How to Decorate Wedding Cakes Easily

Before buying a tiered wedding cake, consider decorating a wedding cake yourself with a few basic cake-decorating techniques. In order to decorate a wedding cake, you will need to visit a few bakeries or see photos of wedding cakes to acquaint yourself with the various styles. Simple tiered wedding cakes are elegant, which makes them popular among cake decorators of all skill levels. A person with little cake-decorating experience can decorate a wedding cake with beautiful results.

Things You'll Need

• White buttercream icing
• Spatula
• Large scraper
• Cake board
• Eight plastic dowels
• Flowers (real or artificial)
• Cardboard
• Styrofoam
• Glue
• Strawberries
• Tube of ready-to-use white decorating icing
• Screw-on decorating tips
• Wax paper

Instructions

1. Sit the bottom tier of the cake on a cake board. Spoon buttercream icing onto the cake with the spatula, then use the spatula to spread the icing in an even layer on the top and sides of the cake. Use a large scraper to smooth out the icing around the sides of the cake tier; this will give the cake a silky-smooth appearance.

2. Sit the unfrosted second tier on top of the bottom tier and measure the height of the two tiers. Cut three or four plastic dowels to be the same height as the two cake tiers.

3. Remove the second tier and insert the plastic dowels into the bottom tier. Position them in a square or triangular arrangement where you will place the second tier. Carefully place the second tier on the dowels so that the dowels push through the second tier and the second tier ends up sitting on top of the bottom tier.

4. Apply buttercream icing to the second tier and use a scraper to smooth out the icing on the sides of the cake.

5. Place the unfrosted top tier on top of the second tier and measure the height of these two tiers together. Cut three or four plastic dowels to be the same height. Remove the top tier, insert the dowels into the second tier, and then sit the top tier on top of the second tier so that the dowels go through the top tier and the top tier ends up sitting on the second tier.

6. Frost the top tier with buttercream icing, using the scraper to smooth out both the top and the sides of this tier.

7. Place real or silk flowers on your wedding cake by trimming the stems short and inserting the flowers between the cake layers. Make sure that the flowers are clean; if using real flowers, they must be free of pesticides or other toxic chemicals.

8. Make a cake topper by gluing a piece of Styrofoam to a piece of cardboard and inserting flowers into the Styrofoam so that the Styrofoam and cardboard are hidden.

9. Wash the strawberries under cold water. Cut the strawberries in half (lengthwise) and press them into the icing on the sides of the cake tiers.

10. Screw a decorating tip onto a tube of ready-to-use decorating icing and pipe the icing out carefully around the bottom of each cake tier to create borders.

Tips & Warnings

• Experiment with icing borders in different widths on wax paper before applying the borders to the wedding cake. This will not only give you some practice but also will let you choose the thickness that will look best on your cake.

• A buttercream cake should stay refrigerated until it is served at an outdoor wedding.

References

• My Wedding Planning Guide: Easy Wedding Cake Decor Ideas
• The Party Works: Oh So Easy Cake Decorating Ideas
• Cake Decorating Ideas