tiffstrauss | Tiffany Takes the Cake

Fondant. Love it? Hate it? It’s really taken over the cake decorating world. Most of the cake shows on TV show bakers covering every cake in blankets of it. Yes, it makes the cake look perfectly smooth when applied correctly. But here’s the thing: Who wants to eat all of that? Most people peel it off, taking their precious icing with it. Not only do you have to dissect your piece in order to then eat it, but it ends up being a waste. So, guess what? You don’t have to cover your cake in fondant in order to get that smooth fondant look. Use an icing scraper. After you ice your cake, set the scraper lightly against the edge of the cake. Spin your turn table while holding the scraper against the cake. It takes lots of practice, but you should be able to make the sides smooth.

After doing the sides, you can then pull the top edges across the top of the cake to smooth it down. Pull all the edges towards the center.

After a lot of practice using a nice basic butter cream, you should be able to give your cakes a nice smooth service upon which to work your decorating magic!

This cake with matching cupcakes was for a dear friend’s son. His only request was neon. Bright colors and neon are all the rage again. It’s funny since I was pretty much his exact age the last time neon was big!

This 10 year old wanted a Star Wars cake. His mom didn’t want intense amounts of food coloring in order to pull it off, so the colors are a little subdued. The red is nice and dark because red icing darkens after it is mixed. Keep that in mind when adding your red colors to icing. It will end up being one or two shades darker than when you first mix it. The space above his name was so the mom could add characters. This is always an option when ordering a character or theme cake.