No occasion is complete without a lovely decorated cake in the middle of everything. Holidays, birthdays and anniversaries, to name but a few, often find people wondering what kind of cake they should purchase for such occasions. If you know how to bake and are rather creative, you might want to start creating your own decorated cakes for these events. All you will need to do is to learn the basic cake decorating techniques, learn how to make a few different kinds of icing and get yourself some of the necessary tools for cake decorating.
Decorating cakes can be fun and can be very fulfilling for those who love creating unique and edible works of art. There are a number of tools that are needed when you decide to go into cake decorating however and most of these can be easily found in baking supply stores near you and online. Here are some of the basic tools for cake decorating that you should consider having in your kitchen if you are planning on creating lovely, decorated cakes for any occasion:
1) Turntables – these may seem useless to some but is a very handy tool for others. Turntables actually help you ice the sides and top of your cake evenly without the need for you to physically go around the cake yourself. The turntable does the turning for you while you ice or decorate the cake.
2) Icing knives, smoothers and palettes – these are used to apply and smooth the icing on the cake. These come in many different sizes, widths and angles. Some of these are made with plastic, acrylic or stainless steel.
3) Icing bags – these are the bags that hold the icing you will be decorating your cake with. These bags can be disposable or reusable, depending on the material used for these bags. Plastic bags are disposable while nylon bags are washable and reusable.
4) Icing Tips – you cannot properly decorate a cake without icing tips. Scallops, flowers, ribbons, basket weave designs and many more are created with icing using these tips. There are a number of icing tips that are necessary for cake decorating and these include star tips, round tips, petal and ribbon tips, leaf tips and shell tips. Of course, if you find yourself confused as to which tips to buy for your cake decorating needs, you might want to get sets that include a few of these along with other tools needed for icing cakes with.
5) Rolling pins – if you want to use marzipan and fondant on your cakes, you will need rolling pins. There are a number of rolling pins that are ideal for use with fondant and marzipan and these come in a variety of sizes as well.
6) Fondant tools – if you are thinking of creating lovely fondant flowers, swans, baskets and other decorations for your cakes, you will also need tools for cake decorating that can handle such a task. Fondant tools include cutters and an assortment of shape cutouts, rolling mats, brush sets, foam holders, flower cups, molds and knives.