This train cupcake idea is so easy, even kids could do the decorating. If you’re planning a train birthday party and are not very experienced or adventurous at cake decorating, these train cupcakes from Ladies’ Home Journal are a great idea.

They used candy blocks to make the trains, but you could instead use inexpensive toy trains that your guests could then take home as party favors. With store-bought cake mix and frosting, toy train cars, and some licorice string, you can whip up a batch of these train cupcakes in no time!

I love this ruffled layer cake from Martha Stewart. It’s elegant and festive, and it makes an impression even though it’s really very simple. The free-form ruffled icing is nearly foolproof because imperfections are part of the design. Just use any piping shape you’re comfortable with, and repeat it all over the cake!

Get the recipe and simple instructions at MarthaStewart.com.

Whether you make a simple boxed cake mix with canned frosting or bake a cake from scratch with elaborate decorations, the key to a beautiful, enticing cake is starting with smooth icing. But getting your icing smooth isn’t always easy, especially if you’ve never learned these simple cake icing techniques.

When you follow these guidelines, you’ll know how to get smooth icing on all your cakes, and your decorations, whether simple colorful sprinkles or fancy buttercream roses, will look better than ever.

Begin With a Level & Smooth Cake

Before your cake even goes in the oven, be sure to spread the batter so it is level in the pans. Check the cake several times as it is baking, and if you find that it’s rising or browning unevenly, rotate the pans a half turn about halfway through cooking. Uneven heat is common in home ovens, and it will take more than smooth icing to fix a lopsided cake.

When the cake is finished baking, trim the top, if necessary, to level the top of the cake. Hold your knife horizontally and view the cake at eye level as you cut straight across the tops of any bumps.

Allow the Cake to Cool Completely and Apply a Crumb Coat

One of the most important steps in how to get smooth icing on your cakes is applying a crumb coat to seal the cake surface from moisture. This will help keep your cake moist and keep your frosting from making the cake soggy.

To apply the crumb coat, first let the cake cool completely. This should take several hours to ensure the cake is cooled all the way through. While it’s cooling, you can prepare your icing, and thin a portion of it with milk, water, or light corn syrup to use for the crumb coat. The crumb coat icing should be smooth and thin enough that you almost need a spoon to apply it, as it will run off your icing spatula.

Use this reserved icing to completely cover the surface of the cake with a thin, smooth icing layer. Don’t worry about getting crumbs in this layer; they will be sealed in the dried crumb coat. Wait for the crumb coat to dry into a firm crust before adding the second layer of frosting.

Apply the Final Layer of Smooth Icing

When the crumb coat is totally dry, you’re ready to put on the final layer of smooth icing. First, put a large dollop of frosting in the center of the top of the cake, then gently push the icing out toward the edges. Work in long, even strokes to get the icing smooth. Next, spread the icing around the sides of the cake, holding the spatula vertically and turning the cake while the spatula is kept still. Finally, run the spatula edge gently around the corner edge of the cake to remove any excess icing that has accumulated there.

At this point, you should have an even layer of smooth icing all over the cake. To get the surface even smoother and sleeker, dip your clean spatula in hot water and run it across the surface of the cake in long strokes. This will melt the frosting slightly to help remove stroke marks. Wipe the spatula clean and dip it in the hot water before each stroke.

Knowing How to Get Smooth Icing Will Make All Your Cakes Look Better

Practice these techniques and tips on all your cakes until you know how to get smooth icing on a cake every time like a professional cake decorator. Your cakes will look beautiful enough to stop with a simple layer of smooth icing, and any decorations you add will stand out even more.

Learning how to get smooth icing on a cake is only the beginning. Take a cake decorating class online to learn more techniques like these.

Elegant cake designs don’t have to be complicated. With a little bit of style or artistic flair, even easy cake decorations can be used to make elegant cake designs. These ideas use simple and inexpensive embellishments to make even a simple boxed cake mix look sophisticated and special.

One way to use edible cake decorations for elegant cakes is by focusing on tone-on-tone colors. Silver sprinkles or dragees, shiny edible ball sprinkles, look wonderful on a cake with white frosting. Sprinkles are the ultimate easy cake decorations, and using them in a single color on a matching color of frosting looks beautiful. Try yellow colored sugar sprinkles on pale yellow lemon frosting, or chopped nuts on light brown caramel frosting.

Sliced fruit is a great choice for easy cake decorations that are a little more festive but still sophisticated. Simple ripe red strawberries sliced and arranged in overlapping circles on dark chocolate frosting makes a decadent dessert. For even more decadence, macerate an assortment of berries by stirring them with a tablespoon or two of sugar and, optionally, a few tablespoons of your favorite liqueur. Refrigerate them in a bowl for several hours, then pour the syrupy berries over a cheesecake.

Another simple way to turn ordinary easy cake decorations into something special is to decorate only the sides of the cake, leaving the top with plain smooth icing. Chopped nuts, mini chocolate chips, shredded coconut, chopped candy bars, and crushed peppermint candies are all good choices for this method. To get the sides of the cake decorated, take a small handful at a time and gently press it into the frosting, working your way around the cake. Try doing this holding the cake at a slight angle over a large bowl of your chosen decoration, allowing the excess to fall back into the bowl and keeping your serving dish clean.

One final idea for elegant cake designs is a light dusting of powdered sugar, cocoa powder, cinnamon sugar, or colored decorating sugar. For best results, use a strainer or sifter to dust either an unfrosted cake or one that has been chilled to fully set the frosting. You can dust all over the top of the cake or use a stencil for a more polished look. Stencils are available at craft stores in hundreds of shapes, or you can make your own or use a paper doily. Go for an intricate geometric or lace design, or stencil the shape of an object or words to fit your theme or cake flavor. Be sure to dust the cake just before serving because the sugar will slowly dissolve on the cake.

With these easy cake decorations for elegant cake designs, you’ll be able to impress your guests when even the most basic cake recipe looks like something special.

Wilton cake decorating classes are the ultimate form of instruction for decorating cakes. A huge selection of Wilton cake classes is available at the Wilton school in Darien, Illinois, with options ranging from a three-hour workshop focused on one project to a 10-day Master Course of Wilton cake classes designed for students interested in a career in decorating cakes.

You can also learn the Wilton Method of cake decoration outside of the Wilton school classes by looking for cake decorating instruction at local craft stores and culinary schools. If none of these options will work for you, you can even learn all aspects of cake decoration with online courses you can take at home.

Wilton Cake Classes – Introduction to Gum Paste

Introduction to Gum Paste is a beginner’s course in how to make gum paste flowers and arrangements. Learning to work with gum paste will take you a long way in designing and decorating all styles of cakes. The class is offered over four days in three-hour sessions covering the following lessons.

• Day 1: Demonstration of the use of gum paste; how to prepare gum paste; how to make gum paste leaves, a rose base, and a daisy center
• Day 2: Making gum paste rosebuds, roses, and daisies
• Day 3: Making gum paste orchids, stephanotis, and calla lilies
• Day 4: Highlighting; assembling and finishing orchids and calla lilies

Wilton Cake Decorating Classes – Introduction to Rolled Fondant

Introduction to Rolled Fondant at the Wilton school, in three 3-hour sessions, includes cake decorating instruction on the basics of using fondant. Students practice fondant decorating techniques to make a complete display cake that they can take home.

• Day 1: Basics of using fondant, including covering a cake with fondant, making fondant bows, and crimping and embossing
• Day 2: Making flowers and leaves; using fondant molds and ejectors; fondant cutouts
• Day 3: Assembling bows; sponging; making drapes; positioning flowers on the cake

Wilton Cake Classes – Introduction to Sugar Artistry

Another of the beginner Wilton decorating classes is Introduction to Sugar Artistry. In this class you’ll learn the art of making sugar decorations, including recipes, pulling, and molding. Students get to take home floral cake toppers and bows made in class. The following topics are covered in one 9-hour session.

• Explanation of recipes and sugar art equipment
• Making simple leaves and flowers
• Creating a floral cake topper
• Explanation of Isomalt sugar substitute, including recipes and equipment
• Making sugar cages
• Using spun sugar and bubble sugar
• Demonstration of sugar molding
• Making sugar roses
• Creating ribbons and bows

More Cake Decorating Instruction at the Wilton School

There are dozens of Wilton cake decorating classes available at the Wilton school in addition to the three featured here, but these are an excellent beginning in cake decorating instruction. If you complete one of these Wilton cake classes, consider an advanced course to add to your skills. Try a class focused on a theme, like Sugar Artistry for the Holidays, or one that adds new techniques, such as Advanced Fondant Art. With any of the Wilton cake decorating classes, you’ll learn everything you need to know to make beautiful cakes for all your special occasions with family and friends.

Can’t attend the Wilton cake school? You can still learn these techniques and lots more by taking online cake decorating classes. You’ll get all aspects of cake decorating instruction, including using fondant, sugar art, and gum paste, in one easy-to-use computer-based cake decorating course that you can take anytime in your own kitchen.

If you’re looking for an answer to “What is fondant icing?” this is a great video to watch. It gives you an overview of what fondant is made of, how you work with it, and what you can do with it in cake decorating.

You can get step-by-step videos, illustrations, and instructions for the fondant methods shown in this video from an online cake decorating class.

A marshmallow fondant recipe is a great choice for a rolled homemade fondant cake covering. Learning how to make marshmallow fondant is easy, and it looks and tastes great. This homemade fondant recipe makes about two pounds, and it’s simple enough for anyone to do, even if you thought you’d never tackle the challenge of learning how to make marshmallow fondant.

Easy Marshmallow Fondant Recipe Ingredients

• 8-ounce bag of marshmallows
• 2 pounds of powdered sugar (also called confectioner’s sugar or icing sugar; you won’t quite use all of it for this recipe)
• 2 tablespoons of water
• vegetable shortening (Crisco) for greasing hands and tools

How To Make Marshmallow Fondant

Put the marshmallows and water in a microwave-safe bowl and heat on high for about two minutes. The marshmallows should be puffy but will still hold their shape. Stir thoroughly until smooth.

Next, add about 1 1/2 pounds of the powdered sugar and stir with a spoon well greased with the Crisco. The homemade fondant at this point should be a very sticky dough.

Thoroughly grease your hands and work surface with the shortening and knead the fondant, adding a little bit of powdered sugar at a time until the mixture isn’t sticky anymore. If it’s sticky, add more sugar. If it’s dry and tearing, add a teaspoon or two of water and knead it in. The homemade fondant recipe is finished when the dough is pliable and stretchy without tearing.

If you won’t be using the marshmallow fondant recipe right away, cover it with a little bit more Crisco and wrap it well with plastic wrap. Seal it in a bag and keep it in the refrigerator, where it will last for several weeks.

Adding Colors & Flavors To The Homemade Fondant Recipe

For color and flavor in your fondant, it’s best to use icing colors and candy oils. These are highly concentrated, so you’ll only need a few drops, and the results will be much better than if you used other food coloring or flavor extracts, which you’ll find suggested in some homemade fondant recipes.

Wait until you’re ready to use the fondant on your cake before coloring and flavoring the recipe. If the fondant has been in the refrigerator, let it warm up a little in a warm bowl or for a few seconds in the microwave. Separate the fondant into sections if you’ll be using more than one color and flavor combination, and keep the separated fondant wrapped in plastic wrap while you’re working.

Knead the fondant until it’s soft and pliable, and form it into a ball. Apply only a few drops of your color or flavor in a few spots on top of the ball. Wear gloves to keep your hands from staining as you knead the marshmallow fondant recipe until it’s well blended. Repeat the process with a few more drops and plenty of kneading until you get the results you want. It’s important to work slowly in this way, since you can always add more color or flavor, but you can’t take some away if you go too far.

Learning How To Make Marshmallow Fondant Is Worth The Effort

You may think it’s easier to buy ready-to-use fondant than to learn how to make marshmallow fondant yourself, but this homemade fondant recipe is very easy to make and well worth the time and effort. A homemade marshmallow fondant recipe will have a better flavor than store-bought, with the same sleek, professional look.

To use this marshmallow fondant recipe to cover a cake, check out How to Work with Fondant and How to Roll Fondant on a Cake. For more recipes and instructions for working with fondant, see our rankings of the best online cake decorating classes.

Even the most beautiful cake decorations aren’t so beautiful on a lopsided, messy cake. Before you decorate, you’ll need to level the cake layers and fill your layer cake neatly and evenly. The process is simple, and with a few tips and tricks your cakes will look perfect and ready for decorating.

This video shows the basic techniques you’ll need to use to get your layer cake level and filled properly. The key to a neat and even filling layer is to pipe a ring of icing around the outer edge of the bottom layer. The icing acts as a dam to hold the filling neatly in between the layers of cake.

Perfect all your cake decorating techniques with more tips and videos like these as part of one of these top-ranked online cake decorating courses.

Yesterday, we went over some of the important decisions you need to make in the early stages of planning how to decorate a wedding cake. In this post, we’ll take a look at some of the options to consider for wedding cake decorations, toppers, colors, and more.

The decorations you choose may be determined by the wedding theme or formality, or even simply by your comfort level with your decorating skills and the time and budget you have to spend on the cake. For example, if you don’t want the stress of assembling and transporting a tiered cake, you can get a similarly impressive look by using individual cakes on matching cake stands in various sizes and heights artfully arranged on a decorated table.

The actual decorations on the cake can be as easy as a purchased wedding cake topper and fresh flowers or simply piped icing borders, or as complicated as dozens of handmade gum paste flowers and fondant lace. If you have the time and patience, gum paste flowers can be made well ahead of time and stored, so you can take your time making lots of them for a beautifully covered floral cake. If that’s too intimidating or time-consuming, try a similar design with fresh or silk flowers. Either way, these are things to decide early when planning how to decorate a wedding cake. There will be enough preparation to do as the wedding day approaches without having to worry about trying to find the perfect cake topper at the last minute.

Before any baking can begin, you’ll also need to choose the flavors of the cake, icing, and filling, and find or create a recipe for each. Colors will also come into play at this step, as you decide whether to make a very traditional white cake or something more modern. The icing and decoration can have subtle touches to match the wedding color scheme, or the entire cake can be boldly matched to the wedding colors.

Planning how to decorate a wedding cake is not complicated, but it is an important step that should be considered carefully. When the wedding day arrives and your beautifully decorated cake is the focal point of the reception hall, you’ll know that the time spent planning how to decorate a wedding cake was well worth it.

Online cake decorating courses will help you make these decorating decisions and teach you everything you need to know from filling a layer cake and getting smooth icing to assembling a tiered wedding cake and transporting it to the reception. Take cake decorating classes on the Internet and make a beautiful cake!

If you’re an amateur cake decorator thinking of making your first wedding cake, you may feel overwhelmed before you even begin. There are lots of things to consider and many decisions to make in the planning stages of how to decorate a wedding cake. Make the project more manageable by addressing all of these things well ahead of the final days of baking, decorating, and assembling.

To begin, you’ll want to be sure you have enough cake for all the guests, so the size of the cake is an important decision and one that may affect your decorating choices as well. Then there are the obvious and fun selections of flavors and colors that might be the first thing you’ll consider.

Equally important in planning how to decorate a wedding cake are the choices for the type of icing and decorations you’ll use. These decisions may be based on which decorating materials you’re most comfortable working with or what type of look you want to achieve. In the planning stage, you’ll need to make some decisions and get at least a general idea of how the cake will be decorated.

The size of the guest list will determine the minimum size of the cake, although for larger parties the display cake can be supplemented with plain sheet cakes for serving. They’re easier to cut into servings, and using them frees up some decorating time and expense so you can spend more of these resources on the display cake.

At this point in planning how to decorate a wedding cake you’ll also need to decide which type of icing and decorations will be used. Buttercream icing is simple to make and use and has a great flavor. Fondant, on the other hand, looks terrific, with a sleek, professional finish, but it’s a little more challenging to learn to use. Store-bought prepared fondant can be expensive and usually doesn’t taste very good. A homemade marshmallow fondant is much tastier and is inexpensive to make.

Tomorrow, we’ll take a look at the wedding cake decorations, toppers, and colors.