Probably, many housewives thought about the independent preparation of cakes and decorations for them. Confectionery can be prepared at home. And in appearance and taste, they will be no worse than store products. Decorating the cake with chocolate looks beautiful. Photos of this beautiful work can be seen below. You will need special tools that allow you to do the job well.

What chocolate to choose?

To make the cake beautiful, you need to choose high-quality chocolate. It makes beautiful glossy jewelry. Many use chocolate glazes, in which cocoa butter is present instead of cocoa. Such products are convenient to use, but in terms of taste they are worse than real couverture chocolate.

Chocolate must contain cocoa butter. The main ingredients of the product are cocoa liquor and sugar. Dark chocolate is also made, in which 99% cocoa.

Types of chocolate

The following types of chocolate are used for decoration:

• Bitter.
• Lactic.
• White.

Professional confectioners use a product produced in blocks and dragees. Tiles can be used at home. Cocoa powder is also suitable for decoration, but it must be of high quality.

Tools

Decorating a cake with chocolate at home can be done using special tools. An assistant is a pastry syringe or bag. Attachments are suitable for creating beautiful swirls, flowers and leaves.

If there is no special device, then you can do it yourself. For this, a paper envelope is used. To create it, you need a landscape sheet. It should be rolled up in a bag, cut off the tip. The product must be held tightly, and after filling with cream or chocolate, you can decorate the cake.

kindling chocolate

Chocolate cake decorations look great. You just need to have skill and patience. You must first prepare the composition. Classical tiles are usually used. How to melt chocolate to decorate a cake? This work is carried out according to the following technology:

• Divide the tiles into small pieces, and then put them in a clean, dry dish.
• A pot of hot water is placed on the work surface. Its temperature should be more than 36 degrees, but not boil. Dishes with chocolate are placed in it so that there is no contact with water.

• Chocolate should be stirred. You don't need to beat the mixture. The product melts gradually, and this process cannot be rushed, otherwise the decoration will be difficult to make. Although the confectionery product can be poured with the composition, a white coating forms with solidification. The temperature of chocolate cannot be more than 40 degrees.

How to melt chocolate for cake decoration so that it comes out neat? The product must not come into contact with moisture, steam or condensate, otherwise it will become thick. It will be difficult to carry out the procedure with him. If the decoration takes about 10 minutes, then the product must be put on a steam bath. The rest can be reused.

pouring chocolate

Various tools are used to decorate cakes with chocolate, with the help of which leaves, hearts are obtained. Undoubtedly, more time is needed for such work. The easiest option is to fill with chocolate. To complete it, you need:

• Cool the cake until it is at room temperature, then place on a wire rack. A sheet of waxed paper is placed under the grate, which is necessary to collect the remaining chocolate.
• Do-it-yourself chocolate decorations for a cake are made using scoops or large spoons. This will allow you to fill the entire product at one time. The coating is fast, because the composition instantly seizes.
• Then the grate should be lightly tapped on the work surface to distribute the chocolate evenly.
• If required, filling is carried out a second time. This must be done after the first layer has hardened.

Creating figures: preparatory work

Decorating cakes with chocolate requires endurance and patience. This work is labor intensive. Various figures can be made upon request. This will require:

• Melt about 130 g of white milk chocolate, and then pour the mixture onto baking parchment. Smooth out with a spatula or knife.
• To level the surface of the parchment, you need to take the edges and shake it a little. Bubbles will not appear because of this.

Creation of figurines

If the melted chocolate does not stick to your fingers, then it can be used in the work. First, the product must be covered with parchment. Then everything should be carefully turned over. The paper that was used as the backing must be removed.

The sheet of chocolate must be turned over again, after which it can be cut out. For this, molds for cookies or cocktail decorations are suitable. You just need to press the workpiece to the chocolate sheet and separate the figure. The result is neat edges. Such chocolate cake decorations are quite simple.

Creating leaves

You can make other chocolate cake decorations at home. Photo options will help determine the transformation of the confectionery. Berries look great, near which there are leaves. It will be easy to make such a decor. To do this, you need to collect the leaves of plants. They should not be too small. You also need melted chocolate.

The finished composition should cover the turnover of the leaves, where the veins are better visible. Work should be done with a medium-sized brush. You need to make sure that the melted chocolate is not on the front side. The blanks should remain in a cool place to solidify. Leaves should be laid out chocolate side up. Separate the mold before use. This completes the preparation. The cake will look original.

Openwork way

How to make a cake decoration out of chocolate so that everything looks great? Mesh, flowers and other openwork details are perfect for this. To get them, you need parchment paper, foil and polyethylene, a spatula and chocolate melted with a water bath.

You need to choose a pattern. You can draw it yourself, after which you need to cut it out. A pattern is transferred to the foil and polyethylene with a pencil. Ready chocolate should be poured into a bag of parchment paper. The product must be extruded along the lines drawn on the foil or paper. If the figurine will stand on the cake, then the base must be dense. After tracing the drawing, the sheet must be transferred to the board and put in the refrigerator.

When the chocolate has hardened, the figures must be separated with a spatula. These ornaments look great, but they are very fragile. Therefore, several identical parts should be made. Such figures are suitable for decorating cakes, ice cream and other desserts.

Shavings

Decorating cakes with chocolate chips is one of the proven methods. There are several options for obtaining such a decor. For example, chocolate can be put in a warm place, and then cut with a sharp knife. The result is chocolate tubes. But before decorating the cake, they should be removed in the refrigerator for solidification.

There is also another method. Glaze should be obtained from chocolate, and then applied to a corrugated surface. Everything should cool, and you can cut the chocolate into a thin layer. With solidification, large chips are obtained, and if you want small ones, then you should grate it. You can create a decoration from white chocolate, which must be melted and a dye of the desired color added.

Wavy decor

Waves and ribbons look beautiful on cakes. Doing them yourself is not too difficult. You will need thick foil, plastic wrap, a spatula and 2 rolling pins. To create ordinary waves, like ribbons, you need to use a dense plastic film. It should be cut into strips of the required width and length, and then melted chocolate should be applied to them. It is necessary to fasten the rolling pins so that there is about 5 cm between them, and transfer the strips to them. In this form, they are put in the refrigerator. When the decorations are frozen, it is necessary to cut off the edges of the strips to remove excess and film.

If you want to get a complex figure, then you need a dense foil. From it you should cut out the figure that you want to get. It is quite simple to do this, since any shape can be obtained from foil. When it is ready, melted chocolate is applied to it. It should be placed in the refrigerator. After 3 hours the foil can be removed. Work must be done carefully. Decoration can be placed on the cake.

Decoration rules

A homemade cake can be beautifully decorated in various ways. Volumetric compositions from mastic, patterns and inscriptions look great. To do this, you can use fresh, canned fruits, jellies, creams, mastics, sweets, whipped cream.

There are several rules that it is desirable to follow. At 70%, the decoration should consist of those products that are the basis of the dessert. Decoration for children's cake should not include alcohol. You can combine several components, as long as it looks harmonious. It should be remembered that the cakes should not be visible. They must be covered with cream or chocolate icing. You can make beautiful jewelry with your own hands, if you show a little imagination.

A delicious homemade cake will sparkle with all colors if it is properly decorated. It is important to know which decorations are suitable for which type of confectionery. Making cakes and desserts for a children's feast involves the presence of bright colors, the use of mastic, figurines, marmalade. Cakes for romantic evenings and holidays can be decorated with fruits, cream in pastel shades, openwork chocolate figurines.

Making jewelry will require some skill and patience. You will also need some improvised means: a confectionery syringe with a variety of nozzles, parchment paper, spatulas of different thicknesses, a sharp thin knife, and tools for working with mastic. But the result is worth the time and effort. As a result, you will get a beautifully decorated festive dish, the surprise of guests and positive feedback about your culinary skills.

Mastic

There are several of the most common recipes. Try two of the easiest mastic options to make.

Ingredients

For milk mastic:

1. Condensed milk.
2. Powdered milk or cream.
3. Powdered sugar.
4. Dyes as desired.

From marshmallows:

1. Chewing marshmallow.
2. Food coloring if needed.
3. Water.
4. Citric acid (or lemon juice).
5. Butter.
6. Powdered sugar and starch.

Cooking process

Milk-based mastic is prepared as follows:

1. Mix the ingredients in a deep bowl. First, the dry part, gradually pouring condensed milk into it.
2. You should get an elastic, non-sticky thick dough to your hands.
3. If you add colorings (only use those that are intended for human consumption), pour them drop by drop onto a flat surface, as if kneading into the dough.

We will make mastic from marshmallows in this way:

1. We heat white marshmallows for a couple or in a microwave oven.
2. At this stage, the right amount of food coloring can be added to the liquid mass.
3. Then you can pour in a little water with a pinch of lemon juice or acid or milk.
4. At the end, put in a mass of 50 grams of butter.
5. We make a sugar mixture: mix the powder with starch 1: 3.
6. We add this mixture in parts to the marshmallow mass until the dough becomes elastic and elastic.
7. Knead the dough for 10 minutes on a surface sprinkled with powder.

Before use, the mastic is thinly rolled into a circle, which covers the top of the cake. You can also cut out figures from it: flowers, leaves, openwork patterns, animals and insects, letters, numbers. Mastic dries instantly, you need to work with it quickly. When forming an ornament, pinch off a piece from the total mass, and wrap the rest in a film. Volumetric figures from mastic may not work out and crack when dried.

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Marzipan

Delicious nut mass - marzipan - has long been used in decorating cakes. It consists of only two components - almond flour and sugar paste. The mass is elastic, keeps its shape perfectly, has a delicate taste. From it you can make not only a coating for the cake, but also various figures and volumetric decorations.

Ingredients:

1. sugar - 200 grams;
2. water - a quarter of a glass;
3. lightly roasted almonds - 1 cup.

Cooking process:

1. Peel the almonds, dry in the oven until slightly golden, grate on a fine grater or chop in a blender.
2. Mix sugar with water, cook a thick syrup so that a ball can be formed from one drop of it.
3. Pour the almond crumbs into the syrup, mix and boil for another 3 minutes.
4. Grease the inside of a bowl with butter and pour marzipan into it.
5. Cool, pass through a meat grinder and proceed to the design.
6. Marzipan can be rolled out in a layer and completely covered with mastic, or you can form petals, leaves, stars, hearts out of it. You can also cut out letters from marzipan and put congratulations on the surface of the cake.
7. If the mass came out watery and spreads, add a little powdered sugar and knead on the board. Too thick marzipan can be sprinkled with boiled water and rolled out.
8. Refrigerate the decorated cake for 8-10 hours to set.

Icing

"Ice pattern" - icing - looks very gentle and romantic in the design of cakes. This decoration not only looks like a winter drawing on glass, but also tastes like crispy ice. Very durable, adheres well to the surface, does not spread, therefore it is considered universal. Especially popular for decorating wedding cakes.

Ingredients

You will need:

1. Powdered sugar - 450-600 grams, depending on the size of the eggs.
2. 3 pieces of protein.
3. 1 teaspoon of glycerin.
4. 15 grams of lemon juice.

Cooking process

Aising is prepared from chilled products:

1. We separate the proteins, degrease the dishes for them and wipe them dry.
2. Beat at low speed for 2 minutes.
3. Add glycerin, lemon juice and powder.
4. Beat with a whisk until the mass turns white.
5. Set aside in the cold for an hour, covering with a film so that all air bubbles burst.
6. We work with icing by transferring it to a confectionery syringe with the narrowest nozzle. They can decorate lace, inscriptions, sides on the surface of cakes.
7. After decorating, put the product in the cold to solidify the "ice pattern".

Aising can be applied over mastic, hard chocolate glaze, milk fudge. The main thing is that the surface is non-sticky and does not drain.

waffles

Made from waffle crispy dough, they are very convenient to use: they do not crack, do not melt and keep their shape perfectly. The most popular of this material are flowers, figurines of berries and fruits, three-dimensional letters, numbers. Recently, pictures and photographs that can be eaten, also made on the basis of waffle cake, are in demand.

Ready-made waffle decoration - a round or square plate made of rice paper with a drawing with food ink or various figures: flowers, butterflies, leaves, openwork stripes. Making a picture at home is difficult without special equipment. But, even having bought it, you need to properly decorate the cake baked with love with it so that it becomes original and likes the hero of the occasion and guests.

Cooking process

Making with the help of waffle pictures has its own subtleties:

1. You can only lay the workpiece on a perfectly flat surface of the cake.
2. The basis can be mastic, thick butter cream, chocolate icing, also thick.
3. You need to apply a picture on a surface that has not yet hardened, if, for example, we are talking about chocolate icing, so that it sticks and does not move out.

We format it like this:

1. Lubricate the back side of the workpiece with a thin layer of light jam, liquid honey, thick sugar syrup. At this stage, it is most convenient to use a wide silicone brush. We do not perform the procedure “on weight”: put the picture on the table.
2. Lay the blank on the surface of the cake.
3. Press down lightly with your hands and flatten with a paper towel to release air.
4. To hide the edges of the picture, make a rim of whipped cream or buttercream filled into a confectionery syringe.
5. Decorating the cake with waffle figures, you can grease them completely and “stick”, or you can coat only the central part of the back side with syrup. So you can form raised wings of a butterfly or an open flower.

Wafer plates can only be placed on a light surface, and if you use chocolate icing, cook it from white chocolate. When soaking, the waffle picture may soak into the dark coating of the cake.

Chocolate

Decoration with chocolate icing, patterns or figurines is considered a "classic of the genre." It is simply impossible to spoil the cake with this white or bitter delicacy. Chocolate goes well with a light biscuit, puff pastry, creamy or curd mousse, all kinds of soufflés and creams. Melted chocolate can be molded into almost any shape, while hardened chocolate will not spread or crack.

Cooking process:

1. Chocolate chips are very easy to make and look amazing. You can simply grate the tile and sprinkle on the surface and sides of the cake. And you can use a special tool: a vegetable peeler. With this knife with a thin slot inside the blade, you can “clean off” thin long strips from the end of the tile.
2. If you want to decorate the product with chocolate swirls, you need to slightly warm the bar before cutting. When cutting thin strips with a knife or vegetable cutter, you will immediately notice how they twist. Then you can put them on the icing, cream or whipped cream that covers the dessert so that they stick well. From large
   curls can form flowers and leaves, a pattern along the side of the cake.
3. Openwork chocolate patterns will require some skill. To prepare them, melt a bitter or white tile for a couple (optimally in a microwave oven), transfer the mass to a confectionery syringe or bag.
4. Draw any patterns on the parchment in advance. If drawing is not your forte, simply attach transparent parchment paper to a page in a magazine with the desired pattern and translate the drawing with a pencil.
5. With melted chocolate, “draw” the patterns on the parchment, trying not to interrupt the stream. Press on the bag always with the same force and do everything very quickly - high-quality chocolate instantly hardens. Let cool in the cold and carefully peel off the paper. Ready-made patterns can be laid horizontally on the surface of the cake or set, forming a flower bud, in cream.
6. Chocolate leaves are an original decoration for any confectionery. They are realistic, edible and surprisingly similar to the real thing. Preparing them is simple: take your favorite leaves from a tree or houseplant, rinse, dry. On the inside, apply melted chocolate - white, bitter or milk. Put in the cold, and when the glaze hardens, carefully remove the real leaves. Apply glaze with a wide silicone brush.

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Glaze

There are a lot of types of glaze: mirror, soft, chocolate, cream, milk, multi-colored. You can cover it with any cake or dessert, cake, cookies. Some glazes require cold setting, others are ready to use immediately.

Ingredients

Chocolate glaze:

1. Milk - 1.5 tbsp. spoons.
2. 2 teaspoons of cocoa powder.
3. 1.5 st. spoons of sugar.
4. 40 grams of butter.

Caramel frosting:

1. 150 grams of heated water.
2. 180 grams of fine-grained sugar.
3. 2 teaspoons cornstarch.
4. 150 grams of heavy cream.
5. 5 grams of gelatin sheet.

Marmalade frosting:

1. Marmalade of one color - 200 grams.
2. 50 grams of butter.
3. 2 tablespoons of fat sour cream.
4. 120 grams of sugar.

Cooking process

Chocolate glaze:

1. Put sugar and cocoa, chopped butter in a small bowl, pour milk.
2. Melt and boil for about 5-7 minutes. Stir until the mass thickens.
3. We cover the cake with a wide knife and immediately put it in the cold.

Caramel glaze:

1. Soak gelatin in water.
2. Mix cream with starch, melt sugar in a pan until light brown.
3. Add warm water in a stream. Boil to dissolve the caramel.
4. Whisking constantly, pour the hot mixture into the cream.
5. Cool, add swollen gelatin.
6. Cover the surface of the cake with an even layer and refrigerate.

Marmalade frosting:

1. Melt marmalade in a saucepan on a steam bath or in a microwave.
2. Add sugar, sour cream and butter.
3. Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring constantly.
4. Cool a little and grease the cake or dessert, put in the cold for three or four hours, no less.
5. On a surface filled with plain glaze, you can put pieces of marmalade in the form of orange slices, bears, berries or fruits, or simply sprinkle with multi-colored marmalade cut into cubes.

Cream

The traditional cream decoration - flowers, leaves, inscriptions - is widely used in store confectionery and homemade cakes. It is universal: you can form lush roses, intricate sides, decorate the cake on the side surface, write a congratulation right on the baking. Food coloring is often added to creams for decoration.

Ingredients

Butter cream is prepared from the following products:

1. Softened butter - 100 grams.
2. 5 tablespoons of condensed milk.
3. Any dye.

Cooking process

Preparing the cream is easy:

1. Let the butter melt slightly.
2. Whisk until it is fluffy and white.
3. Add condensed milk.
4. Then divide the cream into portions and add the dye of the color you need to each. Beat each part separately so that the dye is completely dissolved.
5. For direct registration, you will need a good confectionery syringe. With its various nozzles, beautiful patterns, lines, flowers and leaves can be formed.

After you finish decorating the cake, put it in the cold - the cream should "grab" a little.

Cream

Whipped cream can decorate any confectionery product in an original way: ice cream, cake, dessert, jelly. They are airy, very voluminous, sweet and incredibly snow-white. It is quite easy to prepare such a decoration at home, the main thing is to choose high-quality fresh cream, how to cool it and beat it. When making a pastry bag or syringe is used.

Ingredients:

1. Cream with a fat content of at least 33% or higher, if you can buy - 500 milliliters.
2. Any dye of your choice.
3. Vanilla - 1 package.
4. Powdered sugar - 100-200 grams to taste.
5. Instant gelatin - 1 sachet.

Cooking process

Before starting the preparation, the cream is cooled for about 12 hours in the refrigerator:

1. Pour cold cream into a deep container (when whipping, they will increase significantly in size) and place the container in another with ice water.
2. You only need to beat with a mixer, since the blender separates the product and foam will not work.
3. Immediately prepare a syringe with the necessary nozzles, since you need to work with cream very quickly.
4. Dissolve gelatin or soak and melt for a couple, depending on the preparation method indicated on the package.
5. Whip the cream until the foam becomes strong and stable.
6. Add vanilla and powdered sugar and mix gently with a whisk.
7. Stream in cold melted gelatin.
8. Transfer to a bag or syringe and squeeze out the desired composition. The surface should be smooth and slightly sticky, so the cake should be covered with chocolate icing, a thin layer of cream or jam.

Meringue

Crispy meringue can beautifully decorate almost any cake. It is rich, sweet and white. Most often, hemispheres of various shapes and sizes are pre-baked from the protein mass, which are then carefully laid out on the prepared surface of the cake. Looks very unusual!

Ingredients:

1. A glass of sugar or powder.
2. 5 proteins chilled.
3. Vanilla optional.

Cooking process:

1. Separate the whites first. Make sure that not a single drop of yolk gets into the container.
2. Pour into a deep dish, dry and fat-free.
3. Beat for 10-15 minutes until fluffy.
4. Pour in 1-2 teaspoons of sugar, and at the end - vanilla.
5. Preheat the oven at 100 degrees.
6. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and transfer the protein foam to a syringe or bag.
7. Squeeze out on paper the size of the hemisphere you need.
8. Meringue is not baked, but dried, so depending on the size of the blanks, it will take about 1.5–2 hours.
9. Ready balls are laid out on a layer of cream, jam or chocolate.

Fruit

Berries and fruits, both ordinary and exotic, cakes are decorated very often. They are rich in flavor combinations, have bright saturated colors, look beautiful in the context. The easiest way to decorate is to fan out sliced ​​oranges, strawberries, kiwi, and mangoes on the surface of the finished cake. Thin slices can be used to form decorative flowers. The fruit “litter” covered with a thin layer of jelly looks very impressive on the dessert.

Ingredients

For fruit jelly, take:

1. Apple (or any light) juice - 600 milliliters.
2. 1 package of powdered gelatin.
3. A glass of powdered sugar.
4. Fresh berries or fruits to taste.

Cooking process

You need to prepare the decoration when the cake is completely ready:

1. Fill the package of gelatin with juice (one glass). Leave it to swell.
2. Prepare fruit: wash, peel and cut into thin slices. Hard fruits - apples, pears - it is convenient to cut with a slicer or a very sharp knife.
3. Bananas, kiwi are cut into circles, oranges, apples - into half rings, strawberries - in half, cherries, raspberries, blackberries are left whole.
4. Melt the gelatin in a water bath, stirring, pour in the remaining juice and add the powder.
5. Strain the mass.
6. Put sliced ​​fruits or berries in jelly and refrigerate.
7. When the jelly is slightly set, but not completely "set", transfer it to the cake - turn the container over on its surface.
8. The edges can be masked with whipped cream or buttercream. Refrigerate the cake overnight.

Jelly

Jelly filling is usually covered with fruits or berries laid on the surface of the cake. But this fill looks no less original, covering nuts, for example, peanuts or hazelnuts, chocolate icing. To surprise guests with the boundlessness of your imagination in decorating cakes and excellent taste, try decorating the finished product with jelly filling.

Ingredients

For pouring or jelly decorations you will need:

1. 600 milliliters of juice (you can take a glass of juice of different colors).
2. A glass of powdered sugar.
3. 1 pack of instant gelatin.

Cooking process

To make jelly figurine decorations:

1. Soak gelatin in 1/3 of the juice, let it swell, then melt for a couple.
2. Mix the remaining juice, powder and pour the mass into different molds: for muffins, cookies, sweets, and so on.
3. Pour off some of the jelly (about 100 milliliters).
4. Place the forms in the cold and let harden.
5. Put the finished cake in a mold that is slightly higher in height - 2-3 centimeters.
6. Put 100 milliliters of jelly in the cold for a short time so that it just starts to set.
7. Then put the thickened mass on the cake, and lay the jelly from the molds on top, forming a beautiful pattern.
8. To easily remove the blanks, warm the molds slightly over the steam and quickly turn them over for dessert.
9. Place the cake in the refrigerator for 10-12 hours. Before serving, carefully remove the detachable form, and transfer the cake to a dish.

To pour jelly fruit slices:

1. Prepare jelly as described above.
2. Put it in the refrigerator and let it "grab" a little.
3. Pour over stacked fruit and smooth with a spatula.
4. Place gently in the cold overnight.
5. Cut with a heated knife so that the jelly does not break.

Candy

Children's holiday is not complete without a big appetizing cake with candles. But little guests pay more attention to the beautiful design than to the composition or exotic ingredients. You can make an originally decorated cake for a children's holiday yourself, for example, decorating it with delicious multi-colored sweets that kids love more than anything in the world.

Cooking process

You can decorate any cake. Sweets are placed on a thick and viscous surface: white or chocolate icing, butter cream, whipped cream:

1. The side surface can be decorated with long bars, wafer rolls, lined up and tied with a bright satin ribbon.
2. Upstairs, you can lay out multi-colored dragees made of chocolate or nuts with an intricate pattern.
3. You can lay out the sides with round chocolate sweets, and put 3 sweets in the center.
4. Small toffees are also suitable for decoration - they can lay out a pattern on a white glaze or cream surface.
5. Rectangular gummies can be cut into squares and scatter over white fondant or whipped cream on top of the finished cake.

In general, in this case, the cake can be decorated with any sweets, except for lollipops. Show your imagination and please the little hero of the occasion and his guests.

Marmalade

Marmalade is an excellent material for decorating cakes and desserts. It is malleable, plastic, it can be heated, colors mixed, voids filled, voluminous decorations formed. Today, this delicacy is available in different bright colors, small gummy bears and other figurines of the most unimaginable colors are sold in packages. They are suitable for decorating any cake, especially baked for a children's holiday. So let's start imagining!

Cooking process

Original marmalade drawings can be done like this:

1. Draw with a simple pencil on parchment the desired picture, suitable in size to the surface of the cake.
2. Thinly roll out marzipan or a layer of light mastic on parchment. We transfer the picture to it: we apply a sheet and roll it out with a rolling pin several times.
3. We heat 50 grams of dark chocolate, transfer it to a small pastry bag with a narrow opening (for inscriptions).
4. We draw the outline of the drawing with chocolate.
5. In different containers, we drown colored marmalade in the microwave. This will take a few seconds.
6. We shift it into a cornet and carefully fill the drawing with the desired colors.
7. We put it in the refrigerator for three to four hours.

For decoration without melting, you can use multi-colored marmalade of various shapes: in the form of citrus slices, cubes, hemispheres. From this material, beautiful voluminous flowers are obtained. For their preparation, marmalade is cut into thin layers and a flower is formed on a sticky surface - cream, butter cream.

topping

Multi-colored sugar-based or chocolate topping is a universal decoration for any confectionery. It is used in cakes, and in desserts based on mousse or jelly, and on Easter cakes. Today, a huge number of various sprinkles are produced: in the form of stars, balls and circles, flowers, butterflies, and a cylindrical shape. The color scheme is amazing, gold, silver, with mother-of-pearl overflows are also made.

Cooking process

Decorating a cake is very easy, but you need to know some nuances:

1. You can sprinkle a surface that sticks. Therefore, use this type of decoration when the icing, cream or cream has not yet hardened.
2. You can beat an interesting topping in jelly filling. If you are using the filling in a thick enough layer on the surface of the cake, pour half, freeze, sprinkle with topping and pour over the rest. So you can create the effect of an aquarium, alternating layers of jelly and beautiful large toppings.
3. The side surfaces are sprinkled in a special way: put the dish with the cake on a towel of a larger diameter, sprinkle the right amount of decoration along the diameter of the cake directly on the fabric and just gently lift the “sides”, pressing the fabric to the sides of the dessert.
4. Use templates for drawing. Making them is simple: cut a circle according to the diameter of the cake, and cut the desired pattern or figures in it. Carefully cover the cake without leaning the paper in the base, and sprinkle thickly with topping. Also carefully remove the template - multi-colored patterns will remain on the surface.

Sprinklings from nuts of one kind or a combination of several, grated chocolate, crumbs from cookies or well-dried dough in the oven, meringue are widely used. Bon Appetit!

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"Chocolate board of truffles"

A dessert chessboard is made up of black and white truffles.

You will need:
- a sheet of aluminum foil (parchment paper, polyethylene film)
- culinary bag or syringe
- nozzle for a bag or syringe

Products for 64 truffles:
- 500 gr. chocolate
- 100 gr. butter
- 200 ml heavy cream (sour cream)
- 70 gr. powdered sugar
- dark chocolate in the form of powder and powdered sugar

Melt the chocolate along with the cream and powdered sugar in a water bath. While stirring, add butter. Refrigerate, stirring from time to time.
- On aluminum foil (plastic film, parchment paper), use a culinary bag or syringe to deposit small balls from the resulting mass.
- Put the balls in the refrigerator.
Roll half of them in crushed dark chocolate, and the rest in powdered sugar. Put the balls in a cool place.
- On a plate or cake, assemble a “chessboard” by alternating black and white truffle balls.

"Openwork decorations"

Openwork chocolate figures decorate cakes, ice cream and other dessert dishes. Such decorations are made from black, white or colored chocolate, as well as butter. The thinner the lines of chocolate, the more fragile the figures are (to make the lines thicker, cut off the cone of the culinary bag more).

You will need:
- aluminum foil (parchment paper, polyethylene film, plastic sheet)
- culinary bag
- scapula

Products:
- black or white chocolate

Melt the chocolate in a water bath and fill it with a culinary bag made of parchment paper.
- Draw tracery figures with chocolate on aluminum foil, parchment paper, plastic wrap or a clean sheet of plastic.
- Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
- Carefully separate the figures with a spatula and decorate the dessert with them just before serving.

"Lattice"
The lattice is a very fragile decoration. It can also be made from white chocolate, but it does not look as impressive and requires more careful handling.

1. Break the chocolate bar into pieces and melt in a water bath.

2. Using a culinary bag, draw figures on a sheet of parchment.

3. When the chocolate hardens, carefully remove the figures from the sheet with a spatula.

"Flower"
Make the layer of chocolate at the base of the flower thicker so that everything is more stable.

"Leaf"
Try to draw the contours of the leaf well, make the central veins thicker and, most importantly, flat.

"Palm"

Make this decoration using a paper bag with a hole that is not too small, otherwise the palm will break when removed from the leaf.

"Butterfly"

This fragile decoration can be used to decorate mousses, ice cream ... The butterfly's body should be slightly thicker than the wings.

"Decoration for glasses»

The pattern of melted chocolate is applied directly to the inside of the glass. Until the glasses are filled with dessert, they are stored in the refrigerator.

Useful advice
How to repair broken jewelry
Take one of the two parts of the broken decoration, dip it in melted chocolate and attach it to the other half. Place in refrigerator to harden.

Although they say that a woman loves with her ears, and the way to a man's heart is through the stomach, guests of both sexes appreciate dishes not only for their taste, but also for their appearance. Children are especially partial to the decor of food. This is used by manufacturers of confectionery products. But often, behind the lush cream roses and marshmallow towers, absolutely unleavened cakes are hidden, and even of dubious freshness. It's better to bake your own cake. This ensures that the product is free of preservatives and that the freshest ingredients have been used in its manufacture. But how to decorate a cake at home? We will talk about this in the article.

Simple and fast

Agree, cooking cakes is a long and laborious task. Therefore, there is no longer any strength or special desire for its decoration. If you still have cream from greasing cakes, just apply it on the top and sides of your culinary masterpiece. And then go to the store and buy ready-made edible decor. It can be either ordinary coconut flakes of various colors, or smarter decorations: chocolate figurines, marzipan beads, sprinkles of bright mastic. All these gizmos look stylish, besides they are durable. Other sweets familiar to us will help to decorate the cake with your own hands. But if earlier we ate marshmallows or “solo” bizet, now we will not be afraid to use them as an element of decor. M&M dragees look original in the cake (especially for a children's holiday). And it is convenient to decorate the sides of the cake with Lady's Sticks biscuit cookies.

Decoration Warnings

It is not difficult to guess where the hostess turns for advice on how to decorate a homemade cake in an original way. Photos from culinary sites are full of real masterpieces. But it is worth remembering that you will not only look at the cake, but also eat it. Therefore, all decor should be exclusively edible, or at least not pose a threat to health. If the cake is baked for an anniversary, special candles should be placed on its surface that do not melt. There are only a few exceptions to the use of non-edible cake decorations. First: fresh flowers. On the eighth of March, you can decorate the top of the product with mimosa, rose, lily, calendula and lavender petals. These flowers are harmless to the body. Without fear, you can eat mint leaves and physalis. The second exception is the Barbie cake, for a girl old enough to know not to put a doll in her mouth. The cake is made like a fluffy hem of a skirt. And a doll is inserted in the middle. Care should be taken to ensure that her hair does not touch the cream.

Simple and economical

Each culinary specialist in the process of baking a cake has cake trimmings, and after layering them, cream. Do not throw away these products! Roll out the illiquid parts of the baked dough into crumbs with a mortar. Mix them with crushed nuts. Apply the rest of the cream on the sides and top of the product. Sprinkle with a mixture of cookies and nuts. How to beautifully decorate a cake with this simple decor? Let's use a stencil! Cut out various shapes from paper. Place on top of cake and sprinkle. And to decorate the sides, you can use ordinary oatmeal. Cocoa, powdered sugar, grated chocolate, confectionery confetti are suitable as a topping. It is important to correctly combine colors. Chocolate icing should be decorated with powdered sugar, and white buttercream with cocoa powder. Gummy bears will look good on a jelly top.

Shape as decoration

And let's give scope to imagination and bake something original instead of boring round cakes. Indeed, instead of thinking about how to decorate a cake at home, you can already create it as such. Let's think over the concept: what form will we give to our culinary masterpiece? And it’s not at all necessary to build something resembling the Burj Dubai skyscraper from cakes. It could be a violin-shaped cake. Then we powder the sides of the cocoa product, and draw strings with melted chocolate. Curly cakes for children's parties are especially relevant. We have already mentioned the Barbie pie. But for a boy, you can bake a cake in the form of a car or a boat. In this case, we will only retouch our sculptural image with a cream. And with what pleasure the little ones will eat some of the stern, some - the bow of the ship, taking with them the sailors from the mastic as souvenirs.

This is a classic in cooking, and, as you know, it is always in fashion. Butter cream is an unusually plastic product. From it you can create roses, leaves, flowers, ruffles and flounces. The oil keeps its shape quite well, does not settle and does not flow. Protein meringue cream is also good for decorating. However, eggs are a perishable product. But custard is not structural, you can’t create flowers from it. The same can be said about whipped cream. The figures created from them, after a while, turn into blots. So use cream on condensed milk, sour cream and proteins only for a layer of cakes. But how to decorate a cake at home with buttercream? If you do not have a pastry syringe with special nozzles, do not rush to get upset. You can do something similar yourself. Take a sheet of thick paper and roll it into a bag. Fill it with cream. We will cut off the tip of the bag. You can carry out truncation simply - in a straight or oblique line, or with imagination. Roll another hollow bag several times along. We cut the narrow tip in the shape of a triangle with the sharp end down. Now unfold the envelope and fill it with cream. Squeeze slowly onto the surface of the cake. The edges of the cream come out as if corrugated. By moving your hand back and forth, you can create lush ruffles - the design of the sides. Instead of paper for a pastry bag, you can take a regular plastic bag.

Playing with color

Ordinary buttercream can be painted with all the shades of the rainbow. That's what food coloring is for. If you don't have them, mix in freshly squeezed cherry (beetroot) juice for red cream, carrot for orange, spinach for green. Cocoa powder will give the cream a light brown color, and instant coffee - dark. Grated lemon zest will make it a pale yellow. The same rule of playing with color applies when you are thinking about how to beautifully decorate a cake with fondant. However, it should be remembered that some natural dyes (red wine, coffee, fruit juices) can dissolve powdered sugar.

mastic decoration

This is a great alternative to cream. It resembles soft plasticine in its consistency, and with certain skills, you can mold anything from it. However, working with it has its own difficulties. Putting decorations from mastic should only be on oil cream, because in a liquid medium the figures will immediately float away like melted ice cream. Also, do not abuse the mastic - when it hardens, it becomes too stiff. Ready-made jewelry can be bought, but it is much better to make them yourself. We will tell you how to decorate a cake at home with mastic. We take powdered sugar, milk powder and condensed milk in equal proportions. Mix the first two ingredients on a spread cling film. Slowly add condensed milk. Knead the dough, which can be tinted if desired. We sculpt, as if from plasticine, all sorts of figures or their fragments. We glue the individual parts together, moistening the tangential surfaces of the mastic with water. But be aware that large sculptures tend to crack.

Icing

This drawing mass, with which you can apply openwork patterns and inscriptions to the surface of the product. We will tell you how to decorate a cake, describing step by step the steps for making icing. We start work a few days before baking the pie. Separate the egg white and set to cool. Sift through a sieve 200 g of powdered sugar. We beat the protein. Gradually add powdered sugar and a spoonful of lemon juice. You should get a dense stable foam. The desired pattern is first drawn on paper. You can use at least children's coloring. We cover the paper with cling film. Lubricate it with a brush with olive oil. We fill the confectionery syringe or bag with icing. We apply it with a thin solid line along the contour of the pattern. We leave to dry. You can also decorate the sides of cakes with icing. But then the cling film should not be spread on a flat surface, but on the sides of the cans.

chocolate lace

Aising, like mastic, does not like a humid environment. And therefore, before decorating a homemade cake with snow-white foam, you should think about whether the openwork patterns on the custard or protein cream will dissolve. Chocolate can serve as a worthy replacement for icing. It requires less time. Just melt a bar of chocolate in a water bath, fill the envelope with a liquid mass and draw solid thin lines along the contour of the picture. Unlike classic icing, broken fragile lace can be melted again and re-patterned. Using white, dark and milk chocolate, you can get multi-colored decorations.

Bright slices of tangerines, whole strawberries, cocktail cherries look very presentable on the surface of the cake. Fruit goes well with various creams, whipped cream or chocolate. But the most common way is to lay them on a colored jelly base. To do this, we bake cakes, soak them with some kind of cream. Separately, we prepare jelly - preferably a bright, saturated color. As soon as the mass begins to thicken, pour it over the cake. Now we are preparing a transparent jelly. Our cake by then should be dressed in a bright shell. Before decorating the cake with fruits, dip them in transparent jelly. So they do not wrinkle, do not wind up and become even brighter. Decorations (flowers, stars) can be cut out of the remains of colored and transparent jelly and transferred to the surface of the cake.

Glaze

This method is good when there is no more cream left to decorate the top and sides of the cake (or we used marmalade praline for the layer). Chocolate frosting is a classic of the genre and a great idea for decorating a cake. Photos of such culinary masterpieces look very appetizing. We all know the Prague cake, where this particular decoration method is used. Pour the top cake with melted chocolate in a water bath, diluted milk and butter. Let the black frosting set in the refrigerator. And here is the recipe for white coating. Mix one hundred grams of Philadelphia cheese with 200 g of powdered sugar. Dilute with a little milk. You can alternate white and black icing.

Stencils are often used to apply patterns to cakes. They make the cake look impressive. Although it looks technically difficult, it is actually quite easy to do.

Ingredients:

1) Royal icing or

2) Cake covered

Although swiss meringue buttercream (and therefore cream cheese) can be used with cake stencils, it has the advantage over these two types of cream, which is that it dries quickly, which gives you the opportunity to work quickly. If you want to cover the cake with buttercream before using the stencil, you need to cool the surface of the cake properly.

Of course, the cake can be decorated with buttercream like the cakes in the photos above, but today we will tell you how to work with a cake covered with fondant, which forms a dry and more stable surface to work with.

Tools:

(4) Pins or needles

(5) Turntable

Procedure:

(1) Bake, assemble and cover the cake with fondant.

(2) Prepare royal icing or dilute ready-made.

(3) Place your stencil on the sides of the cake. Make sure the stencil fits snugly on the surface of the cake, press it down with a fondant iron. If there are gaps between the stencil and the cake, the icing will get under it and ruin the design you are trying to apply.

(4) Secure the stencil to the cake with a few pins or needles around the edges. Be careful not to press too hard on the cake when placing the stencil. You can pre-drill holes on the stencil with pins before attaching it to the cake, so as not to damage the cake when piercing the stencil.

Using a spatula, apply a generous amount of royal icing to the stencil, making sure all holes in the stencil are covered.

(6) After icing the stencil, remove excess with a spatula. Be careful not to remove too much frosting. It takes about 1-2 mm of icing to make the pattern look good.

(7) Remove the pins from the stencil and remove it, proceed slowly and carefully, try not to smear the pattern.

(8) Let the icing dry for about 5 minutes before using the stencil on the rest of the cake. You can put the cake in the fridge for a couple of minutes to speed up this process. Swiss meringue buttercream will take longer to set. Make sure you continue where you left off the previous pattern. Repeat all steps until all sides of the cake are covered.

Important: remember to wash and dry your stencil after each use to keep the pattern lines crisp. To do this, rinse the stencil under running water and dry with paper towels. Be gentle when doing this so as not to damage the stencil.

Here's how luxurious a cake decorated with royal icing using stencils can look.

If you are looking for stencils for decorating cookies and cakes, then stencils from are what you need. We develop original stencils for more than 3 years and have accumulated more than 700 models! We have everything from whimsical baby stencils to intricate patterns to create Victorian patterns. Our stencils are made from transparent film for precise patterning. In your kitchen, you can decorate cakes, cookies, muffins, and breads with our designer pastry stencils. They will help you to easily apply beautiful patterns to baked goods for holidays, weddings and gifts. Custom designs and sizes are our speciality! Our staff of talented artists and graphic designers will help turn your concept, image or sketch into a custom stencil. We made stencils from photographs of lace fabrics, corporate logos and monograms - even from a photograph of a person! From concept to cutting, we guarantee that you will be satisfied with the timing and result of our work.

Photos used in the article@grated_nutmeg, @Sassymouthphoto.

Text by Lyubimov A.S. 2017