Decorating cakes is a great way to add a personal touch to one of the oldest standing birthday traditions. With a little imagination anything can be added to a birthday cake decoratively; from piped lettering to cartoon characters and celebrities.

You can decorate a cake easily from home, don’t worry if you can’t bake, many people buy plain cakes to decorate themselves. The following article reveals some secrets that can help you to decorate cakes at home with ease.

With the market for custom made to order cakes expanding it seems as though almost anything can be ordered and designed as a cake. Now the boundaries for creativity have been pushed even further back as new printing methods allow us to add photos and other crystal clear images to birthday cakes.

Via the internet, photos and other pictures can be sent to companies that specialise in bespoke cake design. Usually all you will need to do is find the relevant section of the site for uploading images, find the image on your hard drive or external memory device and drag and drop the file. Some companies may request submissions via e-mail which can easily be achieved by attaching the file containing the image to the e-mail.

Depending on the service you choose different products may be available to order. Some companies will print off the image and place it on the cake for you as a whole package. Other companies may send the image to you on rice paper or another edible format with instructions on how to place it on the cake.

Sugar coated flowers and petals have been served as desserts and snacks for hundreds of years. If you are looking for something memorable with a little sophistication for your kid’s birthday cake, edible flowers are great. Perfect for a girly party and to impress other parents with these simple to prepare cake decorations.

• Choose your flowers carefully from the wild or your own garden. Only flowers which haven’t been grown with assistance from pesticides or treated with chemicals in any other way should be eaten.
• Remove any stamens or pistils which are still attached to the flowers and select either the petals or the whole flowers that you are going to use.
• Separate some egg whites and softly whisk them in a bowl. Use a pastry brush to cover the flowers or petals you are preparing. When the flowers are completely covered put them on a working surface and sprinkle them with fine granulated sugar until they are covered.
• Tap any excess sugar off the flowers and leave them to dry out on some kitchen roll. Whole flowers such as roses should be left to hang vertically to avoid any of the petals from being squashed so that they can keep their original form.