Birthday Cake Decoration Ideas
Cakes are the most integral part of any birthday party and need to be completely perfect and have something special that the person requests. Birthday cakes can follow a particular theme that the party has or can be made according to according to a person's personality. They come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Some people prefer to have tiered cakes so as to give off the impression of a grand celebration such as a wedding or engagement. Other occasions like birthday parties require the cake to be more based on the birthday boy/girl's likes and dislikes. It has to focus on the personality of the person for example a person interested in cars can get a fancy car shaped cake made so on and so forth.
There used to be a time when custom cakes were considered to be a waste of time and money and bakeries used to supply these kinds of cakes to the general public. But things have changed now. People are looking for new and innovative ways to express themselves and so cakes have become a work of art. Most people like opting for fancy and completely over the top cakes with royal icing and figures using a special kind of icing called fondant. Cakes that you get made on order form a bakery can be quite expensive and might not be able to make the cake in the exact way you imagined. So the next best thing would be to make it yourself.
Fondant is usually used more often when it comes to designing cakes these days. The main reason is that it's easy to work with and allows the user to create amazing figurines that do not loose shape. Fondant is basically a thick paste made out of sugar which you can have in different colors using edible food colors. Fondant can even be used to cover the cake to give it a flawless seamless look. All you have to do its roll it out and smooth it in to a flat sheet a place it on the cake. Of course you can't just serve the cake with a simple sheet of fondant you will need to decorate the cake.
You have several options you can choose from when decorating the cake. You can create flowers, tiny decorative items etc. All you have to do is practice the design once or twice and you will get the hang of it. After you have made these decorations you cannot attach them to the cake immediately as you will have to let them sit for a day so that they are able to stay in the same shape. The earlier you make these decorations the better it will be for the figurines to maintain their shapes. When the time comes to attach these decorations to the cake all you have to do is wet the back of the decoration and simply attach it to the fondant base of the cake using slight pressure.
Using fondant requires a bit of practice but once you are accustomed to it you will find it to the best and easiest way to decorate cakes. Having a simple fondant base can also be decorated using real flowers and petals and roses. This design looks great on wedding cakes and engagement cakes. You can then serve this cake using an elegant high heel cake server. Asides from being a great topic of conversation it also looks extremely elegant while serving slices of cake neatly without creating a mess.
Other accessories for cake decorations are of course candles. If you're celebrating an adult's birthday then it would be best not to get novelty candles and opt for plain birthday candles with candle holders. These can be used to make patterns on the cake or if you want to keep it simple you can scatter them all over the cake in an equal form. If you're celebrating a teenager's birthday then you can use a musical sparkling birthday candle. This candle is amazing to look at. It starts off with a sparkling fountain that light up individual mini candles on the tips of each petal. Then the petals slowly open and the blossoming bud transforms into a beautiful blooming candlelit flower. This candle also sings 'Happy Birthday' while rotating. You can serve the cake in plastic white plates to teenagers so that they don’t end up breaking all your fancy china and it will also be beneficial as you won't have to clean them after they have been used once.
In the end decorating cakes is all about ones artistic flare so try to keep an open mind and let your creativity flow. You will be able to create a master piece in a matter of hours and make some ones day extremely special with a cake you decorated yourself.
Written By: Jarrod Brake
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