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Cake Decorating Kits – Your All-In-One Solution for Decorating Cakes

If you are just starting out to learn how to decorate your own cakes, the cake decorating kits available today may be the best way to gather the necessary tools you need to get started. Let's look at some of the most popular ones available today and what's included in them.

Wilton makes a variety of cake decorating kits that are great for beginners as well as more advanced decorators that don't want to search for each and every item they may need.

Wilton Decorating Basics Student Kit

This is the kit you will have to purchase if you plan on taking any of the Wilton Cake Decorating Courses. It includes everything you will need for lesson 1. The kit comes with; 12 decorating tips, 4 standard couplers, 2-10 inch Reusable Featherweight bags, 6 disposable decorating bags, 6 parchment triangles, 1.5 inch flower nail, cupcake nail, decorator brush, 12 flower template stickers, 9 inch spatula and a practice board with standard patterns. While this will get you started on a very basic first cake and includes everything you need for Lesson 1 in the Wilton courses you will need more tools to advance farther in the Wilton series.

Wilton Ultimate Decorating Set

This kit is perfect for the beginner to intermediate cake decorator. It has everything you will need to advance through all the Wilton courses. You will have all the tools you need for icing, gum paste and fondant making. It comes with a convenient carry case but needs to be carefully repacked in order to fit all the items back in. All the items that are included are too numerous to list here but suffice it to say there is everything you will need to decorate cakes for yourself, friends and neighbors.

While I believe Wilton has the best cake decorating kits there are other kits supplied by manufacturers such as Norpro and Ateco so let's look at one kit from each manufacturer.

Norpro 18 Piece Decorating Set

Very reasonably priced kit great for the beginner. It includes 2 pastry bags, 1 icing nail, 12 tips, 2 couplings, 1 cleaning brush, instructions and recipes. It comes with its own carrying case.

Ateco 14 Piece Cake Decorating Set with Cake Pan

Just what it says, 14 pc kit with a 9 inch cake pan. Includes 12" and 14" flex bags, 6 decorating tubes, 1 coupler, 2 pastry tubes, 1 bowl scraper, 1 offset spatula and a storage tray. This is more for decorating cupcakes than cakes as you will probably want more tips to give you more variety of decorations and designs for full size cakes.

Cake Decorating Ideas for Fantastic Looking Cakes

You don't have to be an expert cake decorator in order to make fantastic looking birthday cakes. Here are some cake decorating ideas to help you to make your cakes extra special that do not require exceptional cake decorating skills.

First, determine a theme for your cake. If the cake is for an adult, what are the likes, hobbies or interests of the birthday person? For example, if the person likes to fish, make a fishing theme cake. If the person likes to golf, make a golf theme cake. If they like to play the guitar, make a guitar cake.

You could also make the cake theme match their profession as well. For example, for a mail carrier make a mail theme cake or for a carpenter, make a carpenter theme cake.

If you are making a cake for a child, have it match the theme of the party or the child's favorite character, interest or even sport.

You get the idea, just try to make the cake extra special for the birthday person by making it match their hobbies or interests.

A really easy cake decorating idea for making these theme cakes is to purchase cake toppers that match your theme to place on top of your cake. These come in many different varieties. However, if you happen to want to make a certain theme cake for which you cannot find a cake topper to match, try the miniature section of any hobby or craft store.

For the examples above, you can purchase things such as a miniature fishing rod and net for the fishing cake, a miniature golf bag and golf clubs for the golf theme cake and a miniature guitar for the guitar cake. You can then place them on top of your cake. For a mail theme cake, purchase miniature mail boxes and make little letters out of card stock that you laminate and place them on the top and sides of your cake. For the carpenter theme cake, put miniature saws and other tools on the top of or on the sides of the cake.

These are just a few examples. The ideas really are endless, but hopefully this has helped to get you started thinking of different and unique cake decorating ideas that will make the next cake that you make extra special.

Cristy Smith is co-creator of a birthday cake decorating website that is packed full of creative and fantastic looking cakes and explains how each one was made. Visit http://www.easy-birthday-cakes.com for lots of great cake decorating ideas that adults and children will love.

Video Source: Youtube

Cake Decorating Ideas For Adult Parties

Cake decorating birthday cakes for adults differs somewhat from a kid's party. Decorating adult cakes isn't implying they must be uninteresting or ugly. It also doesn't require that you be an expert at it. You will need a few basic supplies that include piping bags, food coloring, assorted nozzles, and metal spatulas for smoothing the icing. Once your supplies are gathered, you can try the following ideas.

Over the Hill Graveyard

An over-the-hill party theme is a good idea for fiftieth birthday parties. Prepare and cook two cakes in a roasting pan. Turn the frosting gray by mixing two drops each of red and green food coloring with white icing. Lay the cake on a board and frost the whole thing. Make a sidewalk with thin, black licorice and set candy corn on the outer borders. Decorate rectangular cookies with gray frosting for headstones. You will be able to use the gummy skeletons from Halloween or make your own out of toothpicks with jelly beans for heads. You can make ghosts from cotton balls but be certain no cotton gets in the icing. You may want to glue them and the skeletons on a Popsicle stick.

Crunchy Rice Cereal Dessert

Make two batches of marshmallow rice cereal treats in two square baking pans going by the instructions given on the cereal box. After they are cooled, remove them from the pans as they are. Cover the bottom layer with frosting and chocolate chips and then another layer of frosting with sprinkles. Top it with another layer of icing. Set the second layer of treats on top and frost it as you would normally. Cover it with chocolate coated candy and even spell out the recipient's name with them.

Ball and Chain

This is a good birthday cake a husband and wife can make. Cook two circular cakes and allow them to cool all the way. Take the layers out of the pans and top it with the recipient's preferred fruit filling. Set the second layer on top. Purchase a box of small doughnuts and ice the as you did the cake. Set one of the donuts at the bottom of the cake and make a chain over the top. You can leave the dessert as is or decorate it with candies and sprinkles.

Regardless of which of these cake decorating ideas you use, the receiver will be grateful for all the trouble you went through. Don't forget to add candles and bring your cake server along with you to the party. These are just three ideas you can use. You are only limited by your imagination. Each time you make a cake, you are improving you skills. As the old saying goes, practice makes perfect.

Cake Decorating Instructions For Ice Cream Cakes

Finding cake decorating instructions for ice cream is one of the hardest things to do, because you have to make sure the ice cream is hard enough that it would not melt while you try to add all the icing and decorations that are necessary. Ice cream cakes are fun, and a lot of people order them for children's party. The decoration of it is not that different from that of a regular cake, but it is a little more costly because all the decorations that are use on them are more expensive, since they have a chemical that allows them to stay soft even though the cake needs to be frozen.

Ice cream cakes can be any shape the person wants, and it can have anything they want on it. For example if a boy, or even a man enjoys football a lot; the ice cream cake instead of being your typical square cake with a football on it, or the name of his favorite team on it, you can make the ice cream cake in the shape of a football, same with any other sport: volleyball, basketball. Thus ice cream cakes are great to make different shapes, and they are so different from regular cakes that they are very special because not may people get ice cream cakes, thus when somebody does, it is not only special for them, but for the decorators, because it is not something we do regularly.

Some people for their wedding they have a regular cake, but then they have an ice cream made exactly the same but in a very small size, and with some chemical that would help it preserve fresh for year, thus the bride and the groom can eat for their first year wedding anniversary, which is a very romantic touch.

Galadriel Anderson loves to come up with great cake decoration ideas. Get
super creative and surprise your fellow cake eaters by reading about
.

Cake Decorating is Fun, Fun, Fun

It is very rare to find celebrations without cakes, in all shapes and sizes. Whoever invented cake surely got a tasty creation.

Kids love to have cakes on their birthdays; in fact, they love it all year long. In anniversaries and formal parties, cakes are always part of the menu. Promotional parties, new store openings, or holiday celebrations - cakes makes it even special. And of course, let's not forget wedding cakes. Yes, it is in fact one of the important details in weddings. Soon to be bride allot special time for cake tasting to make sure that the cake will taste exactly how they wanted it and designed exactly how they pictured it.

If you have certain diet plans, do not worry. There are cakes made from certain vegetables, some are even sugar free. Or, you can eat at least one bite and it won't surely ruin your diet.

Many people have come a long way in their passion for cakes. Cakes are not only fun to eat but fun to bake and decorate as well. Let's skip the baking part or else we will be talking whole day about the different recipes and ingredients and the measurements. Let's go right away to cake decorating.

Cake decorating, as the term suggests it, has something to do with making your cake look more attractive, delicious and irresistible. The cake's decoration makes the first impression so we want to make sure we set the mood and stir excitement from our guests before they actually eat it.

Cake decorating is an art. Most people see it as a hobby, well, true but this is not an ordinary hobby. With little supervision and guidance from several cake decorating tips available, cake decorating can bring you far. It can make your family happy, you can make other people happy when you give them cakes too, and it can makes you happy as well; the feeling of satisfaction and fulfilment is great after making such a wonderful art.

Cake decorating ideas are actually products of your creative imagination. With little patience, you can always learn different decorating tips. Like all other things we need to learn in life, cake decorating is fun and challenging. Crumbs will be your number one enemy. You can always read on to see how to eliminate crumbs.

One good thing about making and decorating cake is that it gives you control over your cake. You can always add personal touches and you can choose the design and flavour. Plus, cake decorating can also be a stress reliever. It is a self nurturing task, it can divert your attention from your worries, and it gives high feelings of fulfillment.

This is surely one tasty hobby.

Cake Decorating Ideas That Are Easy As Pie !

Before applying the artistry of your favorite cake decorating ideas, you will most likely need a smooth canvas.

Whether you plan to adorn your cake with bouquets of roses or a colorful picture created with stencils and cake spray paint, a nice smooth icing adds professionalism as well as making it easier to decorate.

Two excellent choices for your canvas are buttercream
icing and the rolled Marshmallow Fondant from the "Cake Decorating Made Easy!" Video Books.

The fluffy, peaked frostings that most of us use on our first cakes before moving on to smooth icings are great for simple cake decorating ideas.

You can make a nice dessert for your family with nothing more than a great cake recipe, a yummy, homemade frosting, and a sprinkling of shaved chocolate, grated coconut, finely chopped nuts, candied red hearts, gumdrops or colorful candied sprinkles.

However, with a smoothly iced cake, you have a blank canvas waiting to be transformed into a work of art with your decorating ideas!

Some of the best places for finding great decorating ideas are cake decorating forums and cake decorating membership sites where you can glean ideas from hobbyists and pros alike, as well as share your own ideas.

For example, here's a great idea that we found and have since added our own ideas to. That's another thing about looking at others ideas, They spark your imagination and pretty soon you have your own bag of tricks!

Cookie Cutters for Cake Decorating.

Here's how it works. Let's say you are making a congratulations cake or a baby shower "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" themed cake. Having iced stars on your cake would be perfect, yes?

However, no matter how steady your hand is, it's pretty difficult to draw stars with a decorating bag (some of us have a hard enough time on paper!).

Stencils are one option, but if you don't want to mess around with stencils, try this decorating idea we found:

1. Use a cookie cutter to make a pattern on your cake that's easy to trace. (This could be one large pattern or several smaller ones forming a balanced design on your cake.)
2. Gently press the cookie cutter into the smooth icing. Lift up, and there's your pattern waiting to be traced!
3. Then fit your icing bag with a small round tip (like you'd use for writing the message) and trace the outline of each of the stars.
4. Finally, leave as is, or try one of these decorating ideas:
a. Make the stars twinkle with some coloring dust.
b. Fill each star in with icing gel.
c. Create silver stars by filling them in with cake decorating silver beads.
d. Fit your icing bag with the star tip (because it's the best one for filling in pictures quickly) and color your stars.

The plastic cookie cutters that make the detailed impressions, such as the Christmas Santa, will give you even more of a pattern to play with.

A visit to a craft store or baking supply store should yield a large array of cookie cutters from which to choose, including everything from cute baby animals to holiday themes such as Jack o' lanterns and Santa's.

As you are gathering cake decorating ideas, keep in mind the overall design you want on your cake. To jumpstart your imagination, take a look at our Cake Design Ideas.

Here's another decorating idea: Dark colored cakes that are moist enough not to need icing, such as fruitcakes, can be simply decorated with some confectioners' (powdered) sugar sprinkled over a stencil (or doily). At Christmas time, try snowflake stencils!

Cake Decorating Icing – The Three Most Popular Recipes

When it comes to cake decorating, icing is your secret weapon. Not only can you cover up many baking boo...boos, but you just can't decorate a cake without icing. It's the glue that holds everything together and the sweet stuff that makes it all taste so good. Three of the most commonly used types of icing are butter cream, royal icing, and fondant. Here is a quick look at the three different kinds of cake decorating icing and their uses.

The Basic Ingredients

All cake icing is basically created from a combination of sugar, butter, egg whites, and flavoring. Here is a quick and easy recipe for simple cake icing.

Butter Cream

Butter cream icing is probably the most commonly used form of icing used in cake decorating. Butter cream icing is creamy, light and easy to work with. It is usually used as the base layer of frosting on a cake or what is called a crumb coat. It is easy to make butter cream thick or thin by adding more or less of your wet ingredients. Simply add coco powder or orange extract to the recipe below and you'll have an easy to make home-made butter cream recipe that can be used for any occasion.

Butter Cream Recipe:

6 cups powdered sugar
1 cup milk
1/2 cup very soft butter
3 tsp vanilla extract

Just mix together the above ingredients and add food coloring & flavorings of your choice. Will cover two 9x11 cakes.

Royal Icing

Another popular icing used in cake decorating is royal icing. Royal icing is usually made with meringue powder and has a very sweet taste. It is much different from butter cream icing because it dries faster and has a firm texture. It is great for doing intricate lace work, piping flower designs. It is great for holding parts together. A gingerbread house is a perfect example of a great use of royal icing.

Royal Icing Recipe:

4 tablespoons of meringue powder
5 cups of confectioners' sugar
7 tablespoons of warm water

Mix all ingredients for about 10 minutes with a hand-held mixer on high-speed, or until icing starts to form peaks. Add more or less water for your desired consistency.

Fondant

If you ever watch any of those cake decorating shows on television than you are familiar with the use of fondant. Fondant has the consistency of molding clay and is commonly used to make figurines and is easily shaped into fun characters. Fondant can also be used to cover and entire cake when it is rolled out flat with a rolling-pin. It is soft and pliable and provides a great and stable base for your cake decorations. I recently used fondant to make some sesame street characters for my grandson's second birthday party and he went wild. Now you can actually buy fondant that is pre made or you can make it your self and just add food coloring to get the colors you want.

Fondant Recipe:

2 Tbsp of unflavored gelatin
1/2 cup of cold water
2 tsp of almond extract
1 cup of light corn syrup
2 Tbsp of glycerin
4 lbs confectioners' sugar
1 tsp of vegetable shortening

Add the gelatin to cold water in a bowl and let it stand until soft, put in microwave for 30 seconds and add almond extract. Next, mix corn syrup and glycerin until smooth & clear. In a large bowl add the sugar, make a hole in the center and add liquid mixture, stir with a spoon until sticky. On a smooth work surface sprinkled with confectioners' sugar kneed the fondant until it becomes smooth and pliable. Rub the shortening onto thumbs and kneed into fondant.

Well there you have it. The three most popular types of cake decorating icing I sincerely hope these tips were helpful and wish you all the best in your cake decorating adventures.

Cake Decorating Ideas That Will Let Your Imagination Run Wild

Cake decorating ideas are plentiful on the web. In fact, after you have baked your cake, the next step is to decorate the cake to look more attractive. Cake decorating ideas are the most difficult part of the whole thing. This is more so if you are not an artist. Some people are naturally gifted, so for them decorating a cake is very easy. But for those who have no idea how things are done, cake decorating becomes a huge task. Baking a cake becomes very easy than to decorate it.

Cake decorating can be fun if some of the basic things are taken into consideration. For example if you are baking a cake for your child's birth day then you can zero on the cake decorating ideas that are related to kids.

If the cake is baked for a tea party then the cake decorating idea should correspond to the 'tea' theme.

Likewise if it is a wedding cake then lots of thought process goes in to the final design on the wedding cake as it is the most significant occasion in one's life. Everyone wants something very special for the wedding cake.

The cake should be decorated according to the occasion. If you are throwing a Valentine day party the decoration on the cake should reflect the spirit of valentine, so red roses are a must for the cake decoration.

If you want to bake a cake for your loved one then a heart shaped cake decorated with some edible flowers in yellow and red colors look great on a white back ground.

The type of icing you choose to decorate your cake can also make it look different. The trick is to get a perfect icing. If you are confident about making the icing at home then go head otherwise you get ready made icings in the market. Make use of them as it becomes that much easier to put icing on the cake.

Cake decoration idea depends on the shape of the cake as well. If a cake is baked in a shape of a shell then all you have to do is to match the colors while decorating it. It could be a white chocolate cake with some filling like butter cream and the Fondant icing will cover it. Then you can paint the lines with coco powder.

If you want to bake a cake that looks like a favorite cartoon character then you have to look for the correct mould in which you will bake the cake and then use edible or food colors to make the character look real.

You can use candies of different colors and arrange them to form a flower. It looks fabulous. You can also take into consideration the theme of the party. Cake decorating ideas can flow once you know the theme of the party. If the party is to celebrate summer then you can decorate the cake with sunflowers.

You can use some external things to make the cake look yummy. Some beads, confetti etc can take cake decorating on the other level. In other words let your imagination run wild, visualize a scene and you can transfer it on the cake.

Muna wa Wanjiru Has Been Researching and Reporting on Cake Decorating for Years. For More Information on Cake Decorating Ideas, Visit His Site at

Cake Decorating How To – 4 Easy Tips To Get You Started

One of the fastest growing fields in the culinary art world is cake decorating. The number of people who enjoy baking and decorating has been growing exponentially. What has created this sudden interest in cake decorating? For many people, cake decorating is a wonderful way to blend a number of different talents and interests. Cake decorating is unique in the number of skills that are touched on in this one field - you not only need to be a good baker, but a sculptor, color specialist and designer. With so many people wanting to try out their own talents, we've decided to put together a few helpful tips to set you on your way.

Practical Hints for the Beginner - Start with the Perfect Cake

The real fun begins with the most essential part of any cake decorator's tools - the cake itself. Even if you've never baked a cake before, you'll need to put one together before you can start decorating. The easiest way to create a good cake is to buy a box of cake mix from the grocery store. The directions for using the mix are very easy - all you need to do is add water, oil and eggs - and as long as you follow the directions, you should have a nice cake to work with. If you're feeling a little more brave, you can make a cake from scratch. Homemade cakes are no longer the difficult chore they used to be. The ready availability of fresh ingredients has made it much easier for bakers to create their own homemade cakes. For long-time bakers, you can select any recipe you think will work well but if you've never made a cake from scratch before then you should start with the simplest recipe you can find.

1. Topping Your Cake with the Right Icing

Another key element of successful cake decorating is the selection of icing to go over your cake. Icing is usually broken down into one of three types. The type of icing is based on the consistency. You'll notice that professional bakers describe icing based on one of these consistencies - either soft, medium or stiff. When you're just learning how to decorate cakes, you'll probably want to stick with icing that's either soft or medium. Soft icing is usually thinner than the other varieties and is used to write messages on the cake. It can also be used to cover an entire cake if you want to create a unique look. On the other hand, if you want to add more complicated designs like scrolls, scrollwork or decorative borders, you should use medium icing. Icing that has a medium consistency will hold its shape much better than a soft icing, yet you can still scoop it up with a spoon. The last type of icing is the stiff icing. This is used for much more complicated design elements, like flowers or leaves. Because these designs are so elaborate, the icing must be stiff enough that the pattern will be able hold its shape. The more complicated pieces will require a very stiff icing which is probably inedible - clearly these pieces are just for looking, not eating.

2. Build Your Collection of Cake Design Tools

Those who are just starting out probably won't have the best tools for the job just lying around in their kitchen drawers. Fortunately, finding the right tools for just about any cake decorating challenge you decide to take on is far easier today than it was just a few years back. There are plenty of places that now sell a variety of cake decorating tools. When you're trying to decide which pieces to pick up first, it's often easiest to simply buy the tools you need for the cake you're planning to make during your next project. A great alternative to this is to take advantage of the growing popularity of cake decorating and pick up one of the cake decorating tool kits that are now available. These kits includes all the basics that you'll need to get started including piping bags, pastry bags, paper cones for decorating, different sized frosting spatulas and a nice collection of various tips.

3. Find Inspiration in Books and Magazines

Sometimes the hardest part of cake decorating is coming up with an idea. A great way to spark your creativity is to surround yourself with pictures, quotes or other items that inspire you.

4. Creating the Perfect Lacework for Your Cake

This popular pattern will require an exacto knife. First, cut all of your ribbons to the same exact length. Then, carefully slice the thin insertion slits on your cake using the exacto knife. Another favorite option among cake decorators is the curtain work pattern. This is typically done with small tips because they provide a smoother line breakage. To start, build scallops and a bridge on the surface of the cake. This can be a difficult design to get right, so it helps to have a marked pattern that you can use to guide your hand.

Cake Decorating Kits for Kids

When it comes to birthday of our children, the very first thing that comes in mind is a cake. But what could be better than a home-made cake for your child?

However, baking a cake is not an easy task, especially at home. Today we see a lot of incredible cakes in shops that are decorated for different occasions. Sometimes they can hardly be called 'cakes', they are real masterpieces.

If you are going to make a cake for your child, do not expect that you will be able to create such a masterpiece at home because you do not have the needed experience. However, still it is possible to decorate a cake for your child with some kits. And what is the most important, the majority of these decorating kits you could make yourself.

For example, you could write on your cake some wishes for your child with the help of cream. As well with a cream you could draw your child's favorite cartoon character or something else.

The other option to choose is to decorate the cake with marzipan kits. In this case you have two options to choose from - you could do marzipan yourself or you could buy ready-made ones. The cake could be decorated with the marzipans in various forms. If we are talking about a cake for a child, then it is better to use different animal figures, cartoon character figures and so on.

If you have a poor fantasy or you just have no time to create some unique kits for decorating your cake, you have an opportunity to purchase decorating kits in the store. Traditionally these decorating kits are made from candies and caramel and could be in different colors and shapes. As well you could find a great variety of decorating kits for children cakes on the internet and here you can also find a lot of different recommendations and ideas.