I’ve always had awful handwriting and have struggled with drawing, picking out furniture and school crafts… So it’s no real surprise that most of my delicious-tasting cakes can look pretty rough unless I keep presentation really, really simple.  I finally mastered squeezing icing out of a snipped Ziploc bag and that’s about as far as the icing decorating talents extend.   So, I’m trying to up my game.  Here are some tips that I want to share with you.

• It’s all about the tools!!!  Just like most any endeavor, if you have the right tools to do the job it turns out better.  For cake decorating beginners, you gotta have a turntable (who knew!), a good angled spatula, a medium-stiff buttercream icing recipe, and some real decorating bags and tips (ziploc won’t cut it).
• Ever see those tortes with really thin layers of cake?   You do it with a cake leveler!  I actually did it on this cake.  It’s only one 8-inch cake split into two layers with a cherry pie filling in between.
• Keep the juicy fillings from gushing out between layers by building a dam of stiff icing all the way around the cake layer and then filling it.
• To make the top of a cake smooth before decorating, you can pat it/smooth it down with a sheet of parchment paper and a spatula or press.  Just be sure and wait until the icing is no longer sticky to the touch.. but not all the way set either.

Cool, huh?