Cake Decorating 101: Expert Tips from Pastry Chef Marina Sousa

We all love to tune into the latest cake decorating challenge or baking competition show to admire the elaborate pastry designs and colorful confections. But, do you feel out of the running for the winner’s circle watching from home? Luckily, we’ve teamed up with celebrity pastry chef and cake designer Marina Sousa to share five cake decorating tips that will take your skills from dull to ta-da!

1. Educate Yourself on the Science Behind Cakes to Deliver a Perfect Bake, Every Time

Before you begin decorating elaborate masterpieces, we suggest you familiarize yourself with the basics of cake baking. See our ultimate guide to cakes for an in-depth overview. This blog post outlines everything you need to know from the role each ingredient plays to troubleshooting pesky problems like a cracked cake. Once you’ve studied up, decorating will be a breeze!

2. Level Each Layer Before Assembling Your Cake

If you start frosting and layering an uneven cake, your beautiful baked good will eventually resemble the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The trick here is to level out each layer of your cake before you assemble the final dessert. Chef Marina provides four easy steps to accomplish perfection:

1. Once your cake is baked, let the layers cool to room temperature
2. Using a paring knife and a ruler, score the outside edge of your cake to mark where you want to cut – make sure to completely remove any rounded top your cake has after baking
3. Using a long, serrated knife, slowly cut along your marked line
4. Carefully lift the top of the cake, revealing an even layer

Pro tip: Keep the leftover cake tops to conduct an all-important taste-test!

3. Start Your Cake Frosting Journey with a Crumb Coat

If you’ve ever frosted a cake before, you’ve probably experienced the issue where you begin to spread your delicious, smooth frosting, just to pick up crumbs from the outside layer of the cake. Not only does this impede your final design, but it’s also frustrating! The solution – add a crumb coat – it’s so easy, you’ll wonder why you didn’t think of it yourself! Follow these easy steps to ensure your decorative efforts can really steal the show.

1. Assemble your cake (we recommend assembling on a cake stand or turntable for easier handling)
2. Using an off-set spatula or knife, apply a thin layer of frosting, ensuring smooth, even coverage
3. Place your cake in the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes to allow frosting to set
4. Remove your cake from the refrigerator, and apply a second, more generous layer of frosting
5. Use a bench scraper to give your top layer of frosting a smooth finishing touch

4. Hold Your Piping Bag at a Perpendicular Angle for Precise Control

We find ourselves watching hours of online cake decorating videos, mesmerized by how easy they make piping look. Determined to pipe with ease, just like they do on Instagram, we asked Chef Marina for some advice. From her extensive experience, she tells us the correct angle can make all the difference when piping. Here are the steps she shared:

1. Fill a pastry bag with frosting. For an easy at-home method, check out the #BetterYourBake video tutorial for a step-by-step guide on how to fill a bag for piping using everyday items from your kitchen
2. Hold the bag placing your dominant hand at the top, where you twisted it shut, while supporting the middle of the bag with your other hand
3. Now this is important! Hover the bag over your cake, so it is perpendicular to the countertop. This angle will give you ideal control
4. Apply pressure to the bag with your dominant hand and begin piping your designs

Pro Tip: Practice piping on parchment paper or the leftover layer of cake from tip two. Each tip results in a different design, so get creative!

5. Use Molds to Create Intricate Finishing Touches

Adorn your cake with beautiful designs and finishings to really realize its full potential. How to do it? Use molds and fondant! In fact, this is one of Chef Marina’s specialties. Check out her website to browse the very designs she uses to polish cakes for her A-list clients.

Fondant and molds can be a little tricky to work with, so keep playing with it until you get more comfortable with this new technique. Here is the method we learned from Chef Marina:

1. Dust the mold with cornstarch. Then, start pushing the fondant into the mold
2. Once the mold is full, use a small rolling pin, dusted with cornstarch, to push the fondant even further into the mold
3. Use a sharp knife (dip it in cornstarch to prevent sticking) to carefully cut away any excess fondant on the back of the mold
4. Bend the mold back; the fondant should fall out on its own. If it doesn’t, you can try slowly prying it out with the cornstarch-dusted knife or wait a few minutes and try again.

There you have it! Five cake decorating tips from the expert cake decorator! Once you put these lessons into practice, share your creations with us on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, tagging #NielsenMasseyInspires!

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