Cake decoration originated in Europe in the 17^th century and really took off in the mid 1800’s. It is a part of sugar art which uses frosting or icing and other edible decorative items to add to the visual beauty of plain cakes. Cakes can be sculpted or moulded to resemble things and persons, all in 3 dimensions.

 Cakes are decorated especially for special occasions like weddings and birthdays. They may mark religious or national holidays or used for promotion of certain companies and businesses. But nowadays cakes are decorated for no reason at all and add to the value of cake delivery to a loved one.

Some of the common materials for decorating cakes are:

• Fondants: They are ready roll icing made of sugar paste, found in many colours and is easy to handle and soft in its original form. Professionals and amateurs are able to mould fondant in many artistic forms. Fondant is used to cover cakes and to fashion individual show pieces.
• Royal Icing: It is a white, soft icing made by whipping together icing sugar with fresh egg whites. It provides well defined edges for icing and is perfect for piping detailed and fine borders, lace work and scroll work on cakes. It takes a very hard form and stays fresh if frozen in a dry, cool place. But it will wilt and soften in face of high humidity.
• Marzipan: It is used for creating cake decorations and as a base layer below fondant. It is made of almond paste.
• Gum paste: Renowned as florist paste, it is a brittle, edible material that dries quickly. It can be used to create sculpted art like flowers or other moulded designs.
• Photos on edible sheets: Invention of non-toxic printing material and inks in 1990’s, led to the printing of images and photographs onto edible sheets for decorating cakes.

 The tools of cake making have now become increasingly available for the general public. Stages of decoration are as follows:

• Designing and planning of cakes: This depends on the context and occasion for which the cake is being planned. The nature of the vent (birthday/wedding) and number of guests are important factors. Cakes can be big or small, rectangular or circular. They can be layered by using dowel rods to secure each layer.
• Covering a cake: After you bake the cake, the first step is to decide on how to cover the cake. Butter cream icing (butter and sugar) is a classic choice. The first coat using a spatula is called as crumb coat. After this, a finer second coat can be applied. In this different shapes like petals can be used. Ganache (cream and chocolate) can be made into a glaze and poured over the cake. Rolled fondant (corn syrup, sugar and water) is another item growing popular.
• Cake decoration: Now is the turn to convert the cake into a work of art. Sprinkles like non-pareils and jimmies are the simple choice. One can also do piping with butter cream icing, chocolate and royal icing. Tools include disposable and re-usable couplers and pastry bags. One can also etch patterns on top of cakes using stencils. One can also garnish cakes with edible flowers and fresh fruits.

 These are some aspects about cake decoration. If you still find cake decoration too much to handle, you can order for online cake delivery. It will be much appreciated.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 23rd, 2016 at 7:38 am and is filed under Cakes Delivery. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.