Cake decoration is an often ignored culinary art. The sight of a beautifully decorated cake can delight just about anyone. A delicious tea cake, charmingly adorned with rich buttercream icing and intricate, candied roses can do wonders for your tea trolley on Eid, birthday parties and all those other never ending social events. And it doesn’t hurt to impress your guests with a stunning masterpiece of a cake, especially those abominable ones who inform you an hour before coming that they’re dropping in for a cup of ‘chai’!

However, many are not aware of the intricate history of cake decoration. This culinary art can be traced back to Europe in the 1600s. In the mid 17th century, extravagant desserts were served during the feasts of the wealthy aristocrats and decorated cakes became prominent at banquets and celebrations, a tradition which holds true today in Pakistan. In the 1800s, baking was expedited by temperature controlled ovens, thus promoting dessert ornamentation. And in the mid 19th century, the French began to serve the dessert as a sweet course at the end of the meal.

“Let Them Eat Cake!”  ('Qu'ils mangent de la brioche') is a famous phrase attributed to Marie-Antoinette (1755-93), the Queen consort of Louis XVI. Legend has it that she said this when she was told that the French populace had no bread to eat. The interpretation of this famous phrase is that the Queen understood little about the plight of the poor and hardly cared. However, there is no evidence of any kind that Marie-Antoinette ever uttered these words.

Now I’m not saying that the taste of your cake isn’t as important as how appealing it looks. The taste of a cake is equally, if not more important than its exterior presentation. But let’s talk aesthetics. Putting in a little time, patience and effort to spruce up your cake or dessert goes a long way, especially if it’s being made for a special occasion.

What irks me is that hundreds of confectionary artists, operating mainly through social media such as Facebook, are churning out gigantic, multi-tiered fantastic looking cakes, masterfully decorated with fondant and gum-paste but are falling short on the taste. Under all that glorious decoration is a bland, average cake. The price of most of these cakes is also absurd! Now I know the amount of time and effort that goes into creating a beautifully ornamented cake and I truly do believe that most of these artists are extremely talented, but what I’m advocating is that you can bake and decorate a homemade cake just as well yourself! It is far more economical also. You do need a bit of artistic flair and a fairly creative temperament, but I assure you, anyone can do it if they take a decent shot at it. Have fun and a little trial and error is all it takes to master cake decoration.

One key point that I have learnt from my classes from Wilton, a company known for its excellence in cake decoration for 85 years, is that: less is more.

Keep your decoration simple, tasteful and relevant to the occasion. Now if it’s your daughters first birthday party and you’ve ventured on making the cake yourself, go all out by all means! Go ahead, take a pack of fondant and create a marvelous, glittering fairy castle or whatever that strikes your fancy! But if you feel that you aren’t that good of a baker, or lack the resources or time, choose a bakery and order away! Not to sound too sappy, but I do feel that the love and effort that goes into a homemade cake for a special someone is matchless.

With the right tools and techniques, you can tap into your creative side and produce the most remarkable of cakes. It’s an incredible feeling to see the edible art you visualized and subsequently created.

There are countless internet websites and YouTube videos on cake decoration but I would advise you to adopt a hands on approach and attend a cake decoration class where you can learn and experiment with your cakes. In the meanwhile, lets learn the basics of cake decoration (from me, of course!) starting with: Wilton Method Classic Buttercream Icing

Till next time!