Sheet Cake Decorating For Special Occasions

There’s a range of sheet cakes you can choose from. It’s an easy dessert to make when the craving for cake hits. Best of all, you can make it throughout the year. These cakes can feed a crowd and they’re beginner-friendly. I could always count on sheet cakes as the chosen dessert for family celebrations. A slice of cake was the dessert of choice to celebrate graduations and it makes for the most delicious birthday cake.

A sheet cake requires little effort. In turn, this gives you enough time to make a cake that looks and tastes great. I used to make sheet cakes topped with buttercream frosting and no decoration. Of course, everyone enjoyed eating them, but they were too simple for my taste. It’s nice to have the option to dress up cakes once in a while. You can use these sheet cake decorating ideas for birthdays, house warmings, and other special occasions!

All About Sheet Cakes

When baking sheet cakes, make sure you’re using the correct pan. A standard sheet cake is made in a a 13 by 9-inch baking pan. This pan size is ideal for baking a cake for your family or friends.

For a large party, you need a quarter sheet cake, which is made in a 9″ x 23″ pan. It can feed up to 20 people – best for serving at parties or large family gatherings. These cakes are the perfect option for celebrations. The number of guests will determine the need for a quarter-sheet, half-sheet, or full-sheet cake pan. To learn more about baking pan sizes for sheet cakes, check out desserts to feed a crowd. 

Instead of making homemade cake batter, you can opt for a box cake mix. It won’t adversely affect the flavor. If you select a quality cake mix, you can infuse that incredible homemade flavor by making your frosting from scratch. This results in a tender cake topped with a light, fluffy buttercream frosting fit for any cake lover.

How to Bake a Sheet Cake

Remember to use the correct baking pan. Always use the size recommended in the recipe. I suggest following a recipe that uses a 13 by 9-inch baking pan. It’s a standard baking pan used for a multitude of recipes.

If you opt for a box cake mix, you can find the necessary pans near the instruction section. Saving time is the main benefit of using cake mix.

To prepare the pan line the baking pan with parchment paper. This method creates an easy release for transferring the cake to a cake board.

First, slide an offset spatula along the edges of the cake. Next, place a cooling rack on top of the cake. Use both hands to flip it over. Finally, gently lift the pan. Remember to remove the parchment paper before placing the cake onto a cake board.

Can I make a two-layer Sheet Cake? 

There are two ways to make a 2-layer cake. First, cut the cake in half for a smaller sheet cake. Apply frosting to the first layer, then add the final coat of frosting to the top layer.

The second method involves baking two sheet cakes and stacking them. Freeze the cakes to lock in moisture.

10 Ideas For Decorating Sheet Cakes

Here are 10 sheet cake decorating ideas. This next section goes from simple methods to more advanced techniques.

Ribbon Border Sheet Cake

A ribbon border is common for decorating sheet cakes. Once the border is complete, you can add edible pearls around the perimeter of the cake. The finishing touches showcase a cake worth celebrating!

Decorate Cakes With Flowers

Another option is to add flowers to your design. Adding flowers to the top left, and bottom right corner is a beautiful way to draw attention to your cake. Florals make a sheet cake look pretty and delicate. Best yet, you can pipe with different color frosting to make the flowers look more realistic.

Add A Topping To Your Sheet Cake

Add a topping that compliments the flavor. For example, if you make a butter pecan cake, sprinkle chopped pecans on top of the frosting. Toss whole pecans into a food processor to chop them into smaller pieces. This improves the texture and makes it easier to eat.

Decorate With Cookies

There is another method for decorating the cake border. Top it all off with crunchy cookies to make it stand out. Oreos are ideal for making delicious cookies and cream cakes. Cookies like Biscoff cookies or Nilla wafers work fine. These classic cookies are perfect for decorating.

Look for a decorating tip for piping swirls. To start, pipe upward swirls along the border of the cake. Place a cookie in between each swirl.

Decorate with Mini Chocolate Bars: Mini chocolate bars are the perfect addition to a custom cake border.

Kit Kat bars: Kit Kat bars are another option. Plus, you can decorate with white chocolate candy bars. Fruits like passionfruit or cherries are a delicious combination with white chocolate.

Advanced Sheet Cake Decorating Techniques

Here are a few more sheet cake decorating ideas. Create a theme based on the cake flavor. For instance, a carrot cake can have carrots piped onto the cake. To take it up a notch you can pipe a rabbit eating a carrot. These decorations are a fun way to make your cakes look more interesting.

Create a custom border: This technique requires several decorating tips. First, you need a star tip, a decorating tip for swirls, and one for roses. Then fill the icing bags. Now, you’re ready to create a custom cake border.

Remember to use two or three different colors if you want the swirls and roses to pop.

Garden design: A garden design gives you a chance to freestyle your own design. You can pipe grass or vines. In addition, you can add a variety of flowers like roses, daisies, sunflowers and more!

Decorating cakes with fresh fruit: Making a design with fresh fruit is a fun way to create various designs. Berries are the best fruits for creating patterns and increasing depth of flavor. Plus, fruit adds complexity to flavor and texture.

In addition, you can drizzle caramel or chocolate sauce before adding fresh strawberries. Use a squeeze bottle for drip cakes. 

Edible printer: Airbrushing was a technique that advanced cake decorators used. Now bakers have shifted to edible printers. These printers use icing sheets to create life-like images that bring your cake to life.

Did these sheet cake decorating ideas inspire you? If you’re looking for more inspiration, check out these cake decorating ideas for beginners.

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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.

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Creating a Moist Cake

The first secret ingredient is baking soda. Baking soda is a chemical leavening agent. After, combining baking soda with buttermilk, carbon dioxide is released. If you’re looking for a good cake recipe, be sure to look out for recipes that include baking soda and buttermilk. These ingredients will make your cake light and fluffy. Check out my cake baking guide to learn how to make a layer cake.

Reasons to Love These Ingredients

There are so many reasons to love these secret ingredients. First, these ingredients prevent you from eating a cake that is dry and lacking in flavor. One of the benefits of using buttermilk in cake batter is that buttermilk adds flavor. This makes a huge difference because it transforms a neutral taste to a more flavorful, moist cake.

Secondly, using fruits with a very soft consistency like banana or pumpkin puree helps create a moist cake. Adding baking soda in addition to buttermilk and baking powder allows the cake to rise while balancing the cake’s flavor.

Types of Buttermilk to Choose From

When you are shopping for buttermilk at the grocery store look for full fat buttermilk. It adds flavor and buttermilk is acidic, which causes a reaction with baking soda that allows your cake to rise.

In addition, for all the chocolate lovers out there, coffee is a perfect ingredient to add to your chocolate cake. Coffee reacts with ingredients like butter, which have a lot of fat. This adds moisture to your cake. Also, coffee adds richness to cake. It deepens the flavor and elevates your cake to the next level.

Finally, the last secret ingredient for baking a moist cake is oil. Adding vegetable oil to your cake batter gives the cake moisture. Usually, cakes that are made with butter and no oil have a dry texture. Incorporating these ingredients into the batter gives you the opportunity to ensure that the cake gets as much moisture as possible. The next time you want to try out a new cake recipe make sure that it has at least 3 of these secret ingredients. These ingredients will give you a delicious, moist cake that makes you savor every bite.

Dos and Don’ts

There are a few things that you want to avoid as much as possible. Make sure you don’t over mix your cake batter. When you over mix, your cake batter it creates a drier texture. In addition, avoid adding ingredients like buttermilk, eggs, or butter straight from the fridge. Adding cold dairy products to your cake batter can have a negative impact on your cake. The difference in temperature makes it harder for the ingredients to incorporate together. 

To prevent this from happening make sure that you take one extra step. Bring your dairy ingredients to room temperature before adding them to your cake batter. Use a food thermometer to check the temperature of the ingredients. For more information on room temperature ingredients read my baking tips for beginner’s guide. It will tell you everything you need to know when it comes to taking steps to successfully bake at home.

Use the Right Ingredients

Please do make sure that you use quality ingredients. The brand that you use for certain ingredients won’t have a negative impact on your cake. For example, salt is literally used in almost every baking recipe. Moreover, the desserts still taste the same regardless of the brand of salt you use.

Adding too much baking powder and baking soda can cause a bitter taste. It can also ruin the cakes structure by rising in the oven excessively.

On the other hand, ingredients like chocolate or vanilla make a huge impact on the taste of the cake. Imitation vanilla will never substitute the flavor you get from baking with pure vanilla extract. Those preservatives and fillers take away from the flavor. Be sure to choose high quality chocolate if you’re adding chopped chocolate to your cake. It will certainly make all the difference!

Another ingredient that you should use is cake flour. Cake flour will make your homemade cakes soft. Adding cake flour into your cake mix prevents the cake layers from being too dense. This type of flour has a lower gluten content, which results in a lighter, fluffier cake. Also, dense cakes can be caused by adding extra sugar.

I learned this the hard way when I accidentally used dark chocolate instead of semi-sweet chocolate in a cake recipe. Overcompensating for the bitter taste with extra sugar causes a dense inedible cake. Remember, Ingredients like vanilla contribute to the sweetness. Now you will be able to avoid these baking nightmares in the kitchen!

Add a Soak

Another way to add moisture to your cake is to apply a soak to the top of the cake. A soak gives the cake extra flavor. Plus, it will prevent your cake from getting dry. For layer cakes, add the soak after you level the cakes. Use a pastry brush to lightly dab the soak onto the top of the cake layer. This allows the cake to absorb the moisture.

You can use a cake soak that compliments the flavor of your homemade cake. Some bakers like to add simple syrup or lemon juice in their soaks for lemon flavored cake. The easiest solution is to use milk.

Store Bought Versus Homemade Cake

The difference between store bought cake and cakes baked from scratch comes down to taste and texture. Some grocery stores take a lot of pride in baking a quality cake for their customers. However, there are store-bought cakes that are not tasty.

This is because certain additives or dyes ruin the flavor. Resulting in the after taste of medicine. Additives can increase the shelf life of baked goods, but they won’t taste as balanced as a regular cake. A good thing to remember is that cakes that are made with a variety of frosting colors are not going to taste as rich and flavorful as a homemade cake made with quality ingredients. 

Oven Temperature

Remember to Preheat the oven to the right temperature. This can easily get overlooked. Usually, cakes are baked at a lower temperature. The average temperature for baking a cake is between 325°F and 350°F. Layer cakes take less time in the oven. While sheet cakes take longer to bake. Around 35 minutes compared to the shorter cook time for layer cakes.

When cakes are over baked, they get dry. A cake may look under baked, but your eyes can be deceiving. For best results use a cake tester to see if your cake is done.    

Cake placement is a key factor for ensuring that your cakes bake evenly. If you have a smaller oven place your cakes on the top rack. Placing your cake on the bottom rack for the whole baking time will result in an over-baked cake.

If you place your cake layer on the bottom rack, remember to rotate the cakes position to the top rack halfway through. This will give you a moist cake with a soft crumb.  

Cooling Process

Let the cake cool properly. Don’t put your cake on the kitchen counter after taking them out of the oven. This will cause heat to concentrate in one area, while the other parts of the cake get cool.

Use a cooling rack to let the cake rest. This allows the cake to cool off evenly. The best part about using a cooling rack is that it reduces the rest time. Leaving a cake on the kitchen counter to cool off takes much longer.

Baking Pans

When you find the cake recipe that you plan on using remember to use the suggested baking pan. For layer cakes the recipe will often suggest using 8 or 9-inch round cake pans. You can use my baking pan guide to help you find the right pan for cake baking. If you are baking a sheet cake the standard size is a 9 x 13 inch baking pan. If you need to bake a larger sheet cake you’ll need to look out for recipes that provide enough cake batter for a half sheet cake: 13” x 18” or a full sheet cake: 18” x 26”.

Cake Storage

The way that you store your cake is extremely important! It’s important to properly store cakes because the temperature in your kitchen fluctuates which can cause your frosting to melt. The cake can get stale as well.

Keep your cake fresh by storing it in an airtight cake keeper or cake carrier. When shopping for a cake keeper there are glass and plastic options to choose from. After you cover your cake keep it in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 days.

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