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.

If you can’t make it to the Wilton School in Darien, Illinois for their cake decorating courses and workshops, you’ll also find their four session cake decorating class taught locally.  Here’s an overview of the four-course program.  Each course consists of four sessions and sound like great fun.

Course 1: Discover Cake Decorating

Your Instructor will show you the right way to decorate, step by step. You will share the fun with other students, who encourage you along the way. As you learn each new decorating skill, you will gain a sense of pride in your accomplishments. Plus, you will be able to share your delicious results with family and friends!

Course 2: Flowers and Borders

Create lovely new flowers like rosebuds, daisies, daffodils, mums and more. Use these flowers in a grand finale — an impressive flower basket cake using the interwoven basketweave technique.

Course 3: Fondant and Tiered Cakes

Begin with intricate accents such as embroidery and lace, stringwork, garland and ruffle borders. Discover the beauty of decorating with rolled fondant — for covering cakes with an immaculate smooth surface and shaping fun figures and elegant flowers.

Course 4: Fondant and Gum Paste

You will see how to use tools to cut and shape amazing textured ribbons and borders. Each new technique will prepare you to decorate a Grand Finale cake you will be proud to take home.

Check the Wilton site for a class location near you.

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.