Cake Decorating for Beginners

• The Cake Decorating Company

Welcome to the ultimate guide to cake decorating for beginners! We know that everyone’s cake journey starts with a lot to learn. So, we have pulled together all of our knowledge to help you get started with baking and decorating delicious treats at home. 

From unpacking the lingo to perfecting your first buttercream cake, this guide will walk you through all the baking basics. Whether you haven’t baked in a while, or have never baked at all, we’ve got you covered!

Jump to:

Step 1: Learn the Lingo with our baking glossary
Step 2: Master the Bake (Your Blank Canvas)
Step 3: Choose your Decorating Path
Step 4: Decoration
Step 5: Get your Baking Essentials

Step 1: Learn the lingo with our baking glossary

Bain-Marie: A method of melting where the chocolate or butter is placed in a bowl above a pot of simmering water.

Bake Blind: Baking a pie crust or any other pastry without any filling. 

Baking Powder: A leavening agent used to help your cakes and bakes rise during baking, by reacting with acidic ingredients to release carbon dioxide.

Batter: A mixture of cake ingredients (flour, eggs, milk, sugar, etc) in liquid form.

Beat: The process of vigorously mixing your ingredients together with short movements.

Buttercream: A popular type of icing made of butter and icing sugar.

Cake Board or Cake Drum: A board (of varying thickness) your cake is placed on to provide support during display and transportation.

Candy Melts: An alternative to chocolate, available in a range of colours, which easily melt to form cake drips, use in moulds, etc. 

Caramelise: Melting sugar until it becomes brown, with a caramel texture.

Crumb Coat: A thin layer of frosting applied to seal in cake crumbs before the final layer is added.

Dough: The final result of all of your mixed ingredients for cookies, bread, and pizza. Made of flour, eggs, sugar, etc.

Emulsifier: An ingredient added to a mixture to stop ingredients that usually don’t mix (like oil and water) from separating. It binds them together for successful baking.

Fondant Icing: A popular type of icing used in cake decorating. It’s pliable, mouldable and holds its shape nicely, making it perfect for covering cakes, creating toppers, and sculpting small decorations. See sugarpaste.

Ganache: An indulgent mixture of chocolate and cream which makes a perfect coating or filling for a cake.

Knead: The process of working and stretching your fondant icing or dough with your hands to create your desired texture.

Leavening: An ingredient (like baking powder) added to help your cake rise.

Levelling: Creating a perfectly flat top on your sponge by carefully slicing off a rounded top.

Marzipan: A sweet almond paste used to cover cakes or create edible decorations such as fruits and flowers.

Modelling Paste: A highly elastic edible paste which sets firmly and is used to create sugar decorations for cakes.

Mould: Either the process of shaping a piece of fondant or modelling paste into a decoration by hand or with tools. Or a piece of equipment used to create toppers and decorations by putting modelling paste, sugarpaste or melted chocolate into the mould and gently removing (when set).

Parchment Paper: An essential for lining baking trays to ensure your bake does not stick to the tin.

Pipe: Frosting cupcakes or adding borders and decorations to cakes by piping icing through a shaped nozzle to create a specific result.

Royal Icing: A firm icing made from egg whites and powdered sugar, popular for decorating wedding cakes and adding intricate detail.

Stacking: Placing cake sponges one on top of the other. These sponges will either be the same size, to build the height, or different sizes to create multiple tiers.

Sugarpaste: Sugarpaste is another name for fondant icing. 

Temper: The process of slowly raising the temperature of an ingredient - usually referring to chocolate or eggs.

Turntable: A piece of equipment used to raise and rotate your cake to make decorating easier.

Step 2: Master the Bake (Your Blank Canvas)

We all know that a sturdy, delicious foundation is the key to any successful bake. No one wants to waste their beautiful decorating on a bad cake! 

Whatever you are baking, you need to start with a reliable recipe, high-quality ingredients and a clear step-by-step guide. That way, you know that you’re building a steady foundation before the fun of decorating begins.

Classic Sponge:

The classic sponge is a great place to start. It’s the base for so many cakes, from weddings to birthday celebrations, so it’s a good one to master first. 

A classic sponge is also an ideal option for practicing levelling and stacking. It keeps things nice and simple, especially when working with a traditional round shape. 

Our Tutorial: How to make a classic Victoria Sponge Cake 

Cupcakes:

Next on the list are cupcakes! These tasty treats are the perfect bite-sized canvases for practicing piping. They’re also great for learning about measurements and figuring out batch sizes.

As they are another crowd pleaser, learning to make a good quality cupcake will hold you in good stead for so many occasions. 

Our Tutorial: Simple Vanilla Cupcake Recipe for Beginners

Cookies:

The humble cookie is another essential to master when starting your baking journey! These moreish biscuits are so versatile, they’ll become your go-to for guests!

Cookies are a great way to get familiar working with dough. It’s totally different to working with cake batter, so it’s a great chance to broaden your baking horizons.

Our Tutorial: Your New Favourite Fondant Cookie Recipe

Doughnuts:

Who doesn’t love a doughnut?! These sweet treats are a fantastic addition to your baking repertoire, and they’re easier to make than you might think.

Doughnuts are a great option for everything from a casual get-together to wedding favours, and they’re a must-have addition to a mixed treat box!

Our Tutorial: Let’s Make Easy Doughnuts 

Step 3: Choose Your Decorating Path

Path 1: Buttercream Basics (The Classic Choice)

Buttercream is one of the most popular options for covering (and filling!) a cake. Its beautiful texture makes it the go-to for soft finishes, rustic textures, and versatile piping.

Why Choose It? 

Buttercream is the perfect choice for anyone who wants to master piping techniques. And with that in mind, the first thing to know is that the perfect consistency is everything.

Check out our complete guide - How to Make Buttercream - to learn how to master this technique.

Once you’ve got that down, the sky’s the limit, from adding a simple swirl to a cupcake to covering a birthday cake.

Buttercream is also so easy to adapt for each cake you’re working on. You can easily learn how to flavour your buttercream, and, with oil-based colourings like Colour Mill’s Oil Blend range, you can learn to colour your buttercream with ease!

The supplies you’ll need:

Top Tip: If you’re in a rush and don’t have time to follow our guide and make your own, you can also grab ready-made buttercream from some of our favourite brands.

Path 2: Fondant Fundamentals (The Flawless Finish)

Fondant is a favourite amongst cake artists for a reason. It allows you to create a highly polished look, and it can also be used to make cake models.

Why Choose It? 

If you are hoping to achieve a professional look with your next cake, work with fondant. It involves a little effort - be sure to knead it properly and roll it out to your desired thickness. But it smooths to a stunning finish, perfect for so many occasions!

To learn more, read our Ultimate Guide to Fondant Decorating for Beginners.

Just like buttercream, it takes colour beautifully - learn how to colour your fondant icing, opening up a kaleidoscope of colour options!

And, with a little patience and the right modelling tools, you can transform your fondant into cute decorations and sculpted figures.

The supplies you’ll need:

Did you know: Fondant Icing is also known as sugarpaste! If you see icing referred to by either name, you know you’re buying the right product.

Path 3: Royal Icing (The Intricate Artist)

Royal Icing is the gold standard for intricate cookie decorating, fine line work, and hard-drying details. It’s a skill every baker needs to acquire!

Why Choose It?

Royal Icing is ideal for detail-oriented decorators and cookie artists because you can be so precise with it. You can use it in a flood technique, which creates those beautifully decorated cookies you’ll see popping up everywhere, or piped into specific decorations around a cake.

Learn more about working with this versatile icing in our Royal Icing Guide!

Royal icing dries hard, which means working quite quickly, but the results are so worth it. And, while for events like weddings, white royal icing is often the number one choice, it colours well with gel colours, resulting in stunning pops of colour!

The supplies you’ll need:

Step 4: Decoration

Chocolate melting

Melted chocolate is a baker’s best friend. You can use this for so many types of cake decorating. And the best bit is, you always know it is going to taste delicious!

Why Choose It?

  • Chocolate makes an excellent drip cake. Simply melt down your chocolate chunks or callets, and use a spoon or pouring bottle to carefully create varying lengths of drips around the top of the cake.

  • Melted chocolate is ideal for adding to silicone moulds to make edible cake decorations. Melt, mould, chill and attach to your cake by either sticking them into the buttercream or attaching them with a little edible glue.

  • Making a chocolate cake or traybake? A drizzle of chocolate is a great way to decorate the top! Drizzle onto the surface of the sponge and sprinkle on your favourite sprinkles before it sets for an eye-catching finish.

Nervous about melting chocolate successfully? Follow our guide: How to Melt Chocolate for Best Results.

Crumb Coating

If you’re a fan of a simple cake design, a crumb-coated finish could be the decorating style for you! This involves working a thin layer of buttercream or frosting over your sponge to seal in any crumbs.

Why Choose It?

  • Crumb coating is a popular choice thanks to the trend for “naked cakes” These cakes go minimal on the frosting/icing, choosing instead to seal in any crumbs with a thin, see-through layer, and focus instead on other elements like fruit or flowers.

  • A crumb coat design is an amazing time saver if you’re short on time. It is recommended for any sponge before decorating anyway, so it eliminates the time spent working with fondant or layering buttercream

  • Boho cakes often favour a crumb-coated cake, so it’s a perfect choice if that’s your vibe!

Learn to crumb coat like a pro in our guide: How to Crumb Coat a Cake for Beginners

Add Cake Lace

Edible lace is a stunning option for elevating any cake design from ordinary to extra-special! And with the collection from Cake Lace, it’s so much easier to achieve than you’d think.

Why choose it?

  • Cake Lace has a timeless look - it’s ideal for adding detail to a traditional wedding cake, instantly creating a professional finish!

  • Cake lace is also perfect for creating dainty toppers for cupcakes and cookies, transforming them into a more elegant treat.

  • If you’re going for a simple design otherwise, use one of the Cake Lace border strips to create a pretty border for your cake.

Follow our How to Use Cake Lace for Beginners guide with the amazing Gerry from Studio 8 Cakes for our top tips.

Pipe your decorations

Piped decorations are one of the most popular ways to decorate a cake because there are so many options! Use either buttercream or royal icing and get creative.

Why choose it?

  • Love the look of a Lambeth cake? Then piped decorations are your best friend! Grab a variety of piping tips to achieve different shapes and start creating borders and details.

  • Piped flowers are a winner for a cake at any time of year - edible floral decorations never go out of style!

  • Feeling brave? Use a thin piping tip to pipe a message on the top of your cake. This takes a little practice but is a great way to personalise your bakes!

Learn to pipe iconic roses in our guide: How to Pipe Roses using Royal Icing

Step 5: Get your baking essentials

Ready to get started? We thought so! In order to put everything we’ve learned into practice, there are some tools and equipment you can’t do without. 

From piping tools to turntables, we’ve pulled together our top 10 beginner baking essentials in a handy list! Not only will these items help you achieve the best results, but they’ll make the process so much easier along the way.

When you’re working with products created by expert baking brands, you’ll avoid so many bumps in the road from the beginning.

Ready to bake?

We hope this beginner's guide has got you feeling inspired to kickstart your baking journey! For more top tips and daily cake inspiration, be sure to follow us on Instagram at @the_cake_decorating_co! 

Other beginner guides

https://www.thecakedecoratingcompany.co.uk/blog/how-to-get-a-cake-out-of-a-cake-tin-with-the-cake-rubiks/

https://www.thecakedecoratingcompany.co.uk/blog/cake-advice-how-to-choose-the-right-cake-box/

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