Basic Cake Decorating

I frequently find myself baking/decorating cakes to celebrate the birthdays of friends, family and coworkers. People really like receiving cakes because it shows them you put some time and effort into their gift. I wanted to share my process on the blog, so here's a quick glimpse at what I do: 

Let the frosting begin!

Lots of options for the cake itself, but I tend to fall back on boxed cake mixes. They are:

1. Easy

2. Predictable

3. Simple to modify

This cake was obviously fun fetti. I added extra sprinkles to make it extra fun.

This is the standard butter cream frosting I make. Sometimes I use shortening, sometimes butter. Generally, I've observed that older audiences prefer butter-based and the younger crowd likes shortening in their frosting. Your mileage may vary.

Here's the recipe I use for frosting.

Important: before I frost anything, I freeze the cakes. Let them cool completely after baking, then wrap them in plastic wrap before placing in the freezer for a few hours or overnight. After they freeze, the cakes are much easier to work with- much less crummy!

Use a wet butter knife, spoon or frosting tool of your choice, to frost the cake. The water helps the frosting glide over the cake more uniformly.

Here are my two round cakes stacked on top of each other and frosted. My cakes always look lopsided no matter how much I try to align them. Anyone know why this is? Or am I just forever doomed to have lopsided cakes?

Using frosting tips and a coupler, I iced the lettering (not my best work, don't judge) and then used a star tip to create the borders. Add more sprinkles and you're good to go! My friend Sam was so thrilled to receive her cake that she didn't even notice where I accidentally chipped the serving plate on the left side. Oops! 

Happy cake decorating to you all!