10 Hacks For Decorating Cakes Like A Pro

Hello! I'm Emily from British Girl Bakes and I'm going to show you ten cake

decorating

tricks to make professional looking and tasting

cakes

! This first trick is a bit mathematical but none of the others are. Once you have prepared the cake batter, prepare even layers of cake by weighing the batter as you divide it between the pans. Place each mold on your scale, reset the weight to zero, and then weigh the dough as you place it in the mold. My recipes include the total weight of the dough, which you can divide by the number of pans you're using, or if your recipe doesn't include a weight, you can weigh the bowl before you start and then subtract that number from the weight of the dough. bowl with the dough to get the weight of just the dough and divide it by the number of pans you are using.

Here I am making six layers of 80 grams each, so I continue pouring dough into the molds until I reach that weight or take out a little if I exceed that weight. A few grams on either side of your target weight is fine. Then, spread the batter into the pans, tap them a few times on the counter to remove any air bubbles, and bake them. You'll probably need to level the layers after baking and optionally split them. I cover these techniques in my Baking Basics online course and I put the link for more information at the top of the screen and in the description below. this video.

After you bake the layers but before assembling the cake, you can drizzle them with simple syrup to keep them moist. Simple syrup is ridiculously easy to make: simply put equal amounts of water and sugar in a saucepan (and here's a cup of each), turn the heat to medium, and stir occasionally until all the sugar has dissolved, which The moment when the mixture begins to bubble will happen. You can include other ingredients to make flavored syrups, such as an orange peel, if you wish. Let the mixture cool and then spray the cake layers, going all the way to the edges because that's where they are most likely to dry out.

If you are putting buttercream on your cake, either as a filling or for the frosting on the outside of the cake, you will need to put the buttercream in a piping bag. An easy way to do this that avoids the mess is to fold the top of the piping bag over a glass and then pour the buttercream into the bag, pushing it to the bottom. You can then unfold the piping bag and you will have room to twist it to prevent the buttercream from spilling over the top of the bag and getting the bag and your hands dirty.

If you need to refill the bag, air pockets will form between the old buttercream at the bottom of the bag and the new buttercream at the top of the bag, so before you start piping, squeeze the bag into a bowl, pushing in the old buttercream. Take it out and wait for the air jet that will spray some buttercream, before using the pastry bag again. When assembling your cake on a cake board, start by spreading or placing a dollop of buttercream in the center of the board to secure the first layer of cake, pressing the cake down firmly so it adheres to the buttercream.

This will keep the cake from sliding around as you assemble it, but before frosting you should chill the cake in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or in the freezer for 15 minutes, which will cool and set the buttercream portion on the cake board. , causing it to adhere more firmly to the first layer of cake so it doesn't move when you spread the frosting on the outside of the cake. If your fillings are thinner than buttercream, such as fruit sauces or dulce de leche, you should use a dam of buttercream in each layer of the cake to contain the filling.

This is just a ring of buttercream placed around the outside edge of the cake and then you can place the filling in the middle and spread it all the way to the dam. The fill should not exceed the height of the reservoir. Place the next layer on top and press down to make sure the filling doesn't come out. This will prevent the frosting from bulging on the side of the cake, where the filling oozes out under the weight of the cake and the fillings and frosting on top. Before placing the cake board on a turntable, place a ring of tape in the center of the turntable and press the cake board down to secure it in the middle of the turntable so it does not slide while on. glaze or decorate it.

You can use tape or a non-slip mat for this and you can purchase these non-slip mats as drawer liners on Amazon or at grocery stores. You can see that even though this cake is very tall, with a non-slip mat under the cake board and a dollop of buttercream securing the bottom layer of the cake to the cake board, it doesn't wobble while frosting. This frosting is the next trick. It's called a crumb coat and is a thin layer of frosting that completely covers the cake from the top of the sides to the cake board at the bottom, and also the top surface of the cake.

Its purpose is exactly what the name suggests: a crumb coat is a layer of frosting to catch crumbs that come off the cake. It doesn't have to be pretty - it's fine if you can see the layers of the cake through it and it will probably have visible crumbs - but you'll let it set before applying the final layer of frosting, which will set. on top of this and the crumb layer will act as a barrier between the cake and the final layer so that the crumbs cannot get into the final layer of frosting. If you are enjoying this tutorial, please click the Like button.

A quick, easy, and therefore popular way to add a border to the bottom of a cake is to use sprinkles. To do this, place your cake on a tray, to catch any falling sprinkles so they don't spill all over your kitchen, and you will need parchment paper for this trick. Fold a piece of parchment paper in half and cut along the seam to make two strips of parchment paper and tape them together to form one long strip. Wrap the strip around a chilled cake, covering the top section of the cake but leaving the bottom exposed where you want the sprinkles to go.

It's okay if the parchment strip doesn't go all the way to the top of the cake, just a few inches above the exposed area where you're going to press the sprinkles is okay. The cake needs to be chilled so that the frosting can harden and cool and harden so that it holds its shape and is not damaged by the parchment paper that wraps it. Now simply press the sprinkles into the exposed icing under the strip of parchment using an offset spatula or spoon or your hands and when you remove the parchment paper you will leave a perfectly clean edge of sprinkles around the base of the cake.

After frosting and

decorating

your cake, you can refrigerate it until the next day or if you want to store it longer you can freeze it, fully decorated. To do this, place your cake in the freezer for 30 minutes to an hour to set the frosting and decorations so they can harden and hold their shape for the next step. Then take out the cake and wrap everything (the cake and the cake board and any decorations on top) in plastic wrap or plastic wrap. You will need at least two layers to completely cover the cake and the point of this is to prevent condensation from the freezer from reaching the cake because any condensation drops will stick to the outside of the cake and can damage the decorations.

Then, place the wrapped cake back in the freezer for up to a month, placing it in the refrigerator 24 hours before serving to thaw gradually. Unwrap the cake as soon as you take it out of the refrigerator, while the frosting is still cold and hard and will not be damaged by unwrapping. A quick trick to make even these cheap cardboard cake boards look pretty is to wrap them in fabric ribbon. Squeeze clear craft glue around the edge of the cake board and the easiest way to do this is to hold your hands still with the tip of the glue bottle against the side of the cake board and then turn the turntable to apply the glue. all the edge.

Over there. Next, choose where the back of your cake will be and press the end of the ribbon to that spot on the cake board. Spin the turntable again, pressing your finger on the tape as you go to keep it taut and stick to the glue. Fabric tape works best for this because it's flexible, sticks easily, and also looks pretty, especially if you choose a color that matches or complements the colors of the icing or cake decorations. When you get to the end, cut the tape so that it overlaps the beginning of the tape a little, maybe half a centimeter, and then apply a dot of glue to the beginning of the tape and press the end against it.

Make sure the width of the ribbon is the same as the height of the cake board so that it completely covers the cardboard edge but does not protrude above the top of the cake board. Don't move the cake from the surface where you did this for about an hour, until the glue has dried and the tape has stuck to the base of the cake, so if the cake is on a turntable and you want to refrigerate it, set it down. in the refrigerator on the turntable. And that is! I hope these tricks have been useful to you.

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