Kids Cake Decorating

 

We all want the perfect birthday or celebration cake for our kids, and there’s nothing more special than making your own!

Kids cake decorating is really easy,

Firstly you need to decide what design you want. Your kid may be into the latest cartoon/TV character, draw your inspiration from this.

Search the internet for images of the chosen character and print off, use this image as your basic design.  Next, you need to work out how big the cake must be. Are you expecting a large group, or is it just a close family tea?

Bake, or buy your cake, (if your pushed for time) in the size required and cover it with sugarpaste.(see icing a cake) (some supermarkets sell celebration cakes already covered!)

Kids cake decorating can be done in many different styles,

BAIS RELEF, This is where we take the chosen design and cut out the basic shape from sugarpaste, then carefully placing it on top of the cake, but don’t stick it down.

Next we roll up small amounts of sugarpaste and place them underneath the cut out design, this adds texture and shape to the design, giving it a 3D effect. When you are happy with the image shape, stick down the edges with a very small amount of sugar syrup, (mix water with icing sugar to form a glue consistency), leave this to dry, then paint the image with food colourings.

 

PAINTING, if all that seems too much then just trace and paint the image directly onto the cake!

When it comes to cake decorating and painting images it is imperative that you use EDIBLE products only.

There are many different colourpastes, powders and pens available, choose the one that is best for you.

Before you paint on the actual cake, practice first on a dinner plate, this will give you a feel of the texture, colour and consistency of the colourpaste. You will have to mix colourpastes and powders with a little water and icing sugar,(I mix mine in a small dish or egg cup) as it’s best to work with small amounts to prevent the paint from drying out. if you have to leave it for any reason, cover the paint pot with cling film. If your paint mix does dry out whilst you’re using it then just dip your brush into fresh water and then back into the paint, (test the colour and consistency on the plate,

before resuming the painting on the actual cake.

 

APPLIQUET

This technique is really easy, you work small sections of the design at a time!

Take your image template and cut into sections, i.e. arms, legs, head and body. From these smaller sections, separate any changes of colour, (i.e. on a teddy bear, the arm and paw pad,). These pieces become your pattern.

Colour your sugarpaste (see icing a cake) to the desired shades, (wrap each piece separately in cling film).

Taking the main body of your design, roll out the coloured sugarpaste and place the cut-out design on top, using a sharp knife, (preferably a craft knife)  cut around the shape, then carefully lift the sugarpaste and position on top of the cake, when you are happy with it, and have left enough room for the other pieces of the design, stick into place with sugar syrup. Repeat this process with all of the pieces like assembling a jig-saw puzzle. Smooth out any rough edges and joins.

 

LAYERED APPLIQUET

This method for cake decorating follows the same principles as above but you build the image up by starting with a base cut-out of the whole image, lay and stick this into position on the cake using the sugar syrup, then cut out the next largest part of the image and place this on top of the first and stick into position, repeat this for all pieces of the image, smooth out any rough edges.

EMBOSSING

You can simply emboss the chosen image onto the cake; firstly trace the image onto the cake, using a blunt pointed tool, i.e. (the tip of a fine paintbrush or the back edge of a knife) follow the trace lines and gently indent the image into the cake, when you are happy with the outline, paint the different sections with colourpaste,

PIPING

If you want to try piping your design onto the cake, you can follow the directions for embossing, but instead of paint filling, use a piping bag with a star nozzle, and pipe coloured buttercream into the different sections, (practice on a plate at piping the little star shapes) to make up the design.

WRITING

To write Happy Birthday etc. on the cake, you can simply use a food pen and write directly onto the cake, if you don’t feel confident doing this free hand, then trace out the design onto the cake first.

PIPING WRITING

Firstly, trace your design onto the cake, then with either royal icing, or piping gels, (available in most supermarkets)carefully pipe over the traced design. If you are using coloured royal icing on a white based cake then use a number 2 nozzle and pipe the design in white icing first, allow this to dry and then using a number 1 nozzle, pipe the coloured icing on top, this eliminates the risk of the colours running into the cake topping, and enables you to correct any mistakes easily.

I hope you find this information useful, and for more on other cake related tips and instruction, then click here.

Filed under: cake decorating techniques

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