Contents:
- Cream decorations
- Mastic decorations
- Icing decorations
- Decorations for a children cake
- Other ways of a decoration
- Decoration of sides of a cake
Can spice cakes, a biscuit, cupcakes, fancy cakes, and cakes be compared with home pastries? Home desserts are usually preferrable. Home confections are tastiness and “soulful.” Process of their making becomes a ritual performance, especially in their completing stage. With a few simple tricks, non-presentable semi-finished products can become good-looking and appetizing desserts.
But some women may not decorate home cakes or they don’t know how to do it. You needn’t possess skills of a professional confectioner to decorate a cake at home. Cake with own decoration can be more beautiful than masterpieces from shop in several times. Don’t try to reproduce purchased cakes. Home cakes are unique because of their originality. How do you achieve it? What do you use for design? Which ready products can you use for design? Which decorations for cake do you make at home? Let’s get to know.
Cream Decorations
The creamy roses, leaves and curbs on cakes are classics. Classic is all time in fashion. Therefore decorations from cream remain popular in home cookery for today too. Not all creams will not be suitable for design of a cake. You may decorate a cake only with cream that is not flowing and settling. Butter cream and meringue are the most suitable materials for creamy decorations. Cakes with such cream look especially solemn, but it must be stored in refrigerator and only for a short time: butter and eggs are perishable food products.
Confection syringes or sacks with special attachments can be used for such decorations. It is possible to paint figured curbs, lattices, roses, chrysanthemums, leaves and stems with a help of these attachments. But, if you don’t have such instruments, so you may decorate a cake with help of usual paper cone. You will require only the sheet of thick and clean paper (A4) which must be rolled. Cut edge on the straight line or skew line.
Fill cone with cream (it must be constantly fixed holding it in one hand), wrap the upper part and begin squirt cream.
It is possible to put strips across cake, make leaves and flowers depending on a cut (cone with a triangular cut). If you move your hand with a cone forward and back, so you will get wavy strips of cream. It is possible make varicolored cream for decoration of a cake with help of special food dyestuffs. Also you may use fresh beet (cherry), carrot juice, spinach juice, chocolate powder or instant coffee.
Mastic Decorations
Confectionery mastic is an excellent alternative to creamy decorations. It reminds plasticine by the consistency. You may create any figures from it: leaves, flowers and other decorations. First of all is ability to modelate. Confectionery mastic may be bought in the specialized shop, but it is better prepare it by yourself. We will require dried and condensed milk and icing sugar in equal proportions to prepare mastic. Mix all this ingredients (as dough) and model from it everything you want.
Sculptural material dries quickly and becomes tough. Therefore, at the first, cover mastic with food membrane. Second, don’t apply it for all cake, because it will be too tough. In addition, big decorations may crack. You may paint mastic by the same way as oil cream and roll out it on a food membrane. Mastic must be powdered by sugar. What can you make from confectionery mastic? You may create anything: flowers (rose, lily, chamomile, chrysanthemum), leaves, frills, ruches, figures from animals and any other forms.
Icing Decorations
Openwork icing can become decoration of a home cake. Don’t be frightened from this incomprehensible name. Icing is drawing material from egg whites and icing sugar. It is very easy to prepare it: whip one egg white with icing sugar (200 g.) and add a teaspoon of lemon juice. Whites must be cold and icing sugar must be sifted well. Density of substance is adjusted by adding of powdered sugar. Icing must be dense enough that traceries will not spread, but not too thick so that substance will extruded easily from cone.
Fold paper cone, fill it with drawing substance and draw your different forms. First of all future traceries are drawn on paper (ready outline patterns are printed). Also you may use even child colorings. Then paper with a tracery is covered by transparent cellophane (food membrane) and lubricate it with a very thin layer of olive oil (it doesn’t dry). Icing is applied with thin solid lines along the contour of a tracery. It must be left for drying. Traceries are solidify in several days. Then they must be taken off and used for decoration of a cake.
Such decorations are very fragile. Therefore it is recommended to duplicate them. It is better to establish them on a cake immediately before its serving on a table. Also you may create three-dimensional decorations from the separate elements, gluing parts with liquid icing. It necessary to lay a membrane with a tracery on convex surfaces (cans, bottles, etc.) to create convex traceries. One more important point: such decorations are dissolving from moisture: keep in mind it, applying icing to cakes with cream or glaze.
You may also decorate cake beautifully using chocolate. Such decorations are made by the same principal as icing. Chocolate is melted (without additives and filling) on a water bath. Then it is used in painting of various traceries. It is possible to make original two-color decorations using white and dark chocolate. You may apply traceries from liquid chocolate right to the surface of a cake.
Decorations for a Child’s Cake
The child’s cake requires special fantasy from you. Because it must be good-looking and childlike. Therefore sculptural materials are used for decoration of a child’s cake. It is easy to create different funny figures from such materials. Sugar or lactose mastic with bright colors will become suitable material. Fruits, candies, jellies, jam, and even varicolored confectionery powder will be looking well on a children cake.
Barbie dolls have become the original decoration of a child’s cake. Crusts are cooked in this case. Then they are bunched and trimmed in form of a voluminous skirt. Doll is wrapped up by a food membrane to its waist. Skirt is putted on to Barbie. Skirt is decorated by colored mastic or bright cream. Finally you will get cake–doll.
Other Ways of Decoration
You may decorate a home cake using simple but not less spectacular ways. It is possible cover cake with a chocolate, sugar or colored glaze and lay out on it ready chocolate figures or nucleoli of walnuts. Almond nuts can take the form of chamomile and chrysanthemum petals or original curb for a cake.
Fresh fruits look spectacular on a cake: oranges, tangerines, kiwi, strawberries, cherries, pineapples. Fruits will not dry or shrivel, but grow brighter, if you douse them in transparent jellies You may combine fruits with decorations from butter or protein cream, with chocolate and whipped cream.
It is also good idea to use a stencil in creating decoration for a home cake. Cut out an ornament in paper (with size larger than the surface of a cake) and cover paper with icing sugar or chocolate powder, holding a stencil above a cake: ornament from a stencil is transferred on a cake by magic. The chocolates use for design of cakes covered with white cream and decorate with icing sugar cakes watered with the chocolate glaze.
Decoration of Sides of a Cake
We have talked about decoration of cake surface before this time. What can you do with its sides? Sides of a cake can be covered by figured creamy strips or pieces of thin chocolate (thin leaf which were melted and frozen) may be put around them. Besides, you may put «palisade» from wafer straws or a long figured biscuit on sides of a cake. But most often sides of cake are lubricated and strewn by biscuit, nuts, rusks or remains of crusts. Also you may use fried oat flakes!
So, possibilities will be found, if you have desire. You may find a lot of possibilities for decorating cakes. Creativity is suitable everywhere, especially, in a kitchen!
