Tradition of baking a cake for a birthday originated so long ago that it is not even known exactly where it came from: either from ancient Greece or from medieval Germany. Today, a well-decorated cake is a guarantee of a wonderful celebration, especially if we are talking about a holiday for a child.
How to Decorate a Cake for a Boy
The biggest mistake when decorating a birthday cake for boys is following stereotypes. Clichés like blue and car themes are only appropriate if they really appeal to the child.
It is better to try something unusual, bright, impressive, so that the hero of the occasion will remember the holiday for a long time. Experiments with color and shape are a great choice, but it is better to focus on the content.
The following directions are ideal for a festive pie:
- Solar system, spaceships, UFOs;
- Jungle, exotic animals;
- Funny mechanisms, robots;
- Sea, ships, pirates;
- Dinosaurs;
- Comic book and cartoon characters (Spider-Man, Batman, Genie from Aladdin);
- Game heroes (angry birds from "Angry Birds", Om Nom from "Cut the Rope"), etc.
Decorating a cake for a child's birthday is sometimes difficult due to an internal fear of non-standard solutions. When choosing the color of a cake for a boy, you should move away from the usual blue, black and try, for example, yellow, red, white or even pink if the birthday boy loves flamingos or Psylocke, the heroine of Marvel comics.
One of the main details of the festive cake is candles. This good old tradition can be turned into an impressive show if you buy a candle - fireworks. Then the birthday boy will surely remember his holiday, and the appearance of the treat will sparkle with new colors.
You can come up with a lot of ideas, but still the most important thing in the design of a festive treat is the child's good mood. First of all, it is necessary to take into account the boy's opinion, and not chase culinary trends.
How to Decorate a Baby Cake for a Girl: Tips and Advice
The range of interests of girls these days is very wide. They have long been interested not only in dolls, soft toys, cosmetics, fairies and ponies. Travels, brave heroes, adventures, wonderful inventions also do not leave young ladies indifferent.
Therefore, the choice of style and theme of the cake is incredibly diverse:
- distant wonderful planets;
- unusual mysterious animals;
- real cute animals (kittens, puppies, foxes);
- underwater world, mermaids;
- travel, culture of the peoples of the world;
- fantasy worlds with their castles, dragons, elves, gnomes, princes and princesses.
The colors can be both delicate, pastel, and bright, neon. Colors with a pearlescent sheen, gilding or silver will also look good on the cake. You can decorate the cake for a girl with sugar beads, fancy confectionery sprinkles, marshmallows.
Ingredients for cake decoration
Once the goal is set and the theme is chosen, all that remains is to bring your idea to life. There are a lot of confectionery tools and ingredients for this.
Butter cream
This ingredient is popular among cooks and housewives. Butter cream is considered a classic. This recipe is time-tested, it has always attracted the attention of cooks because of its delicate milky taste, ability to hold its shape well. And most importantly, the recipe is very simple.
To prepare you will need:
- milk;
- butter (the higher the fat content, the better);
- powdered sugar.
Some housewives can use condensed milk, flour, sour cream, vanillin. In short, there are many varieties of recipes, the choice of ingredients depends on the goals of the cook. With the help of butter cream, graceful patterns, intricate ornaments, flowers in the Malaysian technique are created. For this, there are confectionery nozzles.
They are very easy to use, but help to bring to life the most unusual design solutions. Also, butter cream with a certain combination of ingredients becomes so thick that it can give the dessert any shape before covering with mastic.
Chocolate glaze
This ingredient is also popular among confectioners and is easy to prepare. Cocoa or chocolate, milk and vegetable oil are products that are readily available, and that is the whole secret of the glaze's fame. It is easy to apply.
Glaze is also good for fixing the decor on the surface of the product. And the effects that are easy to create with its help bring aesthetic pleasure: a smooth, shimmering glossy surface looks great on a festive cake and hides unevenness.
Chocolate
The ingredient is universal, as it has many varieties:
- bitter;
- lactic;
- white;
- low calorie;
- with all kinds of fillings (nuts, cookies, caramel, fudge, jelly and others).
Therefore, there are many ways to decorate a cake with chocolate. You can cast figures and decor in a silicone mold, make chocolate cream or sauce. Even from store-bought bars, you can create an unusual composition that will decorate the top of the treat.
Mastic
You can decorate a child's birthday cake with mastic. This is a soft sweet mass made of powdered sugar. Due to its elasticity and pliability, it allows you not only to cover the product with it and create a matte surface effect, but also to mold complex decorative elements from it.
To prepare edible plasticine you need:
- powdered sugar;
- water;
- vanillin;
- lemon juice;
- gelatin;
- food coloring or natural juice.
Some cooks add honey or marshmallows. The cooking process is a little more complicated than with the previous ingredients, but the spectacular result compensates for this drawback.
Coconut flakes
Reminiscent of snow or fluffy sheep fur, the shavings are perfect for decorating a cake for a children's party.
Even if you just sprinkle it on the surface of a treat, it immediately seems airy, light, like a cloud. Also, shavings can be painted in any color, sweetened and even fried, added to cream, mousse, any glaze.
Chocolate shavings
Even such a simple ingredient will give a sweet dish individuality. Any novice confectioner can make shavings by grating a bar of soft chocolate on a grater or using a vegetable peeler. The main thing is to immediately put the product in the refrigerator.
Chocolate shavings resemble tree bark, the fur of some furry animal (a bear, for example), a country road, and a plowed field. The scope for imagination is limitless. Only the size matters: making the shavings shorter or longer should be based on your goals.
Fruits
This ingredient is considered universal, since in the confectionery industry fruits are used in any form:
- fresh;
- candied;
- dried;
- fruit jam/marmalade/puree;
- filled with jelly, etc.
The variety of colors of fruits makes it possible to implement any idea, whether the theme of the product is a fun carnival or a circus arena. One of the disadvantages of this product is a short shelf life. And some fruits can quickly flow down, forming a "mush" on the cake.
Jelly candies
Bright, of any shape and color, with a variety of fillings and without, jelly candies are ideal for decorating a cake. With their help, it is easy to create simple plots and wonderful compositions right on the cake. It is important to choose soft marmalade, since regular chewy is not suitable for decorating baked goods. Such a cake will outshine all the treats at a child's birthday.
Candies (other)
Other soft candies are not inferior to jelly ones.
Their diversity is amazing:
- praline;
- marzipan;
- grillage;
- lipstick;
- whipped;
- "MSV" and others.
Candies are usually a finished confection. If you decorate a pie with them, then only one with a not very rich taste. Otherwise, the product will acquire a cloying aftertaste.
Cake Decorating for Kids: Ideas and Photos
Decorating with gingerbread decorated with icing
Handmade gingerbread is not only a beautiful decoration for a pie, but also a wonderful gift in itself, which is nice to receive at any age. There are many recipes for honey gingerbread, and it is easy to make them yourself.
It is often easy to do without special cookie cutters, since the gingerbread dough is pliable, which means it is easy to form any figure with your own hands. More important is the stage of decorating the gingerbread. Here, not only icing is used, but also confectionery beads, sprinkles, coconut flakes and much more.
Food photo printing
Not everyone can convey the proportions of cartoon characters well or make neat decorations. In this case, you should print any drawing directly on the cake, or more precisely on the wafer blank, which should be placed on the treat.
Photos of the birthday people and various inscriptions would also be appropriate.
Glucose syrup lollipops
These sweets, transparent like stained glass, will allow you to create the most unusual and amazing compositions both on the top of the festive treat and on its sides.
You can order the lollipops or make them yourself, but it is important to remember: if you don’t cook the syrup enough, the sweets will leak, and if the temperature changes abruptly, they will crack.
Colored dragee
The advantages of the idea are the availability of such candies and ease of use. Even a simple rainbow will look spectacular on the surface of the cake.
But creativity is still possible: you can find simple pixel art designs online and create an image from candies.
Waffle cones
This decorative element is universal, as it can bring any idea to life. The waffle cone looks like a shark's head, a rocket's "nose", and a castle turret.
Confectioners cover the horns with glaze, pour chocolate over them, and sprinkle them with sweet decorations.
DIY Mastic Figures
Sweet plasticine will decorate any children's pie due to its brightness and plasticity. And even a novice cook can mold simple figures from it.
Note: if you need to draw something on the mastic figure, for example, eyes, you should buy a special food marker.
Inscriptions on the cake happy birthday child
Decorating a child's birthday cake is easy if the cook knows the basics of lettering. You can write on the cake using a pastry sleeve with a special nozzle.
You can also leave a neat inscription using a food marker.
You can even cut out the necessary letters from mastic.
Wooden inscriptions on skewers are gaining popularity.
It is even possible to order a personalized inscription from a carpenter who specializes in small items.
Two tier kids cake designs
The art of confectionery only seems to be a complex science, which can be mastered only by select cooks and housewives. Anyone can decorate a birthday cake, knowing a few recipes and having a few tools at hand.
In any case, a child will be happy with a holiday cake only if it is made with tenderness and care.
Video on how to decorate a cake for a child
Beautiful cake for a 1 year old boy: