Cake Decorating Ideas

The cake is a lemon-flavored Madeira cake. I have covered it with white readily-bought sugarpaste and used modeling paste to create the tree and its boughs. The main trunk was attached to the side of the cake and then I laid the rest of the boughs over the surface of the cake to have a sprawl of branches emanating from the main trunk. I used a knife to create the veins on the bigger boughs and trunk of the tree. I colored sugarpaste in 3 shades of red and used plunger cutters to create lots of blossoms in 4 different sizes.

Once the blossoms were dry, these were attached to the cake using confectioners’ glue. I started with the bigger-sized blossoms and used less of these in proportion to the smaller-sized ones. I also attached a red sugarpaste ribbon and bow at the base of the cake.

I did this cake for my sister’s birthday. It was a long time since my sister celebrated her birthday with the rest of the family because she lives abroad. This year she was with us, so I wanted to mark this year’s birthday with a special cake. My sister is a vibrant young mother of 2 kids and runs her own business, so I wanted to show a blossoming tree in hues of red. This turns out very striking against the white background and black boughs of the tree. I chose red because it is her favorite color.

I do not have much experience in cake decorating and I have not had any training. I do read a lot about the topic and I must admit that when I approach a project, I plan it down to the last detail. I started doing my
own cakes when the local caterers let me down with my son’s christening cake and a year later with his 1st birthday cake. When the cakes were delivered, the writing was completely smudged and I was too embarrassed to display the cakes on the main table. I said to myself “If this is what they can do, I can do better”. Two years later, I try to come up with special cakes for every family occasion and for me this is an achievement.

First Name: Kristel Jo
City-State: Naxxar, Malta, Europe