Anyone with an interest in sugarcraft and cake decorating is aware of how many tools are available and has most likely purchased a number of them, many of which are collecting dust in the back of a drawer. I thought I’d share my top ten favorite tools and gadgets that I believe are fantastic and well worth owning.
Refrigerated fillings are tasty, but they may be a double-edged sword at times. Butter cakes aren’t at their best right out of the fridge. When you combine them with a chilled filling, you have to make a decision—either a cold cake or a warm filling. Either option is undesirable.
Before I tell you about them, I would advise anybody just starting out in cake decorating or developing an interest not to spend too much money on supplies. As tempting as it is to acquire those shiny new items of equipment (and sometimes it’s just plain good to buy anything), you can end up spending the equivalent of a glossy new pair of shoes on novelty gadgets that aren’t much use. OK, I’ll get off my soapbox and continue
Top 10 Cake Decorating Tools
Here is my list of the top ten:
Palette knife, small
This is my favorite tool since it is the one I grab the most and use on every single cake I create. It is excellent for lifting rolled sugar paste and flower paste, as well as made-up decorations, flowers, and a variety of other items. It’s also useful for arranging items on a cake’s surface. If you use a fine knife, it will easily go through sugar paste or flower paste without ruining the form. I would get one of them from an art supply shop since they seem to be much nicer than cake decorating ones.
Green Rolling Mat
I realize these mats aren’t really a tool, but they’re amazing, Cake Decorating and I have six of them in varying sizes. Again, they are intended for artist usage but are quite adaptable. Because neither marzipan nor sugar paste attaches to the surface, they are ideal for rolling out.
I almost never use white butter, icing sugar, or cornflour, and the marzipan or sugar paste peels off wonderfully. I have one mat that is the depth of my work surface. Also, I just like to add a piece of non-slip matting below to ensure it remains in place while rolling. I keep the smallest of my mats only for cutting. And this one is a self-healing mat that is ideal for use with a craft knife. These mats are more costly than conventional green mats, but they stay for longer. I’ve owned it for around 20 years.
Rolling Pin (Plastic)
This isn’t the most interesting equipment, but it’s necessary unless I want to coat every cake with royal icing. I have a variety of plastic rolling pins ranging in length from 5′′ to 23′′. I like plastic ones since they do not break as wooden ones do, so they do not harbor germs and are easier to keep clean.
Consider a scalpel
Another instrument I’ve kept for nearly 20 years is my scalpel. Cake Decorating I have craft knives as well, but as a graphic designer, I became used to the form and feel of a scalpel. It has lasted so long because it is constructed of some kind of steel. You may get a choice of razor-sharp blades for them, allowing you to cut quite accurately. You must, however, exercise caution. My hands have multiple scars that may cut in extremely severely. After all, they are used to cut people open on the operating table!
Use the Flower/Leaf Shaper Tool.
I seldom use this tool for the aforementioned purposes. But it is a highly useful tool for a variety of tasks. The tool’s thin end is ideal for making an indent or line in sugar paste. The rounder, flatter end provides an alternate ball tool for frilling. But it’s also great for adjusting flowers or other embellishments after they’re in place. This is due to the tip being flat enough to fit between a petal and the cake available in Bakery boxes while without any sharp edges that may harm the sugar pastes surface.
Ball Tool
This is an excellent tool for flattening out petals or frilling sugar paste. A little ball is at one end, and a large ball is at the other. That’s pretty much all I have to say about it, other than it’s a really useful little tool.
Brushes
Brushes are crucial, in my opinion, and having a range of sorts and sizes is an excellent idea. It’s a good idea to have some really fine brushes for fine line work and keep them apart from the rest of your brushes so the bristles remain smooth and tight. I also have different dusting brushes. I have a few cosmetic brushes that are fantastic for applying luster dust. Although I never use them for that. One of them is a Kabuki brush – you can’t go into a Boots or Superdrug these days without seeing one of these must-have brushes for applying your must-have mineral makeup. Cake Decorating when utilized in a circular motion, similar to how you would apply makeup to your face, you may obtain a wonderful coating of lustrous color.
Scissors
I have around 7 sets of scissors that I treat extremely harshly and do not share with anybody. If a package of rice has to be opened and no one has a pair in the kitchen, they must resort to using a knife or their teeth. I’m not wholly cruel, and there’s a solid reason why I’m not sharing. Some of my scissors are exclusively used for cutting marzipan and sugar paste; thus, they must be used for that purpose alone. I also have a pair of tiny scissors for delicate work. Cake Decorating I have a set of nail scissors that I never use to clip my nails! These are great for getting into tight spaces on decorations. I also have a little pair for trimming ribbons. To be effective, the smaller pairs must be maintained with razor-sharp and IPhone 13 pro max.
Tweezers.
I have two pairs, one little and one big. There will always be instances when you need to entirely remove a decoration or something little and finicky slips behind something on your cake. Cake Decorating what you need is a set of tweezers with large tips that can reach into awkward spots to do the job as per your demands.
Ribbon cutter.
This isn’t my least favorite, but it’s less practical than the others, and something has to come last. This is a handy little tool that consists of a spool with a permanent bolt at one end, a detachable bolt at the other, and various sized parts that thread onto the spool to generate various widths. As you can imagine, I like to make my own small pink part. Cake Decorating It is because one of the cakes I completed needed width of sugar paste that was just out of reach with the portions included. I love to present these cakes in bakery boxes. I can’t remember what I built it out of, but it was probably one of Dexter’s toys (one he’d outgrown, of course!). You don’t have to produce ribbons all by yourself. It’s ideal for any décor where you want the same width every time.
