Cake Decorating

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August 30th, 2008 admin Leave a comment Go to comments

Cake Decorating

A Look at a Brief History History of Cake Decorating

The history of cake decorating is long. However, to cut to the chase, the cake is the ever present item when it comes to party. We can not think about any celebration with out the cake. May that be a birthday, wedding, anniversary or baby shower cake is always present as a part of our celebration. Every occasion in our life is celebrated by baking and decorating the cake.

Even though in ancient times the Egyptians knew how to bake a cake the history of cake decorating can be traced back to the 17th century. At that time the pans to bake the cake were introduced across the Europe.

Even though cakes were baked in the mid 17th century, elaborately decorated cakes were the monopoly of the rich and famous. Europe's aristocracy would display elaborately decorated cakes at their banquets.

History of cake decorating took another turn after 200 years. Around mid 19th century the French began to include a decorated cake as a part of dessert at the end of the meal. It was a sweet course after your meal is over. This started the tradition to eat cake as a dessert. Delicately decorated cakes began to make their appearance at the dining tables. Initially it was just France but it quickly spread across Europe.

As people were trying out new things in technology, during 1840 production of baking soda and baking powder had started and with the help of these things baking became that much easier. Around that time temperature controlled ovens started to come in the market. Temperature controlled ovens with the availability of baking soda and powder made cake baking become all the more easy.

Over the years cake baking evolved and people began to identify the cake decorating with different methods. The Lambeth Method of decorating the cake uses dimensional over piping of borders which are very intricate. It uses one layer of icing over the other to get three dimensional effects. Joseph Lambeth published a book titled 'the Lambeth Method of Cake decoration and practical Pastries'. In this book he described step by step instructions for piping embellished borders.

Wilton Enterprises started a school for cake decorating for interested people in 1929.Dewey McKinley Wilton was a sugar artist who began the cake decorating business during the great depression. He began to decorate the wedding cakes for famous hotels and clubs. As the Wilton method became popular, in the year 1947 the Wiltons began to market the cake decorating products.

As more and more people began to decorate the cake many manufacturers came out with cake decorating kits of their own. With the help of these kits the job of cake decorating became easier. Apart from the cake decorating kits the icing also can be bought ready made. All that was left is to use the material and create a beautiful looking cake.

Even today the cake decorating industry is thriving. It is an integral part of the sugar craft industry. It is becoming a popular art form. In the North America unique styles of cake decorating has been developed. So is the case with Australia, South Africa and North Western Europe.

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