Chances are if your cake tastes good, it won’t matter as much what it looks like, but that doesn’t mean you want your cake to look bad. So, here are a few easy birthday cake decorating tips.
First, always start with a light colored, solid icing. This is often referred to as dirty icing. If you want to decorate your cake well, you need that base coat to build from.
Second, choose your theme, or design idea so that you can decorate it in the right order. For example, if you want it to read “happy birthday”, you may want to do that at the first, rather than after you put extra things around the edges, etc. that way you do not have to try and fit it in, or work around other objects, or risk sticking a finger in a perfect icing flower, etc.
Third, use cake toppers and extras. One of the easiest ways to get a great looking birthday cake is to use some sort of cake topper. If you go to the store, often birthday cake will have plastic balloons, and even plastic confetti on them as decoration. You can use this same idea, and not do the hard work of creating everything with frosting. Plastic toys, party favors, etc. all make great visual items for the top of a cake.
Fourth, use what you have. A cake can look really great and be made from stuff you have around your house. For example, maybe you are doing a dump truck themed cake for your little boy’s birthday. You can use brown sugar dumped on the cake to look like dirt. If you are doing a winter themed cake, you can use marshmallows for snow. If you want to have a forest, pretzel sticks make great tree trunks, etc. You could even rummage through their toy box, find some plastic toys, run them through the dishwasher and use them as a cake topper.
Fifth, use icing, candy, and other edibles. Even if the cake is not the best decorated cake ever, kids will love it if it looks tasty. Using candy, and plenty of food colored frosting to add visual focal points, and make the cake look more appetizing is a great way to quickly, and easily, as well as successfully decorate a birthday cake.
You do not have to be an expert, you just have to have fun, so have a general idea of what you want your theme to be, and what you hope the cake to look like when you are finished. Then gather the items necessary to make that a reality, and give yourself a couple trial runs if you are a first timer. Most importantly, make sure the cake tastes good so that even if your decorations don’t turn out, no one will be disappointed but you.
Leave a Reply