This comprehensive guide to cake decorating provides step-by-step instructions with photographs, making it an essential guide for home bakers who want to up their cake decoration game. The book is split into four parts -- basic cake preparation, piping, fondant/gum paste accents, and miscellaneous techniques.

The basic cake prep section of the book is almost 40 pages and covers the tools you need for baking and decorating (and why certain tools are not good for decorating); how to bake the cake; recipes for common icings; methods for icing, stacking, and transporting cakes; and a helpful chart of how much cake batter is needed for common cake sizes.

The piping section covers how to construct and fill piping bags, what the bag tips to use, and techniques for creating common piped designs. The fondant and gum paste chapter covers methods for creating people, animals, plants, and other frills for decorations. The final section covers other techniques like stenciling, using edible papers, painting cakes, working with chocolate, and using the Cricut Cake machine.

The instructions are easy to follow and include step-by-step photos to help the reader along the way.

This guide is a wonderful tool for cake bakers just learning to decorate or those who are looking to branch out and learn new skills.

I liked the layout of this book and how the author chose to highlight things she thinks are important for the reader to be aware of and remember. It's very thorough in the information given and has step-by-step images for most of the instructions. I wasn't overly keen on the title page's colour choices for some of the chapters ( the green and purple combo slightly hurt my eyes) but overall I really liked this and I think it'd be a useful addition to anyone who enjoys cake decorating.

This is a fun book to help the novice home baker make their cakes more beautiful. I love the color pictures that demonstrates how to do the flowers or borders. The books starts at the beginning with how to make the cake and to level that cake before icing. It uses many different tools to create decorations. Whether out of fondant or buttercream, There are step by step directions to make all kinds of beautiful flowers.

I want to thank Netgalley and the author for gifting me the ebook. Omg I can't wait to try some of these designs! I love to bake I am just not very good with decorating (I am not an artist). But these seem easy and I can't wait to try! Love the pictures also!

This was an interesting read and an aptly named guide. Simple steps to decorate a cake. From cutesy flowers to rolling out fondant.

What did I like? Gorgeous step by step directions, clearly a book to help you come up with some delicious ideas. From baking, to icing, and then the sweet decorations. It’s all here! Torting and filling cakes was my favorite!

Would I recommend or buy? This is definitely going on my wishlist! Even if you aspire to do cupcakes this book will work! I really enjoyed a peek at this book! Five amazing stars!

The publisher granted me a complimentary copy to look at, salivate, and I voluntarily left this review!

This is exactly what I needed to read! I have birthdays coming up and I’ve bookmarked lots of pages. The techniques and suggestion is very helpful, as well, as the photos for every step! I highly recommend this to anyone learning. Thank you to the publisher for a gifted copy.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a beautiful and helpful book!

This is a pretty thorough guide to decorating cakes. There are full-page color photos with instructions for things like placing fondant, smoothing icing, and making frosting designs and flowers. There's icing recipes and information on preparing cakes to decorate as well as some fun decoration ideas. There are helpful tips throughout the book to help you make well-decorated cakes.

Overall a nice find!

Beautiful photos, delicious recipes, and easy to follow step-by-step instructions will have readers wanting to dive into their first creation!

This is a great book with step by step techniques, including color photos, for decorating with frosting, piping tips, fondant, and chocolate. It covers making flowers, animals, people, and chocolate transfers. There are some basic cake and frosting recipes, and a very helpful chart of lots of round and square cake pan sizes and how much batter, filling, and frosting is needed. The book also covers all the steps to take to get your cake ready for decoration.
One note/comment I will make is that this book will teach you what to do, but it does not, other than the section intro pages, have images of completed cakes. You would need to have an idea in mind or an image already of the cake you are trying to achieve and come here to learn how to do it, because there are not inspiration photos in here.
I am looking forward to using this book to expand on my decorating skills.
I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a good starting point for someone interested in the art of cake decorating. It had plenty of pictures and diagrams to illustrate the text, The icing recipes are varied and the techniques are simple enough to pick up on. The only thing I would point out is that you can also use other cutting machines besides the Cricut, allowing that you follow the proper precautions.
I received this book as a Netgalley ARC and offer my opinions gratis.