Tools for making cakes at home. The most essential tools for working with cream

If you love baking cakes, then this article is especially for you! In this article, we will look at a wide variety of DIY cake decorating methods at home. You can transform an ordinary cake with mastic, marzipan, icing, waffles, chocolate, icing, cream, cream, meringues, fruits, jelly, candies, marmalade and sprinkles. We will consider each decoration ingredient separately, get acquainted with the recipe for making, and, of course, be inspired by a huge number of ideas.

For some cake decorating options, you will need special materials such as: a pastry syringe with attachments, parchment paper, a sharp thin knife, and spatulas of different thicknesses.

Mastic Is a special dough for cake decorating. You can roll it out and cover the top of the cake, you can also create various animal figures, letters, numbers, flowers, leaves, openwork patterns and whatever your imagination wants.

The basic rule of working with mastic is that you have to work with it very quickly, as it instantly freezes. But there is a way out! When you are forming the decoration, pinch off the desired piece, and wrap the rest of the mastic in a film. Large figures may crack when dry.

Mastic recipe number 1

Ingredients: condensed milk, milk powder or cream, icing sugar, food colors (optional). The number of ingredients directly depends on the size of the cake.

Cooking process: take a deep dish and mix milk powder or cream with powdered sugar. Add the condensed milk gradually and mix well. You should get an elastic dough that does not stick to your hands. Add food coloring, drop by drop, and stir in the dough. After cooking, immediately wrap the mastic in foil.

Mastic recipe number 2

Ingredients: water, lemon juice or citric acid, butter, icing sugar, starch, marshmallows (white chewing marshmallows), food coloring (optional).

Cooking process: steam the marshmallows, add a few drops of food coloring if desired. Then add water and just a little bit of lemon juice or citric acid. Stir the mixture well and then add 50 grams of butter. Mix the powdered sugar and starch separately in a 1: 3 ratio. Gradually add the starch and powder mixture to the marshmallow mixture and knead the dough well for about 10 minutes. After cooking, immediately wrap the mastic in foil.

Marzipan- This is a nut mass, which consists of almond flour and sugar paste. Its advantages are that it perfectly holds its shape, is quite elastic and has an amazing delicate taste. It is convenient to create all decoration elements from it - small figurines, cake coverings and volumetric decorations.

Marzipan recipe

Ingredients: 200 grams of sugar, a quarter cup of water, 1 cup of lightly toasted almonds, butter.

Cooking process: peel the almonds and chop finely in a blender or on a grater. Boil sugar and water syrup. The consistency of the syrup should be thick. Pour the ground almonds into the syrup, stir and cook for 3 minutes. Take a bowl and brush it well with butter. Pour the marzipan into a bowl. Cool the marzipan and mince it. Marzipan is ready! If it's runny, add the icing sugar. If the marzipan is very thick, add a little boiled water.

I recommend the photo gallery of marzipan cakes!

Icing Is an ice pattern that looks like a winter drawing on a window and tastes like crunchy ice. The advantages of icing are that it is strong enough, does not spread, and adheres perfectly to the surface of the confectionery. It can be applied over hard chocolate glaze, mastic, fondant. It should be noted that the surface on which the icing can be applied should not spread and be not sticky. Icing is applied with a confectionery syringe, then the finished product is placed in the refrigerator for further solidification. Laces, inscriptions and patterns are very beautiful.

Icing recipe

Ingredients: 3 eggs, 500-600 grams of powdered sugar, 15 grams of lemon juice, 1 teaspoon of glycerin.

Manufacturing process: chill all the ingredients, degrease the dishes and wipe them dry. Take eggs, separate the whites from the yolks. Whisk the whites, add glycerin, lemon juice and powdered sugar. Whisk the mixture well until it turns white. Cover the mixture with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 1 hour to burst air bubbles. Icing is ready, you can safely decorate the cake!

Waffles- these are materials for decorating flowers, various figures, numbers. They are made from crispy waffle dough. Also popular are ready-made edible pictures based on a waffle crust. You can buy this jewelry in pastry shops, supermarkets or on the Internet. It is impossible to make waffles with the image on your own, since you will need food ink and special equipment. The advantages of waffles are that they do not crack, hold their shape perfectly and do not melt. However, they can only be used on a light-colored cake surface, since when soaked, the picture can become saturated with dark cream.

Wafer design rules

Chocolate decoration is considered a classic cake decoration. This ingredient goes well with biscuits, soufflés, mousse, puff pastry and various creams. The advantages of chocolate are that melted it can be given any shape, and when the chocolate hardens, it will not crack or spread. For decorating cakes, you can use any chocolate - black, white, milk, porous.

Methods for decorating cakes with chocolate

1. To decorate the cake with chocolate chips, you just need to grate the chocolate bar and sprinkle it on the cake.
2. To decorate the cake with curls, slightly warm the chocolate bar, then take a thin knife, or better a vegetable cutter, and cut off thin strips, they will immediately begin to curl. You can create chic patterns from them.
3. Here is another way to decorate a cake with openwork patterns, inscriptions and drawings. Melt a chocolate bar in a steam bath. Place the chocolate in a pastry syringe. Take parchment paper and draw patterns. Use a pastry syringe to draw the patterns on the parchment paper. Place the parchment in the refrigerator to freeze the chocolate. Carefully remove the chocolate from the parchment and decorate the cake. If you are not good at drawing, find a beautiful pattern on the Internet, print it out, attach clear parchment paper to the drawing, and simply copy it over.
4. To decorate the cake with chocolate leaves, you will need real leaves of a tree or a houseplant. Wash and dry the leaves. Melt the chocolate in a steam bath and place it on the inside of the sheet with a silicone brush. Put in the refrigerator, and when it hardens, carefully remove the chocolate from the leaf and decorate the cake.
5. Another creative way to decorate a cake is with cherries and chocolate. Remove the pits, place each cherry in the melted chocolate, and decorate the cake.

At the moment, there are chocolate, mirror, marmalade, caramel, multi-colored, soft, milk and creamy glaze.

Chocolate icing recipe

Ingredients: 1.5 tablespoons of milk, 2 teaspoons of cocoa powder, 1.5 tablespoons of sugar, 40 grams of butter.

Cooking process: take a bowl, put in cocoa, sugar, pieces of butter, and cover with milk. Put on fire, melt and boil for 5-7 minutes. Cover the cake with the chocolate icing using a wide knife and refrigerate to set.

Caramel icing recipe

Ingredients: 150 grams of warm water, 180 grams of fine sugar, 2 teaspoons of corn starch, 150 grams of heavy cream, 5 grams of gelatin.

Cooking process: Soak gelatin in water, mix cream with starch, melt sugar in a skillet until light brown. Add cream with starch and sugar to warm water. Boil to dissolve the caramel. Remember to stir the mixture constantly. Then pour it into the cream, stir, cool and add the swollen gelatin. Cover the cake with the caramel icing using a wide knife and refrigerate to set.

Gummy frosting recipe

Ingredients: 200 grams of one color marmalade, 50 grams of butter, 2 tablespoons of fat sour cream, 120 grams of sugar.

Cooking process: melt the marmalade in a steam bath or in the microwave, add sour cream, butter and sugar. Stir the mixture well and put on fire. Cook the frosting for 10 minutes, stirring constantly. Cool the frosting slightly. Cover the cake with the gummy icing using a wide knife and refrigerate for 3-4 hours to harden further.

Cream- a universal decoration for cakes. It is very convenient for them to write congratulations, make openwork frames, lush roses. Food colors are often added to the cream.

Butter cream recipe

Ingredients: 100 grams of butter, 5 tablespoons of condensed milk, food colors.

Cooking process: melt the butter in a steam bath or microwave. Whisk it until it turns white and fluffy. Add the condensed milk, stir well and divide the cream into portions. Add the desired color to each portion of the cream. Put the cream in a pastry syringe and create beauty, then send the cake to the cold to freeze the cream.

Whipped cream Is an original airy, voluminous and delicate decoration. Their preparation does not require special products. You will need a pastry syringe to decorate a cake beautifully with whipped cream. You need to work with cream quickly enough. Make sure all ingredients and tools are cooked. The surface of the cake should be flat and not too sticky.

Whipped cream recipe

Ingredients: half a liter of high-fat cream from 33%, a bag of vanilla, 100-200 grams of powdered sugar, 1 bag of instant gelatin, food coloring (optional).

Cooking process: Place the cream in the refrigerator for 12 hours. Pour the chilled cream into a deep bowl. Take another deep container, pour ice water into it. Place the bowl of cream in a bowl of ice water. Dissolve the gelatin in the manner indicated on the package. Whip the cream with a mixer (do not use a blender as it will not foam). Beat them until the froth is strong enough. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla, then whisk. Add the dissolved gelatin in a thin stream. Place the cream in the syringe and decorate the cake.

I recommend the photo gallery of cakes decorated with whipped cream!

Meringue Is a snow-white, crispy and very tasty decoration. It is laid out on a layer of chocolate, jam, or cream.

Meringue recipe

Ingredients: a glass of powdered sugar, 5 chilled eggs, a bag of vanilla (optional).

Cooking process: separate the whites from the yolks, pour the whites into a dry, fat-free deep container. Whisk the whites until fluffy (10-15 minutes). Gradually pour in the powder (1-2 teaspoons) and dissolve immediately. Add vanilla and dissolve well as well. Preheat the oven to 100 degrees, line a baking sheet with parchment paper and transfer the protein froth to a pastry syringe. Squeeze the protein mixture onto a baking sheet to create nice balls or other shapes. The meringue is dried, not baked; the residence time of the future meringue in the oven depends on the size of the blanks. Approximate drying time 1.5-2 hours.

Fruits are delicious, healthy and contain a huge amount of vitamins. They will brightly decorate the cake with flavor combinations and rich colors. The easiest way to decorate with fruit is to fan out sliced ​​slices of strawberry, kiwi, orange, mango, and all sorts of other fruits. You can create a whole fruit canvas that goes well with natural jelly.

Recipe

Ingredients: fresh fruits and berries, for fruit jelly - light juice, for example, apple 600 ml, a glass of powdered sugar, 1 pack of powdered gelatin.

Cooking process: pour a glass of juice over the gelatin and set aside to swell. Prepare the fruits, peel them and cut them into small beautiful slices. Kiwi and bananas are cut in circles, apples and oranges are cut in half rings, strawberries are cut in half, raspberries, blackberries, cherries are left whole. Melt the gelatin in a water bath, add the remaining juice and powdered sugar to it. Strain the mixture, arrange the fruit in the jelly nicely and refrigerate. When the jelly hardens slightly, transfer it to the cake, turning the container over. Mask the edges with butter or whipped cream, if desired. Place the cake in the refrigerator.

Jelly looks very beautiful and has a beneficial effect on people's joints. The jelly filling goes well with various fruits. However, you can decorate the cake with it in its pure form, or you can decorate the top with jelly filling with sprinkling of coconut chips or nuts, be original and think over the concept of decoration!

Jelly Fill Recipe

Ingredients: 600 ml of juice (you can take juice of different colors), 1 package of rapidly dissolving gelatin, a glass of powdered sugar.

Cooking process: Soak gelatin in 1/3 of the juice and leave to swell. Then melt the gelatin with the juice and steam. Mix the icing sugar and the remaining juice, pour into the molds and refrigerate. Pour 100 ml of jelly, and refrigerate for a while so that it has time to set. Place the cake in a mold that is 3 cm higher than it. Place the jelly filling on the cake, and decorate the top with jelly from the molds. Steam will help to easily get the jelly blanks out of the molds. It is enough to bring the jelly mold over the steam, and then turn it over for dessert. Place the cake in the refrigerator for 10-12 hours and do not forget to remove the mold before serving. If you want to make a jelly filling with fruit, then prepare the jelly as described above. Place it in the refrigerator for a while so that it has time to grab. Transfer the jelly to the beautifully laid out fruit, flatten with a spatula and refrigerate overnight. To prevent the jelly from breaking during serving, cut it with a heated knife.

Candy- this is a favorite delicacy of children. Kids pay attention to the design of the cake itself, and not to the products from which the cake was prepared. Try to decorate the cake for the children's holiday as brightly and creatively as possible. All types of candies can be used except hard candies. The surface of the cake should be thick and viscous, such as whipped cream, buttercream, frosting.

Methods for decorating cakes with sweets

1. The sides of the cake can be decorated with chocolate bars or waffles, and the top can be filled with dragees.
2. Small butterscotch toffee is perfect for creating a pattern or lettering on a creamy surface or white glaze.
3. Cut the gummies into squares and randomly decorate the top of the cake with white fondant or whipped cream.
4. It is good to decorate the sides with round-shaped candies, and put 3 candies in the central part of the cake.

Hello everyone! Today I will touch on a delicious and beautiful theme - decorating cakes. For those who did not stick to plasticine as a child and just love sweets, this topic should be interesting. Caution, cakes under the cut))

I am writing this review not only for dear readers, but also for myself to some extent, so that everything is in one place and I do not have to scour the Internet in search of information.
I'll start, perhaps, with the definition of mastic and of course the recipe.

What is mastic, recipe

Confectionery mastic - thick putty, sweet pastry cream.

For 4.29 USD

Material: ABS Plastic
Color: Purple
The size:
Length 27.5cm
Diameter 5.3cm
Method of use:
1.Roll out the mastic


4 Get a beautiful pattern)

I liked this rolling pin. The patterns are clear and deep. The only thing, for some reason, I expected it to be silicone and heavier. And it is made of ordinary plastic. But the result did not get any worse.

For 2.95 USD


material: plastic
weight: 35g
color: transparent
Method of use:
1.Roll out the mastic
2.Sprinkle the rolling pin with starch so that it does not stick
3. Pass the rolling pin over the mastic, pressing firmly
4 Get a beautiful pattern)

Also a good purchase. First of all, it pleases with its compactness. The patterns are not as deep as the first rolling pin. But it copes with the purpose. I came wrapped in a "bubble". Although it is made of plastic, it can crack when hitting the floor. Therefore, with it it is necessary be careful.

Silicone molds

Silicone molds are special forms with the necessary structure to create shapes and flowers of the required shape for decorating confectionery. Designed to work with mastic, marzipan, caramel, chocolate, sugar mass, gelatin and other products of your choice.
Silicone molds are made of food grade silicone, have no odor, and can easily withstand high temperatures.
IMPORTANT TIPS FOR USING MOLDOVA !!!
1. Mold must be dry. Before filling the mold with mastic, it should be thoroughly sprinkled with starch.
2. Fill the mold with mastic. If you use a 3D mold, which consists of two parts, then after filling, you need to slightly lubricate the mastic with water (only the joining parts), fold the mold and squeeze.
3. Place in the freezer for 15-20 minutes. Massive molds need to be kept in the freezer longer.
4. From the frozen mold, carefully, slowly, take out the figurine.
After you have taken out the figurine, it is important to let it dry for a couple of hours, and then you can decorate it.
For filling with chocolate, the mold does not need to be sprinkled with starch. Shake a mold filled with liquid chocolate very, very hard (like a thermometer) to release any air bubbles. Shaking is unfortunately not always effective because the chocolate is quite thick. It is better to take a softened hard brush and remove bubbles from the internal cavities. If the figurine is difficult to remove, you can freeze it to a lower temperature.

Were packed like this


, for $ 3.87


Material: food grade silicone
Weight: 60g
Size: 15.7cm * 4.5cm * 1cm
Pink colour
Permissible temperature of use: -40 to + 210 degrees Celsius
Method of use:
2.Put the mold in the freezer for 5-10 minutes
3 Cut off excess mastic
4 Carefully take out the "chain"



Video mk with a slightly different mold (from the Internet)

For $ 2.24


Material: food grade silicone
Weight: 70 g
Size: diameter 8 cm, thickness 1 cm
Pink colour
Permissible temperature for use:
-40 to +210 degrees Celsius
Method of use:
1 Press the mastic into the holes
2.Put the mold in the freezer for 10-20 minutes
3 Cut off excess mastic
4 Carefully remove the figures
Points 3-4 can be swapped

For $ 2.85



Material: food grade silicone
Weight: 80 g
Pink colour
Permissible temperature of use: -40 to +210 degrees Celsius
Dimensions:
Length 8cm
Width 5 cm
Height 3 cm
Method of use:
1 Press the mastic into the hole
2.Put the mold in the freezer for 20-30 minutes
3 Cut off excess mastic
4 Gently take out the figurine
Points 3-4 can be swapped


Video MK

In general, I liked all the molds. Soft, elastic, no notches. The only thing, as always, the sizes are already very small.
I have long wanted to try to make a mold myself. Sometimes you need some kind of figurine, but it is not. So I tried to make homemade molds. I found a few "beauties" at home. And that's what came of it.

Mold do it yourself)))

I must say right away that the ingredients that are used are not entirely food grade; rather, these molds are suitable for working with liquid plastic, polymer clay, etc. Therefore, I do not urge anyone to use them for mastic, but I will rarely use them, in exceptional cases.
And so, we need:
1.Silicone sealant (I had white)
2 potato starch
3. Any cream (for lubrication of parts, so as not to stick)
4 Items that we will "copy"

We squeeze out the silicone and start stirring starch into it until it stops sticking. As a result, you should get a plastic mass, something like this.
Then we form our mold and press objects into it, having previously lubricated them with cream.


Then we leave them to dry for 24 hours. Remove the items, rinse and get the result. I got it)

A bit crooked, but they do their job well.

For $ 1.82

Material: plastic
Weight: 30g
Color: White came
Length: 13cm
It is used when cutting small parts of complex shapes according to a template or by hand.
It has three knives, one for cutting mastic, the other two for creating patterns.





To be honest, this is a bit of a useless purchase, as the knife doesn't cut very well. Replace it with a regular pizza knife. You can also make these patterns yourself.

For $ 3.80

As you can see, there are still figures in the picture. In reality, they are not. But I noticed this when I sat down to write a review. In principle, I do not need them.





Material: ASB plastic, can withstand temperatures up to 70 degrees.
Color: yellow-purple
Package Contents: Figures + Holder
Size: 12 * 7cm, figure holder 13cm
The size of the letters is about 0.5 * 0.5cm
Method of use:
1.Place the letters we need in the holder
2.We print a word or phrase on mastic, dough, etc.
3. We get a beautiful inscription)


The same problem, everything is very small in size. It was also not convenient to cut the letters. To insert them into the holder, the letters must be perfectly smooth. For this I had to spend half an hour to cut everything ... There would also be a Russian alphabet ... And so, I don't even know if I will use it)

For 11.64 USD

What is punching and plunger

Punching - a tool that allows you to cut a specific shape from mastic
Cutting example

Punching method:
1 Press on the mastic by cutting down
2 We get the necessary figure (we get it manually from the cutting)
The plunger is a cutting with a pusher (for the convenience of getting the mastic)
Plunger example


Plunger device

Plunger usage method:
1.Push on the mastic with a plunger
2 Press the button on top
3. We get the necessary figure (it itself jumps out of the plunger)

3 cuttings "Carnation" (32mm, 42mm, 47mm)

4 cuttings "Rose petals" (37mm, 43mm, 50mm, 57mm)

3 plungers "Stars" (diameter 6mm, 9mm and 12mm)

3 plungers "Heart" (diameter 6mm, 8mm and 11mm)

3 plungers "Butterfly" (40mm, 48mm, 58mm)

4 plungers "Daisies" (20mm, 25mm, 34mm, 40mm)

4 plungers "Plum flowers" or "Forget-me-nots" (18mm, 20mm, 22mm, 30mm)

3 plungers "Rose leaves" "(35 mm, 40 mm, 50 mm)

3 plungers "Chamomile" or "Sunflower" (46mm, 55mm, 68mm)


They can also be used to create texture on mastic instead of curly rolling pins and mats.
For example so


In general, I am very pleased with this lot, since we would have had such a cost of 50 bucks, or even more.
The tools themselves are of good quality, although sometimes the mastic does not cut through, and springs occasionally pop out of the plungers. I have already lost one.

For $ 3.93


Material: plastic
Weight: 80 g
Yellow color
Quantity: 8 pcs
Instrument length: 15-17 cm
To make it clearer for everyone, I made such a plate about the function of each tool, so to speak, a cheat sheet for beginners (including me).
And this is for clarity

Video MK (from the Internet)

And of course, for the sake of completeness, it is necessary to show the result of working with the tools.
I am still far from a professional in this matter. While baking such cakes is very rare, as it is very time consuming and expensive. But for the sake of your beloved children, what can you do. With such cakes we recently celebrated their birthdays)

Lower tiers
Vanilla biscuit:
5 eggs
1 st sugar (as little as possible)
a packet of vanilla sugar
1 tbsp flour
Beat the whites separately until fluffy, gradually adding sugar. At the end, stir in the yolks. Then add sifted flour (you can with 1 teaspoon of baking powder) and gently mix everything with a wooden spatula (you can hand). Bake in an oven preheated to 180 degrees 40-60 min.
Cream soufflé with bananas:
Sour cream-200 g
condensed milk-100 ml
vanillin
gelatin-20g
Pour gelatin into 4 tablespoons. water - let it swell. Add condensed milk + vanillin to sour cream. Heat the gelatin until dissolved - DO NOT BOOK. Cool a little and add to the estimate. - thickened cream. Stir vigorously.
Assembly: Cut the biscuit into 2 cakes. Put 1 cake in a split form covered with cling film. Put whole bananas on it in a circle. Cover with cream. Put another cake on top. Put in the refrigerator. Decorate the cake as desired.
Upper tier according to this video, only added a few spoons of cocoa to the dough.

Air Snickers Cake
Recipe
Only I added less sugar and made a double portion of the cream, and I also baked all the cakes at the same time so that the whipped proteins would not fall off and not overwash them several times.
If you cover with mastic, then you do not need to spread the top cake with the main cream.

Cream for mastic on top of the cake(for leveling the cake and isolating it from the main cream, so that the mastic does not "float")
100 g butter
100 g of chocolate
Melt in a saucepan, let it cool slightly in the refrigerator. Apply on top and sides of the cake with a spatula or knife until the cake is perfectly flat. Let set in the refrigerator along with the cake. And then you can only cover with mastic.