5 Easy Ways to Make your Cakes Look Good

We know a lot of you can make a mean Victoria sponge yourselves, but... you just want your cake decoration to level up a bit. Of course, the best way to do that is by booking on to our Cake Decorating Masterclass on November 25th. But for those who can't, here's an easy guide to making your bakes look brilliant:

1) If you're wanting a flat top on your sponge, trim the domed tops off your layers, and then turn your top layer upside down, so the flat bottom from the tin is on top. This immediately gives you a lovely flat surface and sharp corner to work with.

2) Asymmetrical designs look better.

Unless the design is purposefully symmetrical, placing your decorations so they are on one side mainly, with some elements to balance them out at the opposite corner, works well. Here's an example.

3) Make sure the design includes blank space.

Again, taking this picture as an example, a design really comes into its own when it's given room to breathe. A cake that is smothered in decoration distracts and confuses the eye. To allow design elements to pop, leave space.

4) Cold cake is better to work with.

Patience is a virtue. It also means not having a hot mess on your worktop. Chill, chill, chill your cake, in between each layer of buttercream and in between decorating. The colder the better. Unless it's fondant. Then DON'T put it in the fridge!

5) Focus on getting the colours right.

Garish colours, unless that's a deliberate design choice, can often make an otherwise classy cake look tacky. Take time to mix your colours up in natural light, using a tiny bit of food colouring at a time to control it. This will pay off immensely. Colour is so much a part of a beautiful cake design.

As a bonus tip, I'd say a turntable, palette knives small and large, a scraper of some kind, flexi smoothers for fondant, spatulas and a good set of piping nozzles are essential. Here are some more ideas from a previous blog!

We hope this gives you some good inspo - let us know if these tips helped! We also have a great selection of online classes from just £1 available HERE at the bottom of this page.

For beautiful cakes and more cake decorating classes and inspiration, visit www.threelittlebirdsbakery.com