Cake
Decorating
Tips
Piping Tips
• Make sure your icing is stiff enough for
piping otherwise your leaves, rosettes or
basketweave design will collapse. Try a
practice rosette and watch if the detail
disappears and becomes smooth.
• When piping ruffles as a border at the
bottom of a cake you should ensure the
heavy part of the design is against the
cake to hide it. The “ruffle” will be on the
outside.
• When piping swags on an iced cake
always take the time to measure around
the cake with a flexible tape measure
and mark exactly where each swag
should begin and end to ensure even
spacing.
Fondant and Marzipan Tips
• When rolling out marzipan do not
sprinkle your work surface with
cornstarch because it dry out the
marzipan and your work can crack.
• Coloring white fondant to black using
black paste is impossible because the
fondant will end up gray. Try creating
dark green first, then add brown color
and finally the black in stages. This will
create a true black.
• Commercial fondant can be less elastic
than homemade. Try add tylose or gum
tragacath to the fondant to make it more
elastic and less likely to tear when rolling
or shaping designs.
• Store fondant cut outs in a sealed
container or wrapped in plastic until you
need them or they might dry out and
look less attractive.
• Knead a little vegetable shortening into
fondant before covering a cake with
the fondant to make sure that cracking
at the shoulder or seams will be at a
minimum.
• To remove air pockets from a fondant
covered cake use a pin to prick the
pocket and then gently smooth the air
out using a fondant smoother. This is
similar to removing air bubbles from
wallpaper!