Cake Decorating: My First Go

Hello lovelies, 

Last week it was my sister's birthday and I'd said I'd make her a cake. I've never really got into the whole decorating side of cake-making but I've seen some absolutely fabulous cakes online with figurines of people, dogs, etc made from modelling paste. These are great but a bit too ambitious for my first go, so I got  a couple of books from the library with the hope of mastering a few basics.

Pictures from The Cake Decorating Bible by Juliet Sear

Pictures from Good Housekeeping's The Book Of Cake Decorating

Both were really good and full of inspiration, but for the first time I wanted to try something really simple. I bought a packet of ready to roll white icing and a couple of tubes of gel food colouring. First off I rolled out a block of white which I used to simply cover the cake. I then kneaded the food colouring into some of the remaining icing, rolled it out, and cut shapes from it. 

It was all a bit quick and slapdash, for most of last week I was streaming with cold so put off making the cake until late wednesday night when I was feeling a bit better and less likely to make it germ ridden! Thursdays I volunteer at the shop so as soon as I'd finished It was home for a quick bite to eat, decorate the cake, and out again to get to my sister's house for presents and cake. 

The finished result was a bit rough around the edges and you can see I'm an amateur but even so I was quite pleased because I know in the future I can do it again and each time will be a bit better. 

It didn't even make it onto the cake stand properly before going to my sister's as I was too scared it would break if I moved the baking parchment, it was a bit awkward and the icing was already showing signs of cracking. She was really pleased with it (I think!) and just appreciated that I'd made the effort. 

So there it is, my first venture into the world of cake decorating!

Lauren x