How to decorate a cake with fondant for beginners. Caramel frosting recipe

09.02.2024

Mastic will turn even a simple cake into a confectionery masterpiece. You can create any decoration from it. Anyone can learn the basics of working with mastic - it's not difficult. From the article you will learn how easy it is to make mastic with your own hands, how to cover a cake with it, and what is the difference between the types of mastic.

Covering a cake with fondant or creating decorations with it is an easy way to turn ordinary baked goods into a confectionery masterpiece. You can buy mastic or make it yourself. You can gain basic skills in the art of working with mastic paste using master classes with photos and videos.

Ready-made sugar mastic is always available in the online store Supermarket for confectioners in this section. You can buy online products made in England, the Netherlands, Turkey and other countries. Both “basic” white mastic and colored ones are available for sale. The price of a package of colored mastic is about 240 rubles.

This mastic for professionals and novice confectioners has all the necessary properties:

homogeneous;
stretches well, does not crumble;
with a neutral sweet taste or with different tastes.

In addition, you can immediately purchase exactly the type of mastic that is best suited for your purposes. There are three categories:

universal;
for covering;
for sculpting.

If you want to try making a plastic mass with your own hands, then this is also possible.

Mastic at home

First, determine for what purpose you need to make mastic. Dairy (based on powdered or condensed milk), chocolate and marshmallow mastic are suitable for covering cakes. To create figures - chocolate, sugar and marshmallow.

Homemade marshmallow mastic is the most popular and simplest recipe. If you follow all the steps step by step, you will get an almost universal mass.

In total, you need four components - marshmallows (100 g), powdered sugar (250 g), a little citric acid and water.

Place the marshmallows in a bowl, add a pinch of citric acid diluted in a tablespoon of water.
Place the bowl in the microwave at maximum power. The marshmallows should melt well.
Start mixing powdered sugar into the mixture. Work like you would with dough - the mastic should become smooth and elastic.
Roll the finished lump in powdered sugar, wrap in film and place in the refrigerator for half an hour. After this, you can begin the cake decorating process!

This delicious and simple cake fondant can be easily colored with food coloring. There are two ways to add color to the mass:

add dye while kneading - this will give you delicate shades;
color a ready-made cake or figurine. The color will be brighter, you can combine tones and paint complex decorations. But be sure to let the surface dry!

Another type of mastic intended for sculpting jewelry and figurines is gelatin. It is snow-white and hardens quickly. It is good for sculpting trees and bridges. You will need:

0.5 tsp gelatin (2 grams),
2 tsp water (10 ml.)
100 gr. powdered sugar
a couple drops of lemon juice.

You need to let the gelatin swell in water, then melt it in a water bath. After dissolving, add powder little by little, kneading like dough. Make sure that the mixture does not become too thick - if it starts to crack, add lemon juice.

Working with mastic

Working with mastic is not as complicated a process as it might seem. You just need to take into account a few important rules.

If you make your own mastic, use high-quality powdered sugar. It should be free of grains - the sugar crystals will cause the mastic layer to tear.
To glue the fondant decoration onto the cake, moisten the desired area of the surface. Parts of the assembled figures can be glued together with egg white.
Large figures must be made in advance and allowed to dry.
Complex and voluminous flowers should be stored in the refrigerator after drying, and glued shortly before serving the cake. Otherwise, they will absorb moisture from the air and may lose their shape.
To make the surface shiny, brush the cake with vodka 10-20 minutes before serving. The alcohol will quickly disappear and the cake will be shiny.
Dry and gel dyes are best suited for coloring.
You can easily color the mastic at the kneading stage by rolling it into a ball and making a depression in the center. The dye is applied with a toothpick. Then knead.

Do not immediately take on complex shapes and figures: cover a round cake, make simple flowers or decorations cut out using shapes.

The nuances of working with mastic for cakes

If you want to cover the cake with mastic, you need to first prepare the surface of the product. Chocolate ganache, butter or caramel cream, and marzipan are suitable for mastic. This “layer” will help the mastic retain its shape: it “floats” from moisture, so it cannot be applied to impregnated cakes or sour cream.

Sometimes it is recommended to cover the top crust and sides with apricot jam. But in this case, the mastic “wrapper” of the cake will swell from moisture.

A few more tips:

Pre-level the surface: apply the cream, smooth it with a spatula, let it harden in the refrigerator, and then check that the layer is even. Mastic will not hide unevenness.
It is better not to store the finished cake in the refrigerator for a long time. If you take out a product and it is covered with microdroplets of water, do not wash it, let it evaporate on its own. Otherwise, stains will remain on the mastic.
Don't roll out the mixture too thin. The ideal thickness is 3-4 mm. The table or board should be sprinkled with powder or starch. A silicone mat will also work well.

Working with cake fondant is easier if you use a few useful tools. These include:

perfectly smooth rolling pin;
leveling iron;
rotating stand;
roller for trimming edges.

All this can be purchased in the section “for mastic and marzipan” on the online store website Supermarket for confectioners.

Decorating a cake with fondant - how to do it

To make a cake with mastic - simple or complex, there is no need to rush. Then even a novice pastry chef will be able to make his own little masterpiece. The algorithm for a simple cake wrap looks like this:

roll out a circle of mastic. The diameter of the circle should be approximately equal to twice the height of the cake plus its diameter. Add to this a couple of centimeters “for trimming”;
roll the mixture onto a rolling pin and transfer it to the cake;
Smooth the top with an iron, being careful not to stretch the mass. Then smooth out the corners;
Carefully press down the sides to remove any creases. Walk the iron over the surface;
trim off the excess with a roller.

On average, a cake with a diameter of 15 cm and a height of 10 will require half a kilo of mastic. And for large ones, with a diameter of 35 cm - two kilograms.

If you didn’t calculate correctly and there are still bubbles on the surface, you can get rid of them by lifting the edge of the layer and laying it down again. If you have leveled the top and moved on to the sides, there is no need to return to it and smooth it further, because the mastic will stretch.

Decorating a cake with fondant can be done using prepared circles exactly along the diameter of the cake and ribbons of a contrasting color for the sides.

A textured surface can be easily created using tongs. Using pastry tongs, like tweezers, “grab” a piece of mastic and pinch it. With this device you can make geometric patterns, leaves, hearts.

Mastic cake decorating ideas

Mastic decorations can be used to decorate cakes of any size. Elements made from this mass go well with sugar beads or pearls, sprinkles and other confectionery decor.

An elegant and simple option is to cover the cake with elongated triangles of pearl fondant. The elements need to be layered on top of each other to create a ruched effect on the fabric. You can place several large sugar beads in the center.

A very effective decoration for mastic cakes is the use of figures cut out with cookie cutters. Snowflakes, hearts, and leaves look good against a contrasting background.

Delicate and very romantic decor - multi-colored “skirts” made of mastic on the sides of the cake. You need to cut out the ribbons, carefully make “assemblies” using a wooden knitting needle or stick and glue them to the cake. For more reliable fastening, you can use needles or pins - when the decoration dries, they can be easily removed. Additionally, you can cut out mastic bows.

You can make “marble” or “zebra” decor from mastic of different colors: contrasting ribbons, thin ribbons should be placed on a mastic circle, and then rolled out until smooth.

Mastic cake secrets for beginners

The best cake layers for a mastic-coated cake are sponge cakes, but there are recipes that allow you to use shortbread and even soufflé. However, if you want to make a soufflé cake, there should be sponge layers on top and bottom. Otherwise, the mastic will flow and the cake will lose its shape.

The basic version for a sponge cake is a dough made from eggs, sugar, flour and butter. Proportions vary depending on the recipe. The cake layered with the selected cream must be placed in the refrigerator for soaking. You can even press it on top with a press so that it takes shape.

Then you need to trim the sides to make it easier to cover with mastic. If the cake is composed of several parts, you need to make the desired shape. For convex elements, you can make a mixture of biscuit crumbs and mastic cream. It’s easy to disguise unevenness with it.

A simple cream recipe - made from butter and condensed milk. Beat a stick of butter with a mixer until a white mass is obtained and add half a can of condensed milk. Whisk again. Cover the cake with cream and put it in the refrigerator. Then use a heated dry spatula to smooth out any unevenness.

You can start covering the cake with fondant!

For beginners, you can apply any design or inscription to a mastic cake using a stencil and a special dye or food markers.

Simple flowers are made using cups and other containers of different diameters: circles are cut out, and then the flower is assembled.

Simple mastic cake, basic recipe

If you want to make a cake quickly, the easiest option is to use ready-made cake layers. Next you need to “assemble” the product:

The “inner” cream with which the cakes are layered can be used in almost any way to your taste, for example, creamy, custard, butter.

To make the cake tastier, the layers can be additionally layered with dried fruits, fresh fruits that do not get soggy, or alternate between cream and sour jam;
The top layer is covered with butter cream.
An even simpler option is to use ready-made chocolate spread. You need to heat it slightly so that it spreads better, and then cool the cake in the refrigerator.
Cover the finished cake with fondant as usual. If the excess mass is trimmed unevenly, the bottom edge of the cake can be decorated with sides or cut out openwork ribbons.

This is the simplest mastic cake, a basic recipe - you can even make it with your children, who will enjoy sculpting from a pliable mass, like plasticine.

IN Supermarket for the pastry chef You can purchase felt-tip pens for drawing with mastic, equipment for creating flowers and figures, ready-made sweet flowers and much more. You can make your own little confectionery masterpiece in just a few hours.

Content

Decorating cakes with fondant is an entire art, just like creating the confectionery paste itself. We have already described recipes for preparing mastic dough, but we’ll talk about how to work with it and how to decorate a cake with mastic without any problems in this article.

Mastic is used in different cases - it is used to cover pies, it is used to make various figures, decorations and various auxiliary parts.

How to cover a cake easily and without problems

If you follow fairly simple rules and requirements, then this process will not only bring pleasure, but also an excellent result. Decorating confectionery products with mastic does not take much time, and for this we will need the following:

the cake itself;
mastic;
sugar, ground into powder;
cream for mastic paste;
rolling pin;
knife;
pastry spatula.

It is better to choose a sponge cake; its layers need to be soaked in syrup, spread with cream and put in the refrigerator so that the cream has time to harden. You can do this several times: spread the cream under the mastic once and put it in the cold, then take it out and carry out the manipulations again.

Now we take ready-made purchased mastic or prepared it ourselves in advance and knead it thoroughly.

Now you need to measure the cake to understand what size to roll out the mastic dough. Remember that the pastry dough is rolled out on a table that is first sprinkled with starch or powdered sugar. The thickness of the dough should not be less than 3-4 mm, otherwise it will tear. You need to roll out a good, beautiful canvas so that it completely covers the cake and its sides too.

The next point is to carefully take the mastic, you can roll it onto a rolling pin, and transfer it to the cake, smooth it out and straighten it, but do it very carefully.

To cut off excess dough, place the cake on a stand, this will make it easier to work with it.

For the next steps we will need a pastry spatula, with its help we will finally level and smooth it.

Carefully correct the bottom of the cake with a knife and our handsome man is ready. All that remains is to decorate it with mastic figures, flower arrangements or an inscription.

This is how handsome you can turn out if you master decorating cakes with fondant.

By the way, the material with which we cover the cake can be embossed and even openwork. To do this, you will need various tools, embossed rolling pins, stencils and wheels, with which you can create such beauty as in the photo. The textured covering gives the cake even more charm.

Key points when working

The first time working with this confectionery material will be quite difficult, but this is only the first time. And if you arm yourself with a few useful tips, then the first pancake may well turn out to be lumpy:

Do not use mastic on wet confectionery products, as well as on cream, heavily soaked cakes, too wet cakes, etc.;
water or egg white is used to glue parts;
if the mastic is left in the open air for a long time, it will dry out, so it is better to make decorations in advance;
It is better to decorate the mastic cake immediately before serving. Otherwise, if the cake is in the refrigerator along with the decorations, they will absorb moisture and fall off;
leftovers can be stored in the refrigerator for up to two weeks, in the freezer for up to two months, first it must be tightly wrapped in film;
The mastic should not be rolled out too thin, otherwise it will be difficult to work with: it will tear, and even under a thin layer, all the flaws in the cake are better visible;
To make the products shine, cover them with a solution of honey and vodka after decorating your pie;
use the finest powdered sugar; if there are grains in the mastic, it will inevitably tear;
use special paints for coloring mastic or natural dyes;
It is better to create figures from mastic using silicone molds, they are easier to work with;
for modeling you will also need stacks - these are the tools that are used when modeling from plasticine.

At the same time, the question: how to decorate a cake at home with mastic combines a lot of other, no less important questions. Let's try to understand each of them.

Is any cake suitable for covering with fondant? Almost any cake is suitable: sponge cake, shortbread, honey. But, for example, cakes made from delicate souffle or bird's milk will not be able to withstand the weight of mastic, so it is better not to use them for these purposes.

Do I need to somehow prepare the cake for covering? It should be as perfectly smooth as possible. The instructions are as follows: to do this, you must first coat the cake with a thin layer of cream and put it in the refrigerator. This will remove excess crumbs from the surface. Then you can apply a thick layer and then put it in the refrigerator again. And the final stage is to smooth out all the unevenness with a hot knife and put it back in the refrigerator.

What cream is suitable for mastic? You need to choose a cream and impregnation that will not cause the mastic paste to flow. It is not necessary and not recommended to use cream based on yogurt, whipped cream, sour cream and others. Mastic loves cream based on butter and condensed milk.

Features of working with mastic when sculpting figurines and other decorations

Very often, various figures are made to decorate a children's cake - these are all kinds of cartoon characters, favorite soft toys and not only soft ones. Often, creating such decorations from mastic does not require special tools or skills, but it would be nice to have in your arsenal various confectionery tools similar to those used when modeling from plasticine, then silicone molds and other lotions would also come in handy.

So, let's figure out how to decorate a children's cake? The most ideal thing is to build on the preferences of the birthday person. Children often order a cake in the shape of “cars”, “Luntik”, “Shrek”, “Angry Birds”, “Little Pony”, “Mashenka”, “Pokemon” and other heroes. But if you don’t have any special preferences, then you can dream up your own ideas or choose something that won’t be difficult to create. For example, these may not be voluminous, but flat figures that you simply place on the cake. Use a variety of cookie cutters or templates. Or you can use the paste to immediately lay out the whole design on the cake. This is an option for decorating a cake with fondant for beginners.

Of course, the more difficult point is the three-dimensional figures made from mastic paste, but there’s nothing to be afraid of here either. Especially if you have silicone molds, but if you don’t, then imagine that mastic is ordinary plasticine. Sculpt for your health! You can even follow the instructions for sculpting figures from plasticine; the processes are practically no different.

No confectionery product can outshine the taste of homemade baked goods. And no event is complete without a birthday cake, where the main stage is its decoration. And not every housewife knows how to decorate it beautifully at home, but to know how to do it, you don’t have to have the skills of a professional confectioner.

Decorating it with mastic is practically the same as sitting in a craft class and sculpting various figures from plasticine. The sweet material for decoration is so flexible to use that any housewife can make an outlandish pattern, bow or any other composition for a birthday cake out of it.

There are many recipes for making mastic. It’s impossible to talk about each one, so we suggest you familiarize yourself with the most common and fairly simple ones.

Recipe No. 1: milk mastic

Average preparation time for milk mastic: half an hour.

Calorie content: 368.56 kcal.

Step by step process:

Recipe No. 2: gelatin mastic

This recipe is suitable for those who want to create clear figures for the cake.

Components:

multi-colored food colors;
gelatin – 10 g;
lemon juice – 2 tsp;
powdered sugar – 600 gr.;
water – 55 ml.

Preparation time for gelatin mastic: 40 minutes.

Calorie content: 333.24 kcal.

Cooking process:

Tools

So, we’ve learned how to prepare mastic, now it’s time to learn the basics of design and acquire the necessary tools:

Decor

Having the essentials at hand, we move on to covering the cake with a sweet background, that is, a layer of mastic. How to do it right:

Forms and their purpose

Plungers. To get started, purchase the most necessary things: gerbera, quinquefoil, ivy and rose leaves, and a butterfly. To begin with, this is enough, as needed and experience, buy the rest.

Cutters. Sometimes you don’t want to look for lids of different sizes, you don’t have time, and cutters come to the rescue - circles of different diameters.

Tassels. They must be synthetic; a budget option can be found at a stationery store.

When sculpting flowers, you will need a drying kit. But at first you can replace it with a box of chocolates.

A soft mat will be needed to roll the edges of the petals.

Silicone molds. Absolutely any molds of figurines, animals, beads, bows, buttons are on sale.

By purchasing an initial set of tools, molds, and watching demonstration video tutorials, you can create a culinary masterpiece to your liking.

How to decorate a cake with icing

Thin shiny icing is a fairly popular way to decorate cakes. To prepare it you will need:

icing sugar – 200 gr.;
oil – 2 tsp;
water as needed.

Cooking time: 15 minutes.

Calorie content: 48.93 kcal.

Mix the ingredients and melt in a water bath. For smoothness and density, you can add a little water. Constantly stirring the mixture until the glaze becomes shiny and smooth.

Types of glaze:

Principles of decorating with glaze

Mirror glaze

Makes the surface glossy and smooth.

Before cutting, it is necessary to wet the knife in hot water or heat it, otherwise the mirror glaze will crack.

To prepare it you will need:

chocolate – 1.5 bars;
glucose syrup -150 ml;
water – 75 ml;
sugar -150 gr.;
condensed milk – 100 gr.;
gelatin – 12 g (melt in 60 ml of water).

Cooking time 30 minutes.

Calorie content: 170.75 kcal.

Preparation:

Soak the gelatin and leave to swell;
Mix glucose syrup with sugar and boil;
Remove from heat and cool;
Add gelatin and pour in condensed milk;
Pour the chopped chocolate into syrup and beat with a blender;
Place the resulting mass in a cold place overnight, and in the morning heat it in a microwave oven to 35C, beat again and begin coating the cake.

How to decorate a cake with fruits yourself

Decorating a confectionery product with fruits, mostly exotic ones, is a fairly popular action among housewives. Firstly, it is bright, secondly, there is an incredible taste contrast and, thirdly, the fruit cake looks beautiful when cut.

The easiest way to decorate at home is to fan out mangoes, apples, kiwis, strawberries, and oranges cut into slices on the surface of the cake. And thin slices can be decorated in the form of a fruit rose. But the most spectacular option is considered to be a “bed” of fruit, filled with transparent jelly.

We decorate children's cakes with our own hands: inscriptions, sweets, figures

A child’s birthday is a wonderful occasion to please a little miracle with original baked goods. Most often, children's cakes are decorated with ready-made figures made from fondant and marshmallows. This design is especially popular for children under 2 years old.

Cream flowers and leaves are no less loved by children, so we take note of this decor option. The decoration turns out to be more solemn and festive.

Another decoration option that will not leave any child indifferent is a cake completely covered in chocolate. And we’re not just talking about glaze, but also about various candies, curls, and shavings. Believe me, such a cake will be a real “chocolate happiness” for the birthday boy and all his friends.

But you need to be extremely careful with nuts and fruits, since many children may be allergic to these ingredients.

How to decorate a cake for a boy with your own hands

There is nothing complicated in this matter, because absolutely all boys love cars, cartoons, and want to become super heroes.

A cake made from Lego figures will look original, since all the boys love to build something from this construction set. To do this, bake the cake in the form of a rectangle, and make the round parts using Oreo cookies.

For a boy athlete, a cake in the shape of a ball would be an ideal option. There is nothing complicated in preparation. It is enough to bake round cakes and, after completely coating them with cream, give the product a spherical shape.

For the laziest, there is also a decor option. Find round foam molds and attach candy bars, chewing gum, and chocolates to them.

Decorating a cake with your own hands: other original ideas

Standard roses won’t surprise anyone now, so you have to use your imagination. To make your work easier, we suggest looking at the most popular and little-known ways to decorate holiday baked goods.

A stencil will help you quickly and easily decorate the surface of the cake. You can buy ready-made or make it yourself. Which one should I use?

For surface decoration – large and round; small ones are for cupcakes and muffins; The sides are made rectangular; but single stencils with figures and inscriptions can be used on both large and small confectionery products.

To decorate through a stencil, you can use powder, finely grated chocolate, fine sprinkles and nut flour. Patterns are applied using melted chocolate, glaze, liquid mastic, fondant, cream and icing.

Nut mass is not new in cake decoration. Most often, the base of production includes almond flour and sugar paste. The marzipan mass has a very delicate taste and elastic consistency, which allows it to perfectly retain its shape. Marzipan is not only used to cover cakes, but also to create voluminous toys and figurines.

A lot has been said about this option for decorating cakes. There is probably not a single person who has not tried a confectionery product decorated with red roses and bright lime leaves.

You can use cream not only to make petals and flowers, but also to write congratulatory inscriptions, create an aesthetic edging, and more experienced housewives have long learned to create cream animals using attachments.

Cream

They will decorate not only a cake, but also any dessert, including ice cream, in an original way. In terms of design, they captivate with their snow-white hue, airy consistency and, of course, taste.

It’s easy to decorate a cake at home using cream: just cool it in the refrigerator and beat at high speed until strong foam. Be sure to use a piping bag when decorating.

Crispy meringue tops almost any dessert. Traditionally they are baked in the form of hemispheres. Which, when decorating a cake, look more voluminous and unusual. The decor will especially appeal to little ones with a sweet tooth.

Chocolate

This is not only an ingredient for layering and preparing glaze, but also an excellent material for decoration.

The decoration is quite rare and few people know about it, although decoration with candied flowers has long been used in European countries.

To do this, you need to collect violets or rose petals. Dip them into lightly beaten egg whites, and then carefully roll them in icing sugar. The finished decoration is dried on a wire rack and stored in an airtight container.

“Ice pattern” always looks gentle and romantic. The appearance resembles patterns on glass, and the taste of the icing is similar to crispy pieces of ice. The universal decor never spreads, so it retains its shape perfectly. Icing decor is mainly used in the design of wedding cakes.

Jelly

Usually they cover fruits, but jelly-filled nuts will look no less original. You can surprise your guests with your imagination in another way: purchase various chocolate molds, prepare colorful jelly and pour them into these molds.

Voila, in a few hours you will have a lot of jelly figures to decorate your holiday baking.

Marmalade and candies

It’s unlikely that a children’s party would be complete without a cake with candles. And young guests, compared to adults, pay more attention to the design, and not to the composition of exotic ingredients.

Therefore, the most advantageous option would be decor in the form of multi-colored marmalades and M&Ms candies.

And another option for simple cake decoration is in the next video.

No one will argue that all dishes on the festive table should be decorated accordingly. In addition, both a woman and a man will be delighted with a beautiful cake with a declaration of love. How to make a luxurious dessert that will not leave anyone indifferent? In fact, everything is very simple - you can turn any ordinary pastry into a work of culinary art. You can do this at home, focusing solely on your imagination. If you want to pleasantly surprise your guests or give a sweet gift to your significant other, read the instructions below.

In order to prepare this unusual dessert, you will need 2 packages of semi-finished product for cupcakes, a sufficient amount of marshmallow mastic, any red jam and red and pink This recipe will tell you the mastic.

Step 1. Test preparation

Prepare two packages of muffin mix in two separate bowls according to package directions (or make your favorite batter recipe). Add pink food coloring to one part and mix well.

Step 2. Baking

Place a layer of pink dough into the greased pan and spread evenly. On top is a layer of any red jam. Then add the white dough, a second layer of jam and top evenly with the remaining pink dough. Bake according to pre-cooking instructions. If you don't have a heart shape, you can cut one out of a finished cake.

Step 3. Preparing mastic

Culinary mastic is made from marshmallows with the addition of butter. You can make it at home or buy a ready-made product. One of the ways to prepare it is as follows.

Ingredients:

1 package of Marshmallows (soft small marshmallows) weighing 150-200 g;
powdered sugar mixed with starch - about 400-500 g (sieve all lumps);
butter - approximately 1 tbsp. spoon;
milk - 1 dessert spoon.

Place marshmallows in a bowl and add milk and butter. Microwave for about 30 seconds (if your microwave is high power, 10 seconds may be enough). If desired, you can place the bowl in a hot water bath, stirring constantly. The mass will increase in size and begin to melt.

After this, add approximately 70-100 grams of powder, stir until smooth. If desired, add food coloring and flavoring now. Gradually add the required amount of powder and mix until the consistency of the dough. You should get a thick mass that can no longer be stirred with a spoon.

Transfer this mass to a table sprinkled with powdered sugar, grease your hands with butter and knead the mastic until plastic, adding the required amount of powder.

Keep in mind in advance that if you want to follow the instructions on how to decorate cakes with fondant, you will need a large rolling pin with rings to give the whole mixture the same thickness throughout.

Place the fondant on a large cutting board. Start rolling it from the center to the edge in both directions. When it is thin enough, use a sharp knife to trim the ends.

The advantage of fondant is that it provides a very smooth surface and will hide any imperfections or imperfections in your cake.

Step 4. mastic: covering its surface

When everything is ready, spread the mixture on the cake and carefully attach, creating a heart shape.

Note

It is advisable to apply a thin layer of frosting on top to help the fondant adhere to the cake. Starting from the center to the edges, stretch it over the entire surface of the cakes. Use a sharp knife to cut off most of the excess. Remember that the glaze (store-bought or homemade) should be light in color so as not to disturb the appearance of your dessert.

Step 5. How to decorate cakes with fondant: giving shape

Once you have covered your cake with an even layer of the mixture, use a small sharp knife to trim off any excess around the edges.

Step 6. Decoration

Using food coloring and a pastry brush, make beautiful designs and inscriptions on the cake. You can also transform the dessert by placing beautifully shaped chocolates on it. In addition, you can make a cake decorated. In fact, your imagination is not limited by anything - you can make any design.

Nothing can compare to the taste of homemade baked goods. A homemade cake is more popular at family celebrations than store-bought confectionery. A festive fragrant cake, prepared at home, should externally correspond to its purpose. Not every woman knows that in order to decorate baked goods with mastic, you do not have to be a professional pastry chef. A cake decorated independently, with love, can in many ways surpass store-bought counterparts. Learn how to make beautiful fondant cake decorations.

Mastic is a dough made from powdered sugar. You can prepare it for future use and store it in the refrigerator in a sealed container or container. Mastic has become a popular cake decorating element in recent years. If you decide to decorate homemade baked goods with mastic for the first time, practice on the eve of the holiday using small quantities of the products used. As soon as you understand that the figures and canvas are obtained quickly and efficiently, you can begin the main decoration of the festive dessert.

The food colors used can be either factory-made or natural. For red color you can use the juice of berries, beets, for green spinach, blueberries will give a blue and even purple tint. Using your imagination, you can create exclusive, unique decoration details, edible figures and multi-colored cake covers. Such festive dessert dishes look bright, elegant and original.

Rules for working with mastic

The mastic layer is best applied to a leveled, dry surface of the biscuit. To prevent the layer from showing through, the cake decorated with sugar mastic should be stored at low humidity, in hermetically sealed boxes or plastic bags. It is better to roll out the mastic on a table sprinkled with starch or powdered sugar. The optimal thickness for covering that will not tear should be 2-3 mm. The size of the surface of the “blanket” must exceed the area of the cake, then the mastic under its own weight will lie flat, without folds.

To prevent the mastic sheet from tearing when applying it to the cakes, use the original method:

Place the mastic between two large sheets of dense polyethylene, which are greased with vegetable oil.
Roll out to 2-3 mm thick.
Remove one sheet of polyethylene, carefully transfer it to the cake layer, place it evenly on the surface of the cake layer, then separate the second sheet of film.

To give the mastic a shiny look, after finishing the decoration, use a soft brush to cover it with a honey-vodka solution (1:1): the vodka will evaporate, and the figures and the covering will have a mirror-like varnished surface. You can store mastic prepared for future use in the refrigerator for a long time. The main requirement is that the container be hermetically sealed, without air access, which will prevent the mastic from drying out and not letting in moisture, which will cause the mastic to “float.”

Step-by-step master classes on decorating a cake with fondant with photos

To make confectionery operations for decorating cakes go smoothly, we are ready to provide small recommendations and tips that will help even a novice pastry chef quickly master the operations at the final stage of preparing a festive dessert. Before you start preparing mastic and decorating with it, carefully read the list of products and materials that you need to have on hand.

It is important to watch the video carefully, repeat the steps after the pastry chef, without skipping any of them and without trying to simplify the task for yourself. This sweet decor has its own character, but once you get used to it, you will be able to create real masterpieces for every family holiday, and everyone at home will look forward to a new sweet creation. The standard set of products sometimes becomes more diverse, but you should not add something to it at your own discretion if you do not yet have sufficient experience working with confectionery compositions.

Birthday Cake Decoration

A wonderful birthday celebration leaves no one indifferent. Starting from the first year of a person’s life, on this day there is almost always a cake on the table. Particular significance is attached to it if the age of the birthday person is marked by a round date, coming of age. Birthday dessert decoration can be themed, related to wishes for the birthday person or his occupation, or have a standard decoration in the form of roses or chamomile flowers.

Powdered sugar.
Condensed milk.
Powdered milk.
Lemon juice.
Butter.
Food colors or natural substitutes.
Iron.
Rolling pin.
Foil.

Stages of cake design

Before you start decorating the cake, make sure that the baked cakes have cooled well.
Assemble the structure using cake layers, covering them with prepared cream from the selected ingredients.
To make the dessert beautiful, level the top and sides by applying and smoothing a thick cream: whipped 200 g of butter and half a can of boiled condensed milk.
To prepare mastic, mix 160 g of powdered sugar and milk powder, add 200 condensed milk, knead the dough until it becomes elastic. Lemon juice should be added if the mastic begins to crumble.
Dividing the mastic dough into parts according to the number of intended colors, add dyes.
After pouring powdered sugar on the table, use a rolling pin to roll out the main layer of mastic to cover the cakes.
Wrap it around a rolling pin or use the advice on how to use polyethylene mentioned above. Carefully transfer to crust. Using a special iron, smooth the surface of the mastic, moving from the center, gradually moving to the sides. Trim off any remaining edges.
The bottom of the cake will look more beautiful if you make the edges of the mastic in the form of a “skirt”, lifting it with a wooden stick and creating a wave.
The next step will be creating flowers. Using cups and cups of different diameters, cut out circles. Place them on foil in decreasing order of size and close the sheet of foil a little. The more details of the mastic, the more magnificent the flower will be. If necessary, use your hands to bend some of the petals.
Cut out the leaves using a cookie cutter or a regular knife. Create volume by drawing veins on the leaves and giving them a natural shape.
Decorate the surface with the resulting bouquets of flowers and leaves, creating a unique holiday combination. Use cream to write a congratulation to the birthday person; if the date is round, you can indicate the numbers.

How to decorate a cake with fondant for the New Year

It is rare to meet a person who is not looking forward to the New Year. Housewives begin to prepare for it in advance, stocking up on food and sharing recipes for the most delicious dishes with each other. Desserts and cakes prepared independently come first. To surprise and delight your family and guests for the New Year, prepare a themed mastic decoration that matches the winter holiday. A particularly interesting decoration would be the symbol of the coming year according to the Eastern calendar, made using marshmallow mastic.

Required materials and tools

Powdered sugar.
Marshmallow.
Gel food colors.
Lemon juice.

Stages of cake design

Add 220 g marshmallow candies with one spoon of water and two spoons of lemon juice. Place in the microwave to heat for 15 seconds. The candies should increase in size.
Kneading the mass with a spoon, gradually add 400-500 g of powdered sugar. You shouldn’t pour out all the powder at once.
Knead the finished mastic dough well with your hands, divide it into several parts - for covering the cake and for New Year's figures, which you can paint in the desired colors.
Store decoration parts or finished dessert in a large plastic bag in the refrigerator.

How to cover a baby cake with fondant

To decorate a cake with fondant for a child, you need to show a little imagination. Children under three years old will be interested in seeing sculpted children's figures in cabbage, with a stork, in the form of rattles and pyramids. An older child will be happy with all kinds of edible animals and toys. Girls who love Barbie dolls will be delighted when they see a cake in the shape of their favorite princess, and for boys, a cake in the shape of a car will be a memorable surprise.

Required materials and tools

Gelatin.
Lemon juice.
Powdered sugar.
Food colors (natural or high-quality imported).

Stages of cake design

Having prepared the cooled cakes for decoration, smooth their surface with cream and make a base of sugar mastic, as in previous recipes, covering the surface.
You can make the figures for a children's cake gelatin; they harden less and children like them, reminding them of chewing candies. To do this, prepare gelatin mastic:

a) dissolve 10 g of gelatin in 55 mm of cold water for swelling and heat without bringing to a boil, stirring all the time;

b) form 160 g of powdered sugar on the table in the form of a slide with a depression into which to pour the dissolved gelatin;

c) knead the mastic, adding a few drops of lemon juice if necessary;

d) add brightly colored food coloring to make the decorations more elegant.

Remember the modeling lessons, use elastic mastic to create toys, fairy-tale characters, and favorite children's characters. Place them on the surface of the cake, creating a miniature of a playground or a cartoon plot, because children love cartoons and will definitely be happy with such a surprise. Mastic figures become the main object of desire when the mother brings in the cake, and are remembered by the children for a long time after the holiday is over.