Frosting Recipes

Deep down, I sometimes get a little irritated with other people’s perfect birthday cake decorations.  But cake decorating doesn’t have to be all fondant and roses.  We loved this cake from Melbourne, Australia that is designed to look like a discarded pizza box with an ashtray of cigarette butts and a remote control.   Everything including the chewed pizza crusts are actually made with fondant!

While the pizza box cake stood out among other more traditionally decorated cakes, we thought it was a creative, inspired contribution that pushes the boundaries of cake decoration.

Show-stealing pizza cake a matter of taste.

This Cake Decorating Set is for the advanced decorator. The 52 pieces allow you to decorate many advanced wedding, floral and basket weave cakes as well as basic ones. Included in the set are:

• 18 metal decorating tips
• 24 12-in. disposable decorating bags
• 2 tip couplers
• 5 1.5-oz. icing colors
• 1.25-in. flower nail number 9
• 8-in. angled spatula
• storage tray
• 36-page cake decorating book.

Standard cupcake trees hold around sixteen cupcakes.  Some, like the Martha Stewart cupcake tree is collapsible, making it easy to store.  For big occasions such as weddings or engagement parties, cupcakes are becoming quite popular.   For a big event, cupcake trees can be seven levels or more and hold well over 100 cupcakes.

When you’re looking for a cupcake tree, keep in mind the number and size of your cupcakes.  Some cupcakes are dense, extremely large in diameter, and can place quite a strain on a cupcake tree.  This means you should be careful to adhere to any weight limits and not overload the tree. Ordering from certain bakeries or caterers, you might be provided with a cupcake tree, rather than having to find your own.  Otherwise any store with cake decorating supplies will have them.

Many cupcake trees look quite plain in order to showcase the cupcakes. But you can decorate your cupcake tree to match your theme.  Adding ribbon trim, colorful papers on each level and alternating cupcake flavors will make a stunning cupcake presentation.

Many traditional tiered wedding cakes feature plastic bride and groom statuettes available in a variety of genders, races and hair colors.  But cake toppers are a huge industry and are available for all types of cakes and occasions.  They add personality and uniqueness to any cake.

You’ll find kids’ birthday cake toppers featuring characters like Dora the Explorer, Superman or Spongebob.  For adults, the sky’s the limit.  If a birthday cake is for an avid fisherman, there’s large mouth bass cake topper.   If you’re celebrating a dog lover’s birthday, you can get cake toppers featuring their favorite breed.  There are even musical, religious and casino-theme birthday cake toppers.  It’s easy to find a cake topper that matches the theme of your party.

Prices for wedding and birthday cake toppers run from just a few dollars to over $50 dollars for something large and elaborate.  But when you present a unique cake topper, it also serves as a keepsake from the special day.

It’s not just bakeries that can transfer the image of your choice to the top of your birthday cake.   You can convert almost any printer to one that uses edible ink and print your own edible cake decorations.   This is a fabulous way to personalize a birthday cake and bring a smile to everyone.

In addition to the customized printer, you need edible paper which is typically made from starch and dissolves into moist frosting or water.  It comes in a variety of shapes and sizes so you can print on rectangular sheet cakes, round cakes or cupcakes.  Simply load edible ink into the printer. You can then print any image from your computer and set it on top of your birthday cake.  Edible inks and papers are safe and fully digestible.

The article also helpfully includes printers like Canon and Epson that accept edible ink cartridges.

cake decorating | decorated cake: cake edible.