Valerie from Sweeps4Bloggers posted the following review about Teaching Good Things Cake Decorating DVD.
Cake decorating has always kind of scared me – just looks like it would be really hard. But Kathy’s Basic Cake Decorating DVD has cured me of my fear! She has such a soothing voice and clearly explains and demonstrates the techniques needed to make a professional looking cake- felt like a friend had stopped by to help us learn cake decorating. It would be simple enough for a child to understand, but it isn’t done in a ‘childish’ way. The DVD is great for both kids and adults . My guys loved it & we’re excited to decorate our own cake!
A quick and easy Shamrock Cake made from cupcakes, this is a perfect St. Patrick’s Day treat. One cake is made from four cupcakes, so one box of cake mix can make six of these cakes. Alternatively, you could make one shamrock as a centerpiece and arrange individual cupcakes around it.
You will need the following ingredients and supplies to make this cake:
1 Box of cake mix (and the ingredients needed to prepare it)
3 Cans of white frosting
Green food coloring
Green sugar crystals
Wooden skewer or toothpick
Aluminum foil or a marble*
Baking cups*
*If you have a heart-shaped cupcake pan you won’t need these.
Prepare your cake batter according to instructions on the box. If you don’t have a heart-shaped cupcake pan, while your oven is pre-heating tear 3 inch strips of aluminum foil and roll them into balls.If you have marbles, skip that step. Fill your cupcakes halfway with the batter. I like to use an ice cream scoop to measure and fill them. Then place your aluminum foil ball or marble between the baking cup and pan. You can get detailed instructions for this from Instructables – Make Heart Shaped Cupcakes Without a Special Pan but I’ll warn you here that the marbles will get very hot so be sure to let them cool before handling.
While your cupcakes are cooling, dye your frosting green and then refrigerate it until ready to use.
When your cupcakes are completely cooled, take them out of the baking cups. Frost the sides of the cupcake first, this way you can hold it between your thumb and forefinger and make less of a mess. once the sides are frosted, arrange three them on your serving board or plate to form the leaves of the shamrock. Cut one cupcake in half to use as the stem and use the remaining half to fill in the hole that will be left in the middle. You will probably need to shape and cut away a lot of the 4th cupcake to make the stem look right and to fit it in the middle.
Frost the entire cake and use the skewer to define space between the leaves and score lines in the leaves. Then sprinkle green sugar crystals over the entire cake. I was very heavy handed when it came to the sugar, but you can use less. Then touch up any spots you need using your toothpick.
That’s it, a simple, fast and fun St. Paddy’s dessert.
For the Star Wars lovers in your family, The Happy Housewife posted pictures an easy cake decorating idea from the e-book Pretty Cool Cakes. The cake took under an hour to make and she used canned frosting. Now that’s a simple cake!
Baked by The Happy Housewife
Thanks to her post and pictures I was eager to see the other cakes in this book, so I downloaded my copy. At just $4 it’s a steal. The e-book is well-written and the cakes follow my Simple Cakes Philosophy. Even better, the ideas are all inspired by children.
St. Patrick’s Day is March 17th and this week I’ll be sharing some ideas for tasty treats to celebrate. Here’s a very quick and simple cake decorated with green sugar and sprinkles.
You will need a shamrock cookie cutter for a “stencil”. If you can’t find find a shamrock cookie cutter, try using a heart shaped cookie cutter to create each leaf of the clover or create your own stencil from cardboard or a file folder. If you make your own stencil you may need to coat the underside with a thin layer of vegetable shortening so it won’t stick. Also, I used a small artist paintbrush to spread the crystals, or you could use a toothpick. I made a 8 in. round cake, but you could stencil the clover(s) on any size or shape cake.
I thought confetti cake would be a good choice since rainbows are associated with the holiday. I went with a white icing, green dessert crystals and shamrock sprinkles.
After icing the cake smooth I refridgerated it for 20 minutes to make sure frosting would be firm. Then I placed the cookie cutter in the center of the cake and poured the green sugar crystals into the center. Think less is more when you start this process because if you end up with too many crystals they will pour over when you lift your cookie cutter.
Using a clean dry paintbrush or toothpick, gently spread the crystals from the middle towards the edge of the cookie cutter. When you lift your stencil you will have a sugary sweet shamrock!
To complete the cake I sprinkled sugar around the top edge and poured the shamrock sprinkles around the bottom edge. To create a cleaner edge, I slid my icing spatula under the sprinkles, pressed them into the base of the cake and then brushed away the excess.
I hope you liked this easy to make cake and it inspires you to come up with your own simple cake decorating ideas!
You will want to use a lot of light frosting for this. Press the back of a spoon into the frosting, twist and lift to make swirls. Experiment with different size spoons. With a large wooded spoon you can make make large tear shaped petals. I think that this technique works great when embellishing with fruit and flowers.
ZigZags
A decorater’s comb makes for quick work and looks nice for cake sides. However you can get a similar effect with a fork.
Embossing
When your icing is dry to the touch, place a textured paper towel on your cake and apply gentle pressure. When you lift the paper towel the design will be left on the cake. This paper towel techique is also a very popular method to smooth buttercream icing.
This cake is an example of how you can create something unique and special without having any baking or decorating skills at all.
For my son’s 5th Birthday party I baked a large chocolate sheet cake and created a Spongebob SquarePants scene for him using Crayola’s Model Magic clay to make the Pineapple and jellyfish. The characters are from the top of special edition PlayDoh cans and the “sand” is crushed graham crackers.
SpongeBob Cake for Cameron
Everyone complimented me on how the cake looked, but close friends and family confided that the cake itself was pretty dry and bland. I realized that I could have saved myself a lot of time if I would have just ordered the cake from my grocery store and added the models before the party.
So keep in mind that toys and other non-edible items can be incorporated into your cake design. Just make sure that your material are non-toxic.
