Improvements in technology have affected every area of life, and that includes the area of cake decorations. Today, parents giving a birthday party can have the cake decorated with any design that not only looks great but is also edible!
Every parent looks for cake decorating ideas for their child. There are the standard edible designs – cats, dogs, birds, and so on, and then there are designs based on popular comic book or movie characters. Children of all ages will enjoy a custom-designed birthday cake, and adults will enjoy Valentine’s Day cakes or cookies.
Practically every child will have some favorite cartoon character, whether it is from a comic book or a cartoon show or even an animated movie. The owners of the copyrights of these characters will often license them so that bakers can sell them on their specialty cakes. Specialty cakes can be anything, from ice cream cakes to flour-based cakes.
The newest craze in cake decorating ideas is to have a baker print a photograph right onto an edible sheet that can be placed right on top of the cake frosting. Bakers can purchase printers that are used specifically for printing such dessert items using edible ink, and are used for nothing else, of course.
The Sugar Arts
There are several “arts” in which creative individuals can exercise their talents, and the “sugar arts” are those in which bakers and pastry chefs excel.
“Sugar art” began in the early 1840s. Prior to that time, there was no way for a cook to regulate the temperature of their oven in order to bake a cake. However, after the invention of temperature-control ovens, baking and other types of cooking took off in earnest. Once cakes could be baked easily, decoration of them naturally followed.
Cake decorators use icing or frosting, in addition to other edible decorative elements such as three-dimensional sculpted flowers, animals, sports equipment or other items in order to heighten the visual interest of the cake – and still leave it edible.
Decorated cakes have remained very popular with individuals celebrating birthdays, anniversaries, and weddings. Because of the popularity if a variety of reality TV shows featuring aspiring sugar artists, the general public has lots of cake decorating ideas which they want to incorporate into their desserts.
Food Presentation
Today, the way food is arranged on a plate is highly specialized, because this can increase the enjoyment of the diner. Uniquely designed cakes and other desserts have their role in increasing the aesthetic pleasure given by food design, and is an integral part of food presentation. Chefs in major restaurants consider the arrangement of food on the plate to be an art form in itself.
