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 Use Flowers as Wedding Décor

Wedding are always held with flowers. Whether it is a simple ceremony where only the bridal bouquet is present or a garden wedding or a ballroom fully adorned with flowers, flowers are popular decorations that work for many different wedding venues. But even if the flowers are beautiful, poor arrangement can actually marginalize the look of the flowers. Here are some ideas on how to choose and how to use flowers as décor for your wedding so that the wedding and the flowers can both complement each other.

Flowers are primarily used as centerpieces. Whether on the buffet table or on the tables of the guests, flowers make for romantic centerpieces that can soften up the reception venue. You can also place flower petals on the table or line up the red carpet in the church or reception venue with petals as well.

For the couple’s arc or gazebo, you can decorate them fully with flowers, or place small amounts of flowers in them. The chairs of the couple and the guests can be decorated with flowers as well. Tie small flowers or use silk flowers at the back of the chair as accents.

The wedding cake can be decorated with flowers as well. While some would decorate their cake with toppers, bows, or even crystals, you can use real or silk flowers to highlight the area around the cake, or place them in the cake itself.

For a fully coordinated look, the entourage can use flowers as accessories. Wrist corsages, bouquet for the little bride and flower girl, and the corsages for the male entourage can all be made of the wedding flower you choose. This way, not only will the venue be decorated with the lovely flowers, but even the entourage brings with them a little of the romance that the flowers bring.

But most of all, to be able to make the most out of your wedding flowers, choose flowers that are in season so they have the best quality and will not wilt early on in the celebration. Apart from that, flowers that are in season are way cheaper than flowers that are not in season.

You can also give flower favors to make your guests feel the love, even at the end of the wedding celebration.

Wedding Decorating Tips: Choosing Your Wedding Colors and Flowers

A person’s favorite color can be because it is considered a lucky color for them, or their astrology points to that specific color as their birth month color, or it can be just one’s personal preference. No matter what the rationale behind it is, every person has their own favorite color that influences the colors of the clothes they wear, the shoes they buy, or even the car that they drive. As with flowers, most women have their favorite flowers because it has a special meaning for them or for some, it can be just because the flower looks amazing to them.

For weddings, it is important that the wedding colors and flowers are coordinated with each other. You can choose one or more colors just as long as they look good as a pairing. You can choose a specific shade and then find a flower that is available in the same shade as well, or you can choose the flower first and use the color as the primary color for the other details. No matter what you do, what is important is that the colors and flowers reflect your own personal style.

You should also choose colors that complement each other. You can use two different colors, or just one color available in a lighter and darker shade. You can follow the color wheel or the color palette to see whether you are using complementary colors or whether the pairing looks odd and distasteful.

If you choose the color first, pick at least two colors before heading off to your florist. If you only have one color in mind, you might be limited to the choices of flowers in the same shade. If you have two colors, you can see a wider range of flower options and you can now choose a color and the flower both in the same shade that is to your liking. With more options, it means you can choose flowers that are in season and have low prices instead of having a specific flower to be flown over to your place to suit your wedding. Remember that your choice of flowers should match your budget as well.

Choosing your wedding colors and flowers can be fun, and your desired look can be achieved with the right use of color combination and flower choices that complements the ambience as well.