Cake Decorating: An Art Form or Baking?

Picture from www.wilton.com

Watching shows like Cake Boss, Amazing Wedding Cakes and Ace of Cakes has always made me wonder if I could actually bake and decorate a fancy cake. A lot of the cake designs and shapes seem more like an art form than actual baking. I myself do not have a culinary degree and enjoy baking as a hobby. These shows made me question if I could actually bake and decorate cakes like these. I decided to do some research to see if regular bakers like use can make cakes like these and what tools we need to make them.

Sugar sheets are colorful, flexible and edible baking paper. All you have to do is peel, punch out or cut the design you want and position it on the cake. Individually packaged, sugar sheets come in reusable airtight containers. When exposed to air, sugar sheets start to dry so you need to work quickly with the designs you are creating. The one problem I have with these is they run about $4.00 for one sheet, which is costly.

Edible frosting sheets can be placed in your printer and print just like paper. Once printed, you place the paper on your cake and watch it absorb into your frosting.  It should leave a flawless image. They come in a pack of 24 and cost about $28.00, but may run a little higher for the larger sizes. You will also need to buy an edible ink cartridge that has a $90.00 fee.

Calculating in tax and a shipping and handling fee to your purchase, I think the sugar sheets may be a better option. The ink cartridges are not compatible with all printers and with a lot more frosting sheets than you need, it could end up going to waste. 

Fondant, an icing like substance, is often used to decorate and sculpt designs like figurines, musical instruments and buildings. Due to the rise in television cake shows that use fondant, it has become an increasingly popular way to decorate cakes. It is also viewed as easier to use and allows the baker to be more imaginative than using regular icing. There are several recipes to make fondant, or you can buy it or order it from your local craft store or home goods store (see below for links).

A rose made of fondant

To put figurines musical instruments and buildings on your cake, you will need to use small amounts of edible glue. You can make your own edible glue, but it needs to be prepared the day before to allow the glue to chill over night.

A trip to your local craft store or home goods store will have a variety of tools, such as decorating bags, decorating tips and stencils, and books about cake decorating to guide you in creating a unique cake.

Below are a few websites that provide cake decorating supplies. You can always type what you are looking for into one of the numerous search engines and see what comes up.

http://www.wilton.com/store/site/department.cfm?dc=4&killnav=1

http://www.cakedecoratingforless.com

www.michaels.com

http://www.kitchenkrafts.com/category.asp?c=100000&sid=GOOGLE&TID=GL9120009&ne_ppc_id=1099&ne_key_id=11179529&ne_sadid=5901952694&gclid=CKae88LrmakCFUiA5QodUxAlvg