Birthday Cake Design Tips and Techniques

In this section we will share with you our very best birthday cake design tips.

Some of these tips or techniques may also be included throughout this site as part of the instructions for decorating a particular cake. However, they may also be applicable or helpful for other cakes where they are not stated.

Therefore, we thought it may be good to put some of the more important or useful ones in a central location where they can easily be found and applied when needed.

So, scroll down through the birthday cake design tips and hopefully, you will find something that you can use to make your birhday cake decorating a bit easier.

Use a Thin Layer of Icing First

When icing your cake, put a thin layer of icing all over the cake and let it set before putting on your final layer of icing. This initial thin layer of icing will catch and hold the crumbs in place so that they will not get into your icing when you are decorating your cake. This birthday cake design tip is especially important if you are cutting your cake to make it into a different shape or character.

Draw on Your Cake with Icing to Achieve the Shape that you Want

When you are going to cut your cake into a particular shape or character, draw the character or shape on your cake with an icing filled bag and round tip #3 or #5. You can then wipe the icing off wherever you need to and redo that portion as many times as you would like until you are satisfied with your shape. Then you can just cut away the cake from your icing outline.

How to Make Flesh Colored Icing

A common question that comes up a lot is how to make a flesh colored icing. Use very small amounts of orange and red gel or paste food coloring. Remember, start with tiny tiny amounts because you can always add more until you achieve the flesh color you are looking for.