While you might not already have some of these cake decorating tools adding them to your arsenal will help give your cake a more professional look. You can also invest in (more…)

The author of this basic cake decorating book, Really Simple Party Cakes, says, “Even if you’ve never decorated a cake before, you can create a work of art that will liven up every party spread. Why spend a fortune on a professionally decorated cake when you can achieve the same results with these simple techniques?” (more…)

Now that you have your two pumpkin cakes baked, we’re ready to get them decorated. Make sure that your cakes are COMPLETELY COOLED before moving onto the next step. (more…)

In the next couple posts we’re going to tackle our first Halloween cake decorating project and learn how to bake and decorate a cake shaped like a pumpkin.

This cake was made using
the Great Pumpkin Cake Pan

First, you’re going to need to gather the tools and ingredients needed to bake your cake. This cake will be created using two bundt cakes. The first bundt cake will be placed on the bottom (upside-down) while the other is placed on top (right-side up) to create a pumpkin shape. This is a great cake to make for a Halloween party since it contains 24 servings! That’s a lot of cake!

For this Halloween cake decorating project you can use two 10-inch bundt cake pans or the Great Pumpkin Cake Pan. If you have a fluted bundt pan this will work well because it has the outside appearance of a real pumpkin.

Any cake recipe will do, but it might be nice to go with a flavor that has an autumn theme. For this a brown sugar cake recipe works well such as the one below. This recipe is enough to fill one bundt cake pan. If you have two pans you can double the recipe and divide evenly, otherwise you’ll need to bake one cake at a time.

Gather the following ingredients while your oven preheats to 350 degrees:

3 ¾ cups cake flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
2 ¼ cups vegetable oil
2 ¼ cups dark brown sugar
3 eggs
1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 ½ cups buttermilk

1. Coat all surfaces of your bundt pan with flour baking spray and set aside.
2. Whisk together the cake flour and baking soda in a medium size bowl.
3. With a hand or stand mixer, beat together the vegetable oil and dark brown sugar in large mixing bowl until well combined. Add eggs one at a time and mix until blended. Blend in vanilla.
4. Add your flour mixture to the oil and sugar in four increments and alternate with the buttermilk. So it will be flour, buttermilk, flour, buttermilk, flour, buttermilk, flour. When you add each addition of flour, mix until just blended. You don’t want to over mix otherwise your cake will taste too chewy.
5. Pour the batter in your bundt pan and bake for around 50 minutes. Make sure to test the cake with something long enough to reach the bottom of your cake, like a bamboo skewer or meat thermometer. When it comes out with just a few crumbs attached—the cake is ready. If it comes out clean—you cake will probably taste too dry.
6. Let the cake rest in the pan on an oven rack for at least 10 minutes before inverting to finish the cooling process.

In our next blog post we’ll cover more cake decorating tips and finish our series on Halloween cake decorating and learn how to decorate our pumpkin cake.

A lot of people spend so much time worrying about how their cake looks that they forget the most important step of basic cake decorating. The taste! No matter how good your cake looks, your hard work will all be for nothing if you cake tastes terrible.

Of all the essential cake decorating tips you’ll read, mixing the batter is the most important step of the cake preparation process. Many cake and cupcake recipes instruct you to cream together butter and sugar. It’s very important that your butter is at room temperature. Do not use melted butter or butter that has been warmed unevenly in the microwave.

If you’ve forgotten to leave out your butter here’s a tip to get it softened quickly. This is what I learned to do and it works quite well.

1. Place your stick of butter or the amount needed between two large pieces of waxed paper. Place on a cutting board or solid surface.

2. Pound the butter with a rolling pin. After a few pounds, flip the butter over and pound the other side. Continue until completely soft. If you can run your finger through the butter–it’s ready!

Once you get your butter into the mixing bowl, gradually add the sugar. You don’t want to dump it all in at once. Beat the butter and sugar together with a hand or stand mixer.

Depending on your recipe, you may need to add dry and wet ingredients alternately. A basic cake decorating rule of thumb is to always start and end with the dry ingredients. When adding wet ingredients such as eggs or milk, keep them at room temperature. This is especially important for recipes that call for buttermilk. Nothing ruins a good recipe faster than curdled buttermilk. Yuck!

Don’t forget to scrape the sides and bottom of your mixing bowl. A simple rule of baking is never to over-mix your batter. You want to beat the batter just long enough so that all the ingredients are mixed together. You don’t need the mixture to be completely smooth. If the batter is overbeaten your cake will taste too chewy.

If you’d like to make your cakes a little more lighter and fluffier, a trick I learned from the Cupcake Gal is to use slightly more baking powder than what’s called for in the recipe. For example, if the recipe calls for 1 teaspoon of baking powder use a heaping teaspoon instead. In fact, I think I might have to try her recipe for red velvet cupcakes for a Halloween project I have coming up!

Be sure to follow your recipe carefully but keep in mind that everyone uses a different type of mixer. Many recipes give you visual clues to watch for instead of specific times for mixing. Remember–basic cake decorating begins with baking a cake that’s worth eating. By following just a few simple steps you can bake a cake that tastes as good as it looks!

The easiest type of cake decorating frosting to make and use is buttercream. Buttercream cake decorating frosting can be used to both fill and cover your cakes. You can also put buttercream in piping bags to make decorations and designs of all shapes and sizes. (more…)

It goes without saying that without a high-quality cake pan, you’re not going to get a high-quality cake. Cake decorating supplies, including cake pans, come in a variety of shapes and sizes. You don’t need to buy every shape and size cake pan under sun, but in order to get the most mileage out of the pans you do buy, make sure you invest in chef-quality pans.

Rectangular and Square Cake Pans

Generally used for large groups of people, rectangular and square cake pans are used to make sheet cakes.

Quarter-sheet cake 9 x 13 (1 layer yields 18 servings)
Half-sheet 12 x 18 (1 layer yields 36 servings)
Full Sheet 18 x 24 (1 layer yields 72 servings)

You can make a full sheet cake by putting two half-sheet cakes together. In addition, if you plan on doing some serious cake decorating, consider getting two pans of the same dimensions to cut your baking time in half for two layer cakes. The 9 x 13 cake pan is most often used for two layer cakes because of its smaller size.

Round and Oval Cake Pans

When most people think of cakes, they picture the traditional double-layer round cake. Round cakes are most often used for small gatherings and dinner parties. If you’re just building up your arsenal of cake decorating supplies, two 8-inch or 9-inch round cake pans should serve you well in the beginning.

Later on you can invest in other sizes such as 10-inch, 12-inch, and 14-inch. The smaller 6-inch round cake pans are fun too–and can be used to make personal or accent cakes. Oval cakes are also gaining in popularity these days.

Other Shapes and Sizes

Cupcake and cake baking tins can also be used for most cake recipes. Most recipes will require you to use two cupcake tins–each with 12 wells. A traditional-shaped bundt pan is also a must for the novice cake decorator. You can get a lot of mileage out of just one pan. Bundt pans allow you to create unique shapes such as pumpkins and doll dress cakes.

One of the most interesting types of cake decorating supplies are the many specialty and shaped cake pans available. They come in every shape and size and can be used to create everything from the latest cartoon character to the tallest princess castle. You certainly don’t need to spend a lot of money on different types of specialty cake pans, but if you’re looking to save time in the creativity department they can save you a lot of headache.

While you can get a lot of use out of just a few basic cake pan shapes, specialty shape cake pans can be the way to go if you like a simple template to follow.