Unique Cake Art Ideas

Love baking but want to make your cakes a little more easy on the eye? We've got 20 cheap, quick and easy ideas for how to decorate your cake. From shop-bought fondant to melting chocolate, you can turn your cake into a masterpiece with these handy tips.

Making your cake look professional and impressive doesn't have to be as hard as you think. We've got some simple and easy techniques to try in the comfort of your own kitchen that won't break the bank either.

Perfect for special occasions like birthdays, Mother's Day or Christmas, our cake decorating ideas are also a great way to practise some more baking skills.

Ready to roll fondant can be bought in most supermarkets in the cake decorating aisle. It's ideal for making your cake stand and is really easy to work with. You can buy all sorts of different colours or you can a few drops of food colouring to white fondant for your own colour palette.

It doesn't take much to make buttercream: butter, icing sugar, flavoured extract and a few drops of milk. Buttercream is one of the most popular cake toppings as it can be made into different flavours, different colours and can be presented in a variety of ways too, from piped swirls to a smooth palette-knife finish. You can also turn your buttercream into a frosting by swapping the butter for cream cheese instead.

Top tip: If your buttercream is too loose or runny add some more icing sugar or pop it into the fridge to set a little before piping onto your cake.

Top tip: Before working with fondant make sure you have a clean, dry surface to roll the fondant or sugarpaste onto. Dust with icing sugar to stop it from sticking and use a clean rolling pin.

If you're looking for a simple yet effective technique, icing sugar is your best decorating choice. Dust it onto your cake freely, cut out a template using paper and dust over it to create shapes or add some water and flavoured extract to make an icing sugar paste which is perfect for drizzling over large cakes or cupcakes.

Top tip: When it comes to dusting your cake with icing sugar, make sure your cake is completely cool otherwise the icing sugar will melt.