Cream cake decorating ideas. How to decorate a cake at home - step-by-step recipe with photos. Chocolate cake decoration

Store-bought confectionery cannot be compared with delicious, aromatic homemade baked goods. When preparing a birthday cake, one of the main stages is its decoration. But not everyone knows how to decorate a cake beautifully at home. In fact, you don’t need to have the skills of an experienced pastry chef to do this. A homemade cake, decorated with soul and love, can in many ways surpass any store-bought one! Just try not to copy the design options that you saw in the store, but come up with your own unique design. So, let's find out what products and skills you may need to add beauty to your cakes yourself!

Cream decorations have not lost their popularity among housewives and confectioners for many years. Roses, leaves, cream borders are unsurpassed classics that allow you to decorate a cake beautifully. However, before you get down to business, you need to decide which cream you should give preference to and what equipment you need to stock up on.

Choosing cream for decoration

The cream must be non-flowing and non-settling.

Therefore, the most suitable and frequently used are butter and meringue, which hold their shape well. And you can prepare them in the following ways.

Decorate the cake with buttercream

Beat 100 gr. softened butter with a mixer until fluffy. Then carefully add 5 tbsp. l. condensed milk (can be boiled), whisking continuously. The cream should be smooth and fluffy.

Options for decorating cakes with butter cream:

Preparation of meringues and examples of decoration

Beat 5 egg whites with a mixer until stiff. Continuing to beat, add 250 gr. Sahara. This should be done gradually, 1-2 spoons at a time. Set the mixer to medium speed and beat for at least 10-12 minutes until a thick, dense, fluffy mass is obtained.

Preheat the oven to 100 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and lightly grease with oil. Using a spoon or pastry syringe, place the finished mixture on a baking sheet and place it in the oven. The time after which the meringue will be completely ready is determined depending on its size and shape. On average, it may take about 1.5 hours.

A few examples of decorating cakes with delicious meringues:

Cakes with such decoration look truly solemn, but they need to be stored exclusively in the refrigerator. And their shelf life is very short due to the use of oil and eggs.

What tools, molds and attachments will be needed

The tools for decorating cakes with cream are quite simple - these are pastry syringes (or bags) with nozzles of various shapes. Thanks to the attachments, it is possible to draw such beautiful curly curls, flowers, leaves and stems.

It doesn’t matter if you don’t have such devices in your kitchen arsenal. Thanks to an ordinary paper cornet, it will be possible to do without them.

To make it, you only need a blank album sheet. It must be rolled up and the tip cut off (evenly or at an angle). The cornet must be held firmly in your hands, not allowing it to unfold. Fill the cornet with cream, roll up the top and, squeezing it, decorate the cake as you please.

Principles and interesting ideas

Depending on the shape of the cut of the cornet or the shape of the nozzle of the pastry syringe, you can draw both even stripes and all sorts of leaf-flowers on the cake. If you move your hand quickly and quickly back and forth, the strip of cream will turn out wavy, reminiscent of ruffles.

It’s not boring to decorate a cake with cream if you use dyes. It can be either ready-made food coloring or natural:

saffron diluted in warm water will give a yellow color;
freshly squeezed beet, cherry or cranberry juice – red;
carrot or orange juice – orange color;
spinach juice – green;
cocoa powder or freeze-dried coffee - chocolate color.

Learn how to decorate a cake beautifully with fondant

Pastry mastic can be an excellent alternative to cream decorations. Its consistency is very similar to plasticine. Therefore, if you know how to sculpt beautifully, you can recreate anything from it: from all kinds of flowers to animal figures and various objects.

The main difference between mastic and cream is that it can be wrapped in cling film and stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 months.

How to make mastic with your own hands

You can buy mastic ready-made in a specialized store, or you can prepare it yourself, which will be even better. There are several ways to prepare it:

Milk mastic

Want something interesting?

You will need to take in equal quantities:

powdered milk;
condensed milk;
powdered sugar.

Mix all the ingredients and knead them into an elastic dough.

That's it, the mass is ready for modeling! You can start creating. If you want to make the mastic multi-colored, the same food colors as for the cream are suitable for this.

Marshmallow mastic

To prepare it, white chewing marshmallows are used. The color of the finished mastic can be left as it is, white, or painted.

Melt a handful of marshmallows in the microwave or in a water bath. Add a little food coloring (optional) and some citric acid water (or milk). To make the finished mastic more plastic, add a piece of butter. Add sifted powdered sugar and potato starch (in a ratio of 1:3) into the resulting mass in small portions. Stir thoroughly before adding more powder and starch.

When the mastic becomes viscous and easily comes off the walls of the vessel, transfer it to a table strewn with powder. Knead in the same way as dough, adding powdered sugar, but do not overdo it. After about 10 minutes the mastic will become very flexible and will stop sticking to your hands. That's it, you can consider it ready to sculpt decorations for your cake.

Rules for working with this material

Mastic is a somewhat whimsical material for creativity. In air it dries quickly and hardens. Therefore, do not forget to wrap it in a plastic bag while working. You also need to roll out the mastic on cling film, while sprinkling it with powdered sugar.

To decorate a cake with fondant, do not sculpt elements that are too voluminous - they may simply crack. Floral arrangements with leaves, frills and ruffles, small figures of animals or people, and other objects that you can create will look much better.

Here are some interesting decoration options for inspiration:

Original cake decoration with fruits

Decorating a cake with fruits and berries is perhaps the most inexpensive, simple and beautiful way that many housewives have long used to aesthetically pamper their household. Both fresh and frozen fruits can be used.

Simple fruit and berry combinations

You can use one type of berry (for example, raspberries or strawberries) in combination with fresh mint leaves, or make a fruit and berry mix from multi-colored fruits (kiwi, bananas, strawberries, cherries, etc.).

The cream goes perfectly with strawberries and chocolate glaze.

The exotic fruit design looks amazing. Place them on the finished cooled cake, creating a beautiful composition. Dilute store-bought jelly or regular gelatin in water (there should be much less water than indicated in the instructions). Using a wide brush, carefully apply the mixture to the fruit and place the cake in the refrigerator. After half an hour, repeat the procedure. This way the fruit will look juicier and the structure will not fall apart.

Artsy fruit crafts

For those who are ready for more sophisticated ways of decorating a cake, we suggest mastering apple roses. Of course, creating them will require some free time and skill, but we are sure that you will be able to do it!

So, first, let's prepare sugar syrup. To do this you need to take 1 tbsp. sugar for 1 tbsp. water and boil well. If you want to give the roses a certain color, add a little food coloring to the syrup. Then cut the apple into thin semicircular petals and boil in syrup over low heat until plastic.

Remove the syrup from the heat and begin rolling the rose. Roll the first petal into a tube, and twist the rest on top until you get a flower. Turn the tips of the slices slightly outward so that the rose looks like it is in bloom.

Chocolate cake decoration

A special treat is decorating a chocolate cake with chocolate. In fact, there are a huge number of options for chocolate decoration. All of them are perfect and original in their own way. The choice is yours!

The easiest and fastest way to decorate a cake is with chocolate chips. To do this, you just need to grate the chocolate on a coarse or fine grater. But there is also a more interesting and unusual way to get chips: put the chocolate bar in a warm place for a while, and then cut thin chips from the bar with a knife. They will immediately begin to curl up. Place these curls on a plate and place them in the refrigerator. Sprinkle them randomly over the cake once they are completely set.

Openwork chocolate is a more sophisticated option for decorating a cake. Such jewelry looks so chic that it’s hard to believe how easy it is to make.

Melt the chocolate bar over low heat, stirring constantly, or use the microwave. You should not heat the chocolate in a water bath, otherwise drops of condensation will mix with it, which we absolutely do not want.

While it melts, draw whatever you want on parchment paper. These can be patterns, hearts, flowers, snowflakes, etc. Then scoop up some more hot chocolate with a confectionery syringe or place it in a plastic bag in which you will need to cut a tiny hole. Trace your drawings on parchment along the outline.

This must be done carefully, but quickly, because the chocolate hardens almost instantly.

The design turns out to be very fragile, so we recommend making several spare patterns. When finished, place your sketches in the refrigerator until completely frozen. After this, very carefully separate the openwork ornaments and transfer them to the cake.

Ready-made templates for openwork chocolate curls, which you can simply print out and outline with chocolate:

Chocolate leaves on the cake look impressive, and do not require much effort in terms of production. To create them, you will need leaves of any tree (in winter, leaves of indoor plants can help out). They need to be thoroughly washed and dried. Then apply melted chocolate evenly over them with a brush. Chocolate leaves will look more realistic if the chocolate is applied to the back of the leaf - the part with the veins. Once hardened, carefully separate the real leaves from the chocolate ones.

As you can see, decorating a cake with chocolate is quick and not at all difficult. A creative approach and a bit of imagination can create incredible things!

Fantasizing over a children's cake

To decorate a children's cake for the upcoming holiday, you will need special sophistication. After all, it should turn out not only beautiful, but also certainly childish! The following materials are good for decoration:

bright mastic from which you can make cartoon characters or funny figures;
various fruits;
sweets;
jelly or marmalade;
multi-colored confectionery powder used to decorate Easter cakes.

What’s remarkable is that for children, the appearance of the cake is even more important than its taste.. Therefore, to make the child happy, try to decorate the cake, taking into account his preferences and interests. Boys are usually delighted with cakes in the shape of a car or robot, girls are partial to Barbie dolls. And cartoon characters are a mutual favorite topic.

Other simple and interesting ways to decorate

You can decorate the cake with your own hands in other simple, but no less enchanting ways:

Drizzle chocolate or colored frosting over the top and sides of the cake;
Use ready-made chocolate figures;
Walnut kernels or almonds can be arranged in an original way, depicting a border and flowers;
The combination of chocolate and whipped cream looks unsurpassed;
To prevent fruits from losing their appearance, first dip them in transparent jelly;
Another great idea for easy cake decorating: make a unique stencil! To do this, on a sheet of paper with a diameter slightly larger than the cake itself, cut out an arbitrary ornament that you like. Hold the stencil over the cake and sprinkle powder on it if the cake is covered with chocolate icing, or cocoa if it is covered with white cream;
The sides of the cake can be decorated with cream stripes or chocolate shards;
A palisade made of wafer rolls or long cookies around the cake looks great;
You can simply grease the sides with cream and sprinkle them with cookie or nut crumbs.

As you can see, decorating cakes gives a lot of scope to your imagination. Don't be afraid to create, create unique masterpieces and share your ideas and their implementation in the comments!

To decorate your holiday with a bright cake, you don’t have to go to the store or pastry shop to buy it. You can make it at home if you try hard enough. We will help you with this.

Cream is such a special mass from which you can prepare many different things. Today we will offer you one version of the cream, from which we will prepare excellent decorations in the form of roses.

How much time - 40 minutes.

What is the calorie content - 395 calories.

How to cook:

Place the whites in a large bowl and add acid, sugar and vanillin;
Place a pan on the stove that will hold a bowl of egg whites;
Pour water into it and boil;
Place the whites in a water bath and beat the cream for fifteen minutes;
When the whites are already elastic, remove them from the bath and beat for a few more minutes until stable peaks form;
Next, let the cream cool and add coloring if desired;
Gently mix the mixture with a spatula and place it in a pastry bag, having previously placed a “star” nozzle in it;
Decorate the finished, cooled cake with the resulting cream, squeezing out roses. To do this, start from the center and rotate your hand in two circles, sharply tearing the nozzle away from the cream so that you don’t get a tail;
Decorate the entire cake with these roses and let them harden in the refrigerator.

Tip: if the whites are not whipping well, you can add a little more lemon juice.

Mastic is similar to plasticine, both in consistency and appearance. It is colorful, soft and you can use it to do whatever your heart desires. Baking decorations included.

What is the calorie content - 34 calories.

How to cook:

Pass the powdered sugar through a sieve into a large bowl;
Add milk powder and mix well;
Pour in condensed milk and knead into an elastic mass, working with it as with regular dough;
Add lemon juice, cognac for a pleasant aroma and, if necessary, dyes;
Knead until the texture and color are uniform;
The result should be a smooth, matte mass;
Next, from the resulting mass we will form a toddler as a decoration on the cake. To do this, you need to add flesh-colored dye to the mastic;
From a piece of mastic, first make an oval in the shape and size of a small chicken egg;
Using a toothpick, make a hole just below the middle - the baby’s navel;
Insert a toothpick into this “egg” so that it stands firmly on the cake;
Take a smaller piece of mastic (but not too much) and roll it into a perfect ball;
Place it on a toothpick as a head;
Using another toothpick, make the baby's eyes;
Stretch out a smile (mouth) with the same toothpick and put dots on the corners;
Make a nose out of a small piece of mastic and flatten it;
For ears, roll two balls and place them on the sharp end of a pen or pencil (to make indentations), but do not pierce them;
Now take more mastic (a quarter of the amount for the head), roll it into a sausage and use a toothpick to make stripes at the end (fingers);
Make the second arm in the same way and attach both arms to the body;
Brush the surface of the cake with water and glue the little one.

Tip: instead of cognac, you can use another flavoring.

Fruits are the simplest and most affordable decoration for a cake. This decoration, in principle, can be considered ready-made. After all, fruits and berries need to be washed, dried, and they can immediately go on the cake.

The easiest option is to pour a whole mountain of berries or pieces of fruit directly into the center of the cake. You can lay out a “month” of the same ingredients. Both options will turn out very tasty, bright and appetizing.

But, if you try a little more, you can make something else out of fruits. For example, a hedgehog. To do this, you will need one package of toothpicks, about two dozen light grapes of the same size, two small black grapes, one large and one pear.

The pear needs to be washed, peel half of the pear with a vegetable peeler or knife on the narrow side. Pierce each white grape with a toothpick and insert it into the unpeeled part of the pear. The grapes should be adjacent to the pear, and the toothpicks should stick out like hedgehog spines.

Break two toothpicks in half and string small black grapes onto two of them and stick them into the pear as eyes. Place a large dark grape on another half and stick it in like a nose. But both the eyes and the nose should be made so that the toothpicks are not visible, unlike the back of the hedgehog.

Insert a bamboo stick into the cake and string the hedgehog onto it so as not to pierce it through. The decoration is ready!

In addition to filling the cake with icing, you can also prepare chocolate figures that will decorate your cake just as well.

Option 1

An easy and simple way to decorate a cake with something chocolatey is to buy ready-made decorations. For example, you can buy several packages of Kit Kat (not the bars, but the ones that break) and the same amount of M&M’s candies.

Surround the finished cake with Kit Kat sticks in a circle and tie them with a beautiful ribbon. And pour the sweets inside, filling the entire space to the very top.

Option 2

The second method is a web of glaze. To do this, you need to cover the cake with white or dark chocolate icing and pour a little light or, conversely, dark icing on top.

Next, use a toothpick or bamboo stick to apply any desired design. But this must be done immediately, before any of the glaze has hardened. Therefore, it would be wise not to cool the cake before this, but also not to pour water on the still warm cake. After “decorating” the cake, immediately put it in the refrigerator.

Instead of a web, you can make a spiral of icing and run a toothpick along it. This will create a whole spiral of hearts.

Option 3

For this method, you will need chocolate from the products. Besides this, you only need parchment.

First you will have to melt the chocolate, and while it is melting in the oven, microwave or on the stove, prepare a strip of parchment and place it on a flat surface (like a cutting board) that can be placed in the refrigerator. Ideally, a marble board that won’t even need to be moved in the cold.

So, then make a small envelope from another piece of parchment and pour chocolate into it. Pour the chocolate from this envelope onto a prepared sheet of paper in the form in which you want the decoration to appear. It could be a heart, a butterfly, a congratulations text, and so on. You need to use a thin ribbon so that the decoration does not float.

Tip: To make your decorations as delicious as possible, use real, high-quality chocolate.

Children most often like bright and beautiful cake decorations and often this is mastic. But, to be honest, among the decorations there may be something healthier than sugar mass. For example, you can decorate a children's cake with curd cream. It's not only healthier, it's also delicious!

How much time - 15 minutes.

What is the calorie content - 327 calories.

How to cook:

Remove the butter from the refrigerator or freezer first so that it becomes soft and easier to work with;
Cut it into cubes and place in a bowl;
Add cottage cheese and vanilla extract to it;
Using a mixer or whisk, beat the ingredients until fluffy, light, airy;
Add powder with a spoon in several stages;
Stir and beat everything again with a mixer or whisk until smooth;
Beat the mixture for three minutes.

For the first and second options, the cream must be divided into two parts. In the first case, add white dye to one part and black dye to the second. In the second case, add black and red. Next, place both creams in different bags with the desired attachments and take out the prepared, cooled cake. Start decorating the cake by squeezing small but sharp peaks all over the cake.

To help yourself, you can first use the same colored cream to draw a picture of the back of a ladybug or a soccer ball. Next, apply the cream, then put it in the refrigerator for at least two hours.

Tip: to make the cream as homogeneous as possible, it is better to first beat the cottage cheese separately with an immersion blender or pass through a sieve.

Other simple and interesting ways to decorate

Those decorations that we wrote about above are not all that can be used to decorate a cake for the holiday. In addition to this entire list, there are still a sea of options.

For example, you can use regular sprinkled sugar. To do this, you need to line the cake with cream and sprinkle with sprinkles so that there is no empty space. Imagine how bright the cake will be;
You can make a cake in the shape of a honeycomb. To do this, you need to make a soft (!) cream and place it in washed and dried bubble wrap (which everyone loves to burst), and then remove it. Do this on all sides of the cake. In this form, cool the cake in the refrigerator, and later enjoy the creation;
It has also become popular to do it a la “drops”. To do this, cover the cake with peaks of cream and smooth them with a spoon in one direction. It turns out very beautiful and original, especially if you make a transition from one color to another - you get an amber.

We have offered you more than ten options for cake decorations. Which one should I make? Now the decision is yours. Depending on what holiday you are preparing for, you can choose your decor and practice. If not the first time, then the second time everything will definitely work out. It will be bright and tasty! Good luck!

There is no doubt that a delicious homemade cake is much better than a store-bought one. A home product should also look beautiful, but this task is not always as simple as it seems at first glance. There are quite a few simple and not so simple ways to decorate a cake beautifully.

Probably the most popular method today is decorating with mastic (it comes in many types). This “material” is good because it is quite easy to use and gives the dessert a beautiful look. You can also create different figures from mastic - petals, flowers, cartoon characters, etc. - that is, everything you can dream up.

Cooks also often use “classic” methods for decorating a cake - they make special ganaches, icings, buy or whip cream with powdered sugar themselves, and make butter creams. When working with these materials, it is convenient to use special culinary spatulas (or a wide knife), syringes with different attachments and cornets.

There are also quite complex ways to decorate a cake, for example, covering it with velor or a glossy surface. A beautiful glossy surface, for example, is created on mousse cakes. I must say that it will be quite difficult for a beginner to master such a complex, newfangled cake decorating technique at home.

Don’t forget about other fairly easy and proven ways to decorate baked goods. Probably each of us has seen or tasted cakes beautifully decorated with special confectionery balls, chocolates, marmalade, and, of course, fruit.

Let's take a closer look at the process of making the most popular baking decorations at home.

How to decorate a cake with mastic: a simple recipe with photos

The easiest way to make fondant at home is to use store-bought marshmallows. There is nothing complicated about this, and now you will see for yourself.

So, we need:

300 g marshmallow candies.
400 g (or more) powdered sugar
2 tbsp. l. lemon juice

It is better to use store-bought powder in the recipe, since it is very finely ground (unless you have a really high-quality grinder). This guarantees the absence of grains, smoothness and elasticity of the “dough” for mastic.

Let's get started. Pour the candies into a deep bowl and add lemon juice. Then place the bowl in the microwave (at full power) for 20 seconds. The mass should become soft. It needs to be mixed with a spatula until smooth, and then put back in the microwave for the same time.

Add powdered sugar to the bowl with melted sweets and begin to knead the “dough”. Then transfer the mixture onto a board and stir in the powder if necessary. The result should be a smooth and plastic mass that does not stick to your hands and does not tear.

Afterwards, wrap the finished “dough” in film and leave it in the cold for an hour. Then the finished mastic can be rolled out on a board with a rolling pin and formed into individual figures or a whole cake cover.

Mastic can also be prepared using gelatin. The ingredients are:

about 500 g of powder
6 tsp. water
1 tbsp. l. liquid glucose
vanilla bag
1 tbsp. l. vegetable oil (refined, odorless)
lemon juice - optional

In a bowl, soak the gelatin in cold water, and then melt it in a water bath (when it swells) until completely dissolved. Add glucose, vegetable oil and vanillin. Mix everything with a spoon.

Place 2/3 of all the powder in a bowl and make a hole with your finger (this is often how simple unleavened dough is prepared), pour the gelatin liquid into it.

We mix everything with our hands like a regular dough, gradually adding powder (you need to watch how much the dough itself takes). If the mastic crumbles, add half a teaspoon. lemon juice and mix again. The finished mass should not stick.

Place the dough in film and let it “rest” in the cold for about 2 hours. Decorating your cake with this mastic will not be difficult at all - it is very plastic and easy to work with.

If you don’t want to bother with candy, powder or gelatin, or you simply don’t have time to prepare homemade mastic, then don’t despair. In many confectionery stores or supermarkets you can easily purchase ready-made mastic for every taste and color. This will significantly save you effort and time. Especially if guests are already on your doorstep.

Making your own ganache for decorating baked goods

A shiny and sweet dark or white icing always looks great on a delicious homemade cake. In addition, ganache is very easy to prepare. Even a culinary novice can cope with this task.

To prepare we need:

white chocolate bar – 100 g
cream – 33-35 g
butter – 30 g

Melt the chocolate in a water bath and add cream to it. When the mixture has cooled, add oil to it. You can do it even simpler - break a chocolate bar into squares, pour in cream and heat in the microwave to the desired consistency. But this must be done several times (3-5 times) for several seconds (10-15 seconds) so that the mixture does not overheat and has the desired consistency.

Stir the cooling mass, add oil and stir again. The oil must be of high quality, otherwise the ganache may not turn out. Butter also gives the ganache shine and the desired thickness. Pour the prepared liquid into a bag.

It can be stored in the refrigerator and simply “thawed” to room temperature before use. You can safely cover the top and sides of the cake with white ganache. It will turn out very tasty and beautiful if you decorate the cake with coconut shavings and sweets on top.

Icing

Decorating baked goods with icing (or, as it is also called, royal icing) allows you to create the finest elements and designs. Cakes, gingerbreads, cupcakes decorated in this way instantly attract the eye and will not leave any sweet tooth indifferent.

Properly prepared icing should be completely white and harden well. You can also work with this type of decor in different ways. If you already have a cake covered with fondant or chocolate ganache, then icing will give it an even more presentable look. By placing the icing in a pastry bag, you can draw a variety of swirls and patterns on the surface of the cake. Don't worry if it doesn't turn out as planned the first time. With a little practice, decorating your cake will be nothing but fun.

In addition, you can create different figures from this white glaze. To do this, you will need paper, a pencil and a transparent, blank file (the usual one that we use to store papers or documents). On paper you need to draw the pattern you want (flowers, leaves, butterflies) and place it in a file. Then, with a pastry bag in a small hole, you need to follow the contours. Then the file with the applied ornament should harden (dry) well. Then the icing will easily “come off” from it and you can carefully transfer it to your baked goods.

The royal icing recipe is quite simple. We will need:

one protein
150-170 g powdered sugar
4 drops citric acid
food coloring (if desired)

In a deep bowl, stir the egg white (but don’t beat it, just stir it). Add citric acid and powder to it. Add the powder gradually. That's all, actually. We check readiness: the icing should not flow very strongly (intermittently) from the fork.

The glaze that drips down should hold its shape noticeably. Then the icing is ready. We place it in a bag and draw the desired patterns on the file. We are waiting for the drawings to dry (at room temperature). We put them in baking and enjoy our work.

We decorate baked goods with sweets, marmalade, fruits

There are many more ways to beautifully decorate a homemade cake. You can use different candies (for example, chocolate truffles), M&M's, marmalade, seasonal fruits.
In addition, you can combine decoration methods. For example, you make chocolate ganache on a cake, and decorate it beautifully with chocolate candies on top and sprinkle with coconut flakes or cocoa powder.

Also, such candies will look beautiful as a decoration on a cake covered with white fondant. Chocolate truffles can be replaced with the popular multi-colored M&M's candies, for example, if the cake is baked in honor of a child's birthday.

It’s always a good idea to decorate baked goods and cakes with seasonal fruits. Strawberries look beautiful and impressive when placed on ordinary whipped cream. But here we must take into account that strawberries are a perishable product, so such baked goods must be eaten immediately and decorated immediately before use.

Even simple whipped cream can give the cake a festive look. And for this you need some special devices. You won’t surprise anyone with fancy roses, but using an ordinary tablespoon or dessert spoon you can easily make “embossing” and decorate the cake in this way. See the photo below for an example of such a light decorative technique.

A birthday is a special celebration and an excellent reason to get together with the whole family, invite friends, and remind you of your love. An important place on the festive table is occupied by a cake decorated in honor of the birthday person. The hero of the day should like the decor, but it is also necessary that the decorations match the cake to his taste. Finally, it is desirable that beauty can be created at home. Creams, mastic, fruits and sweets from the store come to the rescue.

Male character: cake decoration for husband, father

Decorating a cake for a man is not an easy task. It is unlikely that a representative of the stronger half of humanity will like the abundance of ruffles, flowers and bows. To express your love to your dad, husband, friend or brother, you need to choose a discreet yet stylish cake decoration. An almost surefire option is hot chocolate.

Ingredients:

100 g dark chocolate;
whole nuts.

How to decorate:

Cover the cake with mastic or a layer of thick cream so that the inscription or pattern is clear.
Melt the chocolate in a water bath. Leave a small piece for shavings.
Fill a pastry syringe with melted chocolate.
Using a thin tip, write in the center of the cake: “To my beloved husband,” “To my wonderful father,” or another symbolic phrase.
Along the edge of the cake, make a frame in the form of chocolate drips, confectionery beads, nut shavings, whole nuts (hazelnuts look solid) or grated chocolate.

If you have the desire and time, you can decorate a man’s cake with themed figures made from mastic. Anything is formed from this mass: a tie, a mustache, or something related to the man’s profession or hobby.

How to please a lady

Any woman would be pleased to receive a bouquet as a gift, which means a scattering of edible flowers on a cake would be a good option for treating a mother, friend, or sister. Mom will be pleased to see the inscription on the cake in her honor: “To my beloved mother,” “Dearest,” “With love from the family,” “Thank you for everything,” etc.

The easiest cake to prepare is sponge cake. It goes perfectly with egg whites and whipped cream. If you don’t have enough time or experience, then you can buy whipped cream and cakes ready-made - but it’s better to do a tasting first, so as not to serve something inedible on the holiday table or not have to worry about decorating because of low-quality cream.

Ingredients:

sponge cakes;
whipped cream;
protein cream;
yellow, red and blue food coloring.

How to decorate:

Soak the biscuit cakes with sweet tea or coffee.
Place whipped cream between the sponge layers, on top and on the sides of the cake.
Color the protein cream yellow, red and blue. Using these dyes you can achieve other shades: green, pink, blue, orange.
Fill pastry bags with cream.
Using a thin curly tip, squeeze out a wavy line along the edge of the cake.
Place several flowers in the center (using a shaped nozzle in the form of buds).
Form leaves and grass from green cream.

Honey cake: simple decor for a delicious cake

A cake that everyone will love: soft, tender and richly honeyed. The easiest way to decorate a honey cake is with crumbs from under the cakes. When cutting and leveling, pieces of dough remain. They need to be dried in the oven, crushed and sprinkled on top of the cake. There are more intricate decoration options.

Ingredients:

a bar of white chocolate and a small piece of dark;
wrapping “bubble” film;
long nuts: almonds, peanuts or cashews.

How to decorate:

Bake honey cake cakes, fill them with boiled condensed milk or sour cream. Top the cake with the same cream.
Melt white chocolate in a water bath. Set aside a couple of tablespoons of the mixture to decorate the nuts.
Pour the chocolate onto the cleaned film so that it fills all the spaces between the bubbles.
Place the structure in the refrigerator - the frozen chocolate will look like a honeycomb.
Place the design on the top of the honey cake.
Dip the nuts in dark melted chocolate, and draw thin stripes on the whites - these will be bees.
Make wings from thin almond petals.
Place the bees on the honeycomb. They will hold on if you put them on cream or condensed milk.

How to decorate a cake with fondant

Mastic is a confectionery mass based on marshmallows or sugar. Mastic is used to cover cakes, including multi-tiered ones. Figures, letters and entire inscriptions are made from the mass. Mastic hides imperfections in cakes, it tastes good, and you can experiment with it.

Ingredients:

250 g marshmallows;
1.5 tsp. citric acid;
300-500 g of powdered sugar;
food colorings.

How to cook:

Melt the marshmallows. To do this, either place the candies in the microwave for 20 seconds or put them in a water bath. Only white marshmallows will do; a colored delicacy will result in a mass of incomprehensible color.
When the marshmallows increase in volume and become soft, stir them with a spoon into a homogeneous mass.
For a colored coating, add food coloring.
Sift the powdered sugar through a strainer.
Let the marshmallows cool and knead like dough - with your hands, gradually add powder until you obtain a dense and non-sticky mass.
Form a ball from the mastic and roll it out a little wider than the cakes. Place the layer on the cake and smooth it out with a pastry iron.
To create relief decorative elements, roll out the mastic into a thick layer and cut out figures from it using molds: flowers, hearts, stars, etc. The mastic ribbon easily folds into a bow.

Interesting
To be precise, marshmallows only look like marshmallows in appearance. They are made from corn or sugar syrup, gelatin and glucose. Marshmallow contains egg white.

Cream decoration ideas

Pastry cream combined with food coloring will decorate any cake. And if you add fresh berries and fruits to it, the dessert will sparkle with bright colors.

Protein custard

This is the kind of cream that is used to fill eclairs, but it holds its shape well and is therefore suitable for creating decor.

Ingredients:

3 eggs (whites);
a glass of sugar;
a pinch of salt;
120 ml water.

How to cook:

Combine sugar and water in a saucepan, put on fire and cook for 15-20 minutes until the sugar has completely melted.
Separate the whites from the yolks and beat until stiff peaks form. Confectionery trick: to make the whites whip, add a pinch of salt to it.
Pour the syrup into the whites while hot. Stir the cream constantly. First the mass will settle, and then rise.
Beat the cream until completely cooled.
Squeeze the air mass out of a pastry syringe with a large nozzle, forming a background, waves, etc.
To beautifully decorate the sides of the cake, use a pastry spatula with wide teeth. Apply the cream and run a tool over it to get even tracks.
Use a syringe to squeeze out small flowers from below.

Sour cream

It is very simple in composition, but this does not compromise its taste.

Ingredients:

500 g of high-fat sour cream (so that the cream does not flow);
sugar - 300 g
vanilla to taste.

How to cook:

Before preparing the cream, cool the sour cream for 3 hours.
Pour sugar into a clean and dry container, add sour cream and vanillin.
Beat the cream with a mixer until thick.
If the sour cream is liquid, then you need to beat it a little more.
Place fresh cranberries, blueberries or raspberries on the lush mass. From small berries you can make the words: “Happy Birthday!”

To make your home decor neat, you will have to stock up on some kitchen appliances. For example, a pastry syringe with various attachments allows you to easily create a beautiful frame and design. Here are some more useful tips for those who want to succeed in the difficult culinary business:

To write the words, use whipped cream, buttercream, liquid chocolate, or even gingerbread cookie icing.
If you want to achieve perfect whiteness of the whipped egg white, you need to add a drop of lemon juice to it.
When choosing a decoration, you need to start from the composition of the cake itself. All products must be combined. It is best to take what the cake itself or its filling is made of.
Fruits and berries go well with many creams. This is a universal decoration option: tasty, healthy and bright. Protein cream, melted chocolate and fresh strawberries, raspberries and blueberries go well together.
If men prefer restraint, then a woman will like the play of colors and splendor. The top of the cake can be created from store-bought sweets: macaroon cakes, cookie crumbs, small soft chocolates, wafer rolls, pieces of fruit and berries.
For a delicate cake decoration, broken marshmallows or meringue cakes will do.
Don't forget about the birthday person's taste preferences and ask if there are any allergies to any foods.

To decorate a birthday cake, you will need not only imagination, but also a desire to bring joy to your loved one. Dishes prepared with a good mood turn out especially tasty and are remembered for a long time. Whatever decoration you choose for your birthday cake, make it with love.

Decorating the cake yourself using available materials is not difficult at all. The main thing is to have enough time and use your imagination. To bring your own ideas to life, it is not at all necessary to have the special knowledge and skills of a professional.

Before you start decorating a dessert, you need to understand the basics of working with this plastic edible material. The consistency of mastic is very similar to plasticine, so you can create different figures from it. In addition, it is stored for a long time - wrapped in film, it can lie in the refrigerator for 10 - 12 weeks. You can buy mastic ready-made or make it yourself.

Mastic has become a popular cake decorating element in recent years.

Ingredients for cooking:

powdered milk;
condensed milk;
powdered sugar.

All components are taken in the same ratio and kneaded. After this, divide the resulting dough into parts and add the necessary dyes.

Mastic is also made from marshmallows.

Ingredients:

marshmallows - a handful;
“lemon” diluted with water – 1 tsp;
butter – 25 g;
sweet powder and starch in a ratio of 1 to 3.

The mastic is prepared following this algorithm:

The marshmallows are dissolved in a water bath, a little dye is added and, if necessary, water and oil for elasticity.
Add powder and starch into the liquid and sticky mass in small portions, stirring thoroughly.
When the mastic ceases to be sticky, it is transferred to a table generously sprinkled with powdered sugar. Knead the mass, periodically adding powder, until the base becomes plastic.
Do you feel that the mass has stopped sticking to your palms? This means that it is completely ready for use.

It’s difficult to sculpt perfect figures without professional equipment and skills, but why not try. Just prepare at least a minimum of tools - a sharp small knife, toothpicks, a brush, a rolling pin, a roller.

When working with mastic, adhere to the following rules:

Do not leave the mass in the air (it dries quickly and becomes hard), but constantly wrap the remainder in film.
Rolling is done only on film sprinkled with powdered sugar.
Preference is given to small elements, since voluminous figures can crack.

You can decorate the cake in different ways, since mastic gives wide scope for imagination. As a rule, first the material is rolled out thinly to completely cover the cake, and then the finished surface is decorated with figures.

Decoration with cream

You can decorate a cake with cream in different ways. Roses, leaves, various curls and borders are made from the creamy mass - it looks very elegant and festive. But in order for these delicate products to keep their shape, you need to choose a suitable cream, and it is better to give preference to oil.

Decorating cakes with cream is quite a fascinating process.

To prepare butter cream you will need a minimum of ingredients:

melted butter - 1 pack
condensed milk – 10 tbsp. l.

The butter must first be removed from the refrigerator so that it melts, and then beat with a mixer until soft and fluffy. After this, add condensed milk in small portions and beat the mixture until smooth.

If desired, the mass is divided into several portions and different dyes are added to them.

You can buy them ready-made or make them yourself:

yellow color comes from saffron;
orange – orange or juicy young carrots;
scarlet – cherries, beets, cranberries;
light green – spinach;
brown – cocoa.

To make the cream decor neat and beautiful, you need to use special syringes with different attachments. If there are no such devices, you can make an imitation of a syringe from a thick sheet by rolling it into a cone and cutting off the sharp corner. You can do the same with a regular thick bag. Then the resulting blank is filled with cream and squeezed out through a small hole. This way you can draw straight or wavy stripes, leaves, flowers, ruffles, and inscriptions.

Ideas using fruits

Decorating a cake with fruit is very easy. This is one of the fastest and most inexpensive ways. By creating spectacular compositions from slices of different fruits, you can show your imagination and give free rein to your imagination.

Both decorations made from one type of berry and bright, multi-colored fruit and berry mixes look beautiful.

To prevent the fruit from losing its original color and the structure from falling apart, the entire composition is covered with colorless jelly. The liquid mass is carefully distributed over the decor with a brush and placed in the refrigerator. After half an hour, the “gelatin” treatment is repeated.

If you have time and desire, you can make roses from apples.

First, prepare the syrup (take a spoonful of sugar per 200 ml of water), adding dye at this stage, if necessary.
The apples are cut into thin strips and boiled in syrup until they become plastic.
Roses are formed from fruit preparations. The inner “petal” is rolled into a spiral, and the rest are added in a circle, forming a lush flower. The ends are slightly twisted outward so that the “rose” bud blooms.

How to decorate a cake with cream

Whipped cream is an airy and delicate decoration, but you need to work with it quickly.

Whipped cream is a great way to decorate a sweet treat.

Ingredients:

heavy cream – 500 g;
vanillin - sachet;
powdered sugar – 150 g;
gelatin – 1 sachet.

Preparation:

Pour the cooled cream into a deep bowl and place it in a saucepan with ice water.
Dissolve gelatin.
Beat the cream with a mixer until a strong foam appears.
Add powder, vanillin and mix gently.
Add gelatin in a thin stream.

Whipped cream is placed in a pastry syringe and decorated with cake.

Chocolate

Decorating a cake is a delicate matter, since the finished appearance and aesthetics of the entire product depend on it. Chocolate is one of the favorite products for confectioners to decorate desserts.

People with a sweet tooth love chocolate for its melting taste and delicate texture.

The easiest way is to chop up a chocolate bar and sprinkle the resulting shavings on the cake. You can try a more complex method: to do this, leave the chocolate in a warm place for a short time so that it becomes softer. Then thin long shavings are cut from the tile with a sharp knife. They immediately begin to curl, and in order to fix the shape, they are placed in a cold place to harden.

Openwork curls look very elegant:

The tiles are melted in a small container over low heat.
Templates of curls and patterns in the required quantity are drawn in advance on parchment paper.
Then hot liquid chocolate is placed in a syringe and all the sketches are carefully traced along the contour. This must be done quickly and efficiently, as the mass hardens quickly. It is advisable to make several spare patterns, since the finished curls turn out to be quite brittle and can simply fall apart into pieces if handled carelessly.
The parchment with the painted curls is placed in a cold place until it hardens completely.
Then the openwork products are carefully separated from the paper and laid out on the cake.

It's very easy to make chocolate leaves. To do this, take foliage from any tree, wash it thoroughly, and then cover it with melted chocolate and place it in a cold place. The most important task is to carefully separate the real leaves from the edible ones.

With sweets and candies

You can decorate even the simplest cake in an original way with sweets. The main thing is that the surface of the product is thick and viscous.

There are many design options:

Cover the sides with long thin waffles, tubes or bars and tie them with a bright satin ribbon. Fill the top of the cake with multi-colored dragees.
Use small toffees to make a beautiful inscription or pattern on the snow-white or beige surface of the cake.
Cut the marmalade into small pieces and arrange in a chaotic manner.
Place a handful of multi-colored dragees inside. When cutting, guests will find that the cake has a surprise.
Many people also use confectionery sprinkles. It comes in different colors and shapes. It is advisable to decorate the cake with sprinkles while its surface is not yet completely frozen.
Decorations made from crushed nuts, chocolate and coconut chips, and cookie crumbs are widely used.
Jelly with sprinkles looks very impressive on the surface of the cake, as it resembles an aquarium. To do this, half of the prepared liquid colored jelly is poured onto the cake and placed in a cold place to harden. Then the frozen mass is sprinkled with coarse sprinkles and again filled with the remaining liquid.
To decorate the cake with sprinkles in an unusual way, use stencils. You can make them yourself by cutting out a pattern, letters, design or numbers from a piece of paper. The template is easily pressed to the surface of the cake, and the top is thickly sprinkled with the selected powder. Then the stencil is carefully removed, leaving a beautiful number or pattern on the cake.

Using berries

Decorating a cake with berries is a stylish and fashionable solution.

Berries are one of the healthiest foods for decoration. They contain a lot of vitamins, they are juicy, tasty and bright. The easiest way is to evenly spread berries of one type (or several, if desired) over the surface of the cake and coat them with colorless jelly.

How to decorate a children's cake

For children, the appearance of a dessert means much more than its taste. Therefore, mothers have to come up with various unusual decorations from sweets, mastic, fruits, jelly and other products.

Every mother dreams of being able to create an unforgettable cake for her baby.

Cake decoration options:

sprinkle it with colorful Easter powder;
pour glaze over;
arrange the fruits in a mysterious pattern;
decorate with your own molded figures;
whip cream and sprinkle with shavings;
arrange a palisade around the edges from oblong cookies;
pour in jelly.

When decorating a cake for a child, you need to consider who it is intended for. Boys like culinary masterpieces in the form of cars, balls or superheroes, girls - in the form of dolls or flowers. But all children, as a rule, adore cartoon-themed cakes.

It is also necessary to remember that many modern children are allergic to various foods. Therefore, during the manufacturing process you should not use components that could potentially cause allergic reactions.

Cake decoration for March 8, February 23

Confectionery products for these dates can be decorated in different ways. As a rule, the decor almost always includes numbers - 8 or 23. They are made from chocolate, mastic and other materials.

Cakes decorated with chocolate, caramel or butter icing look very stylish and elegant.

Ingredients for caramel frosting:

warm water - ¾ cup;
granulated sugar – 180 g;
corn starch - 2 tsp;
cream with a high percentage of fat content - ¾ tbsp.;
gelatin in sheets – 5 g.

Preparation:

Soak gelatin in water.
Mix cream with starch.
Melt the sugar until it has a caramel color.
Pour cream with starch and viscous sugar into warm water. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly.
All that remains is to cool the mass and add ready-made gelatin to it.

Decorating meringues with your own hands

Cakes are also decorated with meringue.

Meringue is great for decorating cakes!

For such a snow-white crispy decor you will need:

proteins – 5 pcs.;
sugar or powder – 250 g.

The algorithm of actions is already known to everyone:

Beat the whites into a stable foam, then add powder in small portions.
Beat at medium speed for 10 minutes until the mixture acquires a fluffy and dense consistency.
After this, preheat the oven to 110ºC and line a baking sheet with paper.
Place a tablespoon of the prepared mixture in the form of small cakes onto greased baking paper and place in the oven.

Waffle decoration

Waffles are an inexpensive and easy-to-work material. On sale you can find ready-made colorful images on waffle cakes. Their assortment is very large: they include beautiful princesses, supermen, favorite cartoon characters, and animals. It’s almost impossible to make such decor yourself, so it’s easier to buy it ready-made.

The advantage of this decor is that it does not crack, does not melt like cream, and retains its given shape well.

The process of decorating with a waffle picture goes like this:

Form a perfectly smooth surface of the cake.
Turn the cake with the image upside down and brush with liquid honey using a silicone brush. Instead of honey, syrup or any light-colored jam is sometimes used so as not to spoil the picture when the cake is soaked.
Attach the picture to the surface.
Gently press down with your hands and smooth with a napkin.
Whip the cream and decorate the edges.

Sometimes the cake is decorated not with a whole picture, but with individual waffle figures. They are laid in the same way as the waffle cake.

Knowing how to decorate a cake at home, you can create real masterpieces, delighting yourself and your loved ones. Use your imagination and your dessert will outshine even the products of elite confectionery shops!