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| Place a plastic Kwanzaa design on an 8-in. square cake. Add colorful strings of icing with tip No. 3. |
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| Stripe a pastry bag with white icing and fill it with green. Use tip No. 233 and pipe inverted 'v's to form evergreen trees. |
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| After base icing an 8-in. square cake and placing the Hanukkah design, use star tip No. 22 to pipe a yellow shell border. |
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| Base ice a single round cake layer with white icing. Pipe two puffs of icing for clouds, and airbrush the cake top and bottom border blue. |
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| A. Airbrush the top of the cake a flesh tone. Use a large open tip to pipe a nose in the center. Airbrush pink cheeks. |
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| B. Use tip No. 10 to pipe white circles for the eyes. Overpipe the white with blue irises. Also with tip No. 10, add a red mouth and hat, and smooth the hat with a palette knife. |
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| C. With star tip No. 22 and a shell motion, pipe Santa's moustache, beard, eyebrows and hat trim. Add a tassel to one side of the hat using a pull and release motion. |
The month of December seems to be the shortest and the busiest time in the bakery with extra sales in the decorating department. To make the most of this busy season, promote products that are convenient, seasonal and appealing. This is the time of year when customers have parties in abundance, so have plenty of decorated cookies, cupcakes, cakes and desserts on hand. Order an ample supply of premade decorations in both sugar and plastic to supplement hand made decorations. Change display cake decorations to depict the December events by decorating with snowmen, Santa Claus, Christmas trees, Menorahs and "Happy Holidays" messages. Suggest special party trays and decorated cakes to your customers for office parties, school functions and family events. Holiday sales opportunities continue through the entire month of December, so keep that sampling plate full.
Quarter sheet cakes, baked in an aluminum pan with a snap-on plastic dome are quick and easy to decorate, and a mass merchandising display is simple to execute.
I chose to use an edible lay-on image to make an attractive, but quick, decorated cake. Base ice the cake in white icing, and apply a snowmen edible lay-on. With your fingertips, lightly smooth the image to ensure all the air bubbles are released and the picture is lying flat on the cake surface. Use an airbrush to spray the background purple. To pipe the evergreen trees, fit a parchment bag with grass tip No. 233. Place two stripes of white icing inside the bag and fill it with dark green icing. Pipe the branches in an inverted 'v' shape, starting at the bottom and working up. Pipe the white border in a triple 'e,' reverse triple 'e' motion using open tip No. 12. Add a sprinkle of edible glitter for effect. Edible glitter will last longer if crushed into tiny particles first, and sprinkled through a shaker.
Another quick dessert for the holidays is 8-in. square cakes or brownies in foil pans, and decorated with plastic lay-ons. I chose to decorate cakes for Kwanzaa and Hanukkah. Kwanzaa is a unique African-American celebration with a focus on the traditional African values of family, community responsibility, commerce and selfimprovement and is celebrated from December 26 to January 1. It is not a religious or political holiday, but rather a time of reaffirming African-American ancestors and culture. Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, is a Jewish festival that begins at sunset December 8 and lasts until sunset December 16 this year. It celebrates the victory of the Maccabees and the rededication of the Jerusalem Temple. It also commemorates the miracle of the oil that burned for eight days. Ice the cakes with white icing. Place the plastic decorations in the center and pipe a shell border using star tip No. 22. Add Star of David shaped sugars to the Hanukkah cake and fine strings of colored icing with tip No. 3 for a festive look on the Kwanzaa cake.
Another quick decorated cake idea is to use round, single layers featuring plastic decorations. After base icing the cake layer in white, add two puffs of icing for clouds. Then, airbrush the top of the cake and bottom border blue. Add a bottom shell border using star tip No. 22 and blue icing, and pipe a reverse shell top border. Next, apply plastic snowflakes and message, and finish the design with snowflake shaped sugars.
Jolly Santa cake
During the Christmas season, Santa Claus has become the symbol of gift giving. The Santa Claus face is a round single layer cake. Either base ice the cake in a flesh colored icing, or base ice it in white icing and airbrush it a flesh tone. Pipe the nose with a large open tip or a coupler. Airbrush pink cheeks. With open tip No. 10, pipe the eyes, lips and hat. Smooth the hat with a palette knife. Pipe the mustache, eyebrows, hat trim and beard with star tip No. 22 in a shell motion and white icing. Finally, add a tassel to the hat using star tip No. 22 and a squeeze and pull motion.
The next cake featuring a cute, decorated Christmas tree is a quarter sheet cake base iced with white icing. Pipe the tree's branches using grass tip No. 233 and green icing. Start from the lower branches and end at the top. Add facial features and an inscription using open tip No. 4. Pipe a yellow star with open tip No. 10 at the top of the tree. Along the sides of the cake, pipe white swags with leaf tip No. 68. Overpipe the center of the swags using red icing and open tip No. 4. Add a white shell bottom border with star tip No. 22 and a triple 'e,' reverse triple 'e' white top border. Sprinkle red and green sugar shapes for a colorful garnish.
Creative cupcakes
The cupcake as a cake idea has become extremely popular. The finished product looks like a decorated cake, but it is actually closely grouped cupcakes. Arrange cupcakes in the desired shape, and add a dab of icing to the bottom of each cupcake so they will not slide. I put 20 cupcakes in a rectangle to form the base for the gift cake. Ice the top of the cupcakes with a quick icer. Smooth the icing as you would an iced cake. Pipe a yellow ribbon and bow with the smooth side of basket weave tip No. 2B. Add a white shell border with tip No. 87. Place some decorative ornaments near the bow, and garnish with colored sugars.
Tiered cakes may be used for many events, besides weddings, and make wonderful table centerpieces. The Christmas three-tiered cake has a simple design, and is easy to assemble, decorate, deliver and set up. The three tiers are on an inexpensive disposable cake stand. Base ice the cakes with white, and pipe white top and bottom shell borders using a large star tip. Place gumpaste poinsettia flowers and holly leaves in the center of each tier.
Also, place some holly leaves along the bottom borders of the tiers to finish the design.
Turn your decorating department into a winter wonderland of values immediately following Thanksgiving, as it will be the center of attention for holiday entertaining.
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