Cake decoration basics – Lesson 2

Decorating A Cake

The second session was on decorating an entire cake.

There are more complex skills involved in decorating than what meets the eyes. It totally depends on the manual dexterity and not merely on artistic taste. We took a cake to the class and decorated it. Firstly, we iced the cake using white buttercream icing. To spread the icing evenly with the spatula was a task as the crumbs were getting in the way. I used very gentle strokes to smooth out the icing and unintentionally pulled out bits from the top layer of my chocolate cake which made it quite messy. The best way to do it is spread a thin layer without disturbing the top of the cake, then add an extra layer on it. In the end, I succeeded putting some frosting on my cake. It was then left to dry and set for a short while.

Next, several techniques were tried out on the practice board.

Dot is the first trick in the book. It is as easy as squeezing paste on a toothbrush.

Curving line and tight zigzag– Attach tip 18 to the decorating bag to practice this. Lightly touch the surface with the tip and glide along in a wave like motion. For the zigzag pattern glide along in an up and down motion.

Dimensional decoration – This is created by keeping the tip buried inside the icing as it is piped out. The icing bag has to be fitted with tip 12 using the coupler and holding at 90° a dot is formed with the tip slightly above the surface and by pushing more icing it enlarges and grows upward like a cone. Elongated shape – Begin as a dot and make it larger by squeezing more icing on it. Slowly move the tip parallel to the surface and create an elongated shape. I was not very fascinated by this shape though.

My hands were not quite steady but our instructor encouraged us and we repeated many times to get an approval. The thickness of the icing plays an important role. My blue icing had some issue and the shapes formed were not well defined.

This is the cake I managed to decorate. I know, it is a shoddy job. I consoled myself by saying, ‘Rome was not built in a day!’

Advertisement