Not everyone has been schooled on cake decorating, but everyone has ideas and thoughts about how they would like their cake to look. Not everyone has the extra dollars to have a professional baker make a child's birthday cake, summer picnic cake, or delicately decorated cake. But, perhaps a professionally-looking cake need not cost an arm and a leg.


Some easy and simple tricks can be used to create a beautiful cake right in your own kitchen. Many times the key is in the icing that is used. For instance, Royal Icing needs extra time to dry before handling the created decorations to be applied to the cake.

1.  If you want to decorate the cake on its serving plate without getting icing on the plate, place strips of waxed paper under the edges of the cake before applying the icing. When the cake is iced and decorated, take hold of the waxed paper and quickly pull it from beneath the cake. Ta-Da! Your serving plate will be clean and the cake undisturbed.

2.  Baby cakes can be easily decorated by using small toys, umbrellas, bassinets, storks, or doll house figurines and furniture. Baking the cake in square pans, then when assembling the cake do not stack the squares equally on top of each other. Instead put it together so the corners make a shelf-like illusion and wonderful triangular sections to decorate.

3. Gumdrops are great to righted a white cake icing. Gumdrops sliced or shaved very thin are easy to stick on the icing. The shaved gumdrops will curl slightly and create rose petal shapes.

4.  Crystallized edible flower petals look especially pretty on top of a cake. Often times, wine and cake are offered at the same event, and sugared-grapes can be placed on top of the cake and strewn around the serving plate edge.

5.  If your event is going to be held outdoors and in the summer, avoid whipped cream, meringue, and butter cream icings. They will melt! Instead, use an icing that is made with vegetable shortening, as shortening can withstand higher heat before melting. Shortening can also be substituted for the butter in butter cream icing recipes.

6.  Make a cake decorating tool by rolling parchment paper into a cone, fill with icing, and snip the end of the cone slightly to pipe decorations or write on the cake. A zip-lock plastic bag also makes a good decorating tool. Just put icing in the bag, zip it closed, and snip a bit of one corner off to allow the icing to be squeezed onto the cake.

7.  To get that smooth, silky look to the icing, first frost the sides and top of the cake and smooth the icing with a spatula. Use a hairdryer to blow-dry the frosted cake surfaces. The heat from the dryer will cause the icing to melt a bit, and produce a smooth, lusterious finish.

8.  Gum paste is another type of material used to make cake decorations. It can be rolled very thin, dries hard, and can be used to make boxes, bows, or any number of decorations. Although gum paste can be eaten, it does not taste very good.

Some professional bakeries are open to providing tips, others are not. There are videos, tips, and monthly cake decorating newsletters available on line that provide great information about cake decorating.

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