Advice needed on how to ice a cake

[ymenik21]

Hi all:)

I am on the big mission of making our LO's first birth day cake.Are there any recipes and tips on how to ice the cake?This is going to be the first time I am gonna ice a cake so treat me as a complete beginner please.

I have a starter kit of 3 nozzles and a piping bag and some food colouring as well.

Want to keep the icing as simple as possible,and I am thinking of butter icing but any advice and recipes are WELCOME.

Thanks mums (dads if there are any involved in this dept).

Thanks

Sam X

[legalbeagle]

I usually get ready rolled white royal icing from Sainsburys. Cover the cake with that according to the instructions (it's really easy, you just lay it over the top and smooth it round and trim off any excess). Then you have a blank canvass to write/draw/stick on whatever you like. You can get all sorts of flowers, coloured icing to cut out shapes of babys fav characters, chocolate writing, etc etc from the baking section in Sainsburys. I am a total beginner and have managed this twice now without too much drama!

[malleymoo]

Your post brought back some funny memories of my little girl's first birthday. I too decided that as it was her 1st birthday it was my duty to bake and ice her cake to share with the friends and family who were coming to wish her well. My daughter had different ideas and decided it was a great time to scream her head off any time i put her down. So eventually I was whisking the mixture with her in a sling covered in cake mix. The oven was sloping so i had a very thin side on each of the 2 sponges, but convinced myself I could hide it with icing ( rather unsucessfully). the icing was much harder than I anticipated so decided to go for rough snow effect though it wasnt christmas and then dropped the whole thing 20 mins before the guests arrived and had to send her dad out on a mercy mission to Ayres. So my advice is... Do you really need to do this to yourself?

[vinceayre]

The only thing with the soft icing is that it will show any lumps and bumps on the cake. The best way for a novice to do a cake is to make a sponge using equal measures of egg,flour,butter and a drop of milk and then butter ice it with a pallet knife and if it looks a bit dodgy you can keep going at it with the pallet knife until its ok or just call it "artisan" Butter cream can be made using butter, icing sugar and fondant in equal measures. If you don't have a mixer your arm is going to feel like it wants to fall off.

Alternatively do as Malleymoo did!

[knackered cow]

Don't waste your time and energy making your own icing! I used to until I discovered the tubs of the ready made chocolate butter icing from Sainsburys, it's really easy to apply and the kids think it's yummy! You can add flowers, sweets or use writing icing on top! The vanilla one is nice too!

GOOD LUCK!

[sandy_rose]

For a slightly healthier version, just buy a few large tubs of Philadeplhia soft cheese (full fat), add icing sugar and vanilla extract to taste. I promise it's yummy and much healthier than butter icing. I would just use a spatula and spread the icing all over the cake. You could get some berries to decorate or spell your message (or a bag of smarties).

[Gubodge]

For a one year old I would just do a plain buttercream icing with a '1' in sweeties or smarties on the top. Or just hire/borrow/buy a figure 1 cake mould. (Actually, I think I made a large, square cake and cut it up to form a 1. But managed to end up with it back to front. Duh.) You still need the sweeties though. Cake on its own is not enough, the more sugar added in various forms the better.

[ymenik21]

Hello All

We had the birthday and guess what Maleymoo I baked a cake which went horribly wrong (I even managed to make my husband get food poisoned-it was not baked well I think) and ended up buying a cake from Ayres with butter cream icing,so all the icing I bought from Sainsburys were such a waste,well I can use it for my Birth day perhaps :).

Anyway she was not even bothered about the cake and was wondering what to do with it .

Thanks mums for the tips I think I will never bother baking one again :)

Cheers Sam XX

[malleymoo]

(Lots of giggles)... Im beginning to think that the attempt at baking cakes for a child's birthday is a bit of a right of passage. Sorry to hear your disaster but it thank goodness for shop bought cakes !

[Vickster]

Get a novelty cake tim from Lakeland, and then decorate with sweets etc - no icing involved. I made the cake train (below) for my son and it was surprisingly easy, just took a bit of time to decorate. There is a recipe on the packet for the right amount of cake for the tin, and it came out no problem (which I was worroed about) with a butter and then dusting of flour lining.

In fact, if you want to borrow the tin you are more then welcome.

Cake train