How to Decorate a book cake

Looks like there should be a story behind this one, does it? If you don't know James Dashner or his books, you need to run out and check one of them out (he has two new ones out this year in two different series, check out his blog for details). Last weekend was my writer's guild's annual Christmas party--admittedly a bit after Christmas, but we were all kind of busy before. I signed up to bring dessert (because any time anyone asks me to sign up to bring something, of course I'm going to go for dessert, even if I don't bring something cakish.).

After looking around a bit for idea, I decided to do a book cake because we're all writers and it seemed appropriate. Plus I've wanted to do one for a while now.

I used a variation of the standard White Almond Sour Cream cake (I got this variation on Cake Central, but I generally use this one on recipezaar.) This was pumpkin spice cake with cinnamon buttercream filling. Now, if you're going to decorate a normal round or square cake, you can use a box mix if you like, but if you plan to carve it at all, you need to use a heavier cake like the WASC type because it holds its shape better. This cake was done in a normal 9x13 cake pan (Okay, it was this decorator pan, with square corners and straight sides, but it was still the standard shape.) I trimmed the sides a bit to make them straight, cut it in half and stacked it, then trimmed a tad more to make it the right shape. This meant the cake ended up about 8x6.

I did need to use a firmer cake for this, even though it's perfectly square because it had to be rotated a bit while I put on the fondant, and I was concerned about it falling apart. After filling and stacking the two layers. To minimize confusion, I'll refer to the six sides of the cake as front and back (as in the front and back covers), right side, left side, top and bottom. I set the cake on the left side, which would be the binding edge and spread buttercream along the top, bottom and right sides of the book.

Before this stage I had pulled out some white fondant and rolled it out to the right length and approximate width I would need to cover the edge of the cake with a bit of overlap. Then I lightly scored the fondant with my pastry blender to make it look like indents between the pages. So once the sides were covered with frosting, I carefully lifted the long piece of fondant and covered it, making sure to cover all of the edges where it would overlap with the cover.

Next I rolled out the blue fondant I made for the cover. I measured and tweaked it to make sure it would be the right length and width to cover the book, then made some rough cuts to trim off some of the excess. I've seen pictures of book cakes before, and I loved the way they looked and the smooth edges that actually look like leather, which is what I was going for. As you can see, I didn't quite manage it, but I learned a few things for next time.

Next I flipped the cake on the white fondant edge, applied buttercream to the three remaining sides, making sure to fill the voids where the white fondant wrapped around the front and back so the blue would lay smooth. Then I put on the blue fondant for the cover. One thing to note, I had planned to have the cover actually hang over the edges a bit, but forgot that marshmallow fondant shrinks slightly when you pull it off of the counter and put it on your cake, so next time I try something like this I'll provide a whole lot more edge space.

I wasn't sure how to get nice smooth edges without folding it over, but should have rolled the fondant thinner there so it wouldn't be so bulky. Also, wrapping the fondant around the 'book' took a bit more than I had planned on. The complication is that once you apply fondant to something that's covered in butter cream, it becomes a mess to pull off and tweak, so I was trying to do this in one step.

The accents are white buttercream with silver pearl dust covering them, which I applied with a little watercolor brush I reserve only for cake decorating. It's best to dampen the fondant with a bit of water (just a tiny bit, too much can take forever to dry, especially if you live in a humid climate). Some people also brush a bit of vanilla on instead of the water because it evaporates so much faster.

In the end I was trying to decide what the book should say on the outside and decided that poking fun at James Dashner would be entertaining. Thankfully, he was not only not offended, but genuinely seemed to think it was cool, so it was a hit with everyone. I had to actually cut the cake myself or it wouldn't have been touched. People seem to forget cakes are for eating, no matter how cool looking they are.

Recently a friend of mine asked me to do a cake for her daughter's birthday--and she really wanted Barney on it. I had never done a buttercream transfer before this cake, but I was pleased at how easy they are.

First I found a picture of Barney online, cropped it in Irfanview so it showed what I wanted it to, then imported it into Publisher so I could blow it up to the right size. You're going to use this as a template, so it's important that the image is the size you'll want it on the cake. Then I printed it.

I was told to use a piece of plexiglass under the transfer to provide a stiff surface, but I didn't have any on hand, so I used my cookie cooling rack, which has pretty small squares so with the paper on it I got a nice smooth surface. I put the printout on top of the rack, then covered it with plastic wrap.

Remember to do the small details first (like the eyes), because the plastic wrap side is the side everyone will see. As long as that comes along nice, the back doesn't matter. I then outlined and filled the picture. You want the buttercream to be fairly thick so it's easier to handle. Mine was probably about 3/16" thick all over and I filled in with the purple behind the face so it would all be the same thickness. Next I moved the whole thing to the freezer--still on the cooling rack.

Half an hour later, when the cake was otherwise done, I pulled it out and removed the plastic wrap from the picture, and set it on the cake. It was really stiff so it worked out great! I put a dotted border around Barney to finish the edges. Also, be aware every little line shows up in the buttercream, and you will have to smooth some of them out. No worries, though. I just used the flat tip of a butter knife to smooth things out after it had a little time to defrost and it turned out just fine.

You can do a similar picture transfer with colored gels as well. For this project I used a straight-sided 9x13 pan, icing color, and a round tip, probably #7.

How to make a teapot cake

One of the fun things about cake decorating is that there is no limit to the kinds of things you can do. Case in point, this teapot cake my sister and I made for my mom's birthday late last month. I had done roundish cakes before--okay, one roundish cake-- but nothing quite like this, and I was excited to tackle the project. My sister has more experience with cake decorating in general, but had never done a circular cake before, so it was a new and fun experience for both of us.

First we baked the cakes. My sister has the soccer ball pan, which is a half sphere so she baked the top and bottom pieces. Then as she packed them to bring to my house the day before we decorated, she realized they didn't make a full circle when you put them together. I baked a nine-inch circle for the middle the next morning before she arrived.


While my cake finished cooling, we cut out the fondant flowers for the decorations, and she formed the handle and spout around some wire. It would have been better if we'd made the handle and spout a few days earlier out of gum paste, but I was insanely busy that week, so I didn't get it done like I'd planned. Remember if you make colored decorations out of gum paste or fondant with the plan to dry them that you need to put in quite a bit more color than you expect because they fade as they dry. We used the daisy cut outs for these flowers, and just put a ball of yellow fondant in the centers.


Then we filled the layers and frosted the ball. Before we started the crumb coating, I trimmed a bit off of one of the circles so it would sit flat on the plate and not roll too easily. We also trimmed the sides to they would seams between the layers would be smoother.

We added a 9" round of carboard between the second and third layers and put dowls inside the cake to support it so the top layers wouldn't be too heavy and squish the bottom one. As always, you have to try to make the frosting as smooth as you can before adding the fondant because it shows ripples under the surface, but don't kill yourself over it, since tiny differences in height will smooth out as you play with the fondant.


We rolled the fondant just a bit thinner on the edges, then carefuly lifted the layer of fondant and worked it in the middle to stretch it. This might take a little practice to get it to work right without leaving thin spots where your knuckles pressed against the fondant. Make sure it looks as good as possible before putting it on the cake--once you get the buttercream on the fondant it becomes a mess to start over.


We pressed an indentation into the cake at the level where the lid should go. In retrospect, we should have carved a lid into the cake before we frosted it--something to remember for the future. Then we used buttercream to decorate the teapot. We used tip 804 for the dots with the large pastry coupler and just put the dots on randomly. We used them to cover up some of the minor irregularities in the cake, an added advantage.


We touched our impecably clean fingertips to powdered sugar and pressed it onto the dots to flatten them out.


Then we used a clean paint brush (like the type you buy for kids to water color with. I have a set that is used ONLY for cake decorating) to spread a bit of water on the back of the flowers so they would stick to the cake. Fondant sticks to fondant really well with just a touch of dampness. The bigger flowers didn't stick to the bottom half of the cake very well because of gravity, but the smaller ones did all right.


Here's the finished product with the handle and spout installed. We used multiple pieces of wire to stick them into the cake, but they were still quite heavy, so in the future I'd use a thinner spout--and again, I'd do it ahead and let it dry so I wouldn't have to worry about the wire cutting throught the fondant or gum paste as I put it together.

We just used a basic dot to finish off the bottom. If I had it to do again, I would use a lot more flowers and various kinds along the base to hide the places where the fondant didn't smooth together perfectly at the base. It's hard enough getting a smooth finish on a round cake without ading the fact that a spherical one actually gets smaller at the bottom. Still, We were pretty happy with the end result.

Keep decorating supplies together

One of the most frustratiung thing when you're in the middle of making a cake is not being able to find the tip or coloring you need. Because the tools for cake decorating can be many and varied (and completely addictive) here are some storage solutions. First, so you can keep those tips in order, there's this tip saver case. It comes in two sizes. The small one will hold 26 tips, and two flower nails. The large case holds 52 of your standard-sized tips and two flower nails. These cases do not include the tips, though you can buy full cases including the tips here.

The beige and red tool caddy has a lift-out tray that holds 48 tips and 12 color jars, with lots of room for pastry bags, spatulas and more underneath.

Then there's the ultimate tool caddy. This caddy has room for 36 tips, lots of color jars, room for spatulas, pastry bags, and many other things with three levels of drawers to keep it all organized. This caddy doesnt include any supplies, but it won't take much work to fill it up!

Just getting started, or have a family member who wants to start decorating cakes? This 50-piece tool caddy could be right up your alley. It includes a variety of tips, colors, tools, and a beginner's guide.

Or, if the contents of the last caddy aren't enough for you, check this 101-piece set out. This set comes with more colors, tips, couplers, spatulas, and other useful supplies. Among other things, it includes a cake leveler, butter and white vanilla flavorings, bake even strips, and a fondant smoother. This is a great deal, since the individual items would cost far more than this if purchased separately.

To learn more about these items or to see what else we have available, check out our Website.

Give your cake a different look

Wedding cakes with round tiers will always be the classic standard, but if you still want that classic look, with a twist, there are other great pan shapes out there to use. This Petal Pan set comes with all four pieces in 6", 9", 12", and 15" sizes. These are 2" tall and work great as a set or mix and match with round or square pans for variation.

Another option is these fun hexagon pans. This set also includes sizes 6", 9", 12", and 15".

These heart-shaped pans are also a great solution for weddings, engagement parties, anniversaries and more. This set includes pans sizes 6", 10", 12", and 14".

Remember, it's recommended that you use a heating core on pans that are more than 10" across. You can find these and many other things on our Website.

Great Cakes for Boys

A few weeks ago I highlighted some adorable bug and animal cakes. Since many little boys aren't into butterflies or lady bugs, I thought I'd highlight a few fun shapes with engines. As always, the cake pans come with instructions on which colors and tips to use in order to make the cakes.

Below you can see the Cars shape of Lightning Mcqueen. This is sure to be a hit with any kid who loved the movie. We also have cupcake liners, candies, picks and treat bags to match here.

If your child wasn't really thrilled with Cars, but still loves race cars, we also have a NASCAR-style pan complete with a flag.

If your child is more into fire fighters, check out this ladder truck pan.

For train lovers, we have this train cake pan.

Or this fun 3-D train pan which you cook in two parts and then put together for an upright cake.

If you have a little farmer boy (or girl), maybe this tractor is right up their alley.

To check out the other fun pans available on our site, or to pick up some tips, bags, colors or other decorating supplies, check out our Web site!

How to Fill Cakes

Have you ever done a layered cake with fun fillings? If you think it's hard, it's time to think again. I'll give you a step-by-step layout on how it's done. Below you can see the cake my daughter recently made. She baked 2 8" rounds and then sliced them horizontally to make four layers. This is easiest and most level if you use a cake slicer. This one is great for cakes less than 10" wide, and this one is perfect for larger cakes. If you don't have a slicer handy you can always use a long serrated knife but it's a lot harder to get the layers even. So you start with your clean surface, this time, the middle of the cake.

Next you take your frosting and outline the cake on top. This keeps the filling in between the cakes so it doesn't squish out and bulge the sides. This was just piped on with #7 tip.

Since she had some frozen pie filling, she just spooned some on and used a spatula to spread it. An angled spatula is actually easier for this job, especially if you are filling a large cake, but you can make do with a regular one if necessary.

Next she put on the top layer, then did the crumb coat. It's easiest to decorate a cold cake, so all of the layers were chilled before slicing. The extra advantage is that the crumb coat sets/dries faster on a cold cake. A crumb coat is used to seal all of the crumbs into the cake. That keeps the outer coat clean and looking nice. Make sure you scrape the crumbs off your blade into a small bowl or cup to keep the bigger bowl of frosting clean as you work.

Once the crumb coat has set, you put on your final layer. In this case she didn't do a second coat to the top of the cake because she knew it would be covered up, but if she had done a chocolate cate or tinted the frosting on the white cake she might have needed to do a top coat to make sure the cake color didn't come through.

Next she did a shell border around the bottom and top and filled it with cherry pie filling. It ended up being both pretty and very yummy. The main caveate she mentioned: Make sure you put the top border on first and give it a little time to dry before adding the cherries on top. If you top it before you put on the border the frosting won't stick and it'll slide off the sides when it has the cherries pushing against it.

How to Make Fondant Flowers

My daughter recently made a cake for a friend's bridal shower and was willing to share pictures on how it was done. She used a marshmallow fondant recipe one of my other daughter's picked up online, but you can use prepackaged fondant if you prefer and simply tint it whatever color you like.

Since she was working on a deadline and didn't have the usual petal and leaf cutout set made especially for these types of projects, she had to improvise and used the flower cut-outs.

Always remember that fondant dried out easily, so only work with a smal bit at a time, and keep the rest wrapped up tight in plastic wrap to keep it from drying out too quickly. She rolled out enough to cut six to eight pieces from at a time. Also, since she doesn't have a fondant rolling mat yet she used corn starch on the counter and rolling pin to keep the fondant from sticking. If the fondant got too dry to work with between rolling it out, she added a few drops of water to the small ball in her hand and worked it in. This can be messy and you don't want to add too much as it will make the fondant really sticky, but with care it can make the piece workable again.
She used the large cutout from the set and for the first row of petals cut out every-other petal.


This picture is really bad, but you can see she ran the toothpick through the cut peice, then wrapped it around the tip. Once she had the shape she wanted on the top petals, she pinched off the base part so the second set of petals would be even or nearly even with the inner row.

This is the second row of petals. She cut out one petal from the shape and added cut lines between the petals so they could overlap each other. when she slid it onto the toothpick, she also used a clean paintbrush from a kids' watercolor set that she bought just for fondant. She brushed a thin layer of water over the petals where they would overlap. Fondant will stick to itself easily with a touch of water. Be careful, though, not to let water drip on any parts that are going to be seen on the outside as water will leave marks behind to mar the surface.

For the third row she didn't cut any petals out, but still split the space between the petals. Then she took a toothpick and separated the petals and curved them back slightly to give them a slightly more realistic look. This really works best if you use thin pieces of fondant. These were rolled to 1/8 inch or thinner, but there may be some times when slightly thicker pieces will work fine.

Wile she was at it, she also made over 150 little flowers with the tiniest cutout in the set. Then she used the end of a chopstick (the fondant shaping foam and confectionarry tools would have bee much easier) and her finger to create a curve in the middle of the flowers.

If you're going to have roses, you obviously need leaves! Again, there were no cutters for leaves in stock, so she used the edge of a glass to cut each edge. If she had to do it again, she would have used a round cookie cutter because the glass didn't leave a crisp edge and they had to be trimmed with a knife to clean them up.

Next she used a toothpick to draw lines on the leaves.

Then she set everything out to dry since she made them several days in advance of the cake. Be aware that some colors fade a lot when the fondant dries. The pink faded to way less than half the original brilliancy as it dried, while the leaves only lightened a little bit.

A few days later she baked the cake, frosted it (crumb layer, then an outter layer), and rolled the purple fondant. Once that was ready, she used the toothpicks on the roses to stick the roses in the cake where she wanted them. If needed, they could have been cut off or trimmed back, but they were handy to creat the design she wanted.

The first of the small flowers were attached to the bottom of the cake with buttercream icing.

Then she used some yellow buttercream to put yellow dots in the flowers and the roses.

With a little extra playing, she finished up with the little flowers, tacking them and the leaves onto the cake with buttercream frosting. The green stems on the roses are also buttercream piped on with a small round tip, probably a #7. A slightly smaller circle tip, like a #4 made the dots in the flowers.

This cake was made using 2-8" round pans and it fit perfectly in one of these boxes.

Marshmallow fondant

1 16 oz package of mini marshmallows

1 Tbsp of water

2 tsp vanilla

Most of a 2 lb package of powdered sugar.

Heat the marshmallows slowly with the water and vanilla until they are melted, then begin encorporating the powdered sugar. You'll probably have about two cups of sugar left in your bag when the fondant reaches the right consistency. It's easiest to work with when it's a little warm, so if it gets cold, or you pull it out of the fridge to work with, zap in in the micro for 10-15 seconds to make it softer. Don't let it melt though!

This will make a pretty big batch of fondant, half a batch is generally enough for an eight-inch cake, unless you're doing fancy decorations with it, in which case you may need a bit extra. Another advantage of fondant is that it can be made in advance since it takes quite a bit of time to make and then tint it. The color has to be kneaded into the fondant, so it can take a while to reach the right color. It can also be kept for several weeks and then used if you have some left over. Tightly wrap any fondant in plastic wrap (some people suggest covering it with a light layer of shortening first) and then place in a zippered bag, taking as much air out of the bag as possible before sealing it. Many red colors will bleed into other balls of fondant, so make sure to wrap each color separately.

Patriotic Desserts Take the Cake

The Fourth of July is a really big deal in my hometown. Almost all class reunions are held that weekend, 'kids' who have moved away come home to visit every year because, let's face it, when else are they likely to encounter that friend they haven't seen in years? And my house is going to be overrun with grandchildren as all of my kids come home for the holiday.

Since preparations have been on my mind, I decided to see what fun designs Wilton had on their website. I found some fantastic cake ideas. All of these cakes have complete directions available at the linked location on the Wilton site. The first few use the star pan.

This one is called Bursting in Air, and it uses lollipop sticks, and either colorflow icing, or food coloring and fondant--which is the way I would make it. If you use this method, it's best ot use the cute star shape cutouts. It also calls for colored foil, but if that's not handy, a little ingenuity will fill in instead.

This tasty treat uses fruit to add color and style to your cake. On the Wilton site it is simply called the July 4th cake.

This one is called the Country Cake, and could be adjusted for any country with a star on the flag. It uses the star shape cutouts too, though any star-shaped cookie cutter would work instead.
This one is called Soaring Spirit. It uses 6" and 10" pans, more lollipop sticks, fondant, and star fondant shape cutouts. This cake would be perfect for a more formal holiday occasion, or any other patriotic event.

This one is called the Rocket's Red Glare and uses the Enchanted Castle pan. See my blog on other fun cakes you can make with the Enchanted Castle pan here. Again, lollipop sticks feature in this cake, as does white florist ribbon, and colored foil.

You can buy almost all of the supplies for these cakes and much more on our Website.

Personalize Your Wedding Cake

I did a post about some of the fun wedding cake toppers available here. But since the selection continues to grow, I thought I'd highlight a few more. If these intrigue you, check out our Website. We have still more toppers I haven't featured on this blog.


I thought I'd start with this fun option, the Rhinestone Heart Wedding Cake Topper, which could be used easily for an anniversary cake as well. This is 8.5 inches tall.





This new topper is one of my all-time favorites. It's called Forever in Your Eyes, is made of a durable resin, has great details, and will make a great keepsake.

This topper is called Just Married, and makes me think of Jane Austen and other romantic classics. It stands 5 inches tall, and is also made of a durable resin. It works great with revolving stands, too.

One thing our selection didn't have before was options for minorities, but we've recently added two new toppers for those of other races and ethnicities.

This humorous topper is available featuring both a white and ethnic couple. It's called Oh, No You Don't and stands 4.25 inches tall.

For the more traditional couple, we also have the Classic Ethnic We

dding Cake Topper. It's also one of our least expensive wedding products. This topper is also available with a caucasion couple.