Top Shortcut Tools For Cake Decorators

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Today’s cake artists fall under two different categories: the cake decorators who decorate utilizing  learned skills and the help of tools to achieve the creativity and the cake decorators who are natural artists. Given the growing trend of cake decorating over the past few years, there are far more people who fall under the first category. Years ago, there really was no substitute for a good eye and artistic ability, but today there are so many tools that allow anyone to follow instructions and create a masterful cake. Here are the top tools offered today that provide artistic value without artistic ability.

Molds

By far, the silicone molds are the cake decorator’s favorite. You can easily press fondant, modeling chocolate or gum paste into a mold and have it come out perfect every time. While there are hard plastic molds, the silicone molds, while more expensive, are flexible and allow for easy removal of the medium you use. You can create borders by combining half fondant and gum paste or mold things like figures in straight gum paste, allow them to dry and then paint them.

Stencils

Most cake stencils are laser cut plastic sheets that are either rectangular strips to place against the side of the cake or round shaped to decorate the top of the cake. The stencil is held against the cake and then the cake decorator either uses royal icing or food color to create the design. Royal icing is spread across the design and then the stencil lifted. For food coloring, either the decorator uses an airbrush or pounces a brush of color just as would be done with a stencil and paint on a wall. The stencil can also be used to add edible glitter by first applying a small amount of shortening to fondant. In this case, the stenciling is done on the fondant prior to applying the fondant to the cake.

Printed Designs

Rather than spend hours hand painting a cake, the cake decorator can print out a design from the computer or scan one into the printer and print in food coloring on icing sheets. The icing sheets are thinly spread sheets of icing that resemble paper. They can do almost anything paper does and are very easy to work with. They can cover the entire cake or be cut to add to decorations that make up the cake.

Electronic Cutting Machine

The electronic cutting machine for cake decorating uses a special needle suitable for cake decorating mediums such as fondant and gum paste which are thicker than paper. Fondant, gum paste, marzipan and modeling chocolate are all rolled out thinly in advance and laid on a mat that feeds into the cutter. Then pre-programmed designs are cut out. This enables the decorator to perfectly cut out messages, repetitive designs or a complicated design that is difficult to do by hand.

Teaching cake decorating today is more about learning to work with these different tools and all the different types of applications they have. You can’t teach someone to be artistic, but you can teach them methods and how to use tools and technology. If you can follow instructions and pay attention to detail, you can create an artistic looking cake without being artistic.

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•  License: Creative Commons image source 

Theresa Happe is a cake decorator and fan of Icing Images' edible printing supplies including icing sheets, edible ink and edible ink printers.