Here’s our guest post from Bella’s Cupcakes – some simple ideas for cake decorating to make your vegan cakes look fab! Check out their website for great tips and ideas.

If you’re after a ‘never fail, simple vegan cake recipe’  – check out our favourite vegan cake recipe.

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Cake Decorating Techniques For Busy Mums – A Beginner’s Guide

Birthdays are ‘a-must celebrations, especially if it’s for your kids. And birthday parties are usually the best excuse to bake and decorate a cake. But cakes are not meant for birthdays alone; may it be your kid’s first or last day of school, a sleepover, or you just want to satisfy your family’s sweet-tooth cravings, you can make a cake anytime. But, what can you do when you don’t have all the time in the world? Fret not. We’ve listed some of the easiest tricks of decorating cakes for busy mums like you.

Prep Your Essentials

Before you actually dive into that bowl of vegan buttercream, it’s very important to prepare everything. Get those piping bags, sprinkles, and sweets ready, and make sure to have the best cake stands for gorgeous cake presentations on hand. You’ll be surprised how easy and fun it is to make a cake without spending hours just to decorate it.

The Finishing Touches

The decoration is the cherry on top. Doing the finishing touches to your cake will give you a thumb’s up or a thumb’s down from your kids. So go ahead and give it a try. All you need is just some simple ingredients and a little bit of imagination.

If you want to be minimal, you can finish your cake with just frosting and no extra toppers, decorations, or borders. A clean, monotone colour will do.

Of course, rainbow sprinkles and chocolates are a classic and will never get old. Spread some colourful sprinkles on top of your cake to make it look colourful and fun. Make your own DIY sprinkles by doing the transfer method technique. Pipe some small dots or lines using the royal icing on a parchment paper piece and allow them to dry. You can also play around with different patterns like piping rosettes for a more feminine design.

If you want some extra oomph on your cake, you can use some garnish that will compliment your cake’s flavour. Put some slices or whole fresh fruits on top of the cake for an extra pop of colour. It will also give a balance and some zing to the flavour.

You can also put some chopped or shaved chocolate on top to make your dessert look and taste rich. 

When spring or summer comes, you can make use of candied flowers for a more dainty garnish.

If you have not enough time and want the kids to do the decorations, here are some easy and fun decorating ideas for them:

1. Let them draw some pictures on your iced cake, or let them paint the cake using gel food colouring.

2. Decorate the cake with sprinkles, candies, dried fruits, and nuts, or dry cereals to make the cake look lively and colourful. They can even put cookies or gummy bears on top!

3. Add a paper artwork using some coloured papers attached to a skewer, or make mini buntings and hang over the cake between two skewers.

4. Or let them use the piping bag so they can play around and use their imagination and creativity in decorating.

Conclusion

If you’re a busy mom who loves baking, don’t be discouraged about not making the perfect cake for your family. All you need are a few tricks up your sleeve, a bit of practice, and some sprinkle of creativity. Double the fun by bringing in your kids or the whole family decorating the cake.