Cake decorating

Buttercream swirls are piped onto the sides of a cake with a pastry bag.

Cake decorating is considered an art among people all over the world. That is why contests and baking show competitions are very popular, especially in the Western World. Cake decorating is one of the sugar arts that uses icing or frosting and other edible decorative elements to make otherwise plain cakes more visually interesting. Alternatively, cakes can be molded and sculpted to resemble three-dimensional persons, places and things.

In many areas of the world, decorated cakes are often a focal point of a special celebration (such as a birthday, graduation, bridal shower, wedding, or anniversary), or are given as gifts. They can also mark national or religious holidays, or be used to promote commercial enterprises.

Cake themes

There are many themes to cake decorating but the theme that it is mostly used for is weddings and birthday parties.

History

During the 1840s, the advent of temperature-controlled ovens and the production of baking soda and baking powder made baking cakes much easier.

Even though baking from scratch decreased during the latter part of the 20th century in the United States, decorated cakes have remained an important part of celebrations such as weddings, anniversaries, birthdays, showers and other special occasions. Recently, cakes decorated with fondant have become extremely popular and resulted in several reality based TV shows across the country.

Cake decorating as an art

Fondant allows the baker to express creativity in baking. Fondant exists in many different colors, and its initial form is soft and easy to handle. In this form, cake decorators are able to mold fondant into many different artistic expressions. Many of these art expressions are also taught in professional cake decorating class. Fondant is primarily used to cover cakes but is also used to create individual show pieces for cakes. Gumpaste is a substance used in cake decorating to create flower decorations.

Cake decorating in popular culture

• Food Network's Ace of Cakes features baker and former street-artist, Duff Goldman, and his shop, Charm City Cakes.
• WE's Amazing Wedding Cakes is a television series featuring several cake decorating companies across America and focuses on the crafting and design of the cakes.
• Cake Wrecks is an entertainment photoblog featuring user-submitted images of "unintentionally silly, sad, creepy or inappropriate" cakes.
• TLC's Cake Boss features baker Buddy Valastro and his shop called Carlo's Bake Shop in Hoboken, New Jersey.

• Professional institutes, such as the London Culinary Institute and Le_Cordon_Bleu, have begun segregating their cookery schools to create completely separate institutes, purely dedicated to cake making