An elegant, fun or interesting cake doesn't require much effort, just a bit of know-how.
There are a few essentials to be aware of when decorating cakes. It isn't simply slathering icing on a cake and adding a plastic toy that creates a stunning, unique, and delectable dessert. It takes a bit of time, some experience, and the knowledge of a few basic tricks and tips that will help turn your cake from despairing to inspiring. Add this to my Recipe Box.
Fondant
Fondant is made of water hypersaturated with sugar at a high temperature and then cooled. Rolled fondant, used to cover cakes, has food-grade glycerin and gelatin in it to give it a dough-like, pliable structure. The fondant, when rolled over a cake, results in a completely smooth surface. It's more commonly used by professionals, as an alternative to traditional buttercream icing, but there's no reason a novice baker can't use it. Covering cakes in fondant gives them a more expensive look.
Tips
Knowing which tip is best for which design is crucial in cake decorating. Round tips are the most common, creating clean lines, beads, loops, and small writing. Ruffle tips provide bows, streamers, ribbons, and ruffles from their special teardrop tip. Rossete tips provide easy flowers to a cake with just a squeeze. Star tips are also widely used, as they create waves and ridges that can make shells or similar design to outline a cake.
Shapes
Shapes matter when decorating cakes; they provide the design, aesthetic and even the focal point. Use a medium consistency icing to draw the outline of a flower and before the icing can set, use a decorator brush to draw it inward. Similarly, you can try lattice work. Use a small round rip to create a shape, and then draw diagonal lines across the shapes inside. Complete the opposite way with an opposing diagonal icing line. You can even use this to cover entire sides of cakes. Be creative.
Writing
Using a number two tip, or any other flat, small tip for a piping bag allows the words formed to have a more calligraphic look. To center the icing, place the central letter in the center of the cake and add one letter at a time, to the right and left of the center. This keeps the words from going "downhill" or changing shape as you write. Icing should be of medium consistency, and make sure to hold the bag straight up when writing, not slanted.
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