learning cake decorating | 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…

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…

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…

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…

Cake Decorating

Soccer Ball Cake / Paul’s 50th

The brief for this cake was to make something related to soccer for a friend of ours by his wife. They were throwing a party for about 50 people for Paul’s 50th. She didn’t mind what flavor it was but did like the idea of mud cake. The Soccer Ball I decided to make this design so I could cater for the 50 people and thought the ‘3D ball’ would add an interesting talking point. The ball was made from the Wilton 3D Ball Pan which was easy to use by following the included instructions. My mistake with this though, was makingcontinue reading…

Cake Decorating

Christmas Cake Pops

In the lead up to Christmas, my friend and I decided to enrol in a cake pops course one night after work. We wanted to learn some quick tricks to making Christmas characters. And let’s be honest – cake pops are more fun without all the preparation of ingredients and mess!!! 😉 I let someone else take care of all that! These were done at a course at my favourite cake shop – this bouquet is no credit to my own creativity. The instructor had already planned the designs and simply showed us how to replicate them. Reindeer This designcontinue reading…

Cake Decorating

In the really early days…

Just after the discovery of my delicious buttercake recipe I began to bake like crazy! Here are some samples of my early experiments… Cookie Monster Cupcakes Little Critter Cupcakes Chocolate Cake My first chocolate mud cake following an old fashioned recipe. I also practiced ganashing with a smooth finish and sharp edges and my shell piping technique to form a border. I topped it off with some easy flowers… more information in my tutorials. Valentine’s Day Mini-Cakes I found a heart muffin tin at the shops one day and decided to surprise my hubby with some decorated muffins. This iscontinue reading…