45 degrees. The angle and the positioning makes a good difference in decorations. A line going out of a bag will look entirely different when it is positioned differently.

Sometimes you require thick lines out of the decorator’s bag so you have to apply more pressure to the bag. When you want to work on delicate designs which need a thin decorating line you have to hold it light putting pressure only when required. All this comes naturally with a little experience. Cake decorating is an art but its also a science that requires simple techniques.

Cake decorating knowledge

You can never be short of ideas to decorate a cake. There are hundreds of books and websites related to cake decorating, you can even join special cake decorating classes.

A little idea and your imagination can create a beautiful piece of cake. Just by looking at different decorations you can get a rough idea about your cake decoration, and you can improve on the idea with your creativity.

Besides the ideas for decorations, there are some other things that should be kept in mind before you go for cake decorating. You should have a knowledge of icings, what kind of icing should be used on what kind of cakes. There are different types of icings which are used for different cakes. Then there are some equipment used to make you cake decorations easier. Cake decorating can be learned but there are some basics you should know before you start.

It can be started up as a hobby, in fact it is a very popular one. Its always good to have someone at home who can decorate cakes well. Then there are professionals cake decorators who take up cake decoration as their business. But decorations change with time. What is in trend now may be out of it a year from now, so you have to be up to date with the current and upcoming trends. Trends can affect the styles, the colors, shapes and sizes of cakes for different occasions. With knowledge and experience you can make beautiful cakes some of which are quite complex to make.

Learn at cake decorating classes

Every good occasion needs a celebration and no celebration is complete with out a beautiful mouth watering cake designed for that occasion . This makes it a special one as everyone will remember a good looking yummy cake for a long time to come. A cake is incomplete with out decorations. There are professional cake decorators that will make any kind of cake look good for all occasions.

You can decorate a cake yourself as well. All it takes is a little knowledge of ingredients and a lot of creativity to put things together nicely. There are some basic techniques which you should know like making the icing with the required consistency and using it with decorating bags or cones. Then there are molds and stencils which you can use. You can fill them up with cream and make some nice artwork. Fruits and chocolates make good decorating pieces.A god way of learning all these techniques from professionals would be taking up cake decorating classes.

You can make a cake glossy or the one with a matt finish depending upon your designs. A lot of mix and match with variations can be done. In fact there can be countless ways to do a decoration. All it takes is a little imagination; techniques and tips can always be learnt and practiced. Once you have a little experience you will be able to make and decorate cakes in no time. There are so many tools available to make things easier for a cake decorator. You can use those tools or even without the tools make use of the regular kitchen equipment to make some neat looking cakes. There are cake decorating classes by a lot of institutes which specialize in making cakes. These are a good place to start for a beginner or the one who wants to take it up as a profession.