Mother's day cake for my mom?

[Andrea]

So to start off I am super excited to be a part of this forum because it seems like I am baking 24/7! Anyway, I am making a cake for my mom for mother's day and I am somewhat a beginner on the decorating side. Anyone know of any good books or have any advice on techniques and things? I will mostly be using fondant. I don't know if that matters

 

[Becky]

Hello and welcome! Great to have you here

What kind of cake are you making for her? I made a custard cake the other day which was gorgeous, and whilst it was easy to decorate it looked quite striking:

Here's the recipe: http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/best-birthday-cake-118

I made double the quantity of buttercream filling and half the quantity of chocolate icing and that seemed to work well.

If you want to use fondant icing then I always think it's pretty cool to make a really brightly coloured sponge (or maybe a mix of colours by marbling them together!) and then cover it with regal white icing - it looks so elegant and then you cut into it!

 

[dre5546]

One technique that I use to manage the frosting is a zip-lock bag it really helps putting frosting on the cake 10x easier. Also it just takes patience to decorate a cake, hope this helps.

 

[DancingLady]

I'm not familiar with fondant but I know the tool used for spreading frosting always makes a big difference for me. Just using a table knife is not usually very good if I am working with a big cake, I really need a larger frosting spreader to get it nice and smooth.

 

[Trellum]

I love fondant, not the easiest thing to work with tho! I hope your cake turned out great I'm going to bake a cake for my mom this year too, for her birthday and also for mother's day

 

[tangela]

Honestly I think your mom would be happy with anything knowing that you made it with her in mind. But regardless, if you're just starting out with decorating I would make a second cake (a smaller one or the same size) and try decorating on that one first. Get the techniques down and decide what color you want, and once you know for sure you can work on the actual cake

 

[ThatNewMommy]

I love fondant decorations but my house is too hot to work with it.

Have you considered cupcakes instead? Those are sometimes easier than a big cupcake. I don't have a picture at the moment, but you can spoon the frosting on and then shape it to look sort of boxy. (Think Frankenstein's head. LOL) Have it reach about half an inch high. Then around that border you can put colored sugar crystals.

Also, you can do simple flower looking mini cupcakes and put them together like a bouquet.

I made a few of these and gave as Mom's Day gifts a while ago. I didn't know much other than a simple buttercream swirl but I really liked how they ended up, especially being my first time doing them.

 

[Zyni]

Wow! your flowers turned out great @ThatNewMommy . Nice job. I need to try something like that. Just as pretty but far less costly than candy or fruit bouquets.