Step-By-Step Cake Decorating

Step-By-Step Cake Decorating
Published at DK Canada

About the book

From delicate creations for weddings to fantastical birthday cupcakes, Step-by-Step Cake Decorating contains 20 remarkable projects for every occasion. There are more than 100 pages of step-by-step icing, piping, stenciling, painting, and cutting techniques. Each cake recipe includes fun, unique tips and variations for turning it into cupcakes and cake pops. Home bakers looking to impress their friends and family with gorgeous confections will love these smart, elegant projects.

My Thoughts

Before I even had kids, I decided to take a Wilton Cake Decorating class at Michael’s.   I really enjoyed it and started making cake for our family.  Soon, we had a child and we brighten his birthdays with special cakes.   It didn’t take long to have two other boys and one girl in our family.  With four kids in the house it doesn’t take long for getting requests of special cakes.  As you can see below, I have experienced a variety of requests through the years from cake pan based to complete out of the ordinary ones.

I even made a special one for Easter one year.

But the last couple of years, I have been thinking of taking a new level of cake decorating course – working with fondant.   I have been eyeing fondant for quite some time and when I saw that a new book dedicated only to cake decorating was now available at DK Canada, I wanted to explore it.   Imagine my delight when I received it and started to explore the book. I will admit that my daughter almost jumped on it when she saw it…  She somewhat already made her request for his birthday in December.   I could learn various techniques in cake decorating and become better at it.   I could even try out fondant at home by following the instructions find in this book.   I am in quite pleased with the way the book is put together.  There is a ton of pictures that will guide you through the process of cake decorating and allow you to expand your designs.   Let’s explore the table of contents together;

• Decoration Planner –  Numerous ideas for a variety of themes like floral, children, novelty, elegant, and special occasions.
• Tools and equipment – In this section, you will learn what tools you will need to start a cake decorating business – or simply decorate amazing cakes for your family!
• Key ingredients – This section provides recipes to make buttercream frosting, royal icing, marzipan, chocolate icing, fondant, gum paste and mexican paste.
• Decorating techniques – As the title says, this section will present you a wide variety of techniques which you can explore and develop your expertise with.  The techniques are 3-D creations, piping, hand-modeling, using cutters and molds, stenciling, painting, imaging and finishing touches.
• Projects – This section will present you numerous projects to create for all occasions: train cake, dinosaur cake, princess castle, pirate ship cake, soccer ball cake, football cake, butterflies and blossoms, Halloween pumpkin cake, Teddy bear mini cakes, newborn celebration cake, gingerbread house, shades of pink cake, cupcake bouquet, heart-shaped posy cake, handbag cake, blossom stenvil cake, suitcase cake, Cigarillo wedding cake, Filigree wedding cake, festive yule log, festive fruitcake, ruffled cake,
• Cake Basics – This section offers a variety of cake recipes like sponge cake, carrot cake, pound cake, chocolate cake, traditional fruitcake, red velvet cake, gingerbread,  and some techniques on how to cook, prepare, and present your cakes.
• Templates – Templates are also offered at the end of the book in order to create some of the ideas presented in it.
• Adapting cake quantities – Finally, at the end of the book, you can find a useful page helping you to adapt your recipes depending of the size of the cake you desire to do.   This is definitively useful for anyone making cakes.

As I mentioned I am highly interested in the fondant recipe and to make fun cakes for my kids upcoming birthdays.   I will definitively explore this in the weeks to come in order to be ready when their birthdays arrive in November and December.   I definitively don’t want to wait at the last minute to try it out but with our RV close for the winter season now, I think I will have more time to try it out.   I am very excited in trying this out and see how it will turns out.  

The book is definitively a must for anyone who wants to do cake decorating.   Whether you are a novice or an expert, I think this book contains something for you.   The fact that each technique is presented as a step-by-step method with plenty of directions and photos is fabulous.   You simply have to follow the instructions, check the photos and voilà you can slowly master new techniques to amaze your family and friends with your cake decorating talents.  I am delighted to have this book in hands in order to make new masterpieces for birthdays.

Step-By-Step Cake Decorating is available for purchase at your favourite bookstore, even amazon.ca and amazon.com.

  

Disclaimer: Thanks to DK Canada for sending me the above mentioned product for review purposes. I was not monetarily compensated for this review. Please note that the review was not influenced by the Sponsor in any way. All opinions expressed here are only my own.