In charge of making the next birthday cake for a lucky child or fun-loving grown-up? First, ask them to choose their favourite cake from our Children’s Birthday Cake Book. Then, it’s time to arm yourself with our Test Kitchen cake decorating tips!
Whether it’s our famous Duck Cake or the classic Cricket Pitch Cake, we want to help you make it as stress-free as possible.
Here we share some of our tips and tricks for cake decorating for beginners – from making marshmallow flowers to how to coat the sides of a cake.
Easy cake decorating ideas
Marshmallow flowers
Flowers made from marshmallows are a favourite stand-by for cake decorations. Snip the marshmallows in half horizontally using sharp scissors – the scissors squash the halves into an oval shape after snipping – then gently pinch the ends of each half into a petal shape. If the marshmallow sticks to your fingertips, dip them in a little icing sugar or cornflour.
Licorice straps
Licorice straps are used a lot for various cake decorations. Often we have used long or short strips for the finishing touches to cakes. Use small sharp scissors to cut strips of the required lengths from the straps.
How to tint sugar & coconut
Colouring sugar or coconut is easy and less messy if it’s done in a strong plastic bag. Add a drop or two of colouring to the sugar in the bag, close the bag, then massage the colouring evenly through the sugar. Add another drop of colouring if you need a stronger colour.
You can also colour these in a bowl if you prefer. Wear disposable gloves when working the colouring through the sugar, otherwise you will have colouring on your fingertips for many days.
How to make fondant shapes
Ready-made white icing is easy to use. It can be shaped and moulded into all sorts of things, from rope to roses. It can be cut into various shapes, such as letters and numbers.
The icing is usually rolled to a specified thickness, either on a board or on baking paper, then the shapes are cut out and left to dry completely, usually flat, for several hours.
Using food colourings to tint icing
Use good quality colourings for the best results; they will “hold” the colour in the icing. Some of the inexpensive liquid colourings will fade or darken the icing on standing.
Icings or frostings based on butter are the most difficult to colour as butter is yellow, so any colour will be affected by the base colour. This is why it’s important to beat the butter until it’s as white as possible.
Fluffy frosting and royal icing are the easiest to colour, because they’re white to begin with.
Coloured icings can change on standing, particularly if you’re using liquid colourings. If possible (it’s not with fluffy frosting), colour a small portion of the icing to the shade you want, keep it airtight, and let it stand for a few hours before colouring the whole batch.
How to decorate the sides of a cake
Pressing hundreds and thousands, coconut, nuts, etc, onto the sides of cakes can be messy. If the cake is of a shape and size (large or small, it doesn’t matter) that it can be lifted and handled easily, then spread the sides (not the tops) with the icing.
Have the ingredient to coat the cake in a large shallow pan – this can be coconut, hundreds and thousands or nuts, etc. Hold the cake between both hands and roll the cake like a wheel to cover the frosting. Then, ice the tops of the cakes.
Butter cream “glue”
Small dabs of butter cream will join cakes together, secure cakes to prepared boards, and secure small decorations and lollies to cakes. The butter cream doesn’t set and dry, but it will hold things in place well enough.
Chocolate decorating tips
How to melt chocolate
1. Microwave
Melting chocolate in a microwave oven works well, but it needs constant checking. Microwave ovens vary in strength, so melt a few pieces of chocolate in your oven first to assess its melting ability
Spread pieces of chocolate, in a single layer, onto a microwave-safe plate; be guided by the instruction booklet for the right setting and a rough idea of timing. The pieces of chocolate will hold their shape, even after they have melted; check it’s been melted properly
2. Stovetop
Place chopped chocolate in a medium heatproof bowl over a medium saucepan of simmering water, making sure that the water in the pan doesn’t touch the bottom of the bowl, or the chocolate will overheat and seize (turn hard and grainy). Stir until the chocolate is melted then remove from the heat.
How to make chocolate curls for cake decorating
Slightly warm a block of chocolate between your hands; drag the blade of a sharp vegetable peeler evenly down the side. For larger curls, run the blade of a cheese slicer down the back of the chocolate.
How to colour melted chocolate
Once melted, add a drop or two of colour to the chocolate. Use colouring that’s suitable for chocolate, as these don’t ‘seize’ chocolate like water-based ones tend to. If tinting a pastel colour, food colourings from supermarkets are fine as you only need a little; for darker more bold colours use pastes.
Looking for more handy how-tos? We’ve got you covered:
