Exploring the World of Decorating

Over the years, my decorating style has evolved. From 2010-2011, I was decorating cupcakes to look like food. I really enjoyed this technique! During this time, I explored how to use candy (or other food items) differently to look like something new and unique. Can you guess what is in the sub sandwich?? Rice Crispies became rice, and Cornflakes became lettuce. The possibilities were endless!

While I did find joy in decorating this way, it wasn't going to be something I would be selling. These were novelty pieces. Fun, yes, but cost-effective, not really. They served a purpose, and that was helping me grow my skills and confidence.

Next, I learned about gum paste and gum paste flowers - something I thought I would really enjoy doing!! I didn't... Gum paste quickly gave way to fondant. For a period of time, every cake I did was covered in fondant.

I have a love-hate relationship with fondant. There is so much that you can do with it... But I hate the way it tastes. I never feel like I can charge enough for a full fondant cake to make it worth my time. So often, these cakes would go untouched. Sitting and waiting for what they were made to be - enjoyed. Only to slowly turn bad and eventually be tossed in the trash. I'm not saying that every fondant cake I have ever made has not been enjoyed, because I do know that they have been. But I have also been to enough events where no one dared to cut the cake. Someone mentioned to me that during the party where the poker table cake was received, they actually played out the hand. This makes me laugh quietly to myself.

I think of the hours that I painstakingly painted every card in that deck, adding the perforations to the toilet paper roll in the rubber duckie cake, individually placing each and every scale on the dragon.

As I started to sell more cakes, I started to move away from fondant. Where it used to be my go-to, it is now only done by request. And that is okay!! I could do several posts on how to work with fondant, what I like about it, and what I dislike about it.

It makes me wonder, how many people reading my blog today knew that I used to decorate with fondant as much as I did? If you follow me on Facebook, I'm sure that you see some cakes with fondant, but I know that I'm not working with it nearly as much as I used to. Why did I get out of it?

1. Time!! These cakes are very time-consuming in comparison with what I'm currently doing.

2. Cost. Because of the time, they are expensive to make.

3. The mess! This one may come as a surprise, but I make fondant from scratch, and it is sticky and messy. Powder sugar everywhere!!!

4. Demand. Because of number 2 - Cost, there isn't as much demand for it. Most people are looking for a neatly decorated cake that is still reasonably priced.

5. Trends. Just like everything else, there are trends in the cake world. Currently, the trend is moving away from fondant and back to classically decorated cakes.

Someday I'll do a deep dive into the world of fondant, but for today, I'm going to leave this as simply my journey through the techniques.

In 2012, I learned how to make wings, flowers, leaves, etc., out of gelatin. This was a very neat technique that I don't feel gets enough credit in the cake decorating world. Maybe there are too many people who don't even know that this is a thing. Basically, you take your gelatin and mix it in such a way that it will dry hard. It goes into a mold (very thin mold), and you let it sit until it is fully dry. This takes several days. You can then use these pieces to make fairy wings, leaves for a tree, or maybe delicate petals for a flower.

This photo shows the gelatin wings - and the "mess" you get from working with fondant. 2012

This one cake is where this technique came into my life, and just as quickly, left my life. I have not done this technique again since.

I learned how to make edible fabric and edible lace. As much as I looked, I could not find a photo of edible fabric, but I do have one of edible lace.

Edible Lace - 2022

It really adds something to the cake. The cake would not have been the same without it. I have used edible lace on cookies and in a few cakes over the last few years.

If you remember the dragon cake from the beginning of my blog, this cake utilizes a technique where you use gelatin to make water around the cake. This is a challenging technique that I would love to work with more. Unfortunately, this is not a technique that I can offer through my bakery at this time, so it remains as something I do when I feel like doing something fun for my family.

I also discovered luster dust (which can be seen in use in the photo above). Luster dust has become one of my favorite cake decorating items. It can easily be found today for $6-$10 per ounce, but it can cost up to $72 per ounce! Back when I was first getting into it, the average cost was $22 per ounce. I can't really speak to why the price has come down as much as it has, other than that more people are buying in bulk and reselling through sites like Amazon and Etsy. I used to buy it from specialty stores. I remember my first container of gold luster dust; I was so excited to get to try it for the first time. It came in, I was decorating a cake, and I spilled it! I was devastated in that moment... I didn't lose the entire container, but I did lose enough of it to make me upset with myself.

Edible powders are another one that I could spend many blog posts on. From luster dust to petal dust to pixie dust to glow-in-the-dark dusts, there are so many options, and they are each used slightly differently. One of the reasons that you hire someone like me to decorate cakes is that I have all the stuff. Instead of buying a bunch of items to use just a little bit of it, I already have the items.

The fun part for my family, each time I learned something new that I wanted to try, I would HAVE to make a cake!!! What's the point of learning about something new if you can't try it out?

Wow! There are still other techniques that I could talk about today! All in good time... Looking back at where I have come from and all the stages I went through is mind-blowing. One of the biggest lessons that I had to learn is, you don't need to be perfect. Just keep practicing.

“With every season of practice, technique becomes less about perfection and more about transformation—the proof that growth is possible, and beauty is always unfolding.”

I would love to hear which technique surprises you the most. Which one would you like to learn more about? Are there any techniques that you have seen that I didn't talk about?