If you’re looking to begin creating cakes, whether it be birthday cakes for your family or acquaintances, or later perhaps clients, the amount of information and cake materials available aren’t easy to navigate. There is no need to be overwhelming, and it does not have to cost a fortune.
For getting started with making cakes, there’s no have to invest a lot of cash. This is one of the advantages of this kind of hobby. You’ll only need a few basic supplies to start. In this blog I’ll demonstrate how you can start decorating cakes with these basic cake supplies.
The supplies listed are not in any specific order, however they’re all reasonably priced. Some of these supplies can be bought with coupons at your local craft shop.
These are all fairly basic If you’re just getting started and aren’t sure how to reduce the number of options available, these items will provide you with the foundation you need to build on.
Piping Bags:
Okay, there are plenty of different kinds of piping bags. These include disposable and reusable. They are also available in various sizes.
The bags I use most often are the disposable 12” bags. They can hold a ton of icing into them and not have to clean them up since they’re disposable. Really, I don’t enjoy taking out the icing bags.
Tips for icing:
You could take a wild rabbit trail for hoarders of icing tips. It could just be a little admission from me. The majority of my tips for icing are ones I do not even use yet, yet I’m obsessed with these.
In the beginning it’s not necessary to be a maniac. The tricks I use most often are those from Wilton 1m as well as Wilton 2D. These are huge pipes tips that allow you to employ in many different methods.
They are a great tool to pipe rosettes onto cakes.
Gel Food Color:
This is a major issue. When you’re coloring your buttercream, don’t to use the liquid food coloring that you find at the bakery aisle. It’s simply not enough concentrated and you’ll add too many liquids to your buttercream prior to getting the desired color.
You’ll need to use gel food coloring, or some other type or concentrated color for food.
Food coloring gels can be found in small jars and in glass bottles. The jars are used by simply taking a toothpick and dipping it in the color of the gel and swirling it around in your buttercream. After that, you can mix the buttercream.
If you don’t think the hue is strong enough, make it a bit more intense by using a fresh toothpick. (You don’t want to pour buttercream that was previously used and into the color jar with gel.)
To use the bottles, squeeze a few drops or two then mix in more, if you need to.
These are SO much better than colored food dyes that are liquid.
Icing Spatulas:
I make use of two kinds of spatulas. The smaller one is ideal to spread filling on between layers of cake and also for creating texture in the buttercream. The larger size is ideal to cover the exterior part of cake.
One of my buttercream designs I love to make is a stripe method. Simply drag the tiny spatula across the cake.
It’s easy, and really will give your cake a classy appearance when you’re not spending too much time trying to create an even finish to your cake.
Buttercream Smoother:
This is an absolute must. Buttercream isn’t as smooth if you’re using an icing spatula.
You can make it semi-smooth but a buttercream smoother makes your life more enjoyable. There are many different kinds, so you’ll be tempted to try several and determine which is the best one for you.
I like the metal and plastic smoothers. They also make acrylic smoothers too. Metal smoothers are fantastic because you can make use of hot water to warm them up and then smooth them over the cake.
A Turntable
This is an essential item. It will make life so much simpler. It is a huge help in smoothing buttercream. I have two of them: the Wilton Turn Table and a Winco Turntable. I’ve heard great reviews regarding Ateco Turntable. Ateco Turntable.
If you’re just beginning your journey you should consider it’s a good idea to get the Wilton turntable is affordable, and you can typically purchase one with a discount. They’re reliable and I’m still using my turntable.
Cake Leveler:
It is possible to spend a lot for these, or simply use a big knife, or purchase the less expensive Wilton cake leveler. I usually use using the Wilton leveler. I’ve found that it performs quite well.
The most important thing is to keep the tops of your cakes to be at a level, so that as you stack them there will be no leaning.
Mini Level:
This is a bit odd, but hear me out. This is one of my top decorating tools.
When you’ve laid out your cakes, put the cake board with a cardboard on top, and then apply the level to ensure the cake isn’t sagging. This is particularly important when you’re stacking the tiers.
I also love using this technique in my cheater method to get a silky smooth buttercream frosting in my desserts.
Non-Slip Liner:
It’s not a good idea, I know however, non-slip liner is an absolute necessity. It’s actually that shelf liner.
Cut squares or circles from it, and place it on the turntable. and then place your cake (on the cake’s own board) on top. It stops the cake from falling over you.
It can also be used to transport your cupcakes and cakes. Place it in your car, and it’ll stop cupcake boxes from moving about.
White Candy Melts:
After you’ve put a non-stick lines on the turntable to stop the cake’s board from slipping around It’s time to put something on the cake board itself in order to prevent the cake from sliding about.
What I mean by this is A few people prefer to apply a small amount of buttercream onto their cake boards prior to placing the cake’s first layer on it. I’ve discovered that it isn’t enough for me.
Buttercream is a soft cake at room temperature. I don’t want things to slide around my face while I’m decorating. I certainly don’t want the cake to slide around on the board when I’m transferring it.
Here’s how I do it to do it: Melt a tiny quantity of candy melts in white (if you’re making a the chocolate version, then you could make use of chocolate candy melts). Scoop a tiny amount of candy melts melted into the bottom of your cake board, and then place the cake’s first layer on top of that.
Allow it to set up a little in the fridge. The cake will no longer fall over on you.
It is also possible to use candy melts to attach your cake with decorations to the cake base (the the presentation board).
Cake Boards:
This leads the next tip…cake boards. There are a lot of choices here, but I would prefer plain cardboard cake round with a thin wax coating or the cake board made of foam.
I prefer the standard cardboard cake round for cakes that are smaller and also the 1/4 inch foam boards for larger cakes or cakes that are going to be covered with fondant.
I utilize 1/2 inch foam board for the presentation boards at the bottom as well as cover them with fanci foil, fondant or scrapbook paper by contact papers.
Delicious Recipes:
You must also have some great recipes. Yes, it’s obvious but it really can make a big difference.
If you are certain that the recipe is likely to be a success and that people will be delighted and you’re confident about it, you’ll have less to be concerned about. If you’re not careful in decorating…you’ll still get a fantastic tasting cake. I’m sure that we ALL make mistakes when it comes to cake decorating.
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