A real recipe for Napoleon with custard. Napoleon cake recipe classic with custard

Anyone can prepare a delicious cake for the holiday. Finding an interesting recipe nowadays is also not a problem. All that remains is to do everything according to the instructions and the luxurious confectionery product is ready to be served on the festive table. Although... a birthday cake without decoration is like a beautiful lady at a party in a dressing gown. Therefore, no matter how wonderful a homemade cake is, it must be properly decorated.

Decorating a cake at home requires certain skills. Therefore, before preparing and decorating a culinary masterpiece for a big celebration, it makes sense to practice a little on simple confectionery products. After all, no one bothers you to decorate homemade cookies prepared on a regular day off.
It is equally important to think through the composition in advance, otherwise unforeseen difficulties may arise during the design process.
It's a good idea to stock up on some pastry decorating tools as well. Of course, the inquisitive collective mind of the almighty Internet will find a way to do without them, using an ordinary spoon or fork; you will also find master classes on this dyeing option below. But if you plan to decorate cakes at a certain frequency, then it’s better to simplify your task. Well, now it’s time to talk directly about the means and methods of decorating homemade cakes.

Decorating a homemade cake with cream

Cream is one of the most famous and popular ways to decorate a cake. It’s not for nothing that most store-bought confectionery products are decorated with numerous rosettes, cream borders and other buttery trinkets.

Buttercream recipe

Making real pastry cream based on butter is a rather tricky process. If you wish, of course you can tinker, but such physical and financial costs are completely inappropriate for decorating a homemade cake. It is fashionable to prepare high-quality and simple buttercream from just two ingredients:

butter– 100 g;
condensed milk– 5 tablespoons.

A detailed step-by-step recipe for preparing a simple buttercream for decorating a homemade cake with photos. To prepare the cream, the butter must be taken out of the refrigerator in advance. When it becomes soft, beat it thoroughly with a mixer. When the butter becomes fluffy, you need to pour condensed milk into it and continue whisking until it becomes homogeneous and airy. The simplest cream for decorating a home masterpiece is ready. By the way, to prepare it you can use not only regular condensed milk, but also its boiled version. In this case, the cream will acquire a pleasant beige hue and taste like classic creme brulee.

Natural homemade food colors

Of course, decorating a cake exclusively with white cream is boring. And to color the creamy treat, you can use any food coloring. They can be purchased in the store in the form of powders, or you can prepare them yourself, for example:

a little saffron diluted in a small amount of water will make the mastic yellow;
juices of beets or cherries - red;
carrot juice - orange;
spinach broth - green;
cocoa - brown.

The cream is quite easy to work with. It is better, of course, to use a special syringe with different attachments for decoration. With this tool you can draw real masterpieces on confectionery products. However, you can get by with a regular packaging bag or a bag rolled out of paper with a neatly cut corner. When you press the bag, the cream is evenly squeezed onto the surface of the cake. With practice, even with the help of such a primitive tool, you can decorate any cake with borders, inscriptions, and roses with petals.
After decorating the surface of the cake is completed, the dessert must be put in the refrigerator so that the cream hardens a little. And it’s also better to store leftover cake in the refrigerator. In this case, the cream will be edible for at least three days.

Homemade frosting recipes

Another wonderful and most importantly simple way to decorate a homemade cake is icing. You can make the glaze with just three ingredients on hand:

powdered sugar– 3 tablespoons;
milk- 1 tablespoon;
butter– 50 g.

Melt the butter over low heat in a crust and let it cool slightly. Then add the sugar ingredient to the butter and stir well. Then add milk and mix everything again. The finished mixture is white milk icing for decorating a homemade cake. It can be spread on the surface of the biscuit and allowed to harden.

You can also make chocolate glaze. Only the proportions of the products should be slightly different:

powdered sugar– 3 tablespoons;
milk- 2 tablespoons;
butter– 30 g;
cocoa- 1 tablespoon.

Mix cocoa powder with powdered sugar. Pour milk into the resulting mixture, mix well again and put on fire. When the mixture boils, remove the crust from the heat and stir in the butter. The chocolate glaze is ready to be applied to the cake.

You can also make a real confectionery glaze - ganache. This is a denser version of this “finishing” material. And to prepare it you need to take:

chocolate– tiles (180-200 g);
butter– 50-70 g.

To get ganache, just melt the chocolate and mix it with melted butter.

Decorating a cake with fondant at home

This is not to say that this is a very simple way to decorate cakes. However, with a certain skill and enough practice, you can use mastic to make real works of art from your confectionery products.

Mastic is a sweet, plastic mass, its characteristics somewhat reminiscent of plasticine. You can cut out various figures from it, or you can simply “cover” the entire cake with it, decorating it on top in some original way. Volumetric compositions from mastic can also be made as decoration for a homemade cake, but when drying they can begin to crumble, so it is better to use other “materials” for this.

Pastry mastic recipe

Many recipes for making mastic have been invented. However, the easiest way to make milk mastic at home is. For this you will need:

condensed milk– 200 g;
powdered milk– 150 g;
powdered sugar– 150 g;
lemon juice- for revision.

Mix powdered sugar and milk powder thoroughly. Then gradually pour condensed milk into the mixture, kneading the dough. The result should be a homogeneous, elastic mass. It should be noted right away that the amount of dry products indicated is approximate. If the resulting mass sticks to your hands, then you should add a little more powder to it. It also happens the other way around: the dough does not want to stick and crumbles in your hands, then you will need to pour 1-2 teaspoons of lemon juice into it. And a few more words about the ingredients. For mastic, you should use the finest powdered sugar. Moreover, this product must be sifted through a sieve. This guarantees a high-quality end result.

The resulting mastic is almost white in color. To sculpt colored figures from it to decorate a homemade cake, you need to add food coloring to the mixture. They have already been mentioned in the description of making mastic. Working with mastic is quite simple. A ball of “dough” is rolled out on a surface covered with starch or powdered sugar, after which the canvas can be placed on the cake to “cover it” or decorative elements can be cut out of it. Some confectioners advise rolling out the mastic between two regular packaging bags. In principle, this is also possible. You can connect several mastic elements by slightly moistening the gluing areas with plain water.

It is worth warning that mastic should not be used to cover sponge cakes soaked in syrup or sour cream. This impregnation will easily dissolve all decorations. There are no other serious restrictions on the use of this material. The remaining mastic after decorating the cake should not be thrown away. It stores well in the refrigerator, provided that the material is tightly wrapped in two or three ordinary plastic bags.

Marzipan for decorating the cake

Marzipan can be an excellent option for decorating a homemade cake. This material can be used to cover the surface and make a wide variety of decorative elements from it.
What is marzipan? This name hides a delicate-tasting and elastic nut mass, perfect for decorating a homemade cake. You can probably buy it ready-made in confectionery stores. However, you can make marzipan yourself. To do this you only need to purchase:

almond- cup;
granulated sugar- cup;
water- a quarter glass.

Peel the nuts and fry on a dry baking sheet in the oven until golden brown. Grind the finished kernels in a blender or grate on a fine grater. Boil a thick syrup from sugar and water and pour ground nuts into it. Stir the mixture well and cook for 3 minutes. Pour the mixture into a bowl generously greased with butter and let cool. Remove the finished marzipan from the bowl, pass through a meat grinder and you can start decorating the cake.
Working with marzipan is as easy as working with mastic. A “lump” of material is rolled out, after which it is used to cover the top of the cakes or cut out figures and other elements from it. If the marzipan spreads when rolled out, add powdered sugar to it and knead thoroughly. If the product, on the contrary, is too dense, then it should be sprinkled with warm water. After this procedure, it will roll out much easier.
What you should not forget is that marzipan needs some time to harden properly. So confectionery creativity should be done in advance - no less than 8 hours before taking the culinary masterpiece to the guests.

Icing

Icing or ice pattern is another great way to decorate a homemade cake. This technique is usually used in the confectionery industry when decorating wedding cakes. However, no one bothers you to decorate a cake with icing, for example: for New Year's Eve.
Icing is rightfully considered a universal method of decoration, since such patterns do not spread and adhere well to any confectionery surface. This decoration looks like an ice pattern on glass. To make this decoration you will need to take:

powdered sugar– 500 g (usually it takes a little more);
egg whites- 3 pcs.;
lemon juice– 3 teaspoons;
glycerol– 1 teaspoon.

First, all the ingredients need to be cooled. Then carefully crack the eggs, separate the whites from the yolks and place in a clean, fat-free bowl. The last procedure can be carried out by simply wiping the inside of the dish with a slice of lemon.
Beat the egg whites with a mixer at the lowest speed. There is no need to beat for a long time - two minutes is enough. Now you can add the remaining ingredients to the whites and continue beating the mixture until it turns white. Cover the bowl with the prepared “ice” mass with film and put it in the refrigerator for an hour. During this time, all the formed bubbles should burst. Ready! However, it will not be possible to work with this material without special equipment. You will have to purchase a pastry syringe with special attachments.
The icing needs to be transferred into a syringe. In this case, you need to put the narrowest nozzle on the tool. This material can be used to draw lace, make various inscriptions, decorate borders, etc. The only limitation is that the surface of the confectionery product should not be sticky or prone to dripping. But the icing fits perfectly on mastic or hard glaze.

Waffle decoration for homemade cake

Wafers are a good material for decorating a homemade cake. There is no limit to the scope for imagination here. With the right skill, you can make a portrait or draw a magnificent still life on a wafer plate. Of course, this should be done exclusively with food coloring. You can also make any three-dimensional elements for decoration from a waffle plate.
One thing is bad. Regular waffle cakes are not very suitable for such purposes. They get wet or break. So you will have to purchase special wafer paper. It is produced in two types. More dense - it is good just for applying images (often sold with an image already applied) and very thin - it can be cut into parts. However, such confectionery delights cannot be purchased in every locality. Therefore, it’s easier to make do with regular waffle cake.
It’s worth starting with the fact that cutting such a workpiece to give the desired shape should only be done with a very sharp knife. It is also advisable to soak it in warm water. Otherwise, the waffles will simply crumble.
After applying the design, the cake layer should be carefully placed on the surface of the cake. Just to begin with, this very surface needs to be made perfectly smooth. Materials such as mastic or thick glaze are perfect for leveling. To prevent the waffle layer from sliding off, the back side of the cake must be greased with something sticky. Thick sugar syrup, jam or honey are perfect for this purpose.
In order to apply the “glue” the cake must be placed on a smooth surface. The sticky layer must be applied evenly to the surface using a special brush. If you don’t have such a tool at home, you can even out the adhesive mass with a spoon.
The prepared waffle cake should be placed on the cake, covered with a napkin and carefully leveled, squeezing out the air inside. The edges of this design can be decorated with cream or whipped cream.
Do the same with figures cut out of waffles. They are lubricated on one side with an adhesive substance and placed in the desired place. Three-dimensional figures can also be assembled from waffle parts. For example, you can make the body and antennae of a butterfly from cream, and stick wings made from waffles nearby.

Homemade chocolate for cake decoration

Chocolate is the most affordable material for decorating a homemade cake. You can buy it in any store, and working with sweet tiles does not require any complex tools.
The simplest way to decorate a cake with chocolate is to sprinkle it with shavings. To do this, you can simply grate the chocolate and sprinkle it over the entire surface of the cream-smeared cake. With a little more effort, you can make a pattern or inscription out of chocolate chips. To do this, you first need to cut out a stencil of the desired design from paper, apply it to the surface of the confectionery masterpiece, and then sprinkle it evenly with chocolate chips. When the stencil is removed, only the desired image will remain on the cream surface. Of course, the choice of chocolate in this case depends on the background color. A regular chocolate pattern looks good on a light cream, while a pattern of white chocolate chips will look contrasting on a brown cream.
The topping can be made more interesting if the chocolate is not grated, but cut into thin chips using a regular vegetable cutter. The resulting curls look very impressive, being a wonderful decoration in themselves.

Chocolate is also good because it can be melted. Many culinary publications write that chocolate bars should be turned into a liquid mass in a steam bath. In fact, this is not entirely correct. It is better to melt the chocolate over low heat in a saucepan, stirring it constantly. In extreme cases, you can use a microwave. But in a pore bath, the chocolate will absorb some of the condensation and it will no longer be possible to make a normal pattern from it. But it's time to get back to decorating.
The resulting chocolate mass can be put into a culinary syringe and used to draw a wide variety of patterns. To make the pattern openwork, you need to choose the thinnest attachment for the tool. If you don’t have a syringe at hand, it doesn’t matter. You can put the chocolate mass into a regular packaging bag, make a small hole in it with a darning game and start decorating the cake.
However, you should not paint directly on the surface of the confectionery product. It is better to first apply the desired design on parchment paper or foil, and then trace the contours of the design with liquid chocolate mass. The sheet with the applied pattern must be carefully transferred to the refrigerator to harden. After some time, the base must be carefully separated from the chocolate patterns, and the resulting pieces must be placed on the prepared surface of the cake.
To create such decorations, you can use not only paper or foil. An excellent decoration for a cake can be made by pouring melted chocolate over a clean tree leaf. Then the blanks must also be sent to the refrigerator, and then the natural leaf must be separated from the chocolate leaf. By the way, it is better to apply chocolate to the back side of the leaf, then the real “veins” will be visible on the decorative leaf.
Using special stencil molds from chocolate, you can cut out a wide variety of figures. To do this, pour the melted chocolate mass onto a cold baking sheet greased with butter and level it with a knife. When the mass has almost hardened, you can start cutting out figures with molds.
Or you can do without molds by simply cutting the chocolate layer into various geometric shapes: squares, triangles, diamonds and other “wedges”.

Whipped cream

This is also a good way to decorate a homemade cake. In principle, you can buy a can of ready-made whipped cream, but this is too banal. It’s better to make your own whipped cream, especially since it’s not at all difficult. To do this you need to take:

cream (fat content not less than 30%)– 0.5 l.

The trick to whipping cream is its temperature. For everything to work out, the dairy product must be cooled for 4-5 hours in the refrigerator. The container in which the cream will be whipped and the whisk with which this process will be carried out should also be cold. Speaking of capacity. It is better to take a larger bowl for whipping, since the cream will significantly increase in volume as you work on it.
Now about the process itself. The product must be beaten at the lowest speed for the first minute, and then it can be increased. The whole action should take 7-8 minutes. There is no need to whip longer, as this may cause the cream to lose all its airiness.
The classic version of whipped cream can be modified. For example, before whipping, you can dissolve sugar or powdered sugar in a dairy product (the latter is preferable). Vanillin or vanilla sugar will give whipped cream a pleasant aroma. You can add any food coloring to the cream. Then the finished cream will become colored.
Some sources suggest adding gelatin to it. However, you shouldn't do this. Whipped cream holds its shape perfectly, but it needs to be placed on a slightly sticky surface. Otherwise, the decoration may “slip”.
And working with whipped cream is just as easy as working with cream. Especially if you have a pastry syringe in the kitchen. But unlike desserts with cream, it is advisable to eat a cake with whipped cream right away. They still don't hold their shape that well.

Decorating Homemade Meringue Cakes

Meringue towers look very impressive on any cake. Of course, you can’t decorate a cake with crispy hemispheres alone. This decoration should be placed on a surface greased with cream, glaze or at least jam. You can prepare meringue at home if you have:

egg whites- 5 pieces.;
sugar– 250 g.

Carefully break the eggs and separate the whites from the yolks. Pour the whites into a large container and beat with a mixer until stiff foam. After this, you need to start pouring sugar into the mass. This should be done gradually - 1-2 tablespoons at a time, while continuing to beat the mixture. The mixer speed should not be too high, but it should not be too low either. In total, the entire process takes 12-15 minutes.
Place the prepared protein mass on a baking sheet covered with greased baking paper. You can spread it using a regular tablespoon or the same pastry syringe. Baking time at 100°C is approximately 1.5-2 hours, depending on the size of the meringue.

Fruits for decoration

What could be easier than decorating a homemade cake with fresh fruit or delicious pieces of fruit? Perhaps this is a rhetorical question. This design option could indeed be considered the simplest, if not for one “but”. Fruits are not very keen to fit onto the cake layers baked for them. So you can’t do without cream, glaze or jelly here either.
The choice of “substrate” largely depends on the fruit. For strawberries, simple buttercream is the best option. Not so exotic bananas go well with chocolate icing. But the safe bet, of course, is jelly. How to make it? This will be discussed below. In the meantime, a few more words about fruits.
Any variety of natural delicacies is suitable for decorating the cake. You can take fresh fruit, canned or frozen. In principle, even jam will do. After all, these are also fruits, only in processed form.
Fresh strawberries can be beautifully cut into halves and covered with them on the surface of the confectionery product. Small berries - raspberries and blackberries - can be placed whole, dividing the cake into several contrasting triangular sectors. Entire compositions can be made from exotic fruits. In short, imagination is practically unlimited here.

How to decorate a jelly cake

Now it's time to talk about how to decorate a homemade cake using jelly. Theoretically, you can buy a concentrate of this product in a store, dilute it according to the instructions and decorate the cake with it. This is even a very good option, allowing you to get a wonderful decorative element without much labor. Although in fact, jelly is not so difficult to make yourself. To do this you need to have on hand:

fruit juice– 0.6 l;
powdered sugar– 200-250 g;
instant gelatin– 1 sachet.

Let the gelatin swell in one glass of juice, then melt in a water bath. After this, pour the remaining juice into the mixture, add powder, stir everything well and put it in the refrigerator. There is no need to let the jelly harden completely. It just needs to set a little.
Place the finished cake in a springform pan so that the sides rise above the cake layers by about 30 mm. Remove the prepared jelly mass from the refrigerator and place in the mold. You can immediately put fresh fruit on the surface of the jelly and put the cake in the refrigerator for 12 hours.
What to do with the rest of the jelly? It can be put into molds and put in the refrigerator. When they have cooled a little, place them on a jelly surface that has not yet hardened.
By the way, it is not necessary to make jelly from juice alone. You can take several varieties of multi-colored fruit drinks, divide the surface of the cake into sectors and make a colorful fill. Or you can make the surface monochromatic, and put colored figures on it.

Ready-made confectionery products (sweets and marmalade)

Without much effort, you can decorate a homemade cake with ready-made sweets or marmalade. Of course, caramel or candies are not suitable for decoration. But chocolates, chocolate bars, wafer rolls and even M&M are excellent materials for decorating homemade confectionery.
The candies should be placed on a surface covered with cream or glaze. Moreover, cream is preferable because it is less sweet. Ready-made confectionery products can be used to decorate not only the surface of the cake, but also its end part. For this, for example, wafer rolls placed vertically are perfect.
You can decorate a cake in an interesting way using ready-made multi-colored marmalade. The simplest option is to lay out the surface in the form of a pattern or inscription. You can do something more cunning. Marmalade melts perfectly in the microwave in just seconds. You can work with the prepared mass in the same way as with jelly. Only the marmalade hardens faster - only 3-4 hours.
You can paint entire pictures with liquid marmalade. True, in this case it is better to cover the surface of the cake with mastic. Then, using a confectionery syringe with the thinnest nozzle and melted chocolate, you need to apply the contours of the design to the surface of the future masterpiece. When the chocolate has cooled, you can fill the corresponding places of the design with liquid marmalade of the desired color.

Sprinkles for decorating homemade cake

Well, if all the above methods seem complicated, then you can do it quite simply - sprinkle the surface of the cake with some bulk material, for example: powdered sugar, cocoa or purchased multi-colored sprinkles.
It is worth remembering that the sprinkle will not stick to a dry surface. Therefore, before you start decorating a homemade cake, its top and sides should be coated with something sticky: cream, icing or jam. The coating should be applied immediately after coating, before the “sticky” base hardens.
As a rule, no housewife has any difficulty sprinkling the top surface of the cake. But decorating the ends of a confectionery product with such material is quite problematic. But this is only if you don’t know one secret. To apply the sprinkles to the sides, you need to place the cake on a piece of fabric, sprinkle the desired material around it directly on the fabric, and then gently press the material to the side of the cake. Most of the sprinkles will stick to the sides.

A cake simply sprinkled with something will turn out delicious, but the decoration will look too boring. A stencil will help correct the situation. You can cut out any pattern or inscription from plain paper, apply it to the surface of the confectionery product and start sprinkling. When the stencil is removed, the desired design will appear on the cake.
Sprinkling can be done with more than just one material. Thanks to stencils, you can also make drawings from different contrasting materials, for example: all from the same cocoa and powdered sugar. What else can you sprinkle on the cake? Yes, basically, anything. As a “finishing material” you can use crushed nuts, cookie or waffle crumbs, instant coffee, grated chocolate, etc., etc., etc.... The main thing is that the topping is harmoniously combined with the taste of the cake.
That's all, actually. Creative success and bon appetit!

Video “Cake Decoration”

To decorate your holiday with a bright cake, you don’t have to go to the store or pastry shop to buy it. You can make it at home if you try hard enough. We will help you with this.

Cream is such a special mass from which you can prepare many different things. Today we will offer you one version of the cream, from which we will prepare excellent decorations in the form of roses.

How much time - 40 minutes.

What is the calorie content - 395 calories.

How to cook:

Place the whites in a large bowl and add acid, sugar and vanillin;
Place a pan on the stove that will hold a bowl of egg whites;
Pour water into it and boil;
Place the whites in a water bath and beat the cream for fifteen minutes;
When the whites are already elastic, remove them from the bath and beat for a few more minutes until stable peaks form;
Next, let the cream cool and add coloring if desired;
Gently mix the mixture with a spatula and place it in a pastry bag, having previously placed a “star” nozzle in it;
Decorate the finished, cooled cake with the resulting cream, squeezing out roses. To do this, start from the center and rotate your hand in two circles, sharply tearing the nozzle away from the cream so that you don’t get a tail;
Decorate the entire cake with these roses and let them harden in the refrigerator.

Tip: if the whites are not whipping well, you can add a little more lemon juice.

Mastic is similar to plasticine, both in consistency and appearance. It is colorful, soft and you can use it to do whatever your heart desires. Baking decorations included.

What is the calorie content - 34 calories.

How to cook:

Pass the powdered sugar through a sieve into a large bowl;
Add milk powder and mix well;
Pour in condensed milk and knead into an elastic mass, working with it as with regular dough;
Add lemon juice, cognac for a pleasant aroma and, if necessary, dyes;
Knead until the texture and color are uniform;
The result should be a smooth, matte mass;
Next, from the resulting mass we will form a toddler as a decoration on the cake. To do this, you need to add flesh-colored dye to the mastic;
From a piece of mastic, first make an oval in the shape and size of a small chicken egg;
Using a toothpick, make a hole just below the middle - the baby’s navel;
Insert a toothpick into this “egg” so that it stands firmly on the cake;
Take a smaller piece of mastic (but not too much) and roll it into a perfect ball;
Place it on a toothpick as a head;
Using another toothpick, make the baby's eyes;
Stretch out a smile (mouth) with the same toothpick and put dots on the corners;
Make a nose out of a small piece of mastic and flatten it;
For ears, roll two balls and place them on the sharp end of a pen or pencil (to make indentations), but do not pierce them;
Now take more mastic (a quarter of the amount for the head), roll it into a sausage and use a toothpick to make stripes at the end (fingers);
Make the second arm in the same way and attach both arms to the body;
Brush the surface of the cake with water and glue the little one.

Tip: instead of cognac, you can use another flavoring.

Fruits are the simplest and most affordable decoration for a cake. This decoration, in principle, can be considered ready-made. After all, fruits and berries need to be washed, dried, and they can immediately go on the cake.

The easiest option is to pour a whole mountain of berries or pieces of fruit directly into the center of the cake. You can lay out a “month” of the same ingredients. Both options will turn out very tasty, bright and appetizing.

But, if you try a little more, you can make something else out of fruits. For example, a hedgehog. To do this, you will need one package of toothpicks, about two dozen light grapes of the same size, two small black grapes, one large and one pear.

The pear needs to be washed, peel half of the pear with a vegetable peeler or knife on the narrow side. Pierce each white grape with a toothpick and insert it into the unpeeled part of the pear. The grapes should be adjacent to the pear, and the toothpicks should stick out like hedgehog spines.

Break two toothpicks in half and string small black grapes onto two of them and stick them into the pear as eyes. Place a large dark grape on another half and stick it in like a nose. But both the eyes and the nose should be made so that the toothpicks are not visible, unlike the back of the hedgehog.

Stick a bamboo stick into the cake and string the hedgehog onto it so as not to pierce it through. The decoration is ready!

In addition to filling the cake with icing, you can also prepare chocolate figures that will decorate your cake just as well.

Option 1

An easy and simple way to decorate a cake with something chocolatey is to buy ready-made decorations. For example, you can buy several packages of Kit Kat (not the bars, but the ones that break) and the same amount of M&M’s candies.

Surround the finished cake with Kit Kat sticks in a circle and tie them with a beautiful ribbon. And pour the sweets inside, filling the entire space to the very top.

Option 2

The second method is a web of glaze. To do this, you need to cover the cake with white or dark chocolate icing and pour a little light or, conversely, dark icing on top.

Next, use a toothpick or bamboo stick to apply any desired design. But this must be done immediately, before any of the glaze has hardened. Therefore, it would be wise not to cool the cake before this, but also not to pour water on the still warm cake. After “decorating” the cake, immediately put it in the refrigerator.

Instead of a web, you can make a spiral of icing and run a toothpick along it. This will create a whole spiral of hearts.

Option 3

For this method, you will need chocolate from the products. Besides this, you only need parchment.

First you will have to melt the chocolate, and while it is melting in the oven, microwave or on the stove, prepare a strip of parchment and place it on a flat surface (like a cutting board) that can be placed in the refrigerator. Ideally, a marble board that won’t even need to be moved in the cold.

So, then make a small envelope from another piece of parchment and pour chocolate into it. Pour the chocolate from this envelope onto a prepared sheet of paper in the form in which you want the decoration to appear. It could be a heart, a butterfly, a congratulations text, and so on. You need to use a thin ribbon so that the decoration does not float.

Tip: To make your decorations as delicious as possible, use real, high-quality chocolate.

Children most often like bright and beautiful cake decorations and often this is mastic. But, to be honest, among the decorations there may be something healthier than sugar mass. For example, you can decorate a children's cake with curd cream. It's not only healthier, it's also delicious!

How much time - 15 minutes.

What is the calorie content - 327 calories.

How to cook:

Remove the butter from the refrigerator or freezer first so that it becomes soft and easier to work with;
Cut it into cubes and place in a bowl;
Add cottage cheese and vanilla extract to it;
Using a mixer or whisk, beat the ingredients until fluffy, light, airy;
Add powder with a spoon in several stages;
Stir and beat everything again with a mixer or whisk until smooth;
Beat the mixture for three minutes.

For the first and second options, the cream must be divided into two parts. In the first case, add white dye to one part and black dye to the second. In the second case, add black and red. Next, place both creams in different bags with the desired attachments and take out the prepared, cooled cake. Start decorating the cake by squeezing small but sharp peaks all over the cake.

To help yourself, you can first use the same colored cream to draw a picture of the back of a ladybug or a soccer ball. Next, apply the cream, then put it in the refrigerator for at least two hours.

Tip: to make the cream as homogeneous as possible, it is better to first beat the cottage cheese separately with an immersion blender or pass through a sieve.

Other simple and interesting ways to decorate

Those decorations that we wrote about above are not all that can be used to decorate a cake for the holiday. In addition to this entire list, there are still a sea of options.

For example, you can use regular sprinkled sugar. To do this, you need to line the cake with cream and sprinkle with sprinkles so that there is no empty space. Imagine how bright the cake will be;
You can make a cake in the shape of a honeycomb. To do this, you need to make a soft (!) cream and place it in washed and dried bubble wrap (which everyone loves to burst), and then remove it. Do this on all sides of the cake. In this form, cool the cake in the refrigerator, and later enjoy the creation;
It has also become popular to do it a la “drops”. To do this, cover the cake with peaks of cream and smooth them with a spoon in one direction. It turns out very beautiful and original, especially if you make a transition from one color to another - you get an amber.

We have offered you more than ten options for cake decorations. Which one should I make? Now the decision is yours. Depending on what holiday you are preparing for, you can choose your decor and practice. If not the first time, then the second time everything will definitely work out. It will be bright and tasty! Good luck!

Recipes for making cream and other confectionery decorations

how to decorate a cake with fruits

30 min

140 kcal

5 /5 (6 )

Even the most delicious dessert without the correct, bright design does not give any idea about itself, does not carry any tasty urge. In this article I want to talk about an option for serving dessert that is available even to novice pastry chefs, namely, decorating cakes with fruits at home with a photo for greater clarity.

Decorating cakes with fruits: everyone is in favor of useful decoration

What are fruits? They are a source of vitamins, first of all. And for whom sweets are most often prepared at home - for the flowers of life, our children. For me the main advantage of a cake decorated with fruits and berries is the benefits for the body, unlike, for example, colored creams or sugar figures. Another plus: if you overdo it with sugar while preparing the cakes or cream, fruits or berries with a sour taste will balance out and smooth out such a mistake.

List of the best fruits for decorating cakes

Fruits are an excellent material for decorating a cake; they are inexpensive, tasty and healthy, colorful and bright. Fruits and berries have always been in harmony with the dough as a filling, why not use them in decoration.

To decorate a cake with fruit, it is advisable to choose ripe, but not overripe fruits, without cracks or stains on the skin, without dents or darkening. The most popular fruits for decorating desserts are: apples and almost all citrus fruits, bananas, peach, plum, apricot, kiwi, pears. Among the berries, confectioners prefer strawberries, blackberries, blueberries and currants (black and red). Grapes are often used in desserts.

What fruits are not suitable for decorating a cake at home?

But there is also a list of which fruits it is not advisable to decorate a cake with. Not all frozen fruit retains its color, shape and flavor once defrosted, so you need to be selective with it.

Cherries are not very suitable: firstly, because of the pit; secondly, after removing the pit, the cherry exudes juice, which colors the cream, on top of which the fruit is laid out. The same can be said about watermelon: it is too juicy to use in cakes.

Pineapple and kiwi do not allow the jelly to harden, so if you plan to fill the fruit decoration with jelly, they should be doused with boiling water before decorating. If canned fruits are used to decorate sweet dishes, the liquid must drain from them.

How to decorate a cake with fruits: step-by-step instructions

Let's look at how to decorate a cake with fruits step by step. I will be decorating a sponge cake with buttercream and chocolate fudge on top, apple, raspberries and blackberries. In order to prepare the decoration, I need the following products:

Decorating a cake with your own hands is not difficult, the main thing is that the composition does not float and the flowers, and I will make roses, do not fall apart.

Step one: I make syrup. Pour a cup (100 ml) of water into a saucepan, bring to a boil, then add 100 g of sugar. Stir the sugar until it dissolves completely and remove from the heat.

Step two: wash an apple and 100 g each of raspberries and blackberries. I scatter the berries on a towel to dry. I cut the apple in half, then into thin slices.

I dip a plate of apple in syrup and roll it into a tube, I also dip the next one and wrap it on top of the first.

The secret to how easy it is to decorate a cake with apple roses is that each “petal” covers the end of the previous one.

In addition, the “petals” are set by the syrup. One flower requires approximately five apple slices.

Step three: I place the flowers in the center of the cake. The mint leaves around them imitate rose leaves. Along the edge of the cake, it is round in shape, I place blackberries and raspberries close to each other, alternating them. I put several berries in a chaotic order in the free places on the cake. The cake decorated with fruit is almost ready, the final touch is to lightly sprinkle the berries with powdered sugar; it will look beautiful against a chocolate background.

During a famine in 1407 in the German city of Lubeck, it was decided to make bread from almond flour. Since then, Lubeck has been considered the capital of marzipan, which is known to be made from almonds and sugar syrup.

How to decorate a homemade cake depends largely on the event for which it is prepared. If it’s for a children’s party, then cutting out figures of animals or fairy-tale characters from fruits will be just a great idea.

From fruits you can make flowers, geometric shapes, hearts, and so on, whatever your imagination allows.

From fruits cut into slices, you can easily lay out any ornament or an entire carpet, combining fruits and berries of several colors. A composition of fruits and berries is often filled with jelly, which gives it stability and a glossy shine.

Fruits can be dipped in chocolate, sprinkled with powder or cinnamon, coconut, or ground nuts.

If we decorate a cake with fruit and sprinkle powdered sugar on top, the fruit or berries must be dry, otherwise the powder will spread on them.

Ideas and photo examples: decorating a cake with fruits

1. Bouquet of orange roses with apple and kiwi leaves. The composition is filled with almost colorless jelly, which gives it durability and does not detract from the brightness of the color of the fruit. It looks simple and elegant.

2. A very delicate spring composition of raspberries and the remains of tinted cream. Despite the fact that only one type of berry was used, there is a sense of completeness in this design.

3. The cake is decorated with bright, juicy and appetizing berries. No complicated tricks, just a perfectly chosen combination of color and shape.

4. A fruit figure that is perfect for decorating a cake for a children's party. Using this owl as an example, you can depict any other animal or fairy-tale character.
Juicy and bright fruits give every cook his own ideas about using them as decoration. If you have similar experience, your own best practices and favorite techniques on how to decorate a cake with fruit, write to me in the comments, send me a photo, I will be grateful to you. It would be interesting to know your opinion about fruits that are easier to work with, about how best to combine fruits in color and taste.

Decorating a cake with fruit is the best option for decorating a dessert at home. Even a child can make this kind of decoration; a simple fruit ornament does not require any special skills. In addition, the combination of fruits and berries of bright colors looks festive and appetizing.

Store-bought confectionery cannot be compared with delicious, aromatic homemade baked goods. When preparing a birthday cake, one of the main stages is its decoration. But not everyone knows how to decorate a cake beautifully at home. In fact, you don’t need to have the skills of an experienced pastry chef to do this. A homemade cake, decorated with soul and love, can in many ways surpass any store-bought one! Just try not to copy the design options that you saw in the store, but come up with your own unique design. So, let's find out what products and skills you may need to add beauty to your cakes yourself!

Cream decorations have not lost their popularity among housewives and confectioners for many years. Roses, leaves, cream borders are unsurpassed classics that allow you to decorate a cake beautifully. However, before you get down to business, you need to decide which cream you should give preference to and what equipment you need to stock up on.

Choosing cream for decoration

The cream must be non-flowing and non-settling.

Therefore, the most suitable and frequently used are butter and meringue, which hold their shape well. And you can prepare them in the following ways.

Decorate the cake with buttercream

Beat 100 gr. softened butter with a mixer until fluffy. Then carefully add 5 tbsp. l. condensed milk (can be boiled), whisking continuously. The cream should be smooth and fluffy.

Options for decorating cakes with butter cream:

Preparation of meringues and examples of decoration

Beat 5 egg whites with a mixer until stiff. Continuing to beat, add 250 gr. Sahara. This should be done gradually, 1-2 spoons at a time. Set the mixer to medium speed and beat for at least 10-12 minutes until a thick, dense, fluffy mass is obtained.

Preheat the oven to 100 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and lightly grease with oil. Using a spoon or pastry syringe, place the finished mixture on a baking sheet and place it in the oven. The time after which the meringue will be completely ready is determined depending on its size and shape. On average, it may take about 1.5 hours.

A few examples of decorating cakes with delicious meringues:

Cakes with such decoration look truly solemn, but they need to be stored exclusively in the refrigerator. And their shelf life is very short due to the use of oil and eggs.

What tools, molds and attachments will be needed

The tools for decorating cakes with cream are quite simple - these are pastry syringes (or bags) with nozzles of various shapes. Thanks to the attachments, it is possible to draw such beautiful curly curls, flowers, leaves and stems.

It doesn’t matter if you don’t have such devices in your kitchen arsenal. Thanks to an ordinary paper cornet, it will be possible to do without them.

To make it, you only need a blank album sheet. It must be rolled up and the tip cut off (evenly or at an angle). The cornet must be held firmly in your hands, not allowing it to unfold. Fill the cornet with cream, roll up the top and, squeezing it, decorate the cake as you please.

Principles and interesting ideas

Depending on the shape of the cut of the cornet or the shape of the nozzle of the pastry syringe, you can draw both even stripes and all sorts of leaf-flowers on the cake. If you move your hand quickly and quickly back and forth, the strip of cream will turn out wavy, reminiscent of ruffles.

It’s not boring to decorate a cake with cream if you use dyes. It can be either ready-made food coloring or natural:

saffron diluted in warm water will give a yellow color;
freshly squeezed beet, cherry or cranberry juice – red;
carrot or orange juice – orange color;
spinach juice – green;
cocoa powder or freeze-dried coffee - chocolate color.

Learn how to decorate a cake beautifully with fondant

Pastry mastic can be an excellent alternative to cream decorations. Its consistency is very similar to plasticine. Therefore, if you know how to sculpt beautifully, you can recreate anything from it: from all kinds of flowers to animal figures and various objects.

The main difference between mastic and cream is that it can be wrapped in cling film and stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 months.

How to make mastic with your own hands

You can buy mastic ready-made in a specialized store, or you can prepare it yourself, which will be even better. There are several ways to prepare it:

Milk mastic

Want something interesting?

You will need to take in equal quantities:

powdered milk;
condensed milk;
powdered sugar.

Mix all the ingredients and knead them into an elastic dough.

That's it, the mass is ready for modeling! You can start creating. If you want to make the mastic multi-colored, the same food colors as for the cream are suitable for this.

Marshmallow mastic

To prepare it, white chewing marshmallows are used. The color of the finished mastic can be left as it is, white, or painted.

Melt a handful of marshmallows in the microwave or in a water bath. Add a little food coloring (optional) and some citric acid water (or milk). To make the finished mastic more plastic, add a piece of butter. Add sifted powdered sugar and potato starch (in a ratio of 1:3) into the resulting mass in small portions. Stir thoroughly before adding more powder and starch.

When the mastic becomes viscous and easily comes off the walls of the vessel, transfer it to a table strewn with powder. Knead in the same way as dough, adding powdered sugar, but do not overdo it. After about 10 minutes the mastic will become very flexible and will stop sticking to your hands. That's it, you can consider it ready to sculpt decorations for your cake.

Rules for working with this material

Mastic is a somewhat whimsical material for creativity. In air it dries quickly and hardens. Therefore, do not forget to wrap it in a plastic bag while working. You also need to roll out the mastic on cling film, while sprinkling it with powdered sugar.

To decorate a cake with fondant, do not sculpt elements that are too voluminous - they may simply crack. Floral arrangements with leaves, frills and ruffles, small figures of animals or people, and other objects that you can create will look much better.

Here are some interesting decoration options for inspiration:

Original cake decoration with fruits

Decorating a cake with fruits and berries is perhaps the most inexpensive, simple and beautiful way that many housewives have long used to aesthetically pamper their household. Both fresh and frozen fruits can be used.

Simple fruit and berry combinations

You can use one type of berry (for example, raspberries or strawberries) in combination with fresh mint leaves, or make a fruit and berry mix from multi-colored fruits (kiwi, bananas, strawberries, cherries, etc.).

The cream goes perfectly with strawberries and chocolate glaze.

The exotic fruit design looks amazing. Place them on the finished cooled cake, creating a beautiful composition. Dilute store-bought jelly or regular gelatin in water (there should be much less water than indicated in the instructions). Using a wide brush, carefully apply the mixture to the fruit and place the cake in the refrigerator. After half an hour, repeat the procedure. This way the fruit will look juicier and the structure will not fall apart.

Artsy fruit crafts

For those who are ready for more sophisticated ways of decorating a cake, we suggest mastering apple roses. Of course, creating them will require some free time and skill, but we are sure that you will be able to do it!

So, first, let's prepare sugar syrup. To do this you need to take 1 tbsp. sugar for 1 tbsp. water and boil well. If you want to give the roses a certain color, add a little food coloring to the syrup. Then cut the apple into thin semicircular petals and boil in syrup over low heat until plastic.

Remove the syrup from the heat and begin rolling the rose. Roll the first petal into a tube, and twist the rest on top until you get a flower. Turn the tips of the slices slightly outward so that the rose looks like it is in bloom.

Chocolate cake decoration

A special treat is decorating a chocolate cake with chocolate. In fact, there are a huge number of options for chocolate decoration. All of them are perfect and original in their own way. The choice is yours!

The easiest and fastest way to decorate a cake is with chocolate chips. To do this, you just need to grate the chocolate on a coarse or fine grater. But there is also a more interesting and unusual way to get chips: put the chocolate bar in a warm place for a while, and then cut thin chips from the bar with a knife. They will immediately begin to curl up. Place these curls on a plate and place them in the refrigerator. Sprinkle them randomly over the cake once they are completely set.

Openwork chocolate is a more sophisticated option for decorating a cake. Such jewelry looks so chic that it’s hard to believe how easy it is to make.

Melt the chocolate bar over low heat, stirring constantly, or use the microwave. You should not heat the chocolate in a water bath, otherwise drops of condensation will mix with it, which we absolutely do not want.

While it melts, draw whatever you want on parchment paper. These can be patterns, hearts, flowers, snowflakes, etc. Then scoop up some more hot chocolate with a confectionery syringe or place it in a plastic bag in which you will need to cut a tiny hole. Trace your drawings on parchment along the outline.

This must be done carefully, but quickly, because the chocolate hardens almost instantly.

The design turns out to be very fragile, so we recommend making several spare patterns. When finished, place your sketches in the refrigerator until completely frozen. After this, very carefully separate the openwork ornaments and transfer them to the cake.

Ready-made templates for openwork chocolate curls, which you can simply print out and outline with chocolate:

Chocolate leaves on the cake look impressive, and do not require much effort in terms of production. To create them, you will need leaves of any tree (in winter, leaves of indoor plants can help out). They need to be thoroughly washed and dried. Then apply melted chocolate evenly over them with a brush. Chocolate leaves will look more realistic if the chocolate is applied to the back of the leaf - the part with the veins. Once hardened, carefully separate the real leaves from the chocolate ones.

As you can see, decorating a cake with chocolate is quick and not at all difficult. A creative approach and a bit of imagination can create incredible things!

Fantasizing over a children's cake

To decorate a children's cake for the upcoming holiday, you will need special sophistication. After all, it should turn out not only beautiful, but also certainly childish! The following materials are good for decoration:

bright mastic from which you can make cartoon characters or funny figures;
various fruits;
sweets;
jelly or marmalade;
multi-colored confectionery powder used to decorate Easter cakes.

What’s remarkable is that for children, the appearance of the cake is even more important than its taste.. Therefore, to make the child happy, try to decorate the cake, taking into account his preferences and interests. Boys are usually delighted with cakes in the shape of a car or robot, girls are partial to Barbie dolls. And cartoon characters are a mutual favorite topic.

Other simple and interesting ways to decorate

You can decorate the cake with your own hands in other simple, but no less enchanting ways:

Drizzle chocolate or colored frosting over the top and sides of the cake;
Use ready-made chocolate figures;
Walnut kernels or almonds can be arranged in an original way, depicting a border and flowers;
The combination of chocolate and whipped cream looks unsurpassed;
To prevent fruits from losing their appearance, first dip them in transparent jelly;
Another great idea for easy cake decorating: make a unique stencil! To do this, on a sheet of paper with a diameter slightly larger than the cake itself, cut out an arbitrary ornament that you like. Hold the stencil over the cake and sprinkle powder on it if the cake is covered with chocolate icing, or cocoa if it is covered with white cream;
The sides of the cake can be decorated with cream stripes or chocolate shards;
A palisade made of wafer rolls or long cookies around the cake looks great;
You can simply grease the sides with cream and sprinkle them with cookie or nut crumbs.

As you can see, decorating cakes gives a lot of scope to your imagination. Don't be afraid to create, create unique masterpieces and share your ideas and their implementation in the comments!

A holiday is a time to please your loved ones with unexpected gifts, pleasant words, invite guests to visit and make little dreams come true. And to make sure the day is memorable, you can find out in advance how to beautifully and originally decorate a birthday cake and see step-by-step photos.

Decorate a homemade dessert with fruit - what could be simpler and more affordable. At the same time, baked goods can look very original and appetizing, which will only delight the invited guests.

You just need to know a few simple secrets and not be afraid to put them into practice:

Coat the top of the cake with sour cream or custard. We arrange a berry-fruit mix of kiwi, banana, cherry and strawberry in a spiral. We dilute the jelly in a small amount of water (choose the flavor at your discretion) and apply it to the berries with a pastry brush. Place the dessert in the refrigerator for half an hour, then repeat the procedure.

Prepare syrup from one glass of sugar and a glass of water. Cut the apples into thin rings and boil them in the sweet mixture until plastic. We roll the first petal into a tube, and twist the rest on top until we get a flower. Turn the edges of the apples slightly outward.

A simple and effective option for decorating a birthday cake (photo can be seen below) is to use fresh (or frozen) raspberries and “plant” them on mint leaves. Unforgettable taste and pleasant impressions are guaranteed.

Many people cannot imagine their life without chocolate, which is why jewelry made from this “material” is so popular. Some ideas can be brought to life even at home.

The simplest and fastest option that beginner confectioners will like.

To create it you need:

Place the chocolate bar (most often milk is used) in a warm place for 10-15 minutes. Sometimes it takes a little more time.
Working with gloves, cut the shavings with a knife, which will immediately begin to curl. We hide it in the refrigerator until it hardens completely.
After the required time has passed, decorate the cake in any order.

To make a more elegant dessert decoration, you will need a little more time.

But all the efforts will be justified by a wonderful result:

Melt the dark chocolate bar over low heat (with a little milk) or in the microwave. It is better not to use a water bath, as condensation will begin to form.
We draw any pattern on parchment paper - snowflakes, stars, hearts, lace, flowers.
Pour the melted chocolate into a pastry syringe and carefully trace the resulting pattern. Another option is to use a plastic bag and make a small hole in it.
You need to work quite quickly, since the chocolate “paint” hardens in a few minutes.
Place the parchment in the refrigerator for about half an hour. After the specified time, carefully separate the edible layer and decorate the dessert with it.

Stencils for decorating a cake at home

If a person knows how to draw at least a little and beautifully cut out contours, then you can use the following option for decorating homemade baked goods:

We take a sheet of paper whose diameter is slightly larger than itself. We draw on it any ornament that comes to mind.
We cut out the contours as evenly as possible, but if some error occurs, it’s okay.
Hold the sheet over the cake (it’s better to ask for help if you don’t feel comfortable doing everything yourself) and sprinkle it with powdered sugar or sifted cocoa.

Some more interesting ideas

If you don’t want to spend a lot of time decorating or if nothing good comes out, this is not a reason to be upset. After all, there is always the opportunity to use simpler options that can look no less impressive.

First of all, these include:

Drizzle the sides with chocolate or multi-colored glaze. With its help you can also make a beautiful inscription for the hero of the occasion.

We use ready-made chocolate figures, which should be ordered in advance online or purchased at a confectionery store.

Whole (or chopped) walnut kernels are great for decorating desserts. With their help, you can “draw” a tree or flowers, and also draw a border on the sides. Almonds are well suited for the same purposes.

A classic combination is chocolate with whipped cream. Various fruits or berries are often placed on top. And so that they do not lose their appearance, they should be dipped in transparent jelly.

It’s very easy to decorate the sides of a birthday cake at home with cream stripes (use a pastry syringe for this) or “broken” chocolate.

You can also decorate the sides with a picket fence made of wafer rolls or long cookies. But in this case, you should make sure that the dessert does not turn out too sugary.

Another option is to miss