Cake decorating is a creative process that helps the confectioner to show his personality. There are many different ways in the arsenal of professional cake makers. Some of them require skills and the use of special tools, while others are available even to a simple housewife. Read more about the most popular types of sweet decor below.

Fruit cake decoration

Fruits - this is one of the easiest and most affordable ways to give individuality to home baking, as well as get the benefit from a high-calorie dessert, often in the form of a portion of vitamins.

Ideal for pastry decor are apples and pears, plums, peaches and apricots, kiwi, bananas and all citrus fruits. Caution should be used to decorate cakes with cherries and cherries because of the stone, and the latter also because of the ability to stain the cream with its juice.

For decoration, you should take fresh ripe fruits, without any flaws. Categorically you can not use frozen fruits for decoration. Not all of them are able to maintain their shape and color after defrosting.

The main ways to decorate the cake with fruit:

  1. Beautifully lay the fruit on the surface of a cream-lined cake. You can lay out fruits on the entire surface of the product or in the form of a ring around the circumference. From above they can be beautifully powdered with powdered sugar. This is the easiest option for fruit decoration, but it is recommended to decorate the cake just before serving so that the fruits do not lose their attractive appearance.
  2. Fruit in jelly. In this way, you can decorate the cake in advance.To do this, the collected dessert is tightly tightened with a detachable ring or a ring is made of a dense film. Sliced ​​fruits are beautifully laid on top and poured with jelly for the cake, which is then sent to the refrigerator until completely frozen. If it was not possible to purchase special jelly, it can be replaced with gelatin dissolved in sweet syrup. Pineapple and kiwi do not allow jellies to harden, so before using in a sweet decor, it is recommended to pour them over with boiling water.
  3. Apple "roses" and "glass" pears. The essence of this method is the use of sliced ​​thin slices and boiled in syrup fruits. For "roses", apple plates should be boiled until soft in a syrup, the concentration of which is 1: 1, then twist around each other about 5 - 6 plates for one "flower". Pear slices are boiled in tinted (food coloring or juice) sugar syrup and then dried on parchment at room temperature. The result is translucent slices similar to non-colored glass. They decorate the sides of the cake or lay them on top.

How to decorate with mastic do it yourself

Mastic is an ideal material for the realization of even the most daring pastry fantasies. You can fit the surface of a pre-aligned cake with it, create sweet floral arrangements from it and sculpt various figures.

There are many different recipes for mastic, suitable for a particular decoration method, but universal can be called sugar paste from chewing marshmallows (marshmallows).

To prepare it you will need:

  • 150 g marshmallows;
  • 30 ml of lemon juice;
  • 300 - 450 g of powdered sugar.

How to cook:

  1. Marshmallow the marshmallows with lemon juice in a steam bath or in the microwave so that the marshmallows become larger in volume.
  2. Remove them from the heat and, adding a little sifted icing sugar, knead a plastic sweet dough.
  3. Wrap the mastic with foil and hide in the refrigerator for half an hour. After such stabilization, you can begin to work.

Using chocolate

The number of options for using chocolate in decorating cakes is quite extensive.

So, in the process of decoration can go into business:

  1. Chocolate chips. It can cover the sides and top of the cream-lined cake. To prepare this element of decor, it is enough to take a bar of chocolate and grate it on a coarse grater or cut it with a knife. Chocolate can be used white, milk or dark.
  2. Chocolate glaze. By mixing melted chocolate with cream or milk, you can get an excellent mixture to completely cover the surface of the product or to form beautiful chocolate smudges. Before coating, the cake must be cooled for 4 hours in the refrigerator, and checking the consistency of the glaze is very convenient on a chilled glass.
  3. Chocolate "lace" and other decorative elements. With melted chocolate, using ordinary baking paper cornet, you can draw openwork patterns on parchment, and then transfer them to the sides and surface of the cake. In addition, it is possible to make various chocolate figures using silicone molds.

Cream for decorating a cake that holds its shape

Whatever kind of decor the hostess would choose for her cake, the product needs to be covered with cream on the sides and top. Protein custard is ideal for most options. It holds its shape perfectly and is easy to prepare even for a beginner. From it you can make not only cream roses, but also use chocolate, mastic, fruit and berry decor with it, as well as elements from marzipan and aising, and even just put sweets and candies on it.

The cream contains three ingredients: chicken egg proteins, sugar and water.

Sugar should be taken in weight twice as much as protein, and water - half as much.

So, if you take three eggs of category C0 or C1, then we get:

  • 90 g of protein;
  • 180 g of sugar;
  • 45 ml of water.

Cooking:

  1. Beat whites until soft, but firm foam.
  2. Boil syrup from sugar and water. When its temperature reaches 110 degrees, inject it into proteins with a thin stream, continuing to whip the cream.
  3. Next, beat the composition until the moment when the bowl with it becomes room temperature. The cream is immediately ready for use as directed.

Housewives who do not have a culinary thermometer are afraid not to digest or digest the syrup, which can easily happen when tested on a soft ball. But there is another, quick way to determine the desired temperature.

It is necessary to make a loop from the wire, as for blowing soap bubbles, and when, having dipped it in syrup, it will be possible to inflate a bubble - the temperature is reached.

Marzipan and Aising

Marzipan is a sweet pasta made from sugar and powdered almonds. Its use in confectionery decor is similar to using mastic. Almond paste can cover cakes, sculpt figures from it and make flowers.

This decor ingredient can be purchased at the store or made by yourself.

To do this, take only:

  • 150 g of roasted and peeled almond kernels;
  • 200 g of granulated sugar;
  • 50 ml of water;
  • butter to lubricate marzipan storage containers.

The sequence of actions:

  1. Using a blender, coffee grinder or almonds to turn nuts into flour.
  2. Cook thick syrup from water and sugar, put almond flour in it and boil for another three minutes.
  3. Then transfer the resulting mass to a greased container and cool. If marzipan turned out to be liquid, knead it by adding powdered sugar. And if the mass crumbles and crumbles, then you need to add a little warm water.

Aising, or royal icing, is very similar in its properties to chocolate. The just prepared mixture is quite thick, but fluid, it is very convenient to draw intricate "ice" patterns on the cake, and after a short period of time it freezes. You can draw with ice on a cake covered with mastic, marzipan or hard chocolate icing

The proportions of the ingredients for creating an icing decor will be as follows:

  • 1 protein;
  • 180 - 220 g of powdered sugar;
  • 5 ml of lemon juice.

Working process:

  1. Strain the room temperature protein through a fine strainer so that chalase - a white cord that keeps the yolk in the center of the egg - does not get into the iceberg.
  2. Then rub the powdered spoons into the protein with powdered sugar and lemon juice to the desired consistency.

Aising can be used in its original color or stained with food colors. Since the mixture quickly hardens, it must be used quickly, and it is better to cover the container with it with a damp towel.

With glaze

The most common type of glaze that was used by our mothers and grandmothers was chocolate, which was usually prepared from cocoa powder, sour cream, milk or butter. But now mirror glaze (glazage) has become very widespread.

It is prepared from:

  • 300 g glucose or invert syrup;
  • 300 g of sugar;
  • 150 ml of water;
  • 200 g of condensed milk;
  • 300 g of chocolate (better than white if further coloring is planned);
  • 20 g of gelatin.

Step by step cooking:

  1. Soak gelatin in water, taking it twice as much as its weight. Break the chocolate into small pieces.
  2. In a saucepan, combine glucose syrup, sugar and 150 ml of water, bring everything to a boil. The resulting mixture pour swollen gelatin, condensed milk and pieces of chocolate.
  3. Kill all glaze ingredients with a hand blender, avoiding the formation of foam on the surface. At this stage, the glaze can be dyed.
  4. Cover the glasazh with plastic wrap and let stand overnight in the refrigerator. Then heat to 35 degrees and cover it with a cake.

To cover the product with mirror glaze, it is perfectly aligned and well cooled, then put on a wire rack and watered with a warm mixture from above.

Cut the cake, decorated with glazed, with a hot dry knife.

Cake decoration with berries

The principles of using berries in the decoration of the cake and the methods of such decoration are similar to the use of fruits.The greatest love of confectioners in berry decoration was gained by strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, black and red currants.

It is worthwhile to dwell separately on some of the nuances in the methods of decorating the cake with berries:

  1. Berries laid on the surface of the cream can cause condensation and the cream to stain in the color of berry juice. To avoid this, cover the berry with cream with enough chocolate.
  2. Berries, like fruits, can be sprinkled with powdered sugar on top, or you can use a brush to coat a little “golden” candurin. Golden glitter on dark blue blueberries will look especially impressive.
  3. When making berries in jelly, it is better to divide the pouring process into 2 - 3 stages, so that light berries do not float to the surface, but remain on the cake with a beautiful composition.

DIY whipped cream

Another option for home decor baking cream that can hold its shape well is whipped cream. It contains only cream with a fat content of 35 - 40% (and can be higher) and powdered sugar, which will regulate the sweetness of the cream.

The whipping process is as follows:

  1. Cream, whisk of the mixer and a clean fat-free container to beat them need to be well cooled. To this end, inventory and a dairy product are recommended to be refrigerated overnight.
  2. Next, the cream is transferred to a chilled container and whipped with a mixer, starting at the lowest speed, gradually increasing it to the maximum.
  3. During whipping, gradually add the powder of ground sugar. When the necessary sweetness and consistency of the cream are achieved, you can start decorating.

For the precipitation of whipped cream, as well as the protein custard, a pastry bag with various curly nozzles will be needed.

How to decorate with sweets and sweets

To decorate the cake with your own hands, it is not at all necessary to spend several days preparing the decor, everything you need can be purchased at the nearest candy store. For sweet decor, marshmallows, meringues, cookies, waffles, chocolate and jelly candies of various shapes, multi-colored dragees are suitable.

The most common and simple ways to decorate:

  1. Chocolate-coated sweets. The chilled cake is covered with chocolate icing around, forming beautiful smudges on the sides, and until the icing has frozen, sweets are laid out in random order on it.
  2. "Kit Kat" and colored chocolate tablets. For this method, the cake does not have to be carefully aligned, because Kit Kat sticks are glued to the sides of the cake with chocolate or cream, and the surface of the dessert is covered with colorful dragees of chocolate.
  3. Pattern of colored dragees. The most diligent housewives can make out colored dragees by colors and lay out on the cake a beautiful pattern or picture like a mosaic.

Cake decoration with sprinkles

You can not only decorate Easter cakes with colored pastry sprinkles or sprinkle cream caps of cupcakes, it is also suitable for decorating cakes.

By sprinkling, you can decorate the surface of the cake, covered with cream or not frozen chocolate icing. To get a beautiful picture from colored dusting, you can use ready-made or made with your own hand stencils of thick paper or acetate film.

A cake completely covered (with both sides and top) with colored sprinkles will also look beautiful. To cover the sidewalls, baking is placed on a piece of linen fabric, onto which I pour enough colored granules. Then the fabric with them is lifted and pressed to the sidewalls.

In conclusion, I want to say that you should not limit yourself to one of the above decor methods. They can be safely combined: chocolate and sweets, fruits, ice and berries, glasss and chocolate, mastic and ice ... Unleash your imagination!

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