As a baker, I am often asked for advice on basic cake decorating supplies and tools. What tools to use, how to use them correctly, and where to start can seem really overwhelming for a beginner. Picture yourself walking down the cake aisle at your local store hoping to find just the right decorating tools to help you decorate your very first cake. In that aisle you will find products that fill the shelves top to bottom, you turn around and see the same thing on that side too. Where do you start?
Look no further, I’m going to break it down for you in the simplest way.
Top 3 Basic Cake Decorating Supplies:
These are the 3 basic cake decorating supplies you absolutely NEED to start your cake journey. With these 3 tools you will be able to smooth out your cakes and practice most common buttercream techniques. This is the list I give out to anyone who wants to bake their own cakes for family birthdays or gatherings. Let’s chat for a minute about each tool, and what its purpose is, and why I think it is absolutely necessary to have.
1. Piping Bags: Piping bags are SO helpful when frosting a cake, you can even use the bag without a piping tip. It contains all of the buttercream, makes decorating your cake mess-free, and is fantastic for creating leveled fillings, crumb coat or final coat. Little tip: don’t fill your bag with too much buttercream, you want to be able to comfortably hold the bag. Also, Make sure to twist the top as you use the bag, this keeps any buttercream from sneaking out the top.
2. Piping Tips: I love using piping tips! In fact, I think piping tips are what makes a cake, other than flavor, of course. You can use them to express your artistic talents, you can use them to write letters, or make flowers, or you can use them to simply cover your cake. There are a variety of tips to choose from, different sizes, designs, brands, and textures. I love to use multiple cake piping tips (and colors) to create a cake that really “pops.” Tip: When using smaller piping tips, you will also need a coupler that works as a screw to secure your tip to the piping bag.
3. Offset spatula: If you don’t have piping tips, or piping bags, you can get pretty far coving your cake with just an offset spatula. This is used to spread the icing over your cake. You can create an even layer of buttercream on your cake with your spatula, or use your spatula on an angle to create different designs with your icing. I always use my offset spatula for my crumb coat.
These 3 tools can definitely take you far, but if you are looking to up your cake game to the next level, I would suggest adding the next list to your basic cake decorating kit.
Here are a few other basic cake decorating supplies that I recommend for any beginner:
- Straight Edged Cake Pan: This kid of pan is great because it makes your cakes easier to frost, especially when making a layer cake.
- Cake Rounds/boards: Cake rounds are used as a “base” for your cake. Usually, a cake round (also called cake board or cake circle) is 2inches larger than your cake size, for example, if I made an 8inch round cake, I would use a 10inch round cake board. I would set my undecorated cake on top of that board. You can secure your cake to a cake board by adding a little bit of frosting that acts as a glue to the top of the cake board and place your cake layer on top of that.
- Gel Food Coloring: Gel Food is preferred over normal food coloring. Gel coloring is concentrated and much thicker so you don’t need as much when adding color to buttercream. Because it is not watery, it won’t change the constancy of your buttercream, which is very important. When adding gel colors, use a small amount, and slowly add in more drops until you achieve your desired color.
That’s it! These cake decorating supplies will help you create the best cakes. I use all of these basic tools with every single cake I make, and I can’t wait to show you soon HOW to use all of these tools!
Click HERE for my go-to classic American buttercream recipe.
