Cake Decorating Magazine

Unleashing the Amateur Cake Decorator

If you are like me and always on the verge of getting creative when it comes to baking projects, it might be worth your while dipping into a cake decorating magazine for inspiration. They feature glossy, mouth-watering pictures, tips and recipes from top chefs and the beauty of the magazine medium means they are all up to the minute. This means you can:

1. keep up with latest trends in cooking as clothes-lovers would with fashion.

2. follow recipes and tips that are in tune with seasonal fluctuations in food availability and freshness.

3. take advantage of any discounts that may be around at time of publication.

4. get started on your cake decorating project straight away as the majority of magazines are designed to get you off your butt and into the kitchen to try out a few dynamite cake recipes before the next issue is due.

The Advantages of Flipping the Pages of a Cake Decorating Magazine

Of course a cooking book can get you just as motivated as a cake decorating magazine, but:

1. the expense is greater

2. the content will inevitably be older due to the longer time it takes to produce a book

3. there will not be such a clear tie-in to the particular season.

4. if you are as messy in the kitchen as I am, you’ll be worried about gluing the pages together with bits of stray recipe.

What Does a Magazine Offer?

It would be difficult to imagine a fashion book having the popular appeal of a current magazine. After only a few months it would be a historical piece. Okay, cooking is not so ephemeral, but it seems to be heading in that direction. In addition, there are so many TV tie-ins that you will get the chance to try out the whole tantalizing recipe you caught half of on your favourite TV cooking show before the phone rang and you had to rescue your son from a pot hole (also known as his best friend's bedroom). In short, a good cake decorating mag is able to encourage a novice like me to get started on projects that have at least a chance of resembling something a professional might be able to persuade his cat to eat.

In a Class of your Own

There's always plenty of topics to attract a beginner in a cake decorating magazine, including basic decorating tips, as that's the way the magazine is able to expand its readership. For this reason, it is often a sensible place to start your search for inspiration. Personally, I like learning from the comfort of my own kitchen. I don’t really have time to schedule an appointment with a professional cake decorator to learn new skills, and if I joined a class I’d spend most of my time gassing away to the others in the group, distracting them as much as myself. Scheduling is a big obstacle for me. My evenings are not my own as it is. A cake decorating mag would seem to be a viable alternative for someone who has a hectic schedule.

Getting Down and Dirty in Your Kitchen

I like working at my own pace, especially in practical subjects. There are not many levels of abstraction in a cake decorating article. In fact, I often try out the ideas as I read, turning the pages with floury fingers, or even, with one particularly messy recipe, my nose. It’s not an expensive book, just a cheap magazine, so no need to worry. Just make sure you don’t get a paper cut on your nose when you turn the page.

Examining The Fruits of Your labour

Using a cooking magazine like this give me the chance to learn new techniques straight from the page and my family and friends are always available to evaluate my progress – and if the worst comes to the worst, the dog is always ready to chip in with a bit of positive feedback. Working through the recipe from the printed page directly to the edible (with luck) product imprints the stages of the recipe on your brain a lot more effectively than watching a flawless demonstration by a professional chef. You learn by your mistakes as they say, so I guess I get more opportunities to learn than most.

No Escape for Contemporary Cooking Literature

While I love the idea of working with a professional cake decorator, she would have to go home at some point (probably shaking her head – or just shaking). The magazine can’t get away. It’s mine! I can refer to it whenever I need to. The only danger is the pages of the most challenging and exciting recipes are almost bound to be stuck together after I’ve tried them out once.

The language of Cake Decorating

A good cake decorating magazine will explain the jargon for beginners. Becoming familiar with the basic vocabulary for pastry designs will cut your shopping time in half. Referring to the magazine as you careen down the supermarket aisle, you’ll be able to figure out what to get and in which section it can be found, thus leaving you with more time to browse the cooking magazine rack at your leisure.

The Inexhaustible Meets the Inexcusable

Having honed your skills you will still need to dig into the latest cake decorating mag for new ideas and inspiration. There seem to be an inexhaustible supply of techniques and recipes out there. At least I’m always exhausted before I'm halfway through an issue. I suppose I should end with a typical magazine homily like, ‘In no time at all you will be creating original designs of your own,’ but really, my advice would be to make sure your kitchen has shelf-space for all those magazines.