In my lifetime as a professional cake decorator and baker, trust me I have dropped several hints around the holidays about things I want or need for my cake art.

When you have been in the dessert world for as long as I have ( over 25 years now), it would seem and you would think I have everything a cake decorator would need.

So let’s just get down to it. There are always new fun things that come on the market for us to use and experiment with but if you are not in the know, well.. you just wouldn’t know, right?

Here are my top 6 picks for awesome gifts to get your favorite cake decorator, including super neat stocking stuffers to the stand mixer or cake decorating airbrush machine.

Cake Decorator Stocking Stuffers that actually fit in a stocking…( inexpensive but totally a cool gift!) All of my picks, you can grab through my Amazon affiliate link!
Adjustable Cake Scraper Cake Smoother Tool for Icing,Fondant Cream Edge Smoothing Decorating Tools – Green, Pink (2pcs)
Ateco 1661 Tube Cleaning Brush, Two Sided Brush for Cleaning Large & Small Cake Decorating Tubes
ALL in ONE Plastic Clay Modeling Tools Ceramic Pottery Tool for DIY Craft Shaping Sculpting Baking Cake Decorating (Clay Tool+Metal Ball Stylus-14pcs)

What Every Cake Decorator Loves.. Russian Piping Tips!
Russian Piping Tips Baking Supplies 31pcs The ONLY Cake Piping Nozzles Set with Perfect 16 Flower and Sphere Icing Tips Combo By MRTONG Cake Decoration Tips 

My top pick for Cake Decorating Airbrush Machines
KopyKake Kroma-Jet Airbrush System

Absolutely the Best Stand Mixer for the money!
KitchenAid KSM7586PFP 7-Quart Pro Line Stand Mixer Frosted Pearl White

View All Cake Supplies on Amazon by Clicking Here!

The post What to get Cake Decorators for Christmas or Just Because? first appeared on Decorated Cupcake Ideas.

I was looking for some really cute sugar layon hearts for my valentine cupcakes this year and wanted something I had not used in the past. It took me a couple of minutes searching and I found these on amazon.

There are tons of other ones as well but these sugar hearts caught my eye and they are at a good price that ships with prime.

Just wanted to let you all know about them.

The post Sugar Teardrop Hearts For Valentine Cupcakes and Cakes first appeared on Decorated Cupcake Ideas.

Taste of Home has published an absolutely gorgeous book titled “Bakeshop Favorites” for baking enthusiasts. I noticed this book for the first time in early December 2014 and knew I just had to have it for my collection of dessert books. I Love everything about the Bakeshop favorites book!



Taste of Home Bake Shop Favorites: 383 Reader Recipes You’ll Love

The book cover really shows off the yummy treats and talk about eye candy for the colors they used in the photo shoot!

The recipes are amazing and of course you can make your own twist on them. I read about 10 reviews on the Bakeshop favorites book on Amazon and only one or two of the reviews out of 26 were kind of picky. Yes, some of the recipes are repeats from other Taste of Home books but this one has what I think are top notch and all put into one nice book. Bakeshop Favorites includes 383 dessert recipes and is a great grab and at a great price on Amazon.

I would love to show you all the images inside of the book but will respect the copyrights on it.

The book stores run around $15.00 to $17.00 each and Amazon Prime has them for about $12.00.

I will be buying more copies of the Bakeshop favorites book for friends and family that love to bake also.

I will of course be posting a few of the recipes as well as I make them. If you are a baking blogger, this book will give you tons of great ideas as well.

Stay well and Happy Baking!

The post Bakeshop Favorites Book by Taste of Home first appeared on Decorated Cupcake Ideas.

We witnessed many new businesses being launched this year from so many amazing cake decorators.
While the economy struggled, it also forced many to take matters into their own hands and make the move into becoming entrepreneurs. A large sector of this movement came from cake decorators that launched home based bakeries and catering companies. Additionally, it brought on a whole new set of creative tools and supplies from manufactures that saw the surge in cake decorating. Although the initial challenge seemed to start with cupcakes it evolved into much more than just a trend.

Sculptors and airbrush artists jumped on board, using cake and icing as a new medium to experiment with and the high level of cake artists came to us with a welcome explosion of the Wow Factor in cake decorating.

So what were the top 10 supplies and tools cake decorators used in 2013?

Here is the list from our own research using our in house analytic team and response from cake and bakery suppliers that list their products on Amazon and on their own online store fronts.

Aetco: This is our personal top pick when it comes to Cake Decorating Tips and Cake Turn Tables. So, they are taking the top 2 slots. Our research shows that they are the most loved and have the best quality in these two categories under tools and supplies.

1. Aetco Jumbo Tip and Bag Set. The traditional small star tip for decorating cupcakes has fallen to the wayside and has been replaced by cake decorators that now are using the larger tips. These tips were originally used for pastry and eclair tips. Not anymore. They are the most used size in today’s cupcake world. While this listing is from one of the Aetco resellers on Amazon, they have the best price and include a bag. The buyers love this offer.

Ateco Pastry Decorating Tip, Set of 3

2. Aetco Cake Turn Table: This is the most advanced in design and is heavy duty. It is also the most expensive but well worth the price. Compared to other cake turn tables on the market, Aetco wins hands down on this newer design.
Ateco 613 Revolving Cake Stand

3. Giarraffa Co.: Push Pop Containers for Cake and Cream Desserts. The Giarraffa Co., Push Pop Containers are the preferred choice from professional cake and pastry chefs as well as ice cream and gelato makers. The Push up Pop Cake Craze started in 2011 and was thought to be just a trend. That trend has turned into a staple product for the bakery community. While other manufacturers including Wilton have attempted to create a like product, they can not compete with the design, quality,functionality or pricing of the design by Rhonda Giarraffa and Monique Moussan. You will see many folks selling on Amazon under the Giarraffa Co name but reports have been made that there are sellers using bait and switch and shipping items that are lower end and poor Quality. It is best to purchase this item directly from the Giarraffa Co online shop. Oh, and they also secretly ship priority to their customers as well as give out free gifts and coupons.

Giarraffa Co Push Pop Containers.

4. First Impressions: The Baby Mold… Everyone was hunting this little sweetie down and creating the most amazing baby cake toppers! We saw it all. From Easter Babies to Christmas Babies.. They are just too darn cute and for those with a knack of airbrushing techniques, all we can say is Incredible Work!
First Impressions Molds Silicone Mould – Baby – Curled – 2¼”

5. Master Airbrush: This is most popular selling complete airbrush kit that that took over sales on amazon in 2013. We are putting the full description here so you can see everything that comes with it. It is also the highest in ranking.
Master Airbrush Cake Decorating System. 3 Airbrushes, Air Compressor, 6′ Hose, Airbrush Holder, 3 Quick Couplers, Red, Blue, Yellow & Green- 0.7 Oz. Americolor Food Colors. Now Includes (FREE) White & Silver Shimmer Colors & How to Airbrush Training Book to Get You Started.

6. Ameri Color: Airbrush colors that are Pearl Sheen! Vibrant in color and growing in popularity against the Chefmaster Brand. AmeriColor – Amerimist has taken over in the food coloring and airbrush colors choice from the professionals. While Chefmaster was once the top pick, we believe it was due to so many folks not recognizing the value in Americolor products. We assume the popularity grew due to the number of airbrush kits being sold that include the Americolor brand. Consumer Awareness by packaging deals together! That is as brilliant as the food color itself : )
Americolor 12 Color SHEEN – PEARLESCENT Airbrush Color Kit .65 Ounce

7. Modeling Chocolate: Easy to make but easier to buy. Choco-Pan Modeling Chocolate has been among the top new products on the market for about 2 years but the sales in 2013 proved to the cake decorating community that this item is Sizzling Hot for the serious cake artists that need stability and uniformity while modeling their works of art from chocolate. There are different pail sizes to select from as well as flavor profiles and colors including a flesh tone color.
Choco-Pan Modelling Chocolate – Dark – 4 lb

8. Silicon Pastry Bag by Fat Daddio’s: Silicon Pastry bags have totally taken over in sales. Cake decorators and Pastry chefs are now using the easy to clean and long lasting silicon bags and for a good reason. The silicon pastry bags wont seep like the canvas ones do and won’t bust like parchment paper tends to do. I personally use only silicon pastry bags for everything besides piping gel. The reason is because I use such a small amount of it and it’s just easier to use the parchment for that application. Otherwise it’s Silicon all the way especially for figure piping. The Silicon bags are Orange and come in many sizes. I happen to like the orange color. It’s just, well… Happy!

Fat Daddio’s 15-3/4-Inch Silicone Pastry Bag

9. Aardvark Paper Straws: That’s right, these food safe colored paper straws hit it big with cake pop makers. This particular company sent us samples to test ourselves and to prove to us that they would hold cake pops beautifully. They passed the test with flying colors. Literally! Tons of great colors and prints to choose from. We have seen them used in them cakes and cupcakes as well as cake push pops. They are super cool and we just love that extra bit of pizazz they give.
Aardvark 61520014 Paper Drinking Straw, 7/32″ Diameter x 7-3/4″ Length, Red and Blue Stars (8 Boxes of 600)

10. Cake Decorating with Modeling Chocolate Book: We couldn’t list a top ten without at least hunting down one of the top sellers in the books category. Fondant is not out the door but Modeling Chocolate definitely Rocked the Professional Cake World in 2013. This great educational and training book is getting some rave reviews on it. We love to see new books on our favorite subject come out especially when they have colorful pictures and step by step instructions. This book hands you some new creative ideas on a silver platter and give us all something different that fondant. Yay for this author! We hope she sells the hell out of them.

Cake Decorating with Modeling Chocolate

We hope you enjoyed our list for 2013 on the hottest cake decorating supplies!

Feel free to share this with your friends and check back for our finds for 2014!

The post Top Ten Cake Supply Items That Rocked in 2013! first appeared on Decorated Cupcake Ideas.

Andrea’s Signature Jumbo Cupcakes!

As many of you know, we love to track down who we believe to be the best of the best in our world of cupcakes. Andrea brings something to the table that will captivate and inspire you,not only with her amazing work but with her story.

It is great pleasure to feature this cupcake artist and go getter.

We caught up with Andrea after noticing her DVD on the amazon market place.

This is what Andrea Sullivan shared with us to share with you!

  “I was artistic in my youth, I loved drawing and some polymer clay sculpting. But as I grew up, got married and had a family I found that I didn’t tap into my artsy side any longer.

My mother in law signed me up for the Wilton classes back in November of 2008 and it unlocked a inner passion I did not know I possessed! I have been decorating ever since.

I must say that I didn’t think that taking those classes was going to set me on such a crazy ride. I went from stay at home mother to Award winning cake designer/decorator.

I have been on Canadian TV, where I and a good friend took first place in an episode of Cake Walk: Wedding cake edition, traveled internationally to teach my signature designs, my cakes have been featured in many magazines including Cake Central Magazine 3 times! Hat trick, baby! and now I am releasing my own independent line of DVDs.
I have already launched one on my Signature jumbo cupcake design, and my newest will be ready for release before the end of the year.

The world lends its inspiration to me, I take it all in, and use what I can to develop a awesome design. I really like the feeling I get from making it as far as I have just because I posted my pics on the internet, the world responded and pointed me in the direction I am headed. I’m not too sure if I would be as far as I am now if it were not for the worldwide web! I want to thank anyone that ever sent me an email because they felt inspired or empowered by my work, it is because of these people, friends, fans, and admires that I keep doing what I do.”

 Just Look at These Incredible Signature Jumbo Cupcakes Andrea Created!

View Andreas DVD on Amazon:
Andrea’s Signature Cupcake DVD

Connect with Andrea on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/AndreasSweetcakes
Congratulations Andrea on a bright future ahead!

The post Featured Cupcake Artist Andrea Sullivan’s Signature Jumbo Cupcakes first appeared on Decorated Cupcake Ideas.

Mika Iniquez : Style in elegance and flair with a true talent in cake and cupcake design.

Mika come to us from Baja, Ca., Just south of the border in San Diego.

Mika’s blurb : )

I am a self taught cakes and such designer. I have a little shop in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico about one hour from the US border near San Diego.

All of my creations are one-of-a-kind and 100% edible. I use pretzels, Rice Krispie treats, fondant, pretty much anything edible that has a flavor that will work with whatever I am making.

We are showing all of the creations she sent in. She totally Rocks !

Mika was also featured in Cake Central and has some pretty incredible designs that are more like sculpture.

When Mika sent her pictures in we fell in love with her work. When we checked out her Facbook page, we fell off our seats and were blown away at some her other designs.

HERE ARE THE CAKE AND CUPCAKE DESIGNS SENT IN: Just WOW!

  Top Hats and Bicycle Mustaches….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Babies, blankets and bears….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bibles and Crosses on Mini- Cakes…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just amazing Grace!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cake pops with flowers and other yummy num nums….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Be sure to check out Mika’s Facebook Page! You will not be disappointed. : )

Welcome to our family of Featured Cupcake Artist Mika!

https://www.facebook.com/FantasticalSweetsbyMIKA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The post Featured Cupcake Artist Mika Iniquez of Fantastical Sweets by Mika first appeared on Decorated Cupcake Ideas.

Here we have such a cute idea and awesome creation from one of our favorite Featured Cupcake Artist, Lori Arpey.

These fun little bookworms and books were created for Lori’s daughter “Em” and her book club she attends.

Here is What Lori has to say about these cool bookworm cupcakes!

These are cupcakes I made for my 9 yr old daughter’s book club meeting she is in now.

They are strawberry cupcakes frosting with pink lemonade butter-cream frosting. The toppers were hand molded from fondant. The bookworms were pretty easy actually.

I made the worm shape from bright green fondant and rounded the head part for a more defined head shape.  I added the eyes and used my Wilton markers for the blue then dipped a toothpick in black to make the pupils.

I made cute little bow ties and books and added them.

After the books were on I made little hands for them all and added them on. If I had gum-paste on hand I would have tried to make little glasses, but all I had was fondant and knew that it wouldn’t work right lol.

The books were easy. I made squares from white and wrapped the color fondant around them for covers. Then I used my straight edged tool to “carve” pages.  I used my tiny flower cutter to make the little flowers with a silver dragee in the middle of each.

I was surprised how easy they were to do.

My daughter’s friends all LOVED them! she came with the container and 2 left! (which were gone by the time we went to bed lol)

I hope you all enjoy these

Lori at The Cake Company
“If They Want To Eat Cake, Make it a Pretty One :)”

thecakecompany.biz

To view even more great cakes and cupcakes by Lori Arpey, visit her site or say hello to her in the CAKE DECORATORS ROCK forum on Facebook!

The post Bookworm Cupcakes by Lori Arpey first appeared on Decorated Cupcake Ideas.

Giarraffa Co. is holding a really fun give away on the Italian made Push Pop Containers as well as other cool items.

There are two Grand Prizes and entering is super easy and fun.

Two winners will receive the following:

• 1 – 12 count push pop containers and a 12 hole acrylic push pop containers display stand
• 1 – Push up Pops book signed by the Author Courtney Whitmore
• 1 –  Cake Decorators Rock Baseball cap

The contest winners will be announced on February 1st so you will want to jump on this one.

Be sure to read the rules of the contest on the main site.

You can find all of the information on this contest at: shop.pushpopcontainers.com

The post Push Pop Containers Give Away Contest first appeared on Decorated Cupcake Ideas.

These whimsical cupcakes are just too pretty to eat.

Christmas trees, snowflake, houses, holly berries, Christmas bulbs and reindeer.

The attention to detail here is fantastic and the colors are vivid and so eye catching.

Elaine sent in many more of her awesome cupcake creations that we will be revealing to you in the next few posts but for now we thought it would be perfect to show off her amazing Christmas cupcake collection.

Talk about super cute and creative cupcakes for Christmas in this picture! We love, love, love them all.

Santa in the chimney, reindeer head, Christmas tree, poinsettia, stunning tree bulb, wonderful penguins, Christmas gift, Bulb top, jeweled topper, holly berry, snowflakes and a stacked Christmas tree.

AMAZING WORK!

Welcome Elaine Graham to Our family of Featured Cupcake Artists!

 Here is what Elaine shared with us in her words : )

I started cake decorating in May of this year I didn’t purposely start for Christmas last year a good friend of mine got me loads of cute cake decorating equipment and so I thought ah I’ll give it a go see if I’m any good. I was mostly doing cupcakes for myself and family but then I’d pop a pic of what I’d done up on Facebook and all my friends loved them and started asking would I do orders for them and it went on from there.

I started my cupcake page on Facebook at the end of May 2012 was so surprised to have 1000 fans on there in 5 and a half months I love cake decorating starting from planning what you want to do picking out designs, then making them from start to finish and they actually applying them to the cake and seeing the finished look (that’s my favorite part) I would love to open up my own bakery one day but that may be just a distant dream lol

You can visit Elaine on her Facebook page at  https://www.facebook.com/elainescupcakes

Be sure to leave a comment below and give our newest member of the family a warm welcome!

The post Christmas Cupcakes by Featured Cupcake Artist Elaine Graham first appeared on Decorated Cupcake Ideas.

This is a sure fire hit for the online shopping giant and is taking off like crazy for last minute shoppers.

So, if you are looking for a great gift for your favorite cake decorator, baker, or even candlestick maker, these gift cards are perfect!

Amazon gift cards are super easy to send and easy to use once you get them. I love shopping on Amazon with gift cards I get from my friends or family.

The new video gift cards are just a bit funner to send.

You can check them out here by clicking on the picture.

Looking for a great gift but stuck on ideas?
We’ve got you covered on this one.
Amazon Video Gift Cards Starring You:)

There are several Video gift cards to choose from. Here is the list.

• Roller-skating
• Disco Birthday,
• a group Can-Can dance,
• an Elf Snowball Fight
• You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out ( my personal favorite)

There are more on the site.

Hope this helps out with your last minute Christmas shopping!

Want To Stay Updated?

The post New Fun Video Gift Cards first appeared on Decorated Cupcake Ideas.