Youve baked the perfect layer cake and given it a professional-looking frosting job. Now all thats left is the decorating step. Many home cooks think a wonderfully decorated cake comes from only one place: a bakery. But with our simple ideas, youll be surprised at just how easy it is.
HOW TO DECORATE A LAYER CAKE
A. Give the frosting texture: One of the simplest ways to decorate a cake is to give the frosting some texture. To create billows, press the back of a soup spoon into the frosting, then twirl the spoon as you lift it away. To make wavy lines or a stripe pattern, simply drag a cake comb (or a fork) around the sides of the cake.
B. Adorn just the bottom edge: For a simple, elegant look, consider pressing toasted nuts, flowers, fruit, sprinkles, candies, or cookies into the frosting just along the very bottom edge. This is also a great way to cover up a messy bottom edge.
C. Cover the sides completely: Covering the sides of the cake completely with crushed candies not only looks festive, but is also a great way to cover up a less- than-perfect icing job. Instead of crushed candies, you could use sprinkles, toasted nuts, coconut, chocolate shavings, crushed cookies, or even fresh flowers.
D. Mark each slice: Marking each slice with a small garnish is both a practical and attractive decoration idea. The garnish can either represent the flavors inside the cake (such as fruit, nuts, or chocolate-covered coffee beans) or simply be decorative (such as fresh flowers or sprigs of mint).
E. Cover the top completely: If youre not going to write a message on the top, covering it with a garnish can cover up a less-than-perfect icing job or make a short cake look taller and more impressive. Instead of chocolate shavings, you could use fruit, fresh flowers, or shaved coconut.
F. Pipe decorations onto the cake: If you have a pastry bag, piping can turn a homemade cake into a professional-looking cake. It can be as simple as a row of pearls lining the bottom edge of a cake or as fancy as the swags and rosettes pictured here.
Ready to decorate? Our recipe for Red Velvet Cake is a fine place to start.
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1. Knead the dough by hand: With no liquid or egg to help hold the dough together, we found it necessary to knead the dough by hand for about 3 minutes before shaping. The heat from your hands melts some of the butter, helping the flour to absorb it. This light kneading also makes a crumble-free dough.
2. Make a big cookie: Press the dough into a round disk, then place it on top of a large piece of parchment and roll out into a 9-inch circle, about inch thick. Using your fingers, flute the edge. We bake the shortbread like one big cookie rather than in a cake pan because it browns more evenly and looks great.
3. Poke and score: Use the tines of a fork to poke holes in a circular pattern all over the dough; be sure to poke all of the way through to the baking sheet to prevent the dough from puffing as it bakes. Using a small knife, score the dough into 16 even wedges. (Dont cut all the way through the dough.)
4. Give it a rest: Refrigerate the dough for 20 minutes. Doing this allows the dough to relax so that it doesnt shrink in the hot oven.
5. Sugar, then bake: Sprinkle the granulated sugar evenly over the dough. Bake until the shortbread is pale golden brown. Sprinkling with sugar before baking gives the sugar time to melt and caramelize, giving better color, texture, and flavor to the shortbread.
6. Cut it while its hot: After removing the shortbread from the oven, use a chefs knife to cut it into wedges along the scored lines. Let the shortbread wedges cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before transferring the wedges to a wire rack to cool completely. If allowed to cool completely before cutting, the shortbread will be very hard and brittle, and will break into uneven pieces.
1. Beat the butter and sugars together: Beat the butter and sugars together with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 6 minutes. When the butter-sugar mixture has the right consistency, you can beat in the egg yolks and vanilla.
2. Slowly add the flour mixture: After the egg yolks have been incorporated into the butter-sugar mixture, turn the mixer to low and slowly beat in the flour mixture until just incorporated. If using a hand mixer, it can be tricky to add the flour and mix at the same time; if so, just add the flour in small batches, stopping the mixer as needed.
3. Divide the dough and roll into logs: Transfer the dough to a clean counter and roll it into a 2-inch-thick log (the length of the log will depend on the specific recipe). If the dough is sticky and hard to roll, simply chill it for a few minutes.
4. Twist and chill: Transfer the log of dough to a sheet of plastic wrap, and wrap tightly. Twisting the ends of the plastic wrap helps the dough keep its shape. Try to square off the ends as much as possible. Chill the wrapped dough in the refrigerator until firm, about 2 hours.
5. Slice the dough thin: Once the dough is firm, slice it into -inch-thick cookies. If the cookies are too thick, they will not bake properly. Give the log a little roll between slices to help keep it round.
6. Bake a lot at once: Lay the cookies on large parchment-lined baking sheets, spaced about inch apart. You can fit a lot of icebox cookies, about 24, on the same baking tray because they dont spread much.
1. Cover the dough with filling: On a lightly floured counter roll each piece of chilled dough into an 11-inch circle about 14 inch thick. Over each piece of dough, spread a thin layer of filling. If you try to pack too much filling into the cookie (and many recipes do), the cookies turn out oddly shaped and burnt because the filling leaks during baking.
2. Roll crescent shapes: Using a knife or pizza cutter, cut each circle into 8 equal wedges. Starting at the wide end, roll up each wedge into a crescent-shaped cookie. There are several traditional methods for shaping rugelach; however, we like this method because its the easiest and makes the prettiest cookies.
3. Put the point underneath: With the pointed end on the bottom, lay the cookies on the parchment-lined baking sheet, about 2 inches apart, then freeze for 15 minutes. Pinning the point underneath each cookie will prevent them from unraveling as they bake.
4. Dont let them sit: Immediately after baking, transfer the hot cookies to a wire rack to cool. A bit of the sticky filling inevitably leaks out of these cookies during baking, and it will glue the cookies permanently to the parchment paper if the cookies are allowed to cool.