There are going to be cakes on this site that require “piping” borders using a stiff buttercream icing. ”Piping” uses a pastry bag filled with buttercream and an attached “tip” that makes different shapes and different styles of borders.
If you’ve never used a pastry bag before, it can be a bit intimidating… but it really (truly) is simple once you know the basics.
Here’s a link to a YouTube video that demonstrates how to add a tip to a pastry bag, how to fill it, and how to pipe a few simple borders. The only caution I will offer about this video is that the first several times you fill a pastry bag, it will be a lot messier than the delightful woman in the video makes it look. Go slow, make it as neat as you can, but don’t worry if you end up with buttercream frosting in your hair. Great art is often messy.
Once you understand how to fill a pastry bag and insert a tip, you might enjoy this video from CakeGenie on piping ten different buttercream borders with one tip.
Creating edible sugar decorations for cakes and cupcakes is a simple way to dress up a cake with very little work and very little cost.
Whether you use colored sugar or plain white sugar, your cakes will love these pressed decorations — and all you need is sugar, water, and a variety of cutters. And this project is simple enough that kids will love joining in on the messy fun.
Pressed Sugar Decorations Supplies
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. water
Large pinch of meringue powder (completely optional)
Parchment paper or wax paper
Cookie cutters, fondant cutters, candy molds, or general household items (i.e., glassware) for cutting sugar shapes.
About the meringue powder: it really is optional. Meringue powder makes the hard sugar decorations stronger, but unless you plan on making scads of decorations and storing them (or making intricate candy mold decorations that require additional handling because you wish to decorate them with icing), don’t worry about the meringue.
About the cutters: Fondant or cookie cutters and candy molds are the most convenient items to create sugar decorations. However, I’ve also used bottle caps, glassware (the rim of a champagne flute is a perfect cutter), measuring spoons, and just about anything in my kitchen that I thought would make an interesting shape.
Step-by-Step instructions for Sugar Cake Decorations
Sugar Consistency
Place sugar, water, and meringue (if used) in a bowl. Mix with finger until consistency is like damp sand. The sugar should clump together and hold an impression.
Pat down sugar.
Place a pile of sugar on the parchment paper and pat it down to the thickness you want the decoration to be. You can use just your fingers, but I like using the flat side of a bottle cap (see picture).
Place cutter in sugar.
Place your cutter of choice in the sugar and press down.
Slide cutter across table.
Keep cutter flat on parchment paper and carefully slide it away from the patted down sugar.
Lift cutter.
Carefully lift cutter away from sugar (lifting straight up). If the sugar remains in the cutter, lower the cutter to barely above the parchment paper and lightly tap the side of the cutter until the sugar shape falls out.
Within 10-15 minutes you can handle the hard sugar decorations, but allow them to dry for at least an hour before attaching them to a cake (attach pieces by placing a small amount of frosting on the back of the decoration and pressing it into the cake).
How to Use Candy Molds to Make Sugar Decorations
Using candy molds for sugar decorations.
Press sugar mixture into candy mold.
Scrape off excess with flat straight edge (e.g., the back of a knife, or, as in the picture, the edge of a shish kabob skewer).
Carefully turn mold over. If sugar mixture doesn’t fall out, gently tap mold.
If the price of colored sugar has ever stopped you from adding a bit of sparkle and fun to your cakes and cookies, here’s an easy and inexpensive way to add a wide range of colored sugars to your arsenal of decorating accessories.
Supplies
Supplies
“zip close” plastic bags
granulated sugar
liquid food coloring
Place desired amount of sugar (I usually start with 1/2 cup) in a plastic bag and add desired number of drops of liquid food coloring (I use McCormick’s). Zip bag closed and “massage” bag to distribute color.
Once color is distributed, if the sugar color is too light, add more food coloring. If the color is too dark, add more sugar.
Allow sugar to dry thoroughly before using. For darker colors (which require more liquid coloring), drying time might be as much as 24 hours.
Yes, you can substitute gel coloring for the liquid. However, I strongly prefer the liquid because I find it easier to mix in with the sugar and because it’s easier to “measure” and therefore duplicate. Whenever I make a bag of colored sugar, I write the number of drops of each color used — that way I can recreate the color whenever needed.
See the color chart at the end of this article for color “recipes” to get you started making your own (inexpensive) sugar rainbow.
Colored Sugar Cubes
How to Color Sugar Cubes
Colored sugar cubes are a fun way to dress up a tea party or accent a cake, but coloring sugar cubes can be quite challenging.
Challenging, but not impossible.
All you need to make colored sugar cubes is a bag of freshly colored granulated sugar (before it has had time to dry) and sugar cubes. Add five or six sugar cubes to the bag of colored sugar and gently shake back and forth.
The cubes will absorb color from the damp sugar. Colored sugar cubes will always be several shades lighter than the granulated sugar color, so choose colors darker than what you want for the final color. If you have heavily colored sugar, you can leave the cubes in the bag to absorb more color.
Colored Powdered Sugar
Coloring powdered sugar… now that’s a tall order. Powdered sugar likes to isolate food coloring (liquid or gel) in a protective little ball of powdered sugar that will not disperse through the rest of the sugar. To break up that little ball you might try placing the whole mess in a food processor or a blender, but I’ve had the most success with a good old-fashioned sifter.
Place the sugar in the sifter, add food coloring, and sift. Dump the once-sifted sugar back in the sifter and re-sift. Repeat. And repeat. And repeat some more.
In my opinion, it’s a tedious messy process and the end result is less than satisfying. But don’t let me stop you from making a mess in your own kitchen.
Color Chart
Here are some color recipes to get you started on making your own rainbow of decorating sugars. Unless otherwise specified, food coloring was mixed with 1/2 cup of sugar.
Reds
If there’s one color of tinted sugar that’s worth the price of buying pre-colored, it’s bright red. You can get close by adding a lot (and I do mean a lot) of red coloring (liquid or gel), but I’ve come to the conclusion that bright red is worth the cost of purchase.
Light Red 11
1 drop red
Med. Red 12
10 drops red
Med. Red 13
15 drops red
Red 14
50 drops red
Red 15
Wilton Red (~1/2 pot)
Oranges
From Halloween orange to pastel peach, a nice variety of oranges are pretty easy to achieve with liquid coloring. If you don’t see the orange you want, try mixing up your own by combining reds and yellows in different amounts.
Lt. Orange 16
3 drops red
2 drops yellow
Med. Orange 17
8 drops red
4 drops yellow
Orange 18
20 drops red
4 drops yellow
Yellows
You can achieve pastel to lemon yellows just by varying the amount of yellow coloring you use. But if you want a warmer golden yellow, trying adding a drop of red per ten drops of yellow.
Lt. Yellow 21
1 drop yellow
Med. Yellow 22
5 drops yellow
Yellow 23
20 drops yellow
Golden Yellow 24
10 drops yellow
1 drop red
Greens
Whether you’re seeking out a bright bright green or a soft moss green, you can find it with liquid coloring. To “soften” greens, try adding red, one drop at a time.
Lt. Green 25
1 drop green
Med. Green 26
5 drops green
Green 27
10 drops green
Yellow Green 28
10 drops green
10 drops yellow
Moss Green 29
5 drops green
3 drops red
Dk. Moss Green 210
8 drops green
5 drops red
5 drops yellow
Lime Green 211
1 drop green
10 drops yellow
Blues
It’s easy to have summer skies and tranquil seas with just a bit of food coloring blue (and a drop of red or maybe green). However, Navy Blue is a tough order, so that’s one you might put on your “purchase” list.
Lt. Blue 31
1 drops blue
Med. Blue 32
5 drops blue
Blue 33
10 drops blue
Aqua 34
1 drop blue
1 drop green
Grey Blue 35
10 drops blue
3 drops red
Dk. Blue Green 36
20 drops blue
2 drops yellow
Dark Blue 37
20 drops blue
2 drops black
2 drops red
Purples, Dusty Rose
Because true red is difficult to achieve, so is a really lovely purple. The NEON (see below) McCormick colors have a decent purple and I recommend starting there. However, if you only have the standard McCormick colors on hands, here are some recipes for a range of purples.
Lt. Purple 41
10 drops red
4 drops blue
Dk. Purple 42
1 cup sugar
4 drops red
2 drops blue
Lt. Dusty Rose 43
1 cup sugar
8 drops red
2 drops blue
1 drop yellow
Dusty Rose 44
16 drops red
1 drop blue
1 drop yellow
Browns, Black
You can make a couple of shades of brown sugar by adding cocoa, but when you don’t want to add the cocoa flavor to the cake you’re decorating, you can use the chart below to make a range of browns with food coloring.
Since McCormick has introduced black food coloring, you might think it’s a bit silly to include a color recipe for “black”. However, if you just add the McCormick black food coloring to sugar, you’ll soon discover that you have very dark green sugar — but toss in a few drops of red and suddenly you have a believable black.
Beach Sand 46
2 drops red
1 drop green
1 drop yellow
Earth Brown 47
10 drops red
7 drops green
4 drops yellow
Med. Cocoa 48
20 drops red
10 drops green
4 drops yellow
Black 45
1 tsp. black
10 drops red
McCormick Neons
The following colors are all made with McCormick’s “Neons”. On their own, the neons are truly bright, but when you start mixing them, they lose a lot of their brilliance. However, I find the neons worth the purchase for the purple. Much better than the red and blue of the standard food coloring as a starting place for a variety of purples.
Go slow, make it as neat as you can, but don’t worry if you end up with buttercream frosting in your hair. Great art is often messy.
