The Busy Girl's Guide To Cake Decorating: The Fast, Simple Way to Impressive Cakes and Bakes

213 Pages·2012·4.63 MB·English

The Busy Girl’s Guide to
Cake Decorating
Ruth Clemens
Contents
Introduction
Get Ready
Equipment and ingredients to help you prepare…
Get Baking
Cake and icing recipes to make your mouth water…
Get Decorating
Techniques and know-how to build your confidence…
Now Get Busy!
Twenty-five projects to motivate and inspire you…
Evening Whip-Ups
(to make in an hour or less)
Half-Day Delights
(for when you’ve got a couple of hours to spare)
Weekend Wonders
(longer projects to take your time over)
Troubleshooting
Glossary
Templates
Suppliers
About the Author
Acknowledgments
Copyright
Introduction
Welcome to The Busy Girl’s Guide to Cake Decorating! I’m guessing you have
this book because you fancy your hand at a spot of cake decorating, you don’t
have much time and are the typical ‘busy girl’. Well, you’re in the right place.
This book is all about cake decorating without the fuss, the palaver and
sometimes the tears too!
The projects within the book are split into three sections. The Evening Whip-
Ups (one-hour projects) are perfect when you have very little time, and are easy
to throw together one evening after work. The Half-Day Delights (two-hour
projects) are for when you have an afternoon to spare. Finally, the Weekend
Wonders (three-to four-hour projects) are for when you’ve got a bit more time
available in your schedule!
In cake-decorating terms, all of the above are tiny amounts of time – large,
intricate projects take professional cake decorator’s days, if not weeks, of work.
We busy girls don’t have the time or the patience (OK then, that’s just me) to
create those kinds of works of art but this book contains stunning projects that
can be achieved in next to no time.
I cheat, I do things the quick way for maximum impact, I’ll have ‘traditional’
cake decorators up in arms with my kamikaze ways but, hey, it is what it is and I
was never one to toe the line. I am the typical busy girl (perhaps more the busy
than the girl these days) – I have three young boys needing my attention,
wanting punctures fixed, the paddling pool filling up and feeding every two
minutes; a bustling household filled with family, friends and pets; and not
forgetting the other ‘boy’ in the house, my husband. So here it is, The Busy
Girl’s Guide to Cake Decorating – the perfect place to start your foray into the
world of cakes.
So let’s get this show on the road – cake decorating – the busy girls’ way…
Ruth
GET READY
Equipment and ingredients to help you prepare…
Equipment
Cake-decorating equipment can be expensive and specialist, however the
projects in this book make the most of everyday items that you will find in any
kitchen, supplemented with a few key pieces.
Essential Items
Useful Items
Make your own sugar duster
You will need a brand new all-purpose cleaning cloth, an elastic band and icing
(confectioners’) sugar. Lay the cloth open on your work surface and place two
heaped tablespoons of sugar in the centre. Gather the cloth around the sugar and
secure with an elastic band. This handy little duster can be tapped on the surface
for a very light dusting of sugar when making decorations and modelling.