Blog | Cake Decorating Queen

Leveling a Cake

Generally a cake will not come fresh out of the oven perfectly flat and level. Even if you have used baking strips (for more information about these, see my Secrets of the Cake Decorating Pros e-book) there will still be some kind of dome on the top of your cake. You will notice that no professional looking cake will ever have a dome on top so here is a guide for how to level your cake. It will take a lot of practice but don’t be afraid to give it a shot and soon you will be an expert! Howcontinue reading…

Tutorials

How to Make Simple Fondant Roses

These are some REALLY simple fondant roses for you to add to your cakes that will make you look like you have been cake decorating forever! They are often referred to as ‘ribbon roses’ although I like to call them ‘modern roses’ as they are a bit more funky and fun than a traditional, old-school rose. They are also a lot less work!! I made these for a 2-tier birthday cake for a paying customer. How to make fondant roses… Step 1: Take a small amount of fondant in the color of your choice. You can add some CMC powdercontinue reading…

Recipes

Chocolate Mud Cake Recipe

This is the BEST chocolate mud cake ever! Every time I make this cake it turns out perfect and every person that tries it comes back for more! Although my favorite cake is the caramel mud, this is my husband’s favorite out of all the other cake recipes. Ingredients 350 grams dark chocolate pieces 225 grams butter 600 mL water 3 Eggs 400 grams castor sugar 400 grams self raising flour Instructions Preheat oven to 170C/325F. *Please note: This mixture is quite runny, use a solid cake tin not a spring form tin. *Tip: Line tin with baking paper, this will makecontinue reading…

Reviews

Bakerella “Cake Pops” Book Review

Cake Pops. Wow, what an amazing world of creativity! It feels like cake pops may have been a fad that didn’t last too long but some cake makers still offer these as a treat or add-on to their regular cakes. They are quite simply time consuming. Fiddly. But so impressive! A cake pop is a tiny piece of cake, usually smooshed up into crumbs and mixed with frosting to form a semi-solid ball of ‘cake and icing’. They taste delicious! And then the best part is they are then dipped into chocolate or ‘candy melts’ to wrap them up andcontinue reading…

Tutorials

How To Cover A Cake With Fondant

Covering a cake in fondant is a skill that takes time to master. While they look so effective and have become ‘everyday’ for many events, getting the fondant thin and smooth without tears or bubbles is a real challenge! I once had a friend ask me to give her a quick lesson in a text message. I rolled my eyes and told her to get onto YouTube! It’s a lengthy procedure and takes real practise. You don’t just stick the fondant straight onto a cake that’s come straight out of the over… there are MANY more steps than that. Generallycontinue reading…

Recipes

Banana Caramel Mud Cake Recipe

Here is my Banana Caramel Mud Cake Recipe Mmmm… another delicious experiment! I took a delicious combination of banana cake and added the sweetness of smooth caramel… heaven! This one has won the heart of my brother so much, he chose it for his wedding cake. 250g butter or margerine250g white chocolate150ml hot water1 cup brown sugar1+3/4 cup plain flour1 cup self-raising flour2 eggs3-4 mashed bananas Preheat oven to 150 degC. Melt chocolate and butter together. Add the water and the sugar and mix until the sugar has dissolved. Allow to cool. Mash the banana, eggs and vanilla together incontinue reading…

Recipes

White Chocolate and Raspberry Blondies Recipe

After discovering a little secret ingredient called ‘essence’ *said romantically!* I concocted these babies – yum! The sweet combo of white chocolate, mixed with the fruitiness of raspberry in a delicious “blondie”. Raspberry Essence is the trick here, which is cheating to some but so simple to store in the cupboard and add to icings, fondant, chocolates and even cake recipes. It’s become a favourite flavour choice for our family – to add some difference to a simple chocolate mud cake. I often complement it with raspberry icing. Here’s my recipe. Ingredients 1+1/4 cup plain flour 2 Tbs self-raising flourcontinue reading…

Tutorials

How to make white frosting

Frosting / Icing. It depends where you live as to what it’s called… So if you are after the completely white fluffy icing look, this is the way to go! You will require some kind of shortening – I know this is different in all different countries but where I am in Australia, we use a product called ‘So-Lite’. You can buy it at cake decorating shops or online. The instructions to make frosting are marked on the top of the So-Lite container from my supplier but here are my step by step processes… How To Make Frosting 1. Startcontinue reading…

Cake Decorating

Cake Decorating 101 For Beginners

Plan your cake Before you race out to the shops, you will need to plan your cake and decide on what you would like the finished masterpiece to look like. In cake decorating, planning is key to making a professional cake. Things to consider: how many people you’re feeding? will the cake act as dessert or will it just be served with coffee? do you want more than one flavor of cake? is the event formal or informal? smooth fondant icing or fluffy frosting? single tier or multi-tier? the theme of the party and the recipient’s tastes. Start with thecontinue reading…

Cake Decorating

Wedding Cake Baking Tips

Generally a wedding cake is a multi-tier, fondant covered professional cake but you too can make one yourself by following these simple cake baking tips. Lots of planning and practice is required leading up to the big day. If you want to make your own cake or have been asked to make someone else a wedding cake, build up your confidence and get cracking! Planning a Wedding Cake The place to start is finding out the expectations of the wedding couple. Flavours and size are the key factors to consider when planning this but also the colour theme of thecontinue reading…

Tutorials

Online Tutorials – Reviews

It seems to me that there are a growing number of online cake decorating tutorials online now… which is great! When I first started learning I relied on YouTube for pointers but Googled for actual online courses and found it really hard to find any. Since then, and probably thanks to Facebook making suggestions to me, I have found some awesome online tutorial sites that I am happy to tell you about to save you the trouble of searching… My Recommended Tutorials My Cake School This is run by an American lady, Melissa Diamond, and she is unreal! She makescontinue reading…

Tutorials

Baking a level cake

All professional cakes are flat. The cake is level without the dreaded dome sitting on top. So what are the tricks to baking a flat cake? Here are some tips… How to bake a level cake This may sound simple but if you are trying your hand at making professional looking cakes, there are some hurdles that you will find along the way… I wanted to share my learnings and I hope to assist you in getting beyond these hurdles. Here are some tips that I can offer based on my experiences. I’m sure you’ve noticed that all professional cakescontinue reading…