Tips to Make Scratch Baking & Decorating Easier

Over the years, I have had many conversations about baking and decorating cakes. Most people express to me their personal difficulties. The number one complaint seems to be lack of time. "I just don't have the time to bake." Even though I love baking, I too have uttered the same words every now and again. Between work, children, and attempting to have a personal life, most people can't afford to give away any more time than they already have.


Here are a few tips I personally use that help save precious time:


1. Pre-mix your dry ingredients for your cake recipe and store for later.
Store your dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, salt, etc...) in large Ziploc bags and add your wet ingredients (eggs, butter, oil, extract) when you're ready to bake!!


2. Make your frosting and store it in the freezer until ready to use.
Store frosting in freezer friendly containers and defrost the morning you need it.

3. Pre dye your frosting or fondant at least a day before you need.
Not only will this save on time, the color will deepen as it sets in.


4. Avoid baking and decorating in the same day.
If you bake earlier in the day or even the day before you can save on the time waiting for the cake to completely cool necessary before you frost the cake.




I hope this helps and happy baking!!

Baby Shower Cake

The baby shower cake design did not go as planned but it still turned out great. I've learned in life to expect the unexpected and always be flexible. My FAVORITE cake store by my house closed down. I called to see if they had edible images and there phone number was disconnected!! I decided to drive by and see if this was just a fluke. Imagine my surprise when I found out the cake store was now an Indian clothing store!! Normally I would drive to the next closest store but my pregnancy laziness kicked in. I told my husband that he was just going to have to wing it. As long as it was sports themed he could come up with whatever design he felt comfortable making.

Random Cake Information:

1. Avoid baking and decorating in the same day
I always bake my cakes and make the buttercream one or two days before I need to decorate. Experience has shown me that the quality of my decorating suffers when I try to do everything at once. So my husband made the cake Friday night. FYI: He's only dressed up because we just got back from church...lol

2. Make sure you properly grease the pan 
You can use shortening, butter, flour, parchment paper, or pam. He used shortening on the pan. Make sure to use a generous amount. If not, your cake will stick to the pan and could possibly break when you try to get it out.

 

3. Make sure the cake is completely cool before decorating
If the cake is still warm, the buttercream will melt when you try to ice the cake.

4. Make sure the theme or design you choose is within your ability
Try to choose a design according to your skill level. If you choose something more complex, practice before hand until you're comfortable. Youtube and cake decorating sites are really good resources to learn new techniques. My husband on the other hand did not have time to watch any videos. He only had my instructions to go on.

Here's the finished product...

 

 Tools used:

• Offset spatula to ice the cake
• #234 tip for the border
• #18 tip for the football
• #47 tip for football lines
• #1M tip to swirl the buttercream on the cupcakes