The Busy Girls Guide to Cake Decorating by Ruth Clemens Page A

tsp) vanilla, lemon or orange extract for an extra hit of flavour. This syrup can be brushed over the tops of cakes and will work to restore moisture. Useful in a baking emergency!

Get decorating
    •  Sometimes when rolling out sugarpaste, air bubbles can form within the paste and can ruin your beautiful finish. If this happens take a clean pin and pierce the centre of the air bubble and smooth the air out through the pinhole. Finish rolling out as before.

    •  Sugarpaste is a sticky substance to deal with and will try and stick to your work surface at any given opportunity. Keep checking the sugarpaste is loose and free from the surface when rolling out – keeping the surface lightly dusted with icing (confectioners’) sugar. To stop it from sticking to your rolling pin, dust your hand lightly with the icing (confectioners’) sugar and run the rolling pin through your hands. This should stop the paste from sticking without transferring white marks to the surface of your sugarpaste.
    •  Occasionally little bits will dive into white sugarpaste when you’re rolling it out – if you spot them before the sugarpaste is the right thickness you can pinch them out lightly with your fingertips to remove them. Carry on rolling out to the correct thickness, which will smooth out the pinch mark leaving your sugarpaste blemish free.

    •  When covering a cake with sugarpaste, sometimes it is easy to misjudge when flipping it into place, leaving it slightly short of reaching all the way down one of the sides. If this happens, place your fingertips on the sugarpaste just above where the shortfall is. Move your fingertips in a circular rubbing motion, which will encourage the sugarpaste downwards to meet the base of the cake. You can cover up to a 2cm ( 3 ⁄ 4 in) gap with this handy technique!

    •  Cracks can often form around the top edge of a cake. To prevent this from happening, make sure to dust your surface lightly with icing (confectioners’) sugar when rolling out, as too much will quickly dry out your sugarpaste and encourage the cracking. Roll out just enough to cover the cake without a large overhang of excess – too much and the extra weight will cause the sides to pull, again creating cracks. Small cracks can be sealed back together by rubbing gently with your fingertips in a circular motion.
    •  If you have cracks or marks in your sugarpaste once you have covered your cake, it is always good to remember that there’s always the back of a cake! Choose the best side to present as the front. Work design elements into your cake to disguise any small cracks, nicks or marks – a little blossom will do the trick!

    •  If there’s a big gap in your sugarpaste (either at the base of a cake or elsewhere) that is quite large, roll out a little more to the same depth and cut out a piece to patch in. Rubbing the joins with your fingertips in a gentle circular motion will begin to blend them in. It’s not a quick task, so keep massaging the sugarpaste and finish by smoothing with an icing smoother until it’s as good as new and the joins are not visible.

    •  If you end up with a large gap at the base of your cake when you have cut away the excess sugarpaste, consider using a wide ribbon to trim round the cake, which will disguise the gap.
    •  Getting the consistency of royal icing just right is always a bit of a battle, but time spent perfecting it before using it is definitely worthwhile. If it’s too thick, add a couple of drops of water to loosen it slightly, and if too thin, then you will need to beat in more icing (confectioners’) sugar.
    •  When piping lines or dots with royal icing, if you find there is a little peak at the finish point dab it down with a slightly damp paintbrush.
    •  When you’re not happy with the positioning and finish of your sugarpaste when covering a cake and feel like admitting defeat, as long as you haven’t smoothed it down and trimmed the excess,