Great Lakes Green Pages

Cakes…

The popularity of the Food Network’s “Ace of Cakes” which features elaborately themed decorative cakes is an indicator that custom cake decorating is at an all time high.  Riding on this popularity is “Food Network Challenge” which regularly focuses on cakes being built impossibly tall, or to represent scale versions of landmarks, bridges or buildings.  Other networks have quickly cashed in with their own cake decorating shows.

The design trends for this medium seem to be the traditional tiered cake with a twist.  Many decorators are using square cakes or other shapes such as hexagons and octogons to create their art.  Although square tiered cakes have been around for ages, the colors and themes used today are far from traditional.  Many decorators are making cakes to resemble purses, luggage, hatboxes, dresses, or furniture.  I have seen themed cakes ranging from space ships to entire medieval battle scenes complete with castles and catapults.

Cupcakes are vogue.  These are a good way to have different cake flavors presented in one setting without worrying about slice size.  New shops which feature cupcakes are cropping up all over the states, some independently owned and operated, and some franchise opportunities.  Many of these shops offer a variety of flavors, icings, decorations and best of all: fillings!

Bright, contrasting colors seems to be a trend, as are odd shapes for decoration instead of traditional flowers.  Some decorators use sugar rocks, stars, music notes or abstract forms.  If flowers are being used, they tend to be finely detailed and delicately painted instead of the typical old frosting roses.  A crafty decorator will be able to create elaborate tropical floral displays out of gum paste or other confectionery.

Fondant is hot right now because of it’s ability to create smooth surfaces and strong colors as well as sharp corners and angles.  A tip for good fondant application is to cover the cake evenly with buttercream frosting and then add the fondant.  This will keep the fondant from becoming too hard and will allow for the fondant to lay flatter without transmitting any inconsistent bumps in the cake’s surface.

One trend I’ve never liked with cake decoration is when inedible items are used.  Those little silver balls may look nice, but you’re not supposed to eat them.  If you’re going to put greek columns, birds, or ribbons on your cake, please take the time to make them out of some edible material so we don’t have to dismantle the entire cake just to begin enjoying it!

Tags: cake, decorating, design, trend

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 at 1:04 pm and is filed under Arts & Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.