Buttercream swirls are piped onto the sides of cake.

Cake decorating^[1] is one of the sugar arts that uses icing and other edible decorative elements to make otherwise plain cakes more visually interesting. Alternatively, cakes can be molded and sculpted to resemble three-dimensional persons, places and things.

In many areas of the world, decorated cakes are often a focal point of a special celebration such as a birthday, graduation, bridal shower, wedding, or anniversary.

[edit] History

During the 1840s, the advent of temperature-controlled ovens and the production of baking soda and baking powder made baking cakes much easier.^[2]

Even though baking from scratch decreased during the latter part of the 20th century in the United States decorated cakes have remained an important part of celebrations such as weddings, anniversaries, birthdays and other special occasions.^[3] and designs range from simple to complex.

[edit] Cake decorating as an art

A cake sculpted to look like a cheeseburger.

Some cake designers are former painters. Colette Peters, of Colette’s Birthday Cakes, and some of Colette's employees have degrees in Fine Arts,^[4] or art history^[5] and Duff Goldman was a graffiti artist.^[6]

[edit] Cake decorating in popular culture

• Food Network's Ace of Cakes features baker and artist Duff Goldman and his shop, Charm City Cakes.
• WE's Amazing Wedding Cakes is a television series featuring several cake decorating companies across America and focuses on the crafting and design of the cakes.
• Cake Wrecks is an entertainment photoblog featuring user-submitted images of "unintentionally silly, sad, creepy or inappropriate" cakes.^[7]

[edit] Footnotes