Decorating cakes is a skill that requires patience, creativity, a steady hand, and even more patience. There are tons of different tools and techniques to master, as well as tons of different cake pans to use. How do you get a handle on all of this? Practice!
Most people learn how to decorate cakes from their mothers. It’s something that is taught growing up, but baking fell from the graces of popularity for a while and many people haven’t done it in a long time. Now that baking is cool again, they want to dust of the old icing tips and go buy shaped cake pans. The problem is that their first cakes are going to be a disaster unless they spend the time to get reacquainted with the art.
The key to practicing is to simply bake off some cakes and do it. Your family will love you for having a bunch of delicious test cakes for them to eat, and you will be able to get a handle on how it all works. Most character cake pans will come with instructions and a list of materials that you need, but those alone aren’t enough. You’re going to have to test out how the pressure of your fingers affects the speed of icing from the bag, how to mix food coloring to get the proper color of icing, how corn syrup works, and how long it takes for a cake to cool long enough for you to work on it.
I don’t want to scare you away from decorating cakes, it isn’t very difficult, but you should spend some time “behind the bag” before you start a cake that has an important destination. The cake will turn out much better and you will enjoy the entire process much more. The good news is that the practice is fun and something that you can enjoy with the entire family.