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How to Make an Easy Vampire Cake

Vampire Cake

In this guide you will be given step-by-step instructions on how to decorate this cute vampire cake.

I know it seems early but Halloween will be here before you know it. If you are planning a party this year, don't forget the cake! Between HBO's True Blood and the Twilight series, Vampires are all the rage right now. Here is an easy vampire cake that just about anyone can do.

To make this cake you will need...

2 10 inch round cakes
Green, black, yellow/gold and white buttercream icing
4 Tips # 5

Recommended products: It is very difficult to make true black. When I only need a small amount like this, I always buy pre-made black icing.




***Decorator's tip*** If you do not have four #5 tips, do not worry. You will get the same effect using tips #4 or 6. If you do not want to use a tip at all, just cut the end of the piping bag to size. It will work just as well but your lines will not be as tight. This techniques works best for piping the eyes and nose because of their shape.


Directions:



Step 1

Level, tort and fill the cakes. They can be placed on a 12 or 14 inch cake board. In this picture, the cake is placed on a large cake board with Pillsbury Pumpkin Sugar Cookies scattered around for added decoration. Ice the cake with your green buttercream icing.



Step 2

Using a toothpick, outline the vampire's hair. Next, using tip #5 and black buttercream icing, pipe the outline of the hair and fill in with tight lines.


***Decorator's Tip*** To smooth out the striped effect you get from filling in an outline using a piping bag, simply put a little cornstarch on your finger and gently pat it flat. Most of the cornstarch will fade into the icing but the excess can be brushed away with a decorating brush.


Publish Post

Step 3

Using tip # 5 and yellow icing, pipe the eyes on the cake. Add the pupils using the extra black icing.



Step 4

Using tip # 5 and green icing, pipe the nose. Next, add the mouth and eyebrows with the left over black icing and the teeth (tip #5) with white icing.
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Cake Decorations For Sale

Now decorating a cake is even easier. As we add cake guides to our site, we will also add the option of purchasing any of the decorations needed. Your items will be made to order and shipped USPS Priority Mail. Please allow 3-5 days for handling because all gum paste and royal icing decorations will need time to dry before they can be shipped.

For a complete list of gumpaste items for sale, please visit our handmade shop on our sister site, www.KimsCake.com.

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Edible Cake Images and Collages Now for Sale!


I am excited to announce that Piece of Cake Decorating is now selling edible cake images. All images are printed on an 8x10 icing sheet. You can purchase an image(8x10 or smaller) for $10 or a personalized collage similar to the picture shown for $15. The collages can have up to three photos and will be designed especially for you. Shipping on any image is $5 and will be sent USPS Priority Mail.

As always, all purchases are done through PayPal. Once you have purchased an image, please e-mail your photos to kseals@pieceofcakedecorating.com along with the size and shape of your photo. If you are ordering a personalized collage, please enter any important details in the notes to seller.

Click to purchase from my sister site, www.KimsCake.com.


Just a few examples of our collages. You are not limited to what you see.

Edible Father's Day CollageEdible Anniversary CollageEdible Music Collage
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How Do You Bake Level Cakes?

There are many products out there that claim to help you bake your cakes level. I like using a combination of 3 methods. I always bake my cakes on a baking stone. The stone helps the cake bake evenly so that it comes out more level and very moist. I also rotate the cake 180 degrees halfway through the baking process. This also helps the cake bake evenly because I do not have a convection oven. Finally I put at least 1 flower nail in each cake. The nail heats up and helps bake the middle of the cake the same as the edges. By putting these three methods together, much less cake is wasted.




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How to Make a Slumber Party Cake

Slumber Party Cake


In this guide you will be given step-by-step instructions on how to decorate this large bed. I will also discuss how to make the blanket, girls, and headboard.

Today I was reading this great blog, www.shwanda.com, and was inspired to share this cake. I thought of this cake because the blog chronicles the life of a blended family with 5 kids, 4 cats, 3 dogs, 2 fish, and a dog...oh and don't forget Mom and Dad. Can't you just picture them all in a big bed like this? So as you can see, this cake can be used for more than a slumber party. It can be the "family bed" as well.


You will need:
Pink fondant
Tan fondant
Royal icing or chocolate colored yellow, brown, black, and gold for hair and crown.
Buttercream icing colored white and pink
White Chocolate
Wax Paper



Directions:



Step 1

A few days in advance you need to make the fondant faces and chocolate work. To make the headboard, draw a template on a white piece of paper. Tape down template onto flat surface and cover with wax paper. Next, melt the white candy melts and pour in a piping bag. Pipe the white chocolate on your template.



*Decorator's Tip* Pipe the spindles for the headboard as thick as you can. Chocolate is very delicate.



Option #2 for the headboard: If you look behind the white headboard you can see a silver board in the same shape. Because the chocolate was do delicate, I placed the silver headboard behind the chocolate one. If my client wasn't insistent on the chocolate headboard I would have left the silver one by itself. To make the silver headboard I cut foam core board to shape and covered it with Wilton Fanci Foil.



Step 2: Make the faces

The faces are made of fondant circles died tan (fondant can also be purchased tan) I used royal icing to make the hair, bows and crown. Chocolate can also be used to make these features. I used black icing for the eyes and pink icing for the mouth.



Step 3

Level off and fill the cakes. Cover the cake with buttercream. On the sides of the cake, use a star tip and pipe vertical stripes to look like a bed skirt.



Step 4

The bodies under the blanket are made with fondant. Shape the fondant to look like a fat hot dog and space them on the cake as needed, leaving room at the top for the head. Roll out a long strip of fondant to make a very long pillow. The heads will eventually rest on this strip.

Step 5

Die the fondant pink and roll it out large enough to cover the top and part of the sides of the cake. Clean up the edges of the fondant by trimming it with a pizza cutter or knife.



Step 6

Lay fondant blanket over the top of the bed. Carefully press the fondant down between the fondant bodies to give the appearance of the girls laying in the bed.



Step 7

Place heads on the cake. In my cake the birthday girl is wearing a crown. It is held on the head with royal icing.



Step 8

Place headboard on cake. It is secured in the back with extra buttercream icing.



*Decorator's tip* If you are transporting the cake you may want to wait until you arrive at the party to place the headboard on the cake.



Step 9

Pipe large circle dots on the blanket.
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What is Luster Dust or Pearl Dust?

This edible glitter is used in cake decorating to make your decorations stand out. If you look at the before and after pictures below, you can easily see that luster dust gives your cake decorations that extra pop. Wilton calls it Pearl Dust while other companies call it Luster Dust. It can be found at most craft stores or you can purchase it right now from Amazon.com (look below the pictures for a link). Just use the arrows to rotate the carousel and click on the color of your choice. We also sell a variety of gum paste flowers just like these. Click here to purchase.


Gumpaste Roses Before Gumpaste Roses After




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How to Make a Margaritaville or Beach Cake

Margaritaville/Beach Cake

In this guide you will be given step-by-step instructions on how to decorate this beach/Margaritaville themed cake. I will also give tips on how to make edible sand and water.

This cake was made for a group birthday party and the theme was Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville. In this cake guide you will learn techniques like making sand and making the water look more realistic.

To make this cake you will need:


12 or 14 inch cake board
2 10 inch round cakes
Blue buttercream icing
Royal icing tropical flowers (instructions not included but click to purchase)
Graham Crackers or Nilla Wafers
Blue icing coloring
Piping gel
Tips #2 and 19
Toy palm trees
Toy or handmade paper parrots (instructions included)
Margaritaville sign (instructions included)
Mini margaritas (instructions included)
Mini beach towel
Mini surf board





Directions:


Step 1:


Level, tort and fill your cakes then place them on the cake board. Ice the cakes with light blue buttercream icing. In order to make the beach look hilly, ice mounds on the top half of the cake.


Step 2:

Ground up the Nilla Wafers using a food processor or a Zip Lock bag and a rolling pin. Then, place the crumbled wafers on the top of the cake to make sand.


Step 3:

Color the piping gel blue and spread it on the other half of the cake as pictured. To get the water to look wavy, spread it so that the piping gel is not smooth.


***Decorator's Tip*** For an added detail, put a small amount of light blue icing on a tooth pick and run it through the "water." This will make it look like the top of your waves has foam.


Step 4:

Using tip #19, pipe on your boarder along the edge of the water on top of the cake. Then, place the royal icing flowers around the bottom of the cake as a boarder.


Step 5:

Place your trees, surfboard, and other accessories on the cake. Finally, write your message in the water with light blue icing and tip #3.


Instructions for paper parrots, sign, and mini margaritas:

  • The paper parrots and sign were very easy to make. Save these pictures to your desktop and open them in any picture program that allows you to resize images. Paint will work just fine. Next, print and cut out your pictures. Finally, tape them to a toothpick. If you want to hide the toothpick just put the same picture on the other side but remember that you will need to use the mirror images for the parrots.

  • To make the mini margaritas, I purchased miniature dollhouse glasses. I first dipped the rim in a little bit of water and then into some sugar. To make the drink, I filled the glass with light green icing.


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Using Beads and Birth Stones in Cake Decorating

Last week I posted about Unique Cake Decorating Items on Etsy.com. One of these items was a cake topper that used beads. Today I came across a blog post (August Birthstones-Peridot, Sardonyx, Carnelian) by Silver Rose Blogs and came up with a new cake idea using birthstones and beads.

Sometimes it can be difficult coming up with ideas for a birthday cake. Especially when a person's interests are not easily transferred into cake. When you need to make a birthday cake but don't have any ideas or inspirations, make a birthstone cake.

Beads can be used many different ways on a cake. They can be strung on a string, then wrapped around the bottom as a boarder and strung on wire to be used as a cake topper or placed all around the cake so the cascade down the sides.

If you do not want to use real beads, you can also purchase or make edible beads in the color of your choice. To make your own, all you need is a mold like the ones listed below and dyed gumpaste.




If you want to know more about birthstones, check out Silver Rose Blogs for more information.
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How to Place Dowels in a Cake





Cake dowels are needed to give support to a cake. Without them, a stacked cake can fall or the filling will ooze out the sides when the cake settles. Your dowels can be made of wood or plastic and they are easy to put in a cake. Just follow these step...

  1. Place the first tier on your cake board. You will probably need 4-5 dowels for this layer (more dowels will be needed if you cake is more than 3 tiers high) and they will be placed in a circle around the center of the cake. Take one dowel and place it in the cake. Measure the height and mark it with a marker. Remove the dowel and cut to size. Wooden dowels cut best with a hedge trimmer but a bread knife will also work. A knife is the easiest way to cut a plastic dowel. Place the cut dowel back in the cake and repeat these steps for the remaining dowel in this tier.
  2. Place the next tier on top. With each tier, you will need less dowels. The wooden dowels for this tier will need to be sharpened with a pencil sharpener so that they go through the cardboard divider. Repeat the steps above but use a hammer to drive the wooden dowel to the bottom cake board. If using plastic dowels, you will not be able to go to the bottom of the cake. You can also choose not to sharpen and hammer the wooden dowel but it will not be as stable.
  3. Keep repeating these steps until you get to the top tier. Once you are on the top tier, sharpen your wooden dowel and hammer it down the center of your cake, all the way to the bottom cake board. This is an important step because it will keep your cake from tipping over.

A few extra notes about dowels...

  • You will need fewer dowels if you are using plastic.
  • If you choose to sharpen and hammer the dowels for each of the higher tiers, make sure you place them in a way that they will not hit the dowels below them.
  • If you are still confused, check out this video tutorial on How to Stacking Cakes.
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How to Make a Movie Themed Cake

Movie Cake



In this guide you will be given step-by-step instructions on how to make movie themed, gumpaste decorations for your cake.

This is a great cake for any movie theme. As you can see, I made this as a birthday cake but it would also be great as an anniversary cake, movie night cake, or even an Oscar party.

Make decorating this cake even easier. Complete a cake kit and individual gumpaste decorations now available at my handmade shop.

To make this cake you will need...


12 or 14 inch round cake board
10 inch round cake
Large Circle cookie cutter
Medium sized petal cutter
Large and small star cookie cutter
2 lollipop sticks
Tips #5, 3, and 2
Gray, white, brown, black, and yellow gum paste
White, red, yellow, and black buttercream icing


You do not need an air brush but it will definitely save you time on any cake, especially when you need to make black and red decorations.

Directions: 

Step1
A few days in advance make the filmstrips, clap board, film reel, billboard and stars. 
  • To make the filmstrips cut rectangular shaped pieces of gumpaste and mold them to shape using tissue.  You can use tan gumpaste and once dry you can paint on the black frames.  Another option is to use white gumpaste and paint everything once it dries.
  •   To make the movie reel, roll out black gumpaste leaving it fairly thick and cut out a long strip.  Roll this strip around itself to resemble a rolled up filmstrip.  Next, roll out the gray gum paste and cut out two large circles.  Then, with the petal cutter cut out the holes around the center of the circles (refer to picture above).  Once everything is dry, assemble the movie reel by applying some water to each piece and stick them together.  They will need to dry for at least one more day.
  • To make the clapboard, roll out black gumpaste and cut to shape.  When rolling out the gumpaste, leave it on the thick side so it holds up better once it dries.  When dry, pipe on the white details with white buttercream icing.  Another option is to use white gumpaste, tape off the details you want to leave white (i.e. the stripes) with scotch tape, then airbrush or paint the clapboard black.  When the black color dries you can remove the tape.
  • To make the billboard, roll out a thick piece of white gumpaste and cut a large rectangle to the size you desire.   Place 2 lollipop sticks in the bottom and let dry.  Once the gumpaste is dry, pipe on the details with buttercream icing and tip #2 for the lights and #3 for the words.
  •  To make the stars, roll out yellow gumpaste and cut out the stars with a small and large cookie cutter.

Step 2

Finally it is time to level, tort and fill the cakes.  Place them on your cake board and ice with white buttercream icing.


Step 3

With red buttercream icing and tip #5, pipe on the red carpet.  If you have an airbrush, you can airbrush on the carpet but be sure to make a template so that you do not get red on the rest of the cake. 


 Step 4

As a boarder, place the small stars around the bottom of the cake. 



Step 5

Place your gumpaste decorations on the cake.  Be sure to secure them in place with buttercream icing.
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Where can I Find Unique Cake Decorating Items?

Many people do not know about this great site, Etsy.com. There, you can find so many unique handmade items for any occasion. When it comes to cake decorating, you will find cake toppers, gum paste flower sprays, and other cake accessories.





While you are there, check out some of the great jewelry by Red Seals Handmade Jewelry and Watches and my new favorite, Kandio Designs. She also has a great blog for the creative mind by the same name. Stop by the Kandio Designs blog for some great inspiration.
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Custom Cake Guides

Having trouble finding instructions on how to decorate a cake? We can help. For a small $5 fee and our money back guarantee we will create a custom cake guide. Your guide will include step-by-step instructions and sketches when needed. Just simply click the "add to cart" button below and be sure to leave your e-mail address at the checkout. Once we have been notified of your purchase, we will e-mail you about your request. Please be prepared to respond with a detailed description and/or a picture of your request. If we are unable to help you for any reason, we will issue a full refund. We look forward to creating a guide for you. And remember, if you ever have a question about anything on our site, you can e-mail us at kseals@pieceofcakedecorating.com.