Cake Decorating Supplies

Many people get ripped off on a daily basis when they buy cake decoration supplies and I hope you are not one of them! Let’s take a look at the options; basically it’s the Internet or the High Street stores?

It is probably no surprise to know that whether you buy from a High Street store or on the Internet, that there is a wide variety of prices that people will charge you. The one advantage that the High Street has of course is that there are no shipping costs! However, please do consider how much it costs you in fuel and parking costs to get to that shop! Frequently it is even more AND you actually have to leave the house!

My preferred method will always be the Internet for whatever you are buying, even if it’s just to check out what’s available.  Even then, if you go searching in the shops, how long will it take to find what you want and will it be in stock? How often have you gone shopping without phoning first to check whether it is in stock? I know I’m guilty of that one!!

There are other problems associated with going to the shops of course such as the weather, will you get drenched or not? Do you have to take children with you, if so how much extra is that going to cost you in treats!? How long does it take to get to the stores? Fine if it’s just down the road but often specialist shops may not be that close.  Although most of the cake decoration supplies you are liable to buy may not be large, if you get a lot, have you considered how you will carry them back home?  Not that bad if you go by car, but public transport – a nightmare!  Get the post-man involved, much easier and it keeps someone in work as well!

Our personal choice is to surf the web, find what you want, then do a price check at other online stores. It is unlikely that a particular store will be the cheapest for everything, so you will need to work that one out for yourself. Personally, when looking where you can buy cake decorating supplies, I’d just go for the store that had the fastest delivery and that ‘felt’ right – very scientific I know, but do trust your instinct and have fun unwrapping your goodies!

You can also visit our own Cake Decoration Supplies Store where you will find amongst lots of other goodies, cake decorating kits.

Tweet This Post

Everyone loves eating a delicious looking well decorated cake. But to make a cake that looks really good takes skill, something you may not have. With the help of a cake decorating book, you will easily be able to pick up the skills to help you make your cakes look more absolutely gorgeous! These books also provide you with mouth watering recipes and tips.

A cake decorating book is a perfect choice to find ideas to decorate the cake. Books will provide you with essential tips, illustrated pictures to decorate your birthday cakes, wedding cake and party cake. If you want to decorate a cake for any special occasion then you need to purchase a cake decorating book.

These days you can find huge collection of such books online. Many assume no real experience and will take you in a step-by-step way to perfection.

When looking for a cake decorating book, one good one is The Art of Cake Decorating (below), this book is published in such a way that no one can refrain oneself from making a decorated cake. Each chapter carries new ideas and tips, it’s sort of a one-stop shop for everything to do with cakes and certainly worth investigating as it covers supplies, patterns, icing as well as decoration.

Tweet This Post

Subscribe Now!

The American Cake Decorating magazine contains stunning cake designs as well as step-by-step instructions so it is suitable for the beginner and the advanced decorator. New ideas, helpful tips and techniques are artfully illustrated in full color photography. Issues contain projects and ideas suitable for a wide variety of skill levels. Also contains information on various tools and products.

On the negative side, it appears the first copy of this popular magazine can take time to arrive if you subscribe at certain times of the year. Hopefully, they have resolved this issue by now. Read the independent review below….

“As for the ideas and pictures, it does provide some VERY good ideas overall (especially when they put some of Colette’s work in there!). The real challenge with the ideas contained in ACD [American Cake Decorating] comes in that there seems to be two spectrums, either fondant and totally elegant/difficult, or the other extreme of something that even a kid could do with little to no cake decorating experience(even though they moved their kid section over to Mailbox News)… Also, they seem to cover to no end the Oklahoma State Sugar Arts Show… Granted, there are many categories, it’d just be nice if they centralized it to one issue per year instead of using it as the base for the magazine every 2 months. It is very well printed consistently (on much better paper than you’ll get from other magazines out there)..

If having to choose between MBN and ACD, I’d recommend going with MBN because the ideas are more realistic to what most bakers will make or reproduce. The only reason I have to say that ACD gets 4 stars (and was tempted to give it 3 because of this one issue alone) is that over the course of time myself and others all have had the same problem… Our address mysteriously changes in their database, thus, not getting issues and having to call the publisher on more than one occasion (or three) to get the situation resolved. Their customer service gal is great, but I’d rather just get the magazine to my home address from the subscription without calling them.. Overall though, a very good cake decorating magazine.”

Tweet This Post

3 tier cascading wedding cake stand

So you’ve got the date and everything needs to be just perfect. You’ve thought about the dress, the flowers, the venue, the bridesmaids and the wedding breakfast but have you thought about the wedding cake stand? That needs to be special as well but what could you get?

If your mind is stuck in the past with a 3 tier cake stand and you’re happy with that then that’s fine and may be the best for an elaborate cake anyway. However, you should also think outside of the box for maximum impact on your guests when the moment comes for the cameras to click the cutting of the cake.

As mentioned above, the 3 tier cake stand is the traditional choice (3 tiers as most wedding cakes have 3 cakes) and you can find these made of china, ceramic, metal, acrylic and glass. Throw-away Styrofoam is probably not a good plan for a heavy fruit cake as they just are not as robust.

Popular choices in recent years have been wedding cake stands for grouped arrangements of small cakes. Often referred to as a cupcake tree, these can be ingenious in their design and view as a pillar forming into an apex covered with little cakes. While this really refers to a more unusual design where the stand is metal and the cakes slot in, you are more likely to find a multiple plate type arrangement with the smaller plates at the top.  The metal cupcake tree does have a down side in that you have to be careful that your cakes will fit in! It is also more of a problem if you have a large number of guests as they tend not to hold too many cakes.

You could also take a look at a variation on the 3 tier cake stand which will often be 3 plates with some form of support to place on the cake below. There are also free standing cake stands of varying heights that you can arrange on the table or, try the floating stands but make sure the stand is strong enough for the type of cake you are having! By floating, it just means the support is not on the cake and the plates present the cake symmetrically or asymmetrically, in a stair-step arrangement or cascading for example.

If you are having a single cake, you can still get some stunning designs in all the materials mentioned above. Plus, you won’t have to worry so much about it falling over!

Place your wedding cake stand on a stable and appropriate sized table that is in full view but well away from accidents such as children running into it or great grandma tripping over it! This will of course apply to a cupcake tree as well as traditional stands.

Lastly, discuss your ideas with whoever is making the cake as they will know if it will work, if you have any cake decorating tips of your own, just see what they say. The last thing you want is the upper layer to sink gracefully into the bottom unless you planned it of course!

Safety and support will be your main concern for the cake on the day, not whether it tastes OK as no doubt you will have sorted this out beforehand!

Have a great day and don’t forget the photograph!

Tweet This Post