Essential Cake Decorating Tools and Their Uses

Many individuals do not delve into the field of cake decorating. It’s also one of those things that once started, you can’t seem to quit!

Cake decorating may be quite intricate and is sometimes regarded an art form in certain areas. Cake decorating is a completely different thing for me than it is for you or your next-door neighbor. It may range from basic and classic to grandiose and excessive.

Cake decorating is the process of taking a cake from start to completion and everything in between.

This may range from just putting some frosting on top of a cake and calling it a day to crafting a masterpiece, such as you may have seen on cake decorating programs or contests. Think cake towers with exquisite fondant designs and outlandish themes.

So, what are the fundamentals? To help you started, here are some typical cake decorating equipment and their fundamental purposes.

Trays and Wheels

If you’re new to cake decorating, there are a few basics you should know. It all begins with your intended goal.

Chances are, if you’re interested in decorating a cake, you’re doing it for a purpose (i.e., you’ll be sharing it with at least one other person rather than consuming it alone), which implies you’ll be concerned about how it’s presented. That is, what will you be serving your cake on?

Cake trays come in handy here. They make a significant impact in the completed product’s mobility, quality, and ease of decoration.

Cake trays may be flat and basic for plating or more elaborate for display. The former resembles Wilton cake circles, which are normally disposable.

These are sometimes used in combination with a cake wheel, which is similar to a pottery wheel in that once you have fastened your cake to your disposable tray (typically with a few swipes of icing), you may attach it to your cake wheel. The function of the cake wheels is to keep your cake stable as you spin it around and uniformly frost it.

Make sure you purchase a size that isn’t overly big, yet big enough to fit all of your future tasks.

Cake Levelers

Of course, the most important aspect of cake decorating is how you frost them. Without icing, your cake is just unadorned. The next step is to decide how you want your cake to appear.

What are you hoping to achieve? If you’re just starting out, it can be best to start simply and gradually increase your knowledge and talents rather of diving right into, say, fondant decorating.

Back in the early 2000s, it was quite acceptable to bring a single sheet cake that wasn’t separated and was simply frosted in one layer. Nowadays, the usual is a tower cake created in circular pans that is either split and divided or stacked on top of one another.

If you’re just placing one cooked round on top of the next and aren’t concerned about how the interior of your cake appears, don’t worry about it, but if you want smooth, clean, and symmetrical lines, you’ll need to invest in a leveler.

Levelers are useful equipment for cutting through cooled cake smoothly and evenly. They are put against the counter (or whatever surface you are working with) while the wire or thin cutter is moved back and forth to cut through the cake at an angle that is absolutely perpendicular to the surface you are working with. Professional cake makers use this method to get perfectly equal layers.

You may also use them to remove the spherical hump that forms in the center of round cakes after they have risen in the oven.

Spatulas and Smoothers

You’ll need equipment to put on that delicious frosting to hold your layers together now that you’ve got your wheel and precisely cut cake circles. Without an icing spatula, no baking cupboard (or drawer, or cabinet) is complete.

This simple tool spreads frosting far better than any knife or other utensil; you won’t be tempted to use anything else!

There is no substitute for a decent spatula, and it is worthwhile to invest in one or a few varied sizes that may be used in a variety of applications. Don’t ask me about the science, but believe me when I say they were created to perform what they do and are well worth it.

You can (and should) use the frosting spatula to frost your final cake (particularly if you make an initial crumb coat, which is usually suggested), but you may desire a smoother finish on your frosting, and here is where things get exciting!

While the cake is still on the wheel, use a frosting smoother to slide your stacked frosting into a smooth, uniform finish. These are available in a variety of textures and may be used to create patterns in your completed project. It’s useful to have a variety of smoothers with different textures so you may experiment with your designs.

To make gorgeous waves, try sliding your textured frosting smoother up and down while rotating your cake.

Frosting Tips

You may like the traditional appearance and want to end here, but most people are more interested in frosting suggestions. When most people think of cake decorating, these are the first things that spring to mind. They are available in a wide range of sizes, shapes, and patterns.

While not required, frosting tips are used to pipe icing embellishments onto your cake in whatever way you desire! Frosting tips may be used create pipe siding, letters, flowers, and anything else you can think of.

Frosting bags and plastic couplers (to bind your tip to your bag) are also required when using frosting tips. Consider purchasing a beginning package that contains everything you need.

Looking at the hundreds of different tips and deciding what impact you want and how to get it might be daunting. This article on piping tips on ninerbakes.com provides a nice fundamental introduction to icing tips and the numerous styles they may produce.

When you set your mind to it, there is no limit to what you can build!

Now that you’ve mastered the fundamental decorating tools and their applications, check out these cake baking techniques to take your baking to the next level. You’ll be producing fun and professional-looking cakes in no time with a little patience and imagination!