Consider this cake decorating for dummies—foolproof ways to make a layer cake look super impressive without a lot of fancy tools. Two even use store-bought candy.
One of these designs requires a piping bag of sorts, although we're sure a Ziploc would work. And number 3? Malted milk balls! How mod and futuristic does that look? And you could be as sloppy as you wanted with the frosting underneath.
These are giving us all kinds of ideas about things we could stick into frosting to create a pattern—marshmallows, gumballs, an ombre pattern with similar-shade jelly beans...
• 1. Candy Polka Dot Cake, from Ladies' Home Journal.
• 2. White Polka Dot Cake, from Country Living.
• 3. Chocolate Cake with Malted Milk Balls, from Urbane Fruits.
• 4. Striped Glitter Dust Cake, from Martha Stewart Weddings.
Related: Cake Decorating: 3 Tips for Writing Messages with Icing
(Images: Ladies' Home Journal; Charles Schiller/Country Living; Urbane Fruits; MarthaStewart.com)
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Very cute, but just be mindful that some of these, particularly the malt ball one, is going to be a mess of balls falling off and rolling around as you cut.
I love the look of the malted milk balls cake. It's a work of art! But agree with jmorri26 that it is probably a mess when it comes to serving it.
I thought the same thing about the malted milk balls. I bet they would stick on more firmly if you cut them in half first. That might knock down the simplicity of decorating a bit though! :-)
I just made my hubby a big birthday layer cake with peanut butter frosting and used mini chocolate chips on the sides because I didn't have enough frosting left to make it look nice. I frosted it, stuck the cake in the fridge for 15 minutes, then pressed handfuls of the chips up the sides. It was super easy, they stuck onto the frosting no problem, and it looked fantastic.
I've also seen cakes with those pirouline cookies pressed vertically into the sides, that looks incredible!
While the cake part is a little more difficult to make, I'm totally stealing the "cover throughly with sprinkles" idea from the Purple Ombre Sprinkle Cake: http://www.raspberricupcakes.com/2011/11/purple-ombre-sprinkle-cake.html
I made my dad a birthday cake with malted milk balls stuck to chocolate ganache adorning the sides and top of the cake. It was a bit of a pain cutting all the malt balls neatly in half, but it was so worth it. The finished cake looked so cool!
I just made a cake for my son and covered the sides with small chocolate eggs. Cutting it into slices was a nightmare! The smaller bits, like the chips and sprinkles, would not be as difficult. It looked yummy, though.
@michelou I recently did a sprinkle cake for a friends birthday. Whilst it is easy, it takes time and you'll inevitably have sprinkles all over your kitchen. My cake was on a plate, over a baking tray but I still managed to get them all over my floor, much to my dogs liking. Looked and tasted fantastic though.
I would not want to eat all those malted milk balls :(