Traditionally, wedding cake decorations refer to an exclusive type of culinary art, designed to express in a sweet composition all good wishes for long and happy years of family life, prosperity and unfading love.
The effect is achieved by the shape of the cakes, the color of the coating of the cakes and, above all, the symbolic details and the patterns on top (silhouette, figures, flowers, inscriptions).
Decorations on the wedding cake of cream, cream, frosting, meringue
The king of desserts should be decorated originally, impressively and be remembered for a long time not only by its appearance, but also by its excellent taste. To do this, the decorative elements in their bulk are made edible and appetizing in appearance.
Creamy ornaments – both white and lightly colored with food dyes – are easy to cut (keeping their shape) in any direction. Airy islands of meringue, frosting or cream allow you to pre-determine the division into portions.
Cream and cream
At home with their own hands, it is easy to decorate cakes with cream and whipped cream. To do this, you will need a pastry syringe and a set of several special nozzles.
For each type of flower from the cream, there are different types of tips, forming from the extruded mass its own unique shape.
Inscriptions, patterns, three-dimensional shapes require the tip to have holes of a different profile. They can be purchased in advance or made independently from dense material. For the simplest variants, one corner of a polyethylene bag is cut off or a paper pile is rolled. Every cook has a favorite recipe for buttercream.
The most uncomplicated way to make it is to mix a packet (200 g) of melted butter with 10 tablespoons (tablespoons) of condensed milk in a mixer.
You should dye the cream mass with ready-to-use food dyes. You can independently give the desired shade with the following ingredients:
- brown – cocoa, coffee;
- yellow – saffron diluted in water;
- shades of red – cranberry, cherry, beet;
- salad – spinach;
- orange – carrots.
Mirror Glaze.
Of all the types of frosting (soft, creamy, chocolate, dairy, multicolored), mirror frosting looks the most spectacular and modern.
You can cover a whole cake with such beauty, or decorate in the same style a group dessert, consisting of individual cakes, cookies.
Mirror glaze (glassage) is prepared from the basic components:
- gelatin;
- glucose syrup;
- sugar;
- chocolate;
- water.
According to the various recipes for the frosting, you can add cocoa, molasses, vanilla, dyes, condensed milk.
Meringue
Crispy meringue details lay beautifully on almost any coating. Sweet, off-white decor elements are baked in advance from the protein mass in the form of hemispheres of the desired shape/size. They are neatly laid on top or on the side of the perimeter of the finished product.
The composition for the preparation of the following:
- sugar (powdered), 1 cup;
- egg white chilled, 5 pcs.
- vanilla (optional).
In a deep bowl whipped egg whites with a mixer or whisk for 10 minutes – 15 minutes until a fluffy foam, then gradually (1-2 teaspoons) add sugar, at the very end sprinkle with vanilla. The formed pieces are dried in the oven for 1.5-2 hours at 100 ° C.
How to decorate a wedding cake with mastic, icing, chocolate
Mastic because of its ability to retain the shape of even the most openwork reliefs, is the most popular way to decorate wedding cakes. To master the skills of working with such a plastic material is not difficult.
There are several main types that are used to create the conceived design: sugar fondant, its variety of icing (sugar icing), marzipan, chocomastic.
From such a material, painted in bright or delicate colors, you can decorate the cake with a bow, a fountain, pearls, angels, macaroons, a crown, figures of newlyweds, rings, swans, a ribbon or a heart.
Mastic
The simplest recipe for edible mass for molding consists of 3 ingredients: powdered sugar; condensed milk; powdered milk, mixed in a ratio of 1:1:1.
Marshmallow mastic is made from chewy marshmallows (melted in a microwave oven), butter, powdered sugar, water and citric acid (to taste). To give color, add appropriate dyes. The resulting mass is rolled out into a cake and neatly cover the base of the cakes.
Having the skills of modeling with plasticine, you can make themed figures and decorative elements yourself. Good turn out of mastic thin details, such as flower petals.
Work with cooked mastic should be done quickly, as the material dries quickly in the open air. If you immediately cover the raw mass with food film, you can keep the raw material in the refrigerator for up to 3 months.
Attach volumetric decorations to the surface of the cake by gluing them to sugar syrup, sugar-protein mixture or by putting them on hard skewers of toothpicks.
Icing
A type of sugar fondant called icing. Icing looks delicate, but it is very strong (crisp), perfectly holds on to the cream coating of the cakes, does not spill in the heat, so it is considered a universal coating when decorating a white wedding cake.
To make it, you need the following chilled ingredients:
- 450-600 g of powdered sugar;
- 3 egg whites;
- glycerin 1 tsp;
- lemon juice 15 g.
Beat the whites for 2 minutes at reduced speed. Add juice, glycerin, and gradually powdered sugar. Continue beating until a homogeneous white mass is obtained. Leave in cold storage for 1 hour, cover with clingfilm to allow all the air bubbles to disperse.
Chocolate
Melted white or dark chocolate is suitable for making any shape, lace, the thinnest butterfly wings, writing and hearts of any size. You can pour it all over the top of the cake or limit yourself to single subjects.
The technique of decorating includes the following techniques:
- dousing (applying with a brush) the cakes and individual bases;
- sprinkling with crumb or small chips;
- slicing softened tiles with a vegetable knife and forming openwork ornaments from a long curving strip;
- pouring into themed molds.
It is believed that such a product can not be much, so there is a lot of room for imagination.
How to beautifully decorate a wedding cake with jelly and fruit?
Jelly
Jelly mass can be used to evenly cover the top of the wedding cake or make individual figures (letters) in molds with subsequent laying on the base.
To prepare the jelly will require the following components:
- 1 cup of powdered sugar;
- 0.6 l of juice;
- 1 pack of gelatin (instant).
Soak the gelatin in 0.2 liters of juice, after swelling it should be melted in a steam bath.
Add the rest of the juice and (stirring) powder. The homogeneous mass is divided as follows: 0.5 l pour into forms (with or without fruit) and let solidify. The remaining 0.1 l cool until it starts to set, and evenly spread on top of the cake. Cover the stiffened plates from the forms on top. The edges are covered with cream or cream. Keep the cake for 10-12 hours in the refrigerator and you can serve it.
Cherries, apples and other fruits
To decorate with the gifts of nature, choose both whole fruits and artistic cuts of local or exotic fruits.
They can be arranged fresh, candied or canned. The space between large specimens is often filled with bright berries.
Great flavor combinations are obtained. Many fruits look beautiful in the cut. The method of simply laying out a fan of slices on the surface of the finished cake is suitable for oranges, apples, strawberries, mango, kiwi, lemon (lime).
Thin slices can be assembled into whimsical flowers and vines. You can give a “varnished” effect to such a picture with a thin layer of jelly.
Each style of wedding decor has its own symbols and color traditions. The use of quality food dyes allows you to give the mastic, cream or jelly almost any desired shade, without changing the taste of the product. The density of decorations on the surface of the dessert is chosen on the basis of a sense of proportion – so that the whole product looks festive, easy and solemn.