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Sweet Treats: Your Guide To Cake Toppings & Decorations
Cakes are an integral part of a dessert table or celebration. Other desserts such as cupcakes and cookies also bring an element of style to the table. These desserts also instantly elevate the mood when brought out at picnics or other social gatherings. A lot of time and effort is put into baking sweet treats, however it's the baked creations that draw intrigue and help to make your baked creations appear to look as good as they taste.
Each type of topping material has its own consistency and malleability that suits different textures and styles of decorations for your cake, depending on what you're trying to achieve. Knowing the tools of your trade - the many cake decorating supplies available - could be the difference between a masterpiece... or a 'disasterpiece'.
Quick Links
- The Icing On The Cake
- The Power Of Cremes, Fillings & Powders
- Simple (But Effective) Cake Toppings
- Elegance With Lustre And Isomalt
- Celebrate With Message Cake Toppers
- Image Cake Toppers For a Personal Flair
- Artificial Foliage Cake Toppers
Delicious Cake Decorations To Elevate Your Cake
Before you go wild with some amazing cake decoration, take a moment to consider the toppings - fondants, icings, pastes and colourings - you have at your disposal to decorate your baked goods.
The Icing On The Cake
A classic when it comes to cake decorations, icing can be used for a range of features including writing messages or creating stunning shapes and patterns.
Our Favourite Types of Cake Icing
Icing | |
Soft, luscious and silky, buttercream icing is ideal for piping onto cakes, cupcakes or cookies. Use a shaped piping nozzle to create a beautiful, decorative flourish. Apply buttercream icing to your cake with a palette knife or spatula, and then use a decorating or cake turntable to ensure even coverage. Buttercream is available in pre-coloured and plain white options. | |
Royal Icing | Hardening into a stiff and sugary shape, royal icing is also great for creating solid decorations - think of the intricate details on a gingerbread house or a crispy cover on Christmas biscuits. You can thin your royal icing by mixing in extra lemon juice or water, and use the thinned out mixture to 'flood' surfaces. |
Gel Icing | Typically available in a tube or a top, gel icing can be used alongside a piping bag, similar to icing tubes and pens. The difference is the consistency - gel icing provides a smooth and shiny finish, while icing tubes and pens have a matte texture. |
Donut Icing | A specialised glaze, donut icing coats the top of a donut for that characteristic sheen and thick, sugary texture that we all associate with the look of traditional donuts. |
What is Fondant and How to Use it?
Soft and flexible, fondant is a type of icing that can be rolled flat into a perfectly smooth surface on a fondant mat, and then used to cover or wrap a whole cake. You can also cut shapes out of your fondant using special fondant moulds that you press into the fondant, like cookie cutters.
Fondant moulds come in a huge variety of shapes - leaves, flowers, bows, stars, animals... so much to choose from! But, if you've got something particularly unique in mind, you can always use a fondant cutting tool for your own custom design, perfect for creating extra decorations to match your party theme.
While fondant is available in pre-coloured or plain white options, once it's covering your cake, you can use a paintbrush and edible, food-grade paint (or even edible gold leaf for something super-luxurious) for additional colours, illustrations and decorations.
The Power Of Cremes, Fillings & Powders
Thinking of decorations for your cakes is an easy party. It's putting your ideas and practice and working on how to make sure they stay in place that can prove to be a difficult feat. Thankfully, specialist ingredients come to the rescue to help you out. Powders such as CMC powders work to thicken your icing to allow you to manipulate the icing into the design of your choice.
Simple (But Effective) Cake Toppings - Sprinkles, Cachous & Pearls
A classic decoration option for cakes, sprinkles are relatively easy to decorate with. For a relaxed and low maintenance approach, the application of this decoration lies within its name - simply sprinkle the contents over your cake. With a range of types available, you'll be able to find sprinkles that coordinate with your colour scheme.
In learning how to put sprinkles on the side of a cake, consider incorporating a cake turntable for easy movement, turning the turntable as you decorate the cake.
More Elegant Edible Cake Decorations
Offering an alternative to traditional cake decorations of icing and sprinkles, you can create breathtaking works of art with the likes of lustre and isomalt as well as icing flowers and other edible decorations.
How To Use Lustre Dust
This cake decoration is made from an edible shimmering powder that instantly brightens any baked treat. Using cake decorating brushes, you can apply lustre dust over your cake for an easy and sparkling finishing touch. You can also use rose spirit to turn the dust into a paint-like formula that allows you to create stunning designs. Typically available in gold and silver colour tones, it's perfect for cakes, cupcakes, cookies and other desserts.
Isomalt
For those wanting to incorporate an artistic flair into baked treats, consider challenging your creative skills with isomalt. This is a type of crystalized sugar that when combined with water and heated melts down so that you can mould into the design of your choice. You may add food colouring to give it a colourful tint. Isomalt can also be used to create edible shards with a glass-like appearance that add height and texture to your baked creations.
Icing Flowers and Decorations
For beautiful ready to use cake decorations, choose convenient icing flowers and decorations from the range at Spotlight. Add charm to your baked creations with edible icing flowers and other edible decorations to suit your theme!
Stunning, Decorative Cake Toppers To Celebrate In Style
Learning how to make cake decorations may be tricky and time consuming. However, we often forget that cake decorations are not limited to simply edible ornaments. They can also include artistic cake toppers that help you celebrate in style. From large and vibrant cake toppers to more subtle decorative additions, these can be easily displayed in a store bought cake, perfect for those new to the world of baking or for looking for an easy and last minute decorative option.
Message Cake Toppers
Often we use cake toppers to display a particular message. These types of cake toppers are great for sticking to the overall event you're celebrating. One of the most common is 'Happy Birthday' for birthday parties. Traditionally, wedding cake toppers feature two figurines to resemble the married couple, however in more recent years, wedding cake toppers with messages such as 'Just Married' or 'Mr and Mrs' for example have become much more popularised.
Image Cake Toppers
Particularly a great last minute decorative option, these types of cake decorations usually feature printed photos of animated characters and are an excellent decoration for kids birthday parties. When displayed on cupcakes, they work to create either a variety of designs as well as offer a coordinating collection of desserts. These types of cake decorations will often follow the theme of the party to tie in the dessert with the event being celebrated.
Artificial Foliage Cake Toppers
Create lively cake decorations with artificial flowers and leaves. These types of cake toppers please any nature inspired aesthetic, and instantly infuse a sense of elegance into your decorations. They help save time limiting the preparation the edible cake flowers may take to make while also being able to withstand longer periods of time. You can purchase these artificial decorations in advance to have you prepared for when the time comes to decorate your cake.
Cake Candles And Sparklers
When celebrating birthdays, of course candles are a necessity. From traditional number candles to playful character themed candles, they are of course the number one decoration people consider when shopping for cake decorations. Candles are not just limited to birthday celebrations. Candles such as sparklers may be used for other celebrations such as weddings and baby showers. They can be used for a fun and artistic touch to cakes and cupcakes.
Shop Birthday Candles And Sparklers
Our Cake Decorating Tips
Cake decorating can be both therapeutic and challenging at the same time. Some tips for a seamless cake decorating experience include:
- Combine both edible cake decorations and decorative cake toppers for a stunning display
- Use edible glue to help keep your fondant designs together and sitting on top of your culinary creations
- Invest in a sturdy cake board. This helps to keep your cake stabilised when decorating - limiting room for error.
Discover More Cake Decorating Ideas and Products at Spotlight
Whether you're DIY-ing a birthday cake to celebrate with your loved ones or on cupcake duty for your next picnic, Spotlight has you covered when it comes to decorating your baked treats. You can learn more about cake decorating by reading through our Cake Decorating Tools Buying Guide or by checking out our collection of cake and confectionary projects.
Free Cake & Confectionery Projects
From edible cake decorations to artistic cake toppers, shop our extensive baking and chocolate making range and find everything you need to add the perfect finishing touch to your culinary creations.
