Make Ahead Cake Decorations

When I decorate cookies, I often have leftover royal icing and instead of tossing it, I use it to make rose decorations that I keep on hand for decorating cakes in a pinch.

Just let the royal icing roses dry completely and then store them in an airtight container. They'll keep for months and they are so handy to have on hand.  And, they're so pretty that no one will even think for a second that they were made in advance and your cake was a breeze to decorate.

Here's how:
Whip the royal icing until it is very stiff and tint it using gel coloring. I like to make two-toned roses so I tinted some rose and some cream. Fit a pastry bag with a petal tip. My preference is a Wilton #103.

I used a rubber scraper to spread some rose colored royal icing on the inside of my piping bag.

Then I dropped in the cream colored icing. This will give me a nice two-toned effect and keep the pink color just on the edges of the petals.

Adhere a small piece of parchment to a flower nail. Pipe a dollop of icing on the center.

Add a petal around the dollop. When you use a petal tip, it's essential that the narrow end of the tip be up as you pipe. This gives you realistic looking thin-edged petals.

Keep working around your dollop of icing and add two more petals to completely go around the dollop which is the center of the rose.

Add another layer of petals. I stopped after the second layer since I wanted small roses but you can keep going if you want to make a bigger rose.

Set the roses on a sheetpan to dry completely. I let mine dry for two full days and then I removed them from the parchement and put them in a single layer in an airtight container.

Using a #67 Wilton tip, I also made some leaves.

Before I add my handy dandy rose and leaf decorations to a cake, I experiment with placement on a sheetpan first to get them exactly how I want them.

A pretty cake that was a cinch to decorate.

An Afternoon Of Cake Decorating

Red velvet cakes ready to be baked. Look at that color!

Some of the baked cakes cooling. The most common mistake made when it comes to frosting cakes is not letting the cakes cool completely. Warm cakes fall apart when you try to transfer and stack them. And, don't forget that warm cake melts buttercream. Be patient and you'll have success.

Today is the day that the generous family who purchased a private cake decorating session with me at a recent benefit auction claims their purchase.

I spent yesterday baking four kinds of cakes - red velvet, carrot, chocolate and vanilla cupcakes.  By late this afternoon they all will be decorated by others with me acting simply as a guide and I have no doubt they will all be beautiful since cake decorating isn't hard it just takes learning a few tips and some patience and practice.

I promise to share the results.

In the meantime, here is a review of some of my decorating tips:

1. Cool your cake completely before even attempting to frost it. The colder the cake, the better the icing will adhere. Plus, watching your frosting slip and melt on a too warm cake can induce tears.
2. Use a serrated knife to even out a cake if necessary. You can't hide an uneven cake with icing. Start out with a even cake and you'll end up with an even cake.
3. Crumb coat your cake and then chill it before doing a final icing. A crumb coat is just a quick thin layer of icing to hold the crumbs in place. It's an extra step but well worth it.
4. Invest in a revolving cake decorating stand. Being able to turn your cake as you decorate makes a world of difference.
   
5. Invest in a long thin spatula for spreading the frosting.
   
6. Invest in a heavy offset spatula for lifting the cake layers.
7. Make a frosting that's light and easy to spread. The following recipe for Chocolate Buttercream is ideal.

Chocolate Buttercream
3 large egg whites
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
pinch of fine sea salt
1 teaspoon espresso powder, dissolved in 1 teaspoon hot water, cooled

1/2 cup dark chocolate pieces, melted and cooled

Place the whites in a clean mixing bowl. Whisk in sugar and cream of tartar.

Place bowl over a double boiler on medium heat, stir frequently until the mixture is very hot (120 to 130 degrees Fahrenheit).

Move to mixer and whip whites on high for 2 to 3 minutes; turn down to medium low until cool (use the bowl as your guide).

In a separate bowl with a wooden spoon, stir butter to soften.

With mixer on medium/high speed, add the butter one tablespoon at a time, adding the next tablespoon just as the previous one is blended in. Once all the butter incorporated, add in vanilla, salt, coffee and chocolate whip on high speed until fluffy.

Jack's Cake

I baked the cake for Jack's 90th birthday celebration yesterday and today I decorated it. Jack served in WWII as a navigator on a B-29 so his wife Mary asked me to decorate a cake with his plane "Goin' Jessie."

I knew I wanted to decorate the cake completely with vanilla buttercream since nothing beats it for taste. Using another medium like fondant, sugar paste or modeling chocolate would have been easier but in my opinion not so tasty and a 90th birthday celebration deserves a great tasting cake.

Mary loaned me a book with a photo of "Goin' Jessie," and I found lots of helpful information on the Internet as well.

When it came time to draw the plane design for the cake, I admit I cheated a bit by recruiting the help of my husband Joe who is great at drawing. So with my husband's help, this is how I decorated Jack's cake.

I researched Jack's plane. In the photo, he's in the top row, second from right.

My artistic husband helped me by drawing this plane made to fit on my 12 x 18 - inch sheet cake.

I baked three recipes of "The Greatest and Easiest Chocolate Cake" and spread dark chocolate ganache between the layers.

I iced the cake with two batches of vanilla buttercream and made an additional batch for decoration. My sweet niece Maya was a wonderful support. Look how big that cake is!

I got all my icing colors mixed and ready to go. My kind sister loaned me her kitchen for the big baking project since mine is still undergoing a remodel.

I cut out the B-29 my husband drew.

I set the cutout on top of the cake and used a skewer to draw around it.

Here's what the outline looked like.

Then, I just followed the lines.

And, I filled in the lines. I piped icing on the inside and used an offset spatula to spread it to the edges.

Then, I started adding details.

And, more details.

Finally, I added "Happy Birthday Jack" and used my favorite trick of using a skewer to draw the letters onto the cake before adding the icing. If you make a mistake, just smooth out the icing and start again until you get it right. I hope Jack likes it.

Writing On A Cake

My daughter Eleanor loves the band "Green Day" and for her 13th birthday requested a cake that looks like the band's "nimrod." album cover.

Eleanor showed me a picture of what she wanted and I was happy to oblige. All it required was a round cake, yellow icing and the word "nimrod." written across the center in black icing.

Writing on cakes used to stress me out. I often found that after I began, the word wasn't centered or sometimes there wasn't even enough room on the cake to finish a word.

Now it doesn't bother me one bit because of this simple trick — Use a skewer to first write on the cake and then trace it with your icing. If it's not what you want, you can easily smooth out the frosting and start again.

So take your time to get it right before you add your icing. It's a simple trick and makes writing on cakes nothing to stress over.

The inspiration for Eleanor's cake.

Bake a cake.

Add your icing.

Use a skewer to trace what you want to write. If you make a mistake, smooth out the icing and start again.

Trace your lettering with the black icing and breath a sigh of relief. That was easy!