Tag: Chocolate

Creative Cake Decorating For A Kid’s Birthday

Below are a few birthday cake decorating ideas that will help make your child’s birthday a very memorable occasion.

– Candy Land Cake: Make a standard sheet cake in your child’s favorite flavor, in a rectangular pan. When it is cool, frost it with buttercream frosting in your child’s favorite color. If you can get your hands on a Candy Land game board, you will be able to fashion the cake decorating to resemble the board. You can also go to Candyland.com to see a game board.

The Candy Land game features peppermints, iced gingerbread men, colored gumdrops, licorice sticks, chocolate candies, and circus peanuts. If you can’t find some of these items, You can use construction paper to make them, staple or tape them to a popsicle stick to stand it up in the cake.

– Race car cake: Bake two cakes, one in a loaf cake pan and one in a rectangular pan. Allow the cakes to cool thoroughly. Remove them from the pans, cut the loaf cake in an arch, like the shape of the top of the car. Frost the sheet cake and place the cut loaf cake in the middle, centered to give the cake balance.

Ice the car with a different color icing than you did the cake, red or blue are good racing colors. You should be able to find decorations in the store for this cake. Use your imagination, many times craft stores have some nice decorations. You can either use icing to outline the doors and windows, or string licorice works well for this. Small chocolate doughnuts make a good tires for your race car.

– The Doll Cake: This cake is very popular with young girls who still love to play with dolls. Bake a cake in a metal, oven safe, bowl. When the cake has cooled, turn the cake out, centered, onto a prepared cake board. The widest part of the cake should be on the board.

Use a butter knife to hollow out a spot in the top of the cake for the doll’s legs. Once the doll is inserted, the cake becomes a dress for the doll. Make sure the doll is clean and undressed. Wrap the legs in plastic wrap before placing the doll into the cake, up to her waist. Ice the cake and the top of the doll to make it appear that the doll is fully dressed. You can purchase accents at the supermarket to jazz up the dress.

These cakes are a great idea for children who love different themes, and you have a fondness for cake decorating, These are basic, simple ideas, for a children’s theme party too. You can use the doll cake and have a Barbie theme party, the race car cake to have a Car’s theme party, and of course, you can decorate for the Candy Land party with huge gumdrops and gingerbread men made of construction paper to hang or affix to the walls.

You may also want to include a pinata that goes along with the party theme.

Cake Decorating – How To Apply Edible Cake Art

There are many edible cake art images available for cake decorating, that will make your cakes stand alone in excellence. You must follow the directions carefully for best result and ease in application.

Tips to Apply Edible Cake Art:

– Make sure you have clean, dry hands before touching the image. If you are working with a frozen cake, let it thaw a bit before applying the icing. Edible Image(r) cake decorations need a bit of moisture to blend into the icing.

– If the cake is dry, spray it with a light mist of water, brush on light syrup, or add a thin layer of icing before you apply the image so it will stick to the cake. If your cake is moist, don’t add water or moisture to the cake. Too much water will cause the colors to run.

– Once the image is applied, it cannot be removed or moved. Know exactly where you plan to place the image. Using care apply the image to your cake, face up. Once the image has been applied, tap the image down gently with your fingertips. Start from the center of the image and work toward the edges.

– If the image should become moist or hard to remove from the backing, it can be placed in the freezer for a couple of minutes, the image should peel off easily.

– If the image should bubble after it is applied, gently tap and DO NOT RUB the image. If the cake is still frozen after application, it should be placed in the refrigerator to thaw slowly. Avoid exposing the image to ultraviolet light. The image may fade over time, as with any food coloring.

– If the image bubbles during freezing, again you can gently tap the image.

Handling and Storage of the Image

– Edible Image(r) decorations should be stored in the silver bag it came in, and kept in a cool, dry place.

– Make sure to reseal the original bag after you remove an image.

– You will need to use the image immediately after it is removed from the bag.

– Once you have finished decorating with Edible Image(r) decorations. You can store your product as you normally would. The images are freezer, shelf, and refrigerator friendly.

How to apply the Images to other products

– Ice Cream: To apply the image to a cake frosted with ice cream or non-dairy whipped topping, do not add any additional water. If you are applying the image directly on ice cream, you should let the ice cream melt just a bit before application. When you are working with soft serve ice cream, you will get better results if you apply the image while the ice cream is soft and then freeze it.
Buttercream icing

* Apply the image immediately after icing the cake. Buttercream will form a crust about an hour after they have been applied. If this has happened, spray the icing with a fine mist of water before you apply the image.

Frozen Cakes

– Thaw a bit before icing to avoid cracks forming in the cake, then you can apply the image. If the decorated cake is frozen, you will need to let it thaw slowly in the refrigerator, uncovered, so the cake will not sweat and the colors will stay true.

Royal Icing

– Make sure you add a good mist of water over a cake iced with royal icing before you apply the image

Non Dairy Whipped Topping

– When working with this medium, do not add any extra water before you apply the image. Keep the finished cake in the refrigerator to maintain the integrity of the image and the topping.

Rolled Fondant or Sugar Paste

– When placing an image over sugar paste or fondant, plan where you will put the image. With a small paintbrush, apply a good amount of plain water. Brush water only where the image will be. Any water outside the image will leave a mark on the fondant or sugar paste. Although you must be sure to apply enough water, or the image will not stick.

– Edges can be tapped down with a very small, slightly moist paintbrush.

Poured White Chocolate, or other poured icings

– Apply the image while the icing is wet. Be sure your cake is on a flat surface or the image may slide.
Standard Instruction for Application

– Remove the Edible Image(r) from the sheet just prior to application.

– If there are still images in the bag, reseal it immediately.

– Remove the image from the backing sheet by gently placing it on a table edge, (facing up) and rolling the backing sheet over the table edge. This will loosen the image so that it can be carefully peeled from the backing.

Cake Decorating: How About Birthday Cakes For Adults

Cake decorating for adults are a bit different than those you would do for a kids party. It doesn’t mean they need to be boring or ugly. Below are some great ideas for adult cakes that are fun to make and fun to eat.

Crunchie Rice Cake

In 2 square cake pans, make 2 batches of rice cereal treats according to the recipe found on the back of the box of cereal. When they have cooled, do not cut the treats, take them from the pans like they are.

Cover the top of the first layer with icing, and then a layer of chocolate chips, and a second layer of icing, and then a layer of multicolored sprinkles, and a third layer of icing. Place the second layer of the crunchie cake on top and frost the whole thing as you would a normal cake. Place a layer of colored chocolate candy on the top. You can even put the name of the recipient in candy. This is a whimsical cake that can be used for adults or children.

Over the Hill Graveyard Cake

Bake two cake mixes in a roasting pan. Make a gray icing with 2 drops of green and red food coloring and mixing it with white icing. Turn the cake out on a cake board ice the entire cake with this icing. Line a sidewalk with thin black licorice, and dot candy corn along the outside edges. Rectangular cookies can be iced with a darker gray icing. These can be used as gravestones.

You can find gummy skeletons at Halloween, or make your own out of toothpicks and use jelly beans for heads. Ghosts can be made from cotton balls, but you need to make sure no cotton gets in the icing you may want to make some out of construction paper and stick them on a popsicle stick. That might be a good idea for the skeletons too.

Ball and Chain Birthday cake

This is a great idea if commissioned by a husband or wife. Bake two round cakes and let them cool completely. Remove the cakes from the pans. Cover the top of one cake with the recipient’s favorite fruit pie filling. Place the second layer on top and ice the entire cake.

Buy a bag of small cake donuts and frost them the same as you did the cake. On the cake board place one of the doughnuts up against the bottom of the cake. Follow this with several other doughnuts to make a chain. You can add different decorations on the cake, or leave it plain, it’s up to you.

No matter what theme you choose, the cake decorating will be appreciated by the person having the birthday. Make sure you add candles and bring a cake server when you attend the party. Every time you make a cake and decorate it, you are honing your cake decorating skills and the more practice you get, the better you will be at cake decorating.

Cake Decorating – Children’s Birthday Cakes

Cake decorating Equipment: When you are decorating for birthdays and the holidays, you don’t need every cake decorating tool out there, but you do need a few basics. The following are a must for cake decorating.

– Rubber Spatulas: These spatulas are made of flexible material and they are the best for scraping cake and frosting bowls.

– Metal Spatulas: Every cake decorator needs one large and one small angled spatula to spread and smooth frosting on your cake. To keep your cake from crumbling, use the small metal spatula to carefully spread a thin layer of frosting on the cake. This is followed by a normal layer of frosting.

– Piping Bags: You can purchase reusable 8 inch, 12 inch, and 18 inch bags, or disposable plastic bags, for cake decorating. Zip-lock bags will work in a pinch.

– Couplers: Coupling nozzles are needed to hold the icing tips in the bag. They allow you to change tips when you need to.

– Food coloring paste, gel, or powder: These food colorings are more concentrated than liquid, and they will not thin the icing.

Important tips for cake decorating

1. All ingredients should be at room temperature, as they will mix much better than when they are cold.

2. Always use and electric beater when mixing the cake. You will have less lumps than if you beat it by hand.

3. You really need a wire rack to invert and cool your cakes.

4. Trim your cake so it will sit flat. Never use this part of the cake as the top, always use the smoother side of the cake to decorate with icing.

5. To reduce crumbling, bake your cake the day before you will be decorating it and place it in the freezer until you are ready to frost it. When you take it out frost it right away.

6. You can purchase cake boards from any hobby or cake decorating shop. You can also cover a large piece of stiff cardboard with colored foil and use that instead.

7. A great icing for cake decorating is Butter Cream, especially for a child’s birthday cake.

8. Cut strips of waxed paper and place them under the unfrosted cake. When you are done with your cake decorating they will pull out easily and the cake board will not be smeared.

These are the basic tools that everyone needs for cake decorating. The tips given are meant to make it a bit easier to ice your child’s birthday cake. It doesn’t matter whether you have decorated a cake before, there are many sites on the internet that will give you ideas for cake decorating. And others that will take you step-by-step through the decorating project.

My advice is to gather as many useful tips that you can and keep them in a little booklet. When you run into a problem, you can consult the book. I know that anyone who has a desire to learn cake decoration, can do so just by visiting the various sites that are available to show you how to go about cake decorating.

Cake Decorating: Baby Shower Cakes And Frosting Recipes

Baby showers are usually a light hearted and fun way to congratulate the soon-to-be mom and give a gift to the baby. The cake should make a statement about the baby and what you wish for the family.

There are several different types of icing to use on this type of cake.

Quick Buttercream

1 pound sweet unsalted butter
1 pound icing fondant
1/2 tsp vanilla
Yields
2 pounds 3 cups

Use a flat beater or mixer to cream the butter. Add fondant gradually while beating.
Time – about 12 minutes

Cream Cheese Icing

10 oz of cream cheese
14 oz of icing fondant
7 ounces of shortening
Yields
2 pounds 3 cups

With a flat beater, beat cream cheese while adding icing fondant a little at a time.
Mix until smooth, add shortening, mix all together until smooth and light.
Time 10 to 12 minutes.

Remember that your cake decoration for a baby shower will be the centerpiece for the baby shower. There are plenty of places to get ideas for making wonderful baby shower cakes on the internet, or you may want to make up your own design. In any case you can use one of these great icing recipes.

Buttercream 1-2-3

3 Tblsp. Meringue Powder
1/2 cup water
3 cups of Icing Sugar
1 cup Sweet Butter
1 cup shortening
Vanilla to taste.
Yields
4 cups

Place water, meringue powder, and sugar in a bowl.
Beat with a beater until mixture makes peaks (7 to 10 minutes)
Add soft butter, shortening, and vanilla
Whip until fluffy and all lumps are gone

Flavoring your buttercream icing.

Amounts are based on flavoring one cup of icing.

Nougat
2 Tbsp Hazelnut paste (melt over low heat)

Mocha
1/2 tsp instant coffee dissolved in 1/2 tsp water.
2 Tbsp Semi-Sweet chocolate-melted

Cocoa and Oil
Mix 3 Tbsp cocoa powder and 2 Tbsp veg oil into a paste.

Lorran Oils- 10 to 12 drops

Vanilla- 8 drops

Lemon Flavor- 6 drops lemon oil and 2 Tbsp Lemon Butter

Of course, you can use these recipes on any cake decorating design. The baby shower cake is usually a smaller cake with whimsical or heartwarming decorations in a baby theme. In times past, the decorations for baby shower cakes were limited, now they can be found everywhere. Craft stores usually have a variety of ready-made cake decorations for your baby shower cake.

Whether you are a pro or a novice it is fun to do a baby shower cake decorating project. You can choose to buy the decorations, or make your own with icing. You can use your skills and imagination to make your baby shower cake outstanding. You will be elated when everyone compliments you on the beautiful baby shower cake.