Are you stumped for great cake ideas? Contrary to what many new cake decorators think, not all of the best cake designs are complicated. Coming up with ideas can be a lot of fun too!

One way that professional and hobbyist cake decorators conjure their ideas is to take part in cake decoration forums or join membership sites where they can ask for and give cake ideas.

Professional cake decorators also frequent Google Images, which is the quickest way to find a fantastic cake idea. In fact, here, you really can find killer cake ideas in less 60 seconds – or less!

If you haven’t discovered this tool, here’s how it works. Go to www.google.com and click on “Images.” Then search for cakes by type, occasion, color – you name it. If the search returns you an overwhelmingly amount of images, then simply narrow the search by adding a word or two.

For example, we type in the search term “Birthday Cake” (no caps or quotes needed.) and hit the “Search” button. Wow. 265,000 results.

Let’s say we already know the birthday cake is for a girl who is crazy about horses. So we add “Girl” to the search term. And we get 2,840 results. Still a lot! Plus there’s some grown up birthday girl ones that have little do with cake. Oops.

So we exchange “Horse” for “Girl” since our bet is most horse themed cakes are for girls, and we don’t want images of girls. We want images of cakes. So we try “Birthday Cake Horse.” Bingo!

A little over 200 returns and lots of cakes with horses, some with what look like royal icing run out and buttercream transfers, others that are probably spray-painted inside stencils, and there are some really creative sculpted cakes.

And then there’s a pretty green one that captures the imagination. And we’re still on the first page!

This one’s for a 60-year-old birthday girl. It’s a 9-inch layer cake with a spring green background (spray painted with varying shades of green that add realism and artistic beauty). White icing fencing is piped around the sides. On top, two rather large horse figurines have been placed above the birthday message.

This cake sparks an idea!

Picture a quarter or half sheet cake, buttercream smooth frosting, with piped leaves of grass. Then we will build a corral (not sure how just yet, maybe with white frosted pretzels), and then add a few ceramic horses, including a mare and cold (the birthday girl will love adding these to her collection).

See how one idea sparked by an imaginative cake idea can quickly lead to another?

And, if you enjoy molding, you could sculpt figures, including water trough, hay bales, and all those details that add that “Wow” factor. These figures can be modeled or made in molds with marzipan or gum paste, such as detailed in “Cake Decorating Made Easy!” By the way, here’s what one reader has to say about our Video Books:

“…very informative and “filled in the blanks” from what I didn’t learn in other instruction.

What I like best about it is that I can review any video instruction as many times as I want and with easy access directly to the subject I need.

Too, I enjoyed that you showed how to make a correction when one was needed. I would highly recommend your book and video reference to anyone interested in cake decorating, especially from the comfort from your own home….”

Helen D.
Philadelphia, PA

If we think about this some more, we’ll probably come up with an entire pasture and stable scene! Then it’s a matter of figuring out what’s realistic for your skill level, what you can do well to make this a great birthday cake. Ok, so this part does take longer than 60 seconds. But it did take less than 60 seconds to find the original idea and start building on it!

Here’s one more tip: Fantastic cake ideas alone doesn’t make fantastic cakes. Taste and texture count too! To learn more, check out our article on cake recipes.

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Samantha Mitchell, Co-Author
Cake Decorating Made Easy! Vol. 1 & 2
The World’s First Cake Decorating Video Books

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