Hot Cake Decorating How-Tos


How To: Make Homemade Vanilla Frosting from Scratch
This is a great quick and easy recipe and a great healthy alternative to store-bought frosting. My husband and children love this frosting, and it's also a hit at my PTA meetings. It goes great on cakes, cupcakes, cookies, or anything you desire to put frosting on.

How To: Make an orchid flower with gumpaste
In this tutorial, we learn how to make an orchid flower with gum paste. First, roll out the gum paste and then cut it into three different shapes to make the flower. Next, place a wire in the center of the petals and then place them on a mold to get the correct texture. After this, push a ball onto the ends of the petals to make them look more realistic. Make the last flower by putting a pointed cone in the middle and wrapping it around. Now, place a ball shaped gum paste in the middle of the...

How To: Turn decorated cookies into holiday ornaments and party favors
Got lots of pretty cookies to share with friends and family during the holidays? While it's true you could hand them off in tins as is, it's so much more fun to experiment with packaging and favor ideas.

How To: Make a chubby fondant panda for cake decorating
Okay, so how cute is this chubby fondant panda bear? While the ltitle dude makes an adorable cupcake or cake topper for your kid's birthday party, you should definitely also find excuses to pop it on top of your own baked creations - we're thinking for baby showers or for a spring bash.

How To: Make delicious candy clay for cake decorating
Candy and clay aren't two words you usually hear in the same sentence. But for pastry chefs and bakers, candy clay is a deeply ingrained part of their cake decorating vocabulary. That's because candy clay is a much better tasting sister of fondant, which is commonly used to decorate cakes.

How To: Make a tire cake using Fondx fondant or gumpaste
This three tiered tire cake is a perfect Groom's cake for a man who loves cars! For this cake, you will need Fondx brand fondant in jet black, rolled fondant stabilizer, powdered sugar, a rolling pin, a pizza cutter, cooking scissors and a tire mold.

How To: Make simple fondant butterflies for you baking creations
This how-to video teaches a very simple method of making sugar paste (fondant)butterflies for your cake decorating needs. You'll want some food coloring, some shortening, and a flat surface. Watch the video, follow the steps and get ready to spread your wings! Come on, who doesn't like butterflies? Everyone loves them, even if they get a bad rap for causing natural disasters on the other side of the world. Buterflies. Cakes. They go together like socks and shoes, but they're pretty and can ea...

How To: Make realistic gumpaste seashells for cake decorating
Got an ocean lover in your life? Then what better way to surprise them for their birthday or a special occasion than by making them a sea-themed cake? Take a look at this cake decorating video to learn how to make realistic gumpaste seashells that look marvelous clustered together.

How To: Make professional quality cake decorator's icing
The difference between professional cake decorator's icing and your run-of-the-mill canned icing from Pillsbury Doughboy - or simple homemade icing - is that the pro variety is much smoother, richer, and tastier without being too sweet.

How To: Stack a cake using pillars and dowel rods
Unless you're making a one layer cake, which doesn't seem to exist all that often anymore, putting together double, triple, and even quadruple layered cakes requires that skill we learned by trial in error when we were wee little toddlers playing with legos: stacking.

How To: Cover a square shaped cake with fondant
Most cakes are round, so it's only natural that most cake decorating tutorials only focus on how to ice and apply fondant to round cakes. But sometimes you want to think outside of the box by decorating, ironically, a box-shaped cake instead.

How To: Hold a piping bag properly when frosting a cake
If you want to get serious about decorating your cakes and cupcakes then you have to know how to ice them properly. The biggest mistake beginners make is that they hold the piping bag in the center and just squeeze the icing out. But this method lacks control and makes some extra icing ride up and out of the bag.

How To: Make quick homemade cookies with the Roller Cutter
The holidays mean two things to us: Delicious, sugary holiday cookies and a great deal of hustle and bustle from shopping, parties, and meeting with friends. But with all this on your plate it's easy to get overwhelemed and not know how to fit everything in.

How To: Make & decorate a bearing birthday balloon cake
In this video, we learn how to make & decorate a bearing birthday balloon cake. Use a three dimensional pan to make this and use pound cake for a more firm cake. Start with outlining the mouth and doing the facial features. Then, fill the ears in with pink and place stars with icing piping onto the top of the entire area of the bear. To put the bear on the cake, you will place a plastic food rod into the bottom and into the top of the cake. Use markings on the cake to place him in perfectly t...

How To: Make a psychedelic tie-dyed cake and cupcakes
Before this video we had no idea you could tye die cakes (sort of). While tie dying t-shirts, linens, and other wares requires several colors of fabric dye and scrunching up the fabric, tie dying cake involves no toxic chemicals.

How To: Make serrated grass icing decorations for cake decorating
Grass is one of those things you'd think would be easy to replicate in icing, but actually end up becoming your worst nightmare. The problem that most cake enthusiasts have is that they think grass can be made from just about any piping tip, which is not the case as the result is usually a tangled, uneven mess.

How To: Color your fondant for cake decorating
Coloring your fondant is actually a very simple process. Like coloring water or your cookies, coloring fondant involves adding a few drops of food coloring and then blending, blending, blending.

How To: Frost a cupcake with a spatula for beginners
Please do us a favor and preserve your cupcake's modesty by dressing her nakedness up in a sweet parka of strawberry-flavored royal icing. While we're aware of the challenges that frosting a cupcake produces (we've had plenty of occasions when we've ended up with more frosting on ourselves than on the cupcakes), this video lays it out easily for anyone to follow.

How To: Decorate rubber ducky shaped cupcakes
Ernie from "Sesame Street" loved his rubber duckies. In fact, there was seldom a scene in his bathtub - or even outside of it - where he was seen without his beloved bright yellow rubber ducky. We think he may have even loved it more than he loved Bert (just kidding).

How To: Make homemade heart-shaped chocolate brownies
Looking to make chocolate brownies equal parts delectable and adorable? With the right ingredients and proper technique, it's easier than you'd think. So easy, in fact, that this free video cooking lesson can present a complete overview of the process in about four minutes. For more information, including the full recipe, and to get started making your own cardiod chocolate brownies, watch this video guide.

How To: Decorate a perfect soccer field/football pitch cake
In this video, learn how to decorate a cake that looks like a perfect soccer field. This is a great way to celebrate the upcoming World Cup game and includes everything from grass to players to goal posts. This adorable little cake will make an impressive - and delicious - addition to any event!

How To: Make a fondant elephant for a kid's cake
Elephants are among the smartest mammals in the world (falling behind only us and dolphins), so what better way to decorate your cake than by adding these symbols of longevity and intellect?

How To: Make a ladybug out of gum paste
Ever wonder how the chefs on TV make those realistic looking cakes? Well, this tutorial will show you how to make an adorable looking ladybug for the top of your cake. In this two part video, you will learn how to make a shiny fondant (gum paste) ladybug with edible antennae.

How To: Make cake frosting look lustrous
So you’ve made a fantastic cake and your ready to add the finishing touch by taking your frosting up a notch. You can get a glossy finish to your frosting by using a hairdryer to finish it off. Your friends will wonder how you got such a professional finish.

How To: Stack and decorate a multi-layer pan cake
Don't want to pay someone to make a cake for you? Well follow these simple tips on how to stack and decorate your own multi-layer cake.

How To: Make a topsy turvy cake
This video demonstrates how to make a topsy turvy cake. This is a very hard cake to make and requires some previous baking experience. He bakes a cake first and layers them using icing as a glue. He makes sure the cake is semi-frozen first before he starts carving it to be the base of the cake. After he is done carving, he covers the cake with icing. If you follow the rest of the steps in this video, you'll have a beautiful topsy turvy cake.

How To: Make a smothly frosted round layered cake
Learn how to make a perfectly frosted round layered cake by watching this video. Watch how simple it is to layer a round cake and how to make the frosting seamlessly smooth.

How To: Make a Chocolate Zebra Cake
Here I will be making a chocolate zebra cake. Here are the ingredients: 3 free-range eggs

How To: Make a 3D Baby Duck Cake with Fondant
This adorable 3D duck cake cake is a great way to celebrate your baby's birthday, while amazing the whole family! In this video, you'll learn about carving a cake, covering it with rolled fondant, and decorating with polka dots. You'll also learn about modeling a 3D duck with fondant and gum paste. All the details are included—head, eyes, and beak. Download the wings template here.

How To: Make a Movie Star Cake
I would like to share a cake decorating video tutorial where I teach you how to make a Hollywood cake. This project includes full step-by-step instructions, showing you how to make a 3D pastillage scenography with lights and a 3D gum paste doll. You can view the written instructions here.

How To: Bake a Homemade Chocolate Cake
How to bake a chocolate cake Make a tasty homemade chocolate cake that everyone will love.

How To: Make a beautiful elegant swan out of sugar
If you are interested in cake decorating and sugar craft, check out this great video that will teach you how to make a swan out of sugar. The swan is a symbol of elegance and makes a great addition to any cake or table.

How To: Make Buttercream Icing Cherry Blossoms
Make Beautiful Cherry Blossoms Out of IcingDecorating a cake or cupcake with cherry blossoms is easy - I'll show you how. First gather what you need:

How To: Make a tulip from the cover of New Moon out of fondant for a cake
Hosting a Twilight-themed party? Of course you're going to want a cake! This video shows you how to use gumpaste or fondant to make a ruffled tulip like the one on the cover of New Moon. Fondant is an edible, easy to work with material that you can use to shape just about any kind of cake decoration you can think of. You'll need: wire, wire cutters, a rolling pin, a cutting board, grease, water, an orchid press, a veining tool, a fondant cutter and a thin piece of foam.

How To: Make a simple boat themed cake
Yo ho ho and a.. tube of icing? Do you have some nautical fans in the family? Someone who's bonkers about boats who's having a birthday soon? This how-to gets you up and boating in no time, helping your create a water themed desert. This is a great little cake, simple to make, perfect for anyone interested in boating. Would also make a nice retirement cake. A great video to help you float this idea out of your imagination and onto the birthday table!

How To: Make a fondant butterfly for cake decorating
Cake decorating is truly an art, and the more skills you have, the better an artist you become. This how-to illustrates how to make a fondant butterfly for your special cake. The process isn't hard at all and you'll be able to apply the knowledge to other things you may like to create. Butterflies will abound as you get up to speed and decorate your cake bringing spring to that special someone. Fly like a butterfly, sting like a bee, check out the video and you'll clearly see!

How To: Make fondant candy for cake decorating like a professional
Fondant is a velvety candy used by cake decorating professionals to make a wide variety of cake toppers and figures. The recipe is quite simple, all you need is 1/2 cup butter, 14 ounces sweetened condensed milk, 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar and 2 pounds of powdered sugar. The rest is all in the technique! Make fondant candy for cake decorating like a professional.

How To: Make flower cupcake toppers out of marshmallows
If you're low on icing, just use this technique instead! Slice up large marshmallows into flower petals, cover with some colored sugar and then put a dollop of frosting in the middle. It's hard to beat these adorable cupcake toppers! Make flower cupcake toppers out of marshmallows.

How To: Decorate a cake to look like a professional job
Even if you're not a professional decorater, you can still decorate a birthday cake or other cake to look pretty and festive. This video also shows you how to make a few different flavors of frosting and how to make those pretty frosting flowers.

How To: Decorate five types of fairy cake cupcakes
Fairy cakes are basically lovely little cupcakes adorned with pretty icing and "fairy dust" - AKA sprinkles - for a nice ethereal effect.