Article: Even expert cake decorators sometimes have dribbles of icing puddle or pool around the base of the cake. To create a clean edge between your cake and the surface it rests on, place the corners of four pieces of wax or parchment paper under your cake so the paper skirts the bottom edges of the cake. You should be able to easily remove any drips or messy frosting around the cake's base by pulling free the paper from underneath it. A crumb coat is a thin layer of frosting that you put on your cake before the main layer of frosting. When frosting your cake, crumbs can get stuck in your frosting, making it look less than great. Your crumb coat will trap these crumbs and keep your main layer of frosting looking clean and professional. Use a knife or offset spatula to apply your frosting, spreading it until you can see the cake underneath. Give your crumb coat a few minutes to set before you move on to your main layer of frosting. Vanilla buttercream frosting, as delicious as it may be, is fairly simple to make. For more complicated versions of icing or frosting, you may want to check out how to make icing or frosting. The following recipe only needs to be beaten together to a regular consistency in a mixing bowl: Softened butter ( cup)Confectioners' sugar (4 cups)Vanilla extract (1 teaspoons)2% milk (5 to 6 tablespoons) A few drops of food coloring in your icing can change plain white buttercream into whatever color best suits your cake design! To keep your frosting equally distributed, you should start from the top and spread small amounts frosting across your cake with your knife or offset spatula. As the frosting thins, you should scoop more of it from its container or mixing bowl with your knife of spatula, and continue to spread the frosting on you cake little by little until it is completely frosted. Try not to apply too much frosting at once. This can sometimes make it difficult to achieve an even look. Wait until the top of your cake is done before frosting the sides. This way you'll have a more consistent look for your entire cake. A piping bag is flexible plastic container that you can fill with frosting. After loading the bag with frosting, you should cut the end of the bag that comes to a point to create a nozzle. Then all you need to do is squeeze the bag to force your icing out in a controlled stream. If you have trouble finding a suitable piping bag at your local grocery, you can make a homemade piping bag with a zippered plastic bag. Put icing in your baggie and seal the top firmly. Cut off the tip of one corner of the baggie and voila! Your homemade piping bag is finished. Beginning pipers might not yet feel confident piping a message freehand onto a cake. If you're one such person, you may want to sketch out the message in your frosting with a toothpick. This way you can follow your sketch with your piping bag and limit mistakes. You can use the end of your piping bag to direct your stream of frosting, or you can buy special tips to create special effects with your frosting. Some special effect tips you can use with your piping bag include: Round tips, which are suited for lines, dots, and writing messages. Star tips, which are mostly used to create stars shapes, decorative shells, flowers, borders, and rosettes. Basket-weave tips, which are fitting for making lattices and lines that mimic ribbons, and other borders. You may need to wait until you graduate from beginner before you tackle any designs that are too complex, but with your piping bag you can create all sorts of shapes and designs. You can also make clever designs from a special, hardened sugar substance called fondant. You might even try: Icing flowers Icing roses
Question: What is a summary of what this article is about?
Prevent frosting splatter and runs with wax or parchment paper. Protect your frosting from crumbs with a crumb coat. Buy some icing, or make your own. Frost your cake evenly. Make or buy a piping bag. Model your messages before writing with frosting. Add details and a message with your piping bag. Border your cake, and add other edible designs.
Article: Take a medium size carrot, and use a vegetable peeler or knife to remove the skin. It's important to remove all of the skin so that when you run the carrot through the sharpener, you're only shaving off the flesh and not any of the skin. Do this until you have enough flesh to form a flower. Use a vegetable peeler that resembles a pencil sharpener and insert the carrot. Turn it to shave off the outer layers of flesh in one continuous strip. Shave the carrot until you have enough shavings to create the size of flower that you want. You can use a traditional vegetable peeler or even a knife to shave off the carrot flesh too. However, it's more difficult to keep the shavings in a continuous strip with one of those tools, so work slowly and carefully. When you've shaved enough flesh from the carrot, carefully take the shavings off the sharpener, going slow to avoid tearing them. Using your fingers, curl the shavings into a flower shape by wrapping them around themselves. Because of the way the peeler shaves the vegetables, the carrot flesh will naturally curl in on itself, so follow the natural curve to make shaping the flower easier. After you've shaped the carrot shavings into a flower, take a toothpick and push it through the bottom where the ends of the savings overlap. That will help the flower keep its shape, so you can place it on a plate as a garnish without worrying about it coming undone. The toothpick should be able to pierce the shaved carrot flesh on its own, but if it doesn't go through easily, use a knife to create a small hole that you can push the toothpick through.
Question: What is a summary of what this article is about?
Peel the carrot. Shave the carrot with a vegetable sharpener. Remove the carrot shavings from the sharpener, and curl into a flower shape. Stick a toothpick through the bottom of the flower to hold its shape.