Decorating Your Cake with Fruit or Other Healthy Toppings

Everyone loves cake on their lips…but not on their hips. Candies and chocolate and icings are full of sugar and fat. Not everyone in attendance at your party will want to indulge on such a treat. You could be stuck with miles of cake or cupcakes that might go to waste because your guests are watching their waist. There are ways to have your cake and actually eat it too when you decorate your cake with fruit or other healthy toppings.

Fruit
Fruit is not only a healthier option than candy cake toppings, it’s also colorful and provides various shapes and textures to your cake. Depending on the theme of your party and the colors that are dominant in your decorations, you can dress up any cake with fresh or dried fruit. Slice strawberries long ways, use wedges of star fruit, sprinkle blueberries or raspberries, or section oranges or mandarins for bright, vivid additions. If you decide to use fruits in a decorative manner on your cake, be aware that fresh fruit will moisten the cake and help it spoil quicker. You’ll also want to make sure that the fruit flavors don’t clash with each other, the cake itself, or any icing you choose to put on it. Stay away from fruits that oxidize too quickly (apples, pears, bananas) as no one wants to eat a cake with wilting brown fruit on top.

Fruit Jams
Have you ever wondered how your bakery gets those fruit-covered tarts to look so shiny and wet with flavor? The secret is…fruit jam. It’s nature’s paint. If you take apricot or raspberry jams, or any other flavors, and heat them in the microwave for a minute or so, it will form this vibrant and delicious glaze that you can dabble over fresh fruit or over a bare cake itself. Get a new paint brush ad become the DiVinci of your kitchen as you slather the sweetness over a pound or angel food cake. Try sugar-free jams to reduce calories even more.

Whipped Toppings
Instead of plopping gobs of fat-laden, sugary-sweet icing on top of a cake, you can use a simple ingredient fresh from your grocer’s freezer: whipped topping. Cool Whip or generic store brands provide a sweety, yet less fattening icing to cupcakes, cookies, and cakes. Replace the heavier frostings with a layer of fat-free or reduced calorie whipped topping. You’ll have to serve the dessert immediately after “icing” to ensure freshness. You won’t miss out on any taste, even though you may save your waist.

Nuts
Nuts provide extra protein for us, so why not toss a handful of chopped favorites onto your next cake. German chocolate cakes slather on walnuts to the icing, but you can do it without the chocolate. Add coconut slivers, almonds, ground peanuts, roasted macadamia, or chopped pecans with your other decorations. Be careful, though, to inform your guests of the nut toppings as some people are allergic to tree nuts and ground nuts. Put a sign out next to your cake as an FYI.

No matter what kind of party you’re hosting, you can find healthy alternatives to top your cake instead of the lardy icing.





Criss White is a professional writer and enjoys baking for parties and special occasions. With the right baby shower cake sayings, cakes with healthy toppings are one of the best baby shower ideas for your party. Criss also enjoys reading and travel when not writing.

How to Make an Ice Cream Cake

You don’t have to visit your local bakery, grocery store, or even specialty ice cream store to get the perfect ice cream cake for your party. Depending on the type of event you’re hosting, you can design your own homemade ice cream cake that will be tastier, more fun, and less expensive than anything you can pick out of a retail freezer. Here’s how you can make an ice cream cake.

What you’ll need…

Cake pan/mold (get one that reflects the theme)
Plastic wrap
Three gallons of ice cream (mix and match your favorites)
Ice cream scoop
Bowl of warm water
Store bought frosting, optional
Fruit or candies for decoration
Cake plate

Let’s say you’re making this ice cream cake for a baby shower or infant’s birthday. You can get a cake mold in the shape of a teddy bear, rocking horse, baby, building blocks, whatever you can find at the store.

Take the cake pan and spread a very large piece of plastic wrap down on the inside of the mold. Press the plastic wrap into the design.

Allow ice cream to soften to room temperature before working with it. Take the first flavor (we’ll say strawberry) and scoop it into the mold until it’s completely full. Smooth out the ice cream. Then, dip the scoop into the warm water and remove the inner parts of the ice cream, leaving only a shell around the edges. Return unused ice cream to the container. Place first layer of ice cream in the freezer for forty-five minutes.

Remove mold and add your second flavor of ice cream (we’ll say chocolate.) Do the same with the second flavor as the first. Once the mold is full, remove the inner portion and return it to the carton, leaving a second shell of chocolate inside the strawberry. Return mold to freezer for another forty-five minutes.

Repeat steps with third flavor (we’ll say vanilla), only fill the entire middle with the remaining flavor. Then let the mold stay in the freezer for two to three hours to get good and solid.

Before you’re ready to serve, remove the ice cream mold from the freezer. Using the loose ends of the plastic wrap, lift it from the mold. This should come out easily. Flip the mold onto a cold cake plate. At this point, you can frost the cake with a store bought frosting or just leave it as it is. You can also spruce it up with candies, cherries, peppermints, drizzles of caramel, chocolate, or strawberry, or any of your other favorite ice cream toppings.

Serve immediately by slicing with a sharp knife dipped in warm water. Your guests will wonder how in the world you managed to make this. They’ll think you’re a culinary genius. You’ll never tell just how easy it was. So whether your are making the cake for a party, like a baby shower or birthday, or just for fun, just follow the simple steps above for a special treat that everyone will love.




Criss White is a professional writer and enjoys preparing food for parties and special occasions. With the right baby shower cake sayings, ice cream cakes are one of the best baby shower ideas for a summer party. Criss also enjoys reading and travel when not writing.

Cupcakes Vs. Cakes - Which is Best for Your Party?

When acting as the hostess for a bridal or baby shower, one of the keys to the party's success is the main dessert. But what to serve? Cupcakes? A cake? How do you choose and how will each choice be viewed by your guests? Depending on your budget, the time involved, and the guest of honor's preference, here's a look at which option is best for your party.

Cupcakes Vs. Cakes

It's very trendy these days to pass up the detailed, expensive, tiered party cakes and opt for stylish, designer cupcakes for guests. Which is better?

In favor of cupcakes...

- They are thought to be a money saver
- They can be baked and designed at home
- They can be displayed in a variety of manner - stand, shelves, shapes
- They can act as a personalize, individual dessert
- You can add decorations, theme items to store-bought cupcakes
- They can be fun and memorable
- They can be more flavorful and natural than a fondant cake
- They can have special cups to match theme or colors

Cupcakes are small and cute. You can decorate them in so many ways and if you have a cupcake stand, they make a great centerpiece.

In favor of cakes...

- They are still traditional for most parties (birthday, bridal or baby shower, holiday event)
- There's an elegance to a tiered cake that cupcakes don't offer
- Easy to make tiered cakes at home with simple ingredients and store bought decorations
- They have a larger "canvas" to fulfill any theme or color design
- Tradition is in favor of cakes; cupcakes being almost too casual or quirky
- They can be simple or can be decorated to the hilt to impress
- More leftovers for guests and guest of honor to take home

Cakes are a traditional treat for any party and come in a variety of flavors. They can be decorated with fruits, chocolate, and many other toppings that your guests will love.

Results?

Honestly, in today's world, there really are no rules that you absolutely have to follow when you plan and execute at party. Cupcakes and cakes are both a delicious way to entertain your guests. Depending on the theme, style, and budget of your event, either provide elegance to your table and no matter the choice, people will take away from the shower, event, or party what you put into it. In the battle of cupcakes versus cakes, there are no losers.




Criss White is a professional writer that writes about food, babies, and other party planning topics like baby shower cupcakes and other baby shower ideas. Criss enjoys hosting parties and baking when not writing.

How to Make Your Own Three-Tiered Cake for a Party

You’ve seen all the cake battles, icing wars, and decorating skirmishes on the cable cooking shows. It looks simple and easy to make your own tiered cake for a birthday party, baby shower, or wedding, but can anyone do it? Of course you can. All you need are the right tools, a little patience, and a willingness to try and you, too, can make a professional-looking cake in a matter of a few hours. Here’s how to make your own three-tiered cake for a party.

The key to a perfect three-tiered cake is three separate cake pans of varying sizes. Whether you go for round or square pans, aim for 12 inch, 8 inch, and 6 inch pans as the resulting cakes will be ideal to stack. Before you actually start baking and assembling, make sure you have all of the proper tools. Simply visit a local bake store or an arts and crafts store for the things you’ll need.

Cake pans – 12, 8, and 6 inch pans
Cooking spray
Waxed paper
Two cake mixes (you can vary the flavors if you want)
Several cans of frosting (better to buy more)
Cake decorations of your choice (from store)
Large flat spatula for icing
Colored frosting tubes
Wooden dowels, if needed, or toothpicks
Cake plate or large piece of cardboard covered with aluminum foil

Preheat oven. Mix cake mixes according to directions on the box. Trace the bottom of each pan over a large sheet of waxed paper and cut to fit the pan. Spray with ample amount of cooking spray before pouring in the cake batter. Fill your three cake pans with equal amounts of batter and bake according to the directions.

Allow cakes to cool completely before trying to ice. If the cakes are even slightly hot, the icing will melt and not set right. Make cake plate out of cardboard and aluminum foil, large enough to accommodate the largest cake pan.

Take the largest cake and flip it upside down on the cake plate. Peel off the waxed paper and discard. Frost the cake all over and smooth out with the large spatula. Carefully flip the medium cake over in your hand and place in the center of the larger cake. Peel off the waxed paper, discard, and frost this cake. Repeat the process with the smaller cake. Use extra frosting to fill any holes or to smooth out the cake. Cake should be sturdy enough, but you can insert wooden dowels or toothpicks on each layer before icing.

Now, get as creative as you’d like by decorating the cake with candies, sugar flowers, or anything else you may get from the store. Use the colored icing tubes to make lattice work, loops, or to write out messages. Be creative and have fun. If you’re making the cake for a themed baby shower, pick decorative items that follow along the rest of the party theme and colors.

Your friends will be impressed with your handiwork…and may even have you make cakes for all of their future parties.




Criss White is a professional writer that writes about food, babies, and other party planning topics like baby shower cupcakes and other baby shower ideas. Criss enjoys hosting parties and baking when not writing.

Tips for Using Candy in Your Baked Goods

It is tiresome to have to always rely on expensive caterers for a party as they always serve the same things. It is also a challenge to have to think up unusual foods for the party to make it more memorable for everyone who attends it. A good idea is to have an edible baby shower candy cake or birthday cookies with candy imbeds that can be either ordered from a baker or made at home.

One way that bakeshops sell their goods is through their sample baskets and displays on the counters and windows. If one were just starting out on a business involving these then giving samples to friends or making the souvenirs for the baby showers is a good way to sell the talent.

People don’t often use candy in their baking because they aren’t common cooking ingredients, but they are a unique way to make some delicious sweet treats for family and friends. Because candies are heated before they could be made to completion, they are usually safe inside the oven as well.

Candies can be used as effective cake decorations and embellishments. If you have a plain white cake with frosting, you can easily decorate it with candy. Grab hold of some gummy candies like gummy bears, insects, ribbons or other shapes and use these to decorate the perimeter and the center of the cake.

Choose colors that are complimentary to the color theme chosen for the occasion and choose the forms of the gummies that match the theme you have chosen for the cake. Gummy ribbons and licorice sticks come in several flavors and colors and these can be plain fruity flavors or sour ones.

To make a basket, arrange the ribbons alternately to get a basket weave effect. Surround the sides of the cake with these ribbons, do not be scared they will fall apart for the icing can hold on to them like glue and if there is doubt just pin a lollipop or a thin toothpick to keep the ribbon in place. To make handles, simply thread a ribbon with floral wire and shape.

Once the basket is done, get all sorts of candies, wrapped individually or not, and just place them inside the space of the basket. Any candy will do, even lollipops. There are also gum paste flowers that can be used if you want to achieve that exotic look, or just look for floral shaped candies to stick inside. Add green gummy ribbons and cut to shape leaves and stick in the spaces as accents.

This floral basket is a great cake that is easy to make and delicious to look at. If that is not the look that you want to achieve, just decorate a plain iced cake with any candy that you desire and you will still have a great delicious looking cake.

You can also use chocolate to give your baked goods extra flavor. Cut up some baby shower chocolate cigars or some peanut butter cups and you can use these to sprinkle around the perimeter of a chocolate or cream based cake. These can also be used in place of chocolate chips in cookies, particularly as the chocolate from chocolate cigars are usually of higher quality. Other fun baked treats to experiment with using candy are muffins, pastries, and even pies.