Cake Decorating Ideas for Beginners
If you love to bake cakes at home and you’re searching for easy cake decorating ideas for beginners – this post has several tips for making beautiful homemade cakes. This beginner-friendly guide has several techniques that make your cakes taste and look fantastic. When I first started decorating it was a bit overwhelming and I didn’t know where to start. Over the years I’ve learned how to embrace simplicity. So I’m sharing these easy tips to help you increase your confidence with cake decorating.
Essential Cake Decorating Tools
There is a learning curve with decorating cakes. When making a cake for a special occasion you don’t want to disappoint your guests. Whether you make a birthday cake or a cake made to celebrate an important milestone, knowing how to make a simple yet elegant cake is an invaluable skill.
Smooth frosting, toppings, and a solid foundation will set you in the right direction. A quality layer cake is assembled with a crumb coat and a final layer of frosting. My post how to bake a layer cake provides step-by-step instructions and tips on making a cake from scratch. You can decorate the outer layer of frosting with simplicity in mind or make it festive enough for a birthday party.
With the right equipment, you can implement these cake decorating ideas for beginners to help you create a showstopping cake. Here are a few of my most used tools for cake decoration.
Bench Scraper: First, bench scrapers make the outside of the cake look nice and smooth.
Offset Spatula: An offset spatula is the best tool for frosting cake layers and applying a crumb coat. The crumb coat allows the cake crumbs to stick to the cake, so you can’t see them through the frosting.
Piping Bag: A disposable piping bag is filled with frosting and paired with the decorating tip of your choice. Additionally, this allows you to add designs or create a border.
Icing Comb: Icing combs add texture to cakes. These are affordable and you can find them at craft stores. It’s one of my favorite decorating tools.
Add Flowers
Sometimes you need an easy way to make a statement. This cake decorating idea is perfect for anyone who adores flowers.
First, you need fresh flowers that are food-safe. Some flowers are poisonous. Additionally, it’s important to use flowers grown without pesticides. When you visit your farmers market, ask the vendor if they use pesticides. When you find a beautiful, non-toxic bouquet keep it in a vase filled with water until you’re ready to decorate.
From there, cut off the stems with scissors leaving a few inches remaining. Wrap the flowers with plastic wrap and cover them with floral tape.
Once, you finish this process gently insert the flowers in the upper corner of the cake. Then create the same arrangement on the bottom corner. Another reason to love this design is the color and vibrance it adds to cakes.
Decorating with Graham Cracker Crumbs
Graham cracker crumbs or Biscoff cookies crumbs are another way to add texture. If you’re decorating a cake with graham cracker crumbs choose a cake flavor that pairs well together -for instance, smores, peanut butter, or chocolate cake compliments graham crackers.
To decorate the sides of the cake with crumbs, place the cake on a baking sheet and fill the pan with graham cracker crumbs. Dip clean fingers into vegetable shortening so the crumbs can adhere to your fingers. Pressing the crumbs into the sides of the cake makes an otherwise plain cake more eye-catching.
Decorating The Layer Cake With Fruit
Make your cake look more impressive by adding fresh fruit. Arrange a mix of berries or place a mixture of whole and sliced strawberries on top of the cake.
By far, this is one of the easiest cake decorating ideas to recreate. Freed from frosting the sides of the cake, this minimalist approach to decorating makes your cake more intriguing.
Naked Cakes For Beginners
A variety of cake decorating ideas can be used together, but a naked cake is the perfect starting point for incorporating other elements. A naked cake is designed with a minimal layer of frosting. It’s thin enough for one to see each layer of cake.
Elegant naked cakes look beautiful topped with flowers, berries, or both! The trend for naked wedding cakes is highly requested for the tasteful, yet modern style.
These cake decorating tips for beginners are simple and will give you the confidence to try new techniques. Refer back to these tips whenever you feel stuck.
