Cake decorating with the kids : 30 modern cakes and bakes for all the family to make

202 Pages·2013·3.79 MB·English

by  Collins

Contents
Let’s Decorate!
Basic Tools and Equipment
Safety in the Kitchen
Recipes, Fillings and Toppings
Quantity Adjustments
Projects
Family Celebration
White Christmas
Easter Sunday
Happy Halloween
Picnic Party
Mother’s Day Delights
Gifts for Teachers
Summer Fair
Rainy-Day Fun
Be My Valentine
Techniques
Display and Presentation
Suppliers
About the Authors/Acknowledgments
All templates can be found at www.stitchcraftcreate.co.uk/patterns
Let’s Decorate!
This book was inspired by our own children, and by the fun we’ve had making
and decorating cakes for the many occasions that suddenly become so important
once you have children of your own – school fêtes, end-of-term celebrations,
Mother’s Day, family get-togethers…
From left: Jake, Joe, Elena and Ashley
Our children have always been keen to get involved with the baking and
cake decorating process, and many a happy afternoon or wet weekend has been
spent baking cupcakes, cutting out decorations and swirling with brightly
coloured icing before eating messily!
While there are dozens of books written for children that concentrate on
developing their baking skills, we couldn’t really find any which went that step
further, and helped to guide children along the path of true cake decorating –
which is, after all, the most exciting part!
We have divided our book into 10 distinct chapters, with one main project
and two subsidiary projects each – all of them pretty, quirky or just plain fun.
Each chapter has step-by-step instructions for building beautiful themed cakes,
with lots of steps that children can do on their own, or with a little help from an
adult. At ages 10 through to 14, our own children are pretty much able to do
everything, but younger children might need a bit of help with some of the
projects. At the end of each project, your children will have created (with a little
help from you) a beautiful collection of cakes, cupcakes, whoopie pies or
cookies of which they can feel justly proud, and that will garner praise and
accolades from all sides (and who doesn’t welcome praise after a job well
done?). The only thing we can’t promise is that you will have any help clearing
up the kitchen afterwards – we never quite managed to persuade ours to get
involved in that bit!
We have loved creating this book with our children, and hope that you will
also enjoy making all the lovely designs with your own children.
Happy decorating!
Jill & Natalie
Basic Tools and Equipment
If you enjoy baking and cake decorating, you probably already have all the
equipment you need for the projects in this book, and more besides. The lists that
follow provide details of everything you need and can be dipped into as part of
the basic equipment listed in every project.
Baking Equipment
• Kitchen scales – accurate weighing of ingredients is essential • Measuring
spoons – for measuring small quantities
• Mixing bowls – for mixing ingredients
• Wooden spoons and spatulas – for mixing and folding • Electric mixer –
makes short work of all your baking but if you don’t have one, you can
always use a mixing bowl, a wooden spoon and a bit of elbow grease!
• Cake tins (pans)/cupcake tins/baking trays – for baking cakes, cupcakes and
cookies • Greaseproof (wax) paper or re-usable baking parchment – for
lining tins (pans) and melting sweets • Cupcake cases – a variety of styles
to suit your projects • Wire cooling rack – for resting cakes and cookies as
they cool
Cake Decorating Equipment
• Rolling pins – large and small, for rolling out sugarpaste and petal paste
• Small non-stick plastic board – for rolling small amounts of sugarpaste
and petal paste • Plastic dowels – for supporting tiered cakes
• Edible pens – for marking dowels and for quick-and-easy decoration
• Paintbrushes – a variety of different sizes are useful for painting and
sticking • Edible glue – for sticking small pieces of icing together • Piping
(pastry) bags – small for piping royal icing and large for piping buttercream
• Cutters – a variety of shapes and sizes are useful for different projects
• Chocolate moulds – for creating fun and easy chocolate decorations
• Drying mat – a great place to dry small sugarpaste pieces and cut-out
shapes • Piping tubes (tips) – also known as nozzles, a variety of different
types and sizes are useful for filling, piping and decorating cakes • Palette
knife – for lifting delicate sugarpaste pieces
• Paste food colourings and edible glitters
• Craft knife – for accurate detailed cutting
• Cocktail sticks (toothpicks) – great for adding tiny amounts of colour
• Sugar shaker – for dredging icing (confectioners’) sugar onto your
surface to prevent sticking • Sprinkles – for easy decoration
• Icing smoother – for smoothing cakes that are covered in sugarpaste