Cake Decoration Mistakes

Friday, 2nd April, 2010       Posted in Articles |No Comments »

Image courtesy of striatic

A beautiful cake with good decoration will look like art. On the other hand, when you are under stress, there is a high chance that you might make mistakes and spoil your cake. In order not to make mistakes, you need to be aware of the common mistakes. Some mistakes are possible to fix so don’t give up hope just yet.
You need to plan ahead before the cooling process so that everything is settled when you want to start on decorations. Ensure that time is on your side when doing decorations as some decorations also need time to set.

For a start, you will need the best base available. You can flatten out the cake with jam, frosting or cut the cake down if the cake sank. In order to prevent the frosting from pulling up crumbs, you should layer the icing on the cake first. Add the main layer only when it has set.

If the icing on the cake is thin, it may crack and tear. Hence, you will need a lot of frosting or icing. Fondant can buckle around the base, but if you are fast, you can mend this by lifting the icing or re-moistening the sides of the cake. You can then tie a ribbon around the cake to hide the problem when the fondant has already set.

You have to be extremely cautious with your ingredients especially when making your own icing. If you substitute white chocolate for milk or fat for butter, the results may be runnier and takes a longer time to spread. Also know that white chocolate melts faster than other types of chocolate.

Gradually add coloring to your icing as you might end up with a bright red rather than a pale pink. You also must remove the coloring off your hands immediately in order that your other cake decorations will not be affected.

When writing in icing, remember to evenly space your letters. Make sure that the messages are correctly spelled. Color from the writing icing can also leech onto the base icing over time. Sometimes, the usage of a thicker nozzle can hide this. To prevent leeching, you can also use a colorfast fondant icing or do the writing only at the final moment. This will give the icing no time to leech.

Before serving, it is important for you to keep your cake in a cool and safe place. A refrigerator is a good place to store your cake. This is so that your decoration will not melt. Insects like ants will be also away. If your cake does not fit into a tin, try using the lid as a plate. Then put the body of the tin over it to act as the lid. This way, when you want to get the cake out, you just simply need to remove the tin. However, just remember not to turn the tin the right way up when removing the cake from your safe place as this might result in a disaster.