Easy and quick cake decorating

The next few days I am going to post easy and quick ways to decorate a cake or cupcakes.  I will also include some quick fondant/gumpaste decorations! This is my first post in that series, I hope you enjoy it!

This is an 8inch double layer lemon cake with a strawberry cream cheese filling.  I will post the recipe soon.

Once your cake is baked and completely cooled, go ahead and level it, fill it and put a nice crumb coat on it. *TIP** to keep my cake board from sliding around as I ice a cake, I take a small square of non slip shelf liner and slip it under the cake board*

In a 20 inch pastry bag fitted with a Wilton #21 tip, fill with your buttercream icing that you have colored with gel food coloring.
 Starting at the bottom of your cake and working your way around, create a swirling motion with the piping bag.  Start in the center and swirl your way out.  You may want to practice on a plate a few times until you get the hang of it.

Decorating this cake took me about 15 minutes once I had the crumb coat finished.  If you plan on taking this cake somewhere, I suggest freezing if for 30-45 minutes, to allow the icing to hardened so it doesn't smear or smudge during transport.

Make your own cake mixes!

I love baking from scratch, almost all of my cakes are from scratch...However, the convenience of a box mix is hard to turn down.  So, I've started making my own "from scratch" cake mixes that I have on hand at all times.  Basically, it's all the dry cake ingredients, sifted together, put into a gallon sized freezer bag, with a label that states what cake the mix will make and lists the measurements of the wet ingredients that need to be added. 

I bake A LOT, I have a few cakes and several dozen cupcake orders each week.  So every Sunday night when I have some free time, I make up these cake mixes so when it comes time to bake all I have to do is dump the mix in a bowl, add the wet ingredients and bake.