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BASIC EQUIPMENT

Go into any cake decorating shop and you’ll be amazed at how much “stuff” is available. Here are the basics that will allow you to make the cakes in this book.

1. Baking Tray or Cookie Sheet For baking cookies

2. Sieve Use this for sieving flour or confectioners' sugar and sprinkling “snow” over Christmas cakes. You can also push fondant through it to make hair or foliage.

3. Wooden Spoon For use when making cake batter by hand. You can also use the handle to poke large hollows into your models.

4. Mixing Bowl

5. Cooling Rack Place your baked cakes and cookies on this to speed up the cooling process.

6. Spatula The flexible head on this utensil will let you scrape every last drop of cake batter or frosting out of your mixing bowl.

7. Palette knife This is a special blunt knife with a bendy metal blade designed for spreading soft frosting easily.

8. Pastry brush Use this to dab water on boards and apply jam on to your fruitcakes.

9. & 10. Piping Bag & Nozzles (Tips) A large fabric bag and a large star nozzle makes piping elegant cupcakes easy. Smaller nozzles are for finer piping work. The smaller the number the smaller the hole at the tip. I would usually use these with a paper piping bag. You can also use the nozzles to press curved smiles into fondant characters or as mini circle cutters.

11. Cutters For cutting simple shapes out of cookie dough or fondant.

12. Measuring Cups Useful if you like to cook using cup measurements.

13. Paint Brushes A soft medium brush that won’t dent the fondant when you stick sections together and a fine tipped brush for lettering or making eyeballs.

14. Cheeky Straw This is simply an ordinary drinking straw with a little bit cut off one end at an angle. With this end you can press miniature “U” shapes into fondant so it’s ideal for giving your characters cheeks. Use the other uncut end as a tiny circle cutter or for pressing little circles into your fondant.

15. Carving Knife You will use this for slicing your cakes to make them ready for decorating.

16. Small, Sharp, Non-Serrated Knife Essential for cutting fondant cleanly and smoothly.

17. Mini Rolling Pin It’s easier to roll out little bits of fondant using a smaller rolling pin. If you don’t have one, use a paint-brush instead.

18. Large Rolling Pin For rolling out fondant and marzipan (almond paste).

19. Scissors For cutting ribbon, string, baking paper, edible wafer paper, and fondant Christmas trees!

20. Scalpel (Craft Knife) Useful for cutting out tiny bits of fondant and giving you characters long luscious eyelashes.

21. Turntable Once you have got one of these you will wonder how you managed without one. Placing a cake on the turntable will bring it up to a manageable working height. You can turn the cake around easily when working, which is useful when it’s a large, heavy cake.

22. Cup Cake Baking Tray These are for baking cupcakes.

23. Cake Boards & Cards A cake board is a food-safe, light, yet durable, board that won’t bend or break no matter how heavy your cake. Cake cards are thinner and are ideal for small fondant models.

24. Cake Smoother This is how you get your fondant cake covering flat and smooth. You use it a bit like an iron to level any lumps and bumps.

25. Tape Measure Useful for measuring round tins and cakes for paper linings and ribbons.

26. Circle Cutters You will find a set of these really useful as cut out circles are used often. You can always use a lid instead but it’s always a fiddle finding one the right size.

27. Toothpicks (Cocktail Sticks) Use these for adding food color to fondant and little dot eyes on your characters. Don’t use them for internal model supports as they could cause injury if eaten. Use a strand of raw uncooked spaghetti instead.

28. Scales These are for weighing ingredients

29. Baking Pan (Tin) These are for baking your cakes.