How to Airbrush Cakes

Okay, let's have an honesty moment. As a pastry chef, I have access to information about the latest and greatest techniques for making professional desserts. That is great, I love seeing cutting edge complicated techniques that will wow customers to complete aww. But I find the real trick is finding a way to simplify these awesome techniques so everyone in their house can have the satisfaction of creating a beautiful dessert and watching their friends enjoy it. Here is a simple way to make a fancy airbrush cake, by the way it is still cheaper then getting a professional to do it!

Things You'll Need

• A few colored cans of Wilton Cake Color Spray
• A few paper towels in case the spray gets clogged
• a freshly iced cake with either white buttercream or fondant

Instructions

1. 

   Okay so there is the real way of doing this...go get a crazy expensive airbrushing kit. Make sure you get edible color dye and some vodka to thin out any thick dyes. Luster dusting is great also so your cakes can sparkle like fresh snow. Oh, and bake a great cake. Fill your airbrush gun with the amount of dye the kit instructions say. Stand about a foot away and fan the cake with color in waves so you are not shooting the dye into the icing and creating lines unless you want that. You are looking for even color not puddles.

2. 

   Here is the way you do it if you have no trust fund. Go to the grocery store, find the Wilton section in your local hobby shop or the craft section of Walmart. Look for Wilton Color Spray. It tends to be good in almost every color. Just make sure you spray in waves and not up close or the liquid beads up and runs.

3. 

   Start with a fresh cake with a good coating of icing in white if you want a colored cake or chocolate if you want a black cake. If you start with white for a black it ends up gray. Slowly spray like you would if you were spray painting furniture with spray paint. It is the same idea only edible, slowly back and forth. Turn the cake on a turntable or lazy susan so you have an even layer, then go back and detail out shadows by going slower in the areas you want darker. If you want lines you are going to need a darker shade of royal icing, you can't change the point of the spray on these. Get some luster dust and a cake brush and gently dust it over very cool icing and you will have the same sparkle.

Tips & Warnings

• Even stokes back and forth, slowly turning around a turntable!

• Spray the spray over patterns to make nice holiday designs quickly.

• You can start by spraying the white cake a light color like pink or baby blue and finding a cutout pattern you spray a darker color. Lift the pattern carefully and you have a great design.

• You can airbrush cupcakes with tie dye effect with different colors.

• you can spray cookies

• Not too close or you end up with running and beading of color!

Resources

• wilton.com-great for help...look in the cake section
• allrecipes.com...look for icing/cake recipes
• walmart.com for decorating stuff in the middle of nowhere
• hobby lobby.com has a 40% off coupon great for cake decorating stuff for cheap!