Ages ago, I made a Raggedy Ann cake for my niece Jenna. I used every square inch of my (then) tiny apartment kitchen. Everything was going fine, until I started to slather my 7-minute frosting on the cake. It crystalized and started to look and feel like I added SAND to it. Oh, my, glob. I was in tears. It was such a mess, I had to remake everything. Frosting AND cake. Before the Raggedy Ann Episode, I always felt the decorating part was the FUN part of cake baking. It’s the part I couldn’t WAIT to get to. Now it gives me the yips. Which is why I adore the idea of these store-bought cake makeovers. Sure, you could use the error-free decorating ideas on a homemade cake, but if you’re really stressed for time, they can make even the most boring supermarket cake look pretty spectacular. Look and read on. . .
First, Pop Sugar’s gorgeous flower topped cake. And, no, they just didn’t stick flowers into a cake. The secret is drinking straws! Click here to see the video of how to make this cake decoration as well as two others.
Desiree made over her Costco in ten minutes, much to the delight of her little girl. She added sprinkles and ribboned-topped skewers to bring out the festive.
Martha did something similar with balloons. So simple and sweet, no?
Bunting cake toppers are everywhere (do the google images if you don’t believe me). For something a little different, how about swags of candy necklaces? Darling.
Arlee’s store-bought cake was a shadow of its former self after she gave it the race-car treatment. See that one that’s coming out the side? You won’t believe what she used to protect the cake from its wheels and such. Very smart!
When I first saw this last idea, I thought, “No way was that a store bought cake.” But it is. It started out as 2 Sara Lee pound cakes cut up and frosted with tinted white chocolate. The pearls are white gum balls, and the ribbon is sticks of Wrigley’s Doublemint gum. Yes, a bit more labor intensive than our previous examples, but, the use of materials is genius.
