You've seen the shows: Cake Boss, Ace of Cakes. They make cakes with the most intricate shapes and designs, including football fields, typewriters, as well as towering layer cakes. You would love to be able to create those masterpieces but you think it's too difficult. Good news: it's not. Cake decorating, though you'll have to practice, can be easy! Check out this guide and we'll give you some advice on how to start.
Essential Tools
Icing
In addition to being used for frost a cake, icing can be used to create decorations. Buttercream and royal icing are two of the most popular choices.
Both buttercream and royal icing both use confectioner's sugar as a base. However, buttercream, as the name suggests, includes butter, while royal icing uses egg whites. Also note that royal icing dries hard as rock so watch your teeth if you want to eat one of those royal icing flowers.
Also, be warned that royal icing will break down if it becomes wet. For that reason, you'll want to be careful when placing it on frosting with a lot of grease (like buttercream) or placing it in a refrigerator. Once removed from the refrigerator the royal icing can sweat and break down. For these reasons, royal icing is best used on rolled fondant.
