Wondering how to decorate a cake without tools? I'm going to show you five items you already have in your kitchen and how to use them to decorate stunning cakes instead of buying expensive cake decorating tools.
With one of these rubber or silicon spatulas you can make trendy wave frosting. Hold sideways so the top edge is pressed into the frosting as you spin the cake. Move the spatula up and down to create these beautiful waves giving the frosting lots of movement.
Bonus: if you struggle with getting your frosting smooth, it doesn't matter! While the spatula creates this wave texture it's also smoothing the frosting within the waves.
This effect is stunning for an ocean or under the sea or mermaid theme.
To add lots of detail without taking lots of time, use a fork with just two movements: up and sideways. The prongs of the fork will drag evenly spaced lines across the frosting. When the lines have made a square, pull the fork out and change direction.
For vertical lines, pulling the fork up rather than down will let you see what you're doing! Here's my top tip for this technique: dip your fork into warm water for the best results. The warm metal will drag much more easily through the frosting. Offset the design for each row so that the sideways lines are above the up and down lines. This will create a simple patchwork design.
The fork texture makes the cake much more detailed and interesting than just plain smooth frosting.
Speaking of smooth frosting, you can do that without a cake comb, using a ruler instead. Press one of the ends down on the cake board against the side of the cake. Then spin the cake on a turntable, holding the ruler still. Your spinning hand should move the cake so that you don't need to move the ruler.
Do this again and again to get the frosting smoother and smoother. After each spin, pull the ruler away from the cake and wipe the buttercream off it into your bowl.
If you don't have a turntable you can smooth the frosting on a plate with a microwave wheel instead! Choose a plate with enough room to fit your ruler next to the cake before the plate slants upwards.
For the top edge, swipe sideways with your ruler. You'll push that buttercream that's sticking up over the top edge and lift it away on your ruler.
This is a pastry brush or a basting brush and it's another way to create unusual texture on cakes. Hold the brush at the bottom of the cake and press it against the cake. Pull it upwards to leave these pretty lines in the frosting.
For the best results, dip the brush in water so it will slide more easily through the frosting. Also, the frosting should still be soft so do this straight away, not after it sets.
Pastry brushes are useful for floral cakes because they create stems on green frosting. Make a bouquet of flowers on top of the cake with fresh or artificial flowers or pipe them. Or make wafer paper flowers, which I teach in my Layer Up program on my cake school. Start a free 7-Day trial to try it risk-free!
Next up, a spoon? Yes! Ditch the textured cake combs and instead hold the back of a spoon against the frosting on your cake. Press it gently into it and then drag it in an arc to make curves or swirls in the frosting. You can do this on the sides and also on the top of the cake. This is my strawberry cake with strawberry buttercream:
Another way to use a spoon is to create grooves in the cake. Drag the spoon slowly upwards to pull the texture all the way up the cake. Let the grooves overlap each other so there aren't any gaps.
You can do this horizontally as well, holding the spoon sideways. Press against the frosting as you spin the cake, pulling the spoon slowly upwards to pull the texture all the way up the sides of the cake.
So, five ways to decorate cakes using items you already have at home: a spoon, a fork, pastry brush or basting brush, a spatula and a ruler! Which of these will you try first?
Visit my cake school for hundreds of cake decorating techniques and designs and start a free 7-Day trial of my All You Can Cake membership, which gives you access to everything on my cake school!
You can also watch a video of this tutorial on 5 ways to decorate a cake without tools:
