Methods for decorating cakes. How to decorate a sponge cake at home: recipes and ideas

Decorating homemade cakes photos and videos for beginners

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”

Sugar decorations, edible beads, wafer pictures and even chocolate lace can be found on sale.

There are silicone molds on store shelves, molds and lace rolling pins - all the attributes for independent decoration.

How to use it and not spoil the cake, but turn it into a work of culinary art, read on.

Try decorating a homemade cake based on a given theme. You will need patience to decorate. Or choose a quick way - bake an anthill and pour chocolate over it.

If you are ready to spend time and effort on a beautiful design, there are ways to decorate with your own hands:

Spices and seasonings. This is a simple method that does not require much effort. Cover the cake with cinnamon or poppy seeds; you can make a cocoa topping using special stencils.
In this way you can decorate not only pastries, but also pancake cakes.
Meringue. Small airy flowers can decorate both the entire product and its parts. Such decorations are available for sale or you can make them yourself.
Icing. This glaze is used not only to decorate gingerbread cookies, but also to cover cakes and sweets.
The icing adds a glossy sheen, making your creation sparkle in every way.
Cream. The most important component, which is used not only for layering cake layers and for decoration.
For decoration, use a dense thick ice cream or charlotte, decorate with cream using a pastry syringe.
Jelly. This filling method is used to decorate cheesecakes or cottage cheese pies. Colored jelly with pieces of bananas or other fruits creates a spring mood.
Chocolate. Classics of the genre! You can use chocolate to make frosting, cream, or paint directly on the cake.
Chocolates, cookies, wafer rolls are helpers for realizing sweet ideas. Even a beginner in the confectionery world can do this method of decoration.

By the way, unusual decoration with fresh flowers and “naked” cakes have come into fashion.. Red velvet with open sides, decorated with fruit or confectionery toppings, looks very impressive.

How to make your culinary fantasies come true? There are several secrets.

Use the table for calculating the weight and tiers of the cake for the number of guests:

How to decorate a cake with protein custard at home

Not every cream is suitable for decorating a cake. Protein, whipped cream, butter custard, and cottage cheese hold their shape well.

But with sour cream or regular custard for Napoleon You won’t be able to decorate it voluminously; it’s better suited for layering. Protein custard has a delicate taste and light texture.

To prepare this cream you need a few ingredients:

Proteins – 3 pieces.
Sugar – 6 tablespoons.
Water – 50 milliliters.

Recipe This type of cream requires care and precision. The hardest part is making the sugar meringue.

You can decorate with cream made from raw proteins, but the custard method is safer and suitable for baby food.
First you need to brew the syrup.

Heat the mixture of water and sugar over low heat. The mixture will be ready in 10–15 minutes. The syrup should thicken and stretch, but not caramelize.

Important! Do not overcook the syrup, otherwise the cream will be spoiled.

While the syrup is cooking, you need to beat the whites. It is better to cool them in the refrigerator to make whipping easier.

The crucial moment is to pour hot syrup into the whites in a thin stream to brew the cream. With this method of preparation, all microbes are destroyed. Beat the whites until the mixture cools completely.

The cream is ready. It has an elastic shape and is suitable for decorating any cake. If you have a pastry bag at your disposal, use nozzles to create flowers of different shapes.

You can also decorate the sides or sides with cream, or layer sponge cakes.

An easier option is to cover the entire cake., thereby hiding the unevenness, sprinkle with grated chocolate and walnuts. Add food coloring to create a vibrant cream color.

How to decorate a cake with various fruits and juicy berries

Sometimes there is not enough time to bring confectionery fantasies to life, and guests are already on the doorstep, then fruit decor is what you need.

If the cream fails with an inexperienced housewife, then nothing can spoil the fruit. Use grapes, orange slices, garnish with blackberries or strawberries, whatever berries are available for sale.

To prevent the sponge cakes from becoming saturated with berry juice and becoming soft, decorate the cake with a layer of cream or glaze.

For decoration, use not only fresh fruits, but also canned ones. To do this, drain off the excess juice.

Choose products that match your color scheme and taste. Before making bright arrangements, wash and dry the fruits.

Decorating with strawberries with a tail or orange rings in the peel looks impressive. Try making a citrus flower by folding orange circles like petals.

Even use frozen berries to create fruit heaven. Raspberries and blueberries do not lose their shape when defrosted; you can decorate them with frozen cherries and red currants.

To make the berries delightful with their appearance, use the method of gradual defrosting. Temperature changes may cause the berries to fall apart.

Decorating the cake with sweets: chocolate, candies, ememdems

Chocolate decor is an ideal option for decorating at home. Even a child can use this method.

Invite your little one to help you. The baby will fantasize and create sweet pictures with the help of mmdems, sweets and chocolate.

This method will save time. For registration you can use:

Raffaello sweets and others.
Dragee or raisins in colored breading.
Peanuts in glaze.
Marshmallow, marmalade.
Marshmallow.
Wafer rolls.
Oreo cookies, Snickers or brand name sweets.

Decorate the cake as your imagination dictates. Combine colors, lay out inscriptions from dragees. To decorate, the candies must stick, so grease the cakes with cream. This way the candies will stick better.

Make a fence of wafer rolls for the cake and decorate with openwork ribbon. You can use Kit-Kat or Twix sticks. You need to attach it to cream walls.

If you are ready to spend more time, melt the chocolate and draw butterflies, hearts or roses on parchment using a pastry bag. After hardening, quickly transfer the design to the cake.

Beautiful decorations for children's cakes made from mastic

Such figures have become popular. Buy or make them yourself. For this we need mastic. There are several recipes. Mastic is prepared from gelatin, milk powder and even condensed milk.

Tasty and simple - marshmallow recipe:

Marshmallow – 200 grams.
Butter – 5 grams.
Water – 5 milliliters.
Powdered sugar – 100 grams.
Starch – 10 grams.

The recipe is quick. Take chewing marshmallows of the desired color, sprinkle with water, add a piece of butter, and microwave for 10 seconds.

The marshmallows will double in size. Add powdered sugar and coloring portions to the hot mass and knead. If necessary, sprinkle the table with starch.

Attention! Sift the powdered sugar thoroughly to make the mastic smooth. Don't add too much powder, otherwise the dough will crumble.

You can cover the entire cake with fondant. A sour cream cake will not hold its shape; it is better to use honey or bird's milk for mastic.

Use butter cream as a base for the mastic. From the marshmallow mass you can make bears, cars or cartoon characters - whatever you can think of.

Important! Use natural ingredients, syrup or juice as coloring agents. You should not use alcoholic drinks for impregnation, but add vanillin or orange zest for flavor.

Original decorations for cakes and cupcakes for birthdays and holidays

For children's parties, prepare a cake in the shape of a number, decorate with multi-colored cream or sprinkle with marzipan decoration.

Make sugar figures from your favorite cartoons and delight your baby with an edible hero. Decorate a cake for a man with real bottles of whiskey or rum. Such miniature versions are sold in souvenir departments.

Build snowmen! Decorate New Year's cupcakes with them. And for Easter, mastic chickens sitting in green cream will be popular.

For your mother's anniversary, prepare a two-tier cake decorated with a festive inscription on top. Such a large dessert will be relevant for wedding events.

The first birthday is a real event. Small bottles, pacifiers, booties cause tenderness. You can make tags and write the baby’s height and weight in chocolate.

For a little girl's birthday party, make a dress-shaped cake using cupcakes decorated with pink frosting. Decorate a cake with cars for boys and with flowers for girls.

It is worth proceeding from the interests and age of the birthday person. A cake prepared with love and care will be the best holiday gift.

Useful video

What is a holiday without guests, gifts and cake? Boring! What a holiday is all about is having fun, socializing, dancing and pampering yourself with all sorts of goodies! If you know how to bake cakes and make delicious creams, that’s already half the success. How can you decorate a cake at home?

You can decorate the cake at home using cream. To prepare it, you can use condensed milk or powdered sugar.

How to decorate a cake at home?

First of all, you need to understand the question of which cream is ideal for decorating confectionery products. There are not many of them:

oil;
protein;
creamy.

The base of the butter cream is butter, with a fat content of at least 82%. You can also use condensed milk or powdered sugar to prepare the cream. As for the proportions, when preparing butter cream with condensed milk, it is necessary to take into account the consistency of the milk. Very often, experienced confectioners use boiled condensed milk; it is denser and ensures the stability of the cream. To give the decor the required shade, it is more advisable to use liquid food coloring.

You can also add cocoa powder or chocolate melted in a water bath to the butter cream. This technology is ideal for decorating chocolate biscuits and cupcakes.

Protein cream is one of the capricious ones. Its preparation will require patience and endurance from you. To decorate cakes, custard protein cream is used, the preparation of which occurs in three stages:

Pour ¼ cup of clean water into the pan and add 6 tablespoons of sugar. Place on the fire and cook the syrup for 3-5 minutes after boiling (checking the readiness is quite easy - dip a spoon into the syrup and lift it so that the finished syrup flows down - if the thread is thick and continuous, your syrup is ready);
put cold 3 egg whites in a clean and dry bowl and beat with a mixer until thick white foam (to obtain stable peaks, you can add 3-4 drops of lemon juice or a pinch of citric acid);
Continuing to beat, pour the prepared sugar syrup into the whites in a thin stream and beat the resulting mass for another 1-2 minutes. At this stage, you can add the necessary flavors and colorings to the cream.

The finished cream is also applied to the cake using a pastry syringe and nozzles. Please note that overcooked or undercooked sugar syrup will cause the flowers and patterns from the cream to very quickly lose their shape. And overcooked syrup will add bitterness to the cream. To thicken the protein cream, you can use agar-agar (this is a natural product, safe for children and adults).

To prepare the buttercream you will need heavy confectionery cream (at least 32% fat) and powdered sugar. Cream is also a rather capricious ingredient. Before whipping, you need to cool not only them, but also the container in which you will beat the cream, as well as the mixer whisks. Taking time when whipping the cream also plays an important role; a common mistake made by novice cooks is over-whipping the cream. Cold cream is whipped with powdered sugar until stable peaks are obtained. If you doubt that the cream will not lose its shape within 12-24 hours, you can add a special thickener to it, which is sold in almost any supermarket. Buttercream can also be given any color, but the classic option for decorating cakes with cream is the white color of the cream.

How to decorate a cake at home using mastic

Today, confectionery products decorated with mastic figures are very popular. It is also worth clarifying here that there are two options for preparing mastic:

sugar;
marshmallow.

The first option is more labor-intensive, but it guarantees the stability and strength of your figures and flowers. By the way, almost every one of us has come across such figures and flowers - they are sold as decoration for Easter cakes. Sugar and marshmallow mastic are sold ready-made, but you can make them yourself.

To prepare sugar mastic you will need:

80 ml water;
7 g instant gelatin;
15-20 g soft butter;
2 tablespoons of glucose (fructose);
1 kg of powdered sugar.

How to cook

Gelatin must be prepared in advance.

To do this, fill it with cold water and set aside for 30-40 minutes, then heat the mass until the gelatin is completely dissolved (but do not boil!).

Add butter and glucose to hot gelatin, stir until smooth and cool.

If you want to give the mastic any shade, then the dye must be added to the hot gelatin.

Powdered sugar is added to the mass only after complete cooling. You need to knead the mastic like dough for dumplings (sprinkle the table with powdered sugar and knead the mixture until the mastic stops absorbing the powder).

To prepare marshmallow mastic, you will need chewing marshmallows (marshmallows), powdered sugar, and a little butter. The marshmallows must be heated in the microwave or in a water bath until they increase in size by 1.5-2 times (a piece of butter must be added to the container with the marshmallows before heating). Stir the enlarged candies, add dyes and, adding powdered sugar, knead the mass to a consistency similar to plasticine. This mastic is used to cover cakes and create various figures.

Decorating the cake with shavings

Even novice pastry chefs can easily master this option for decorating a cake. To get shavings, we need to take a bar of milk chocolate and keep it in a warm place for 10-15 minutes.

Working with gloves and using a knife, we cut the shavings that curl during the work. Place the chocolate “curls” in the refrigerator until completely hardened, and then place them on the cake in any order. This decoration looks unusual and appetizing.

Stencils for decorating a cake at home

If you have an artist in your soul, then you can make a great cake decoration using a homemade stencil.

You need to take a sheet of paper with a diameter slightly larger than the cake itself, use your imagination and draw any ornament or inscription that you want to see on the confectionery product.

Then, using small scissors, carefully cut out the design along the contour. The stencil is ready! Now, holding it above the surface of the cake, sprinkle with powder, sifted cocoa or colored sprinkles, making a decoration.

You can decorate the cake with fresh or canned fruits, grated chocolate, and coconut.

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

No matter how festive the table is filled with dishes, all guests are looking forward to the final chord - dessert. Beautiful cakes are a delicious end to any celebration. Those with a sweet tooth know that a homemade cake, made with your own hands at home, is always better and healthier than a store-bought one. Every housewife wants to amaze those present with her masterpiece, to put on the table not just a delicious, but also a beautiful cake. Decorating cakes with cream is a fun activity. There are many ways to decorate a cake at home. For example, decorate it with cream, chocolate, mastic, fondant, whipped cream, jelly, beautifully place berries and fruits on it, use meringue to decorate the cake. A cake decorating master class offers ways to diversify cake decorating at home.

It is important to take into account that the taste of the ingredients for decoration is in harmony with the taste of the baked goods:

puff pastry and honey cake are good with boiled or raw condensed milk and nuts;
shortbread harmonizes well with butter, protein cream, jam;
Butter creams, butter creams, and chocolate icing are suitable for sponge cakes;
for cottage cheese baking, take berries and fruits, whipped cream.

With a little desire and diligence, you will be able to prepare beautiful cakes and be able to quickly and easily create a confectionery masterpiece.

Using, for example, buttercream to decorate a cake is a classic. Since childhood, we remember butter roses, lilac branches, green leaves on baked goods from the store. Inscriptions, flowers with leaves, openwork patterns - cream decor will never become outdated. The creamy mass should be quite thick. The best option is butter plus condensed milk. This cake decorating cream holds its shape well. You can add syrup, instant coffee (to color and enhance the aroma), cocoa (provides the taste and color of chocolate), sour cream and whipped cream to obtain a more delicate consistency, and various additives to improve the aroma (vanilla, cinnamon, zest). Protein cream is also perfect for decorating a cake.

To decorate the delicacy with your own hands, you will need pastry bags made of thick film and nozzles made of food-grade metal or plastic, or a pastry syringe with curly tips. Instead of a bag, you can simply take a thick plastic bag. If you plan to make the dessert bright, divide the cream into parts and color with food coloring, cool. Place it in a pastry bag or syringe and select a nozzle. You can use cake decorating cream to create a delicate border, graceful roses, and all sorts of small figures or patterns. Protein custard is often used to decorate the cake. The cream recipe involves whipping hot syrup and whipped cream, the cream is strong and does not settle.

Decorate with fruits and berries

Juicy berries, aromatic fruits - it's so appetizing. Decorating a cake with fruit is a great way to decorate baked goods. Pieces of fruit can be placed between the cake layers, added to the cream, placed on the surface of the dessert and covered with a layer of jelly. The same method is used to decorate the cake with berries. If you are faced with the question of how to decorate a cake with fruits, keep in mind that not all of them are suitable for decoration; too juicy ones will spoil the appearance. Most often, mangoes, citrus fruits, apples and pears, apricots and peaches, kiwis and pineapples are used to decorate baked goods. And, of course, colorful cake decoration with strawberries is used most often.

You will get a successful dessert with fruit at home if you fill the surface with jelly. The fruit pieces will hold together better and will take very little time to cook. Place the product in a springform pan, arrange thinly sliced berries and fruits, and pour in the jelly. You don’t have to think about how to make jelly, just buy ready-made jelly in the store, cook according to the instructions, slightly reducing the amount of water. Place the dessert in the refrigerator for several hours until it cools thoroughly.

Mastic

Many housewives are sure that decorating a cake with fondant is a very labor-intensive task. Not to say that it is easy, but once you understand how to decorate a cake with fondant at home, cake decorating will not be a problem for you. There are different types of mastic, it can be painted in different colors, it is soft and flexible and you can create a real masterpiece from it. To make mastic, you will need gelatin, water, powdered sugar, lemon juice and food coloring. Mix powdered sugar with dissolved gelatin, add a little lemon juice and knead. Separate the mastic and paint it in the desired colors. First, you need to cover the finished cake with a layer of mastic. Roll out into a thin layer, place on the surface, gently press and trim off excess edges.

Cut out small details (flowers, leaves, patterns) and attach them. You can make three-dimensional figures; mold them from mastic, like from plasticine. If you need to glue individual parts together, use protein. This preparation should be made a couple of days in advance so that it has time to dry. Mastic makes everything extremely bright and elegant.

Chocolate decorations

Everyone loves chocolate and chocolate candies, so decorating a cake with chocolate is always relevant. You can get very beautiful cakes by filling them with glaze, or you can create a real masterpiece. Bitter, milk and white chocolate are used. Before you make chocolate decorations for the cake, you need to warm it up. It is most convenient to do this in a microwave oven, in a water bath or in an oven at a temperature of 50-100 degrees. The mixture must be stirred frequently and steam and water must not be allowed to enter.

If you have a question about how to decorate baked goods, and time is short, fill it with chocolate glaze. You can make it from cocoa powder, butter, sugar, milk or sour cream. Decorating with this icing is cheaper than using chocolate, the main thing is that the cocoa is of high quality.

But the ideal option is to use real chocolate (70% or more cocoa beans), heavy cream and powdered sugar. The glaze will have an excellent taste and will provide a shiny, uniform surface.

You can sprinkle the dessert with chocolate chips. The chocolate must first be kept at a temperature of about 30 degrees, this will make it more plastic. On the wide side of the tile you need to trim it with a vegetable cutter with a sharp knife into wide shavings. The shavings are rolled into rolls, they can be used to decorate the top layer, sprinkle lightly with powdered sugar on top and decorate cakes at home.

Berries on a cake framed with chocolate leaves always attract attention.

Before decorating the cake, try making the leaves yourself:

Collect living leaves that are strong, not too small, and have many veins.
Use a brush to cover the back side of the sheet with melted chocolate; the veins on it stand out better.
Bring to the cold with chocolate on top. Once hardened, carefully remove the chocolate bar.

Using a cornet (pastry bag) you can make chocolate patterns for decorating cakes. It needs to be melted in a water bath, poured into a cornet and written congratulations on the surface, draw patterns.

To decorate the cake with cream, you can choose decorative bows. Chocolate bows look beautiful. Pour long strips onto a parchment sheet from the cornet while the chocolate is still soft, fold in half and pinch the edges with a clothespin. Remove the parchment from the frozen chocolate and lay the bow parts in layers, each time reducing the number of folds. Place a bow and secure it with hot chocolate.

You can cast chocolate figures, such as butterflies. For this you need a pastry syringe and parchment. Place parchment on the stencil and fold it in the center to give the figure volume. Apply chocolate along the outline, wait until the chocolate hardens, and remove the parchment. The butterfly is ready. The figurine is very fragile, handle it with care. In the same way, you can make an openwork border for the side of the cake. On the parchment, mark a strip of the required size and draw patterns on it. After hardening, carefully remove the parchment and glue the border to the side surface. These blanks are suitable for children's cakes.

Thematic

It is impossible to imagine a birthday without sweets. For a child's birthday, mom will bake a delicious dessert and ensure that the child's cake is decorated at the highest level. Effectiveness and brightness are very important for children's products. Prepare a sponge cake decorated with M&M´s and Kit-Kat candies - a DIY cake. Bake a sponge cake according to your proven recipe, coat it with your favorite cream. Glue tick-tock sticks to the side surface; you can tie them with a bright, elegant ribbon. Pour a large pack of M&M´s on top and refrigerate everything. For girls, decorations made of bows, beads, and flowers made of mastic would be appropriate. Boys prefer sports or car-themed jewelry with computer game characters.

Of course, you need to think about how to decorate a birthday cake for an adult. Here it is worth taking into account the birthday person’s hobbies and profession. For an anniversary, you can bake a confectionery product in the form of a number - the age of the birthday person, or write a congratulation with cream directly on the surface. For an avid football fan, you can bake birthday cakes in the shape of a soccer ball on a field with goals and flags of your favorite teams. With the help of mastic, you can play up any hobby of the birthday boy or professional features. There is complete scope for your imagination.

One of the most important events in life is a wedding. Beautiful wedding cakes are not just a treat, they are a symbol of love and fidelity of young spouses. Most often it is made soft, in soft pastel colors, and decorated with flowers. Nowadays, baking made from a wide variety of geometric shapes, most often multi-tiered, is in fashion. A popular dessert is in the form of one or two hearts connected with cream.

Among wedding baked goods, multi-tiered products are the leader; they look very solemn. You can use the following cake decorations:

Mastic is very popular. It can be painted in any color, sculpted into figures of the bride and groom, bows, flowers, rings.
Icing is widely used. From snow-white sugar icing you can create the most delicate lace and congratulatory inscriptions.
It's hard to imagine a cake without flowers, leaves and patterns. The most delicate roses are created from snow-white buttercream.
Place thinly sliced berries and fruits on the cream-covered baking surface; it is advisable to cover them with a layer of jelly.
You can sprinkle the delicacy with candied rose petals.

Creating a beautiful culinary masterpiece is not just for professionals. The homemade cake, into which the hostess put her soul and lovingly decorated, will certainly be remembered by all guests. At the same time, the simplest available products are suitable for decoration - ready-made chocolate, simple butter or protein cream, seasonal fruits, frozen berries and even homemade preparations.