Decorating Birthday Cake like a pro!

Trollydolly_2

Ive been given the task of organising a party for my mums 60th Birthday. Its on 29th July and all is in hand, invites have been sent out to 100 people!!!!! and gradually people are replying so all good up to now.

Ive been looking at getting her a fancy cake. For her 50th we had a car booty cake made with a carboot sale theme on it and it looked fantastic. Unfortunatly the lady that made it has since passed away. Ive been getting quotes to get her an Ebay themed cake but the prices are shocking.

So i thought i would buy a plain marks and spencers cake and decorate it myself. Ive never done anything like that before so any tips would be welcomed, also how long before the party should i decorate it. Dont want to do it too soon and it look rubbish by the time the party comes round!

Thanks guys and gals for your help xxx

JoeyEmma

I know its not OS but Costco do huge cakes at very reasonable prices. I'm sure you can have a picture put on them as well.

I'm sure somebody on here will know more about it.

jenniferpa

It really isn't difficult to decorate a cake - I would suggest a visit to a local library. One thing to warn you about - take it slow, and check your spelling! I have a picture of a beautifully decorated cake I made for my son's third birthday, proudly declaring "Happy Birtday" :rotfl:

Jennifer

sandhabibi

If it is any use to you in asda you can buy the plain cakes and they will put a photo of your choose onto it using icing it takes them about 30mins.I've seen several of these and they look really good.:beer:

zombiecazz

butter icing, food colouring and a decent icing bag with nozzles.

But yeah costco do great tasy cakes.

thriftlady_2

For my mum's 60th I made a cake from the Mary Berry Ultimate Cake book.It was American Wedding Cake.Basically three tiers of chocolate cake, placed directly on top of each other and covered in a chocolate ganache icing (melted choc and cream).I made a half quantity and did 2 tiers.I decorated the finished cake with fresh flowers from my Mum's garden-marigolds,pansies and roses.

I can't ice cakes with nozzles etc but this cake looked absolutely fantastic and impressed everyone.

Hope that is of some help.

nik0510

hello, just wanted to say that i had two m and s iced fruit cakes for my wedding, they tasted beautiful, cannot help with the decorating side as i just had paper flowers made into a roundish horse shoe shape, but everyone liked the cake. have a great time

rainbowsox

you may wish to think about getting a photo transfer on to the cake - http://www.decoent.com/english/home seem to have everything you need - i haven't used the site myself, but have seen the results and i think it looks brilliant, and is totally unique.
Alternatively, buy some edible paper (a good confectioner / cake decorating shop will stock this or be able to get some in) and "paint" a picture with food colourings. You can stick this on the cake with a few blobs of icing (a tube of ready made from the supermarket would be fine) and it doesn't matter if you mess up one or two, you can just do another one.
It isn't that hard to decorate a cake, especially if you stick to a simple design. However, it is very time consuming, and sometimes the results can be disappointing if you haven't had lots of practice.
It might also be worth finding out where your nearest specialist cake decorating shop is - sorry i don't know one in cheshire, and asking their advice. They are often cake decorators themselves, and have loads of ideas and experience. They would also be able to advise on a simple design, basic equipment and the right type of icing if you wanted to give it a go.
Good luck, and hope the results are completely yummy.

jaxxy00

My sister did our mum an Ebay themed cake last year for her birthday and it was great. I will ask her for a pic and show you it. If i remember rightly she did it from the rollable icing so then made the shapes and letters etc and then put them on. That way you can play around until you get it right and put them on only when you are happy with them. Will get pic for you tomorrow, although im not sure how to upload a pic from harddrive, ive only done a link to another site before.

Sharra

I've made a fair few special occasion cakes, I find the best way to get a professional look is to use the ready roll icing. You can buy it in all different colours - look for a little specialist cooking shop and they have every colour under the sun or you can get it online at places like this.. http://www.lawsonshop.co.uk/mall/departmentpage.cfm/Lawson/60951/1/1
(I haven't used them just googled for it).
It can look pretty pricey but the icing goes a long way, I always end up with loads left over..
You can also hire number shaped tins, so you could bake the cake in a 60 shape.