You can make a delicious homemade cake even more special by decorating it. If you want to get even more creative, you can make your cake look like something else completely. Get inspired by these cake decorating ideas.
Check out my favorite Red Velvet Cake recipe for something delicious to put inside your beautiful cake! But if that’s not your thing, we have plenty of other easy cake recipes for you. And cupcake recipes, too.
Cake decorating ideas
- The Rubik’s Cube Cake. It looks like a Rubik’s Cube in mid-twist. It does take some work, but this cake decorating project is less challenging than you might think. The instructions here will guide even a total amateur through the right steps, and it also gives you some helpful tips about what not to do. This one involves making and using fondant (optionally) to get the iced squares looking so smooth. You can use any flavor of cake for this one, though chocolate ganache makes the best black between the squares.
- Beer mug and nuts cake. Make this chocolate cake for a 21st birthday! You shape it like a beer mug, and make an icing logo on the front. The instructions guide you through some intricate piping work, but you can make it simpler if you want. Meringue makes the beer foam, and the whole thing sits on a newspaper tray. Awesome!
- Blue jeans cake. This cake is a little simpler than the others, but still terrific. It looks like a pair of edible blue jeans with decorative trimming (that would be piping and/or candy). There page gives you text instructions, or you can check out a helpful how-to video.
- Yoda Head Cake. If you’re a tad artistic, the instructions here can help you make a cake that looks like Yoda’s head. In fact, you could serve it on a silver platter, if you’re going for a sort of dark side theme at a party you’re planning. Psst – you make the ears out of Rice Krispies. No, really.
- Crop Circle Cake. The truth is out there, and it’s delicious. This is one of my favorite cake decorating ideas. The “crops” are actually done by piping, believe it or not, covered in peanut butter icing in three different shades of gold to look like real wheat. I can’t get over just how much it really looks like a farmer driving his tractor around when he discovers alien crop circles in his crops. It’s a cake that tells a story. This cake decorating idea takes a lot of patience and detail work, but if you’re up for that, you’ll blow somebody’s mind!
- Tie Cake for Dads. This one is presented as a Father’s Day cake, but it could also be for a dad’s birthday – and it would be ideal for celebrating a promotion. This cake is shaped like a tie (hence the “men” theme) and covered in fondant for that smooth and perfect look. You can decorate the tie any way you like – she shows you a heart that says “Dad” and a skyline with a plane above it, but you could also just do tie stripes or a tie tack if you’re not confident of your abilities with artistic fondant and piping. Note: fondant is beautiful, but smooth icing can look a little shinier, like a real tie, and that would be a nice choice for this one, too.
- Polka Dot Cake. This one is really simple. Just ice the cake very smoothly, then follow the instructions to pipe lovely polka dots onto it in another frosting color. This is perfect if you don’t have much time or aren’t ready for some of the more complicated projects listed here, because this gives you a beautiful, elegant cake all the same. I really like the three dimensions of a piping polka dot – there’s something very charming and kitschy about it. Fondant dots can’t cast a shadow or catch the light just so!
- The Tank Cake. A cake in the shape of a tank. It uses a straw for the gun barrel, fondant for the camouflage-colored armor, and Oreos for the wheel (so awesome!). The instructions are slightly vague in places, but if you’ve worked with fondant much, you can figure it out pretty easily. This cake is, of course, perfect for anybody military in your life, or anyone who just likes tanks. You can make the cake any flavor you want.