Fruits, berries and jelly for cake decoration
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Among the ways to decorate baked goods, fruit is one of the simplest, yet most delicious.The sight of a dessert beautifully decorated with fresh, juicy fruit immediately whets your appetite. Since decorating a cake with fruit is so simple, it can be turned into an art form within anyone's reach.
Many bakeries have long since realized this, resulting in the emergence of lines of store-bought cakes topped with a layer of jelly and beautifully arranged fruit slices. This invariably catches the customer's eye. You too can make something similar yourself.
Red and dark berries on white cream
Almost all methods for decorating baked goods with fruit are very simple. One is to simply arrange fresh slices around a round cake, which, of course, should be round. This decoration looks especially beautiful if the baked goods themselves are covered with white buttercream or icing.
Bright, fresh fruit slices against a white background create a sense of airiness in this dessert. It's very easy to make at home. Fruit combinations you can choose from include strawberries and currants, or blueberries.
Cut the strawberries in half and arrange the halves, core-side up, around the pastry circle. Then, place a few dark berries next to each strawberry half. Add another similar arrangement to the center.
This makes a very simple and elegant dessert decoration. And in the photo, it looks very bright and contrasting. In this case, we played with three colors: red (strawberries), dark blue (currants), and white (glaze).
Dessert for lovers
A perfect garnish for a dessert you want to dedicate to a loved one is strawberries. In fact, you can use just one. A small round or heart-shaped cake covered in white frosting, topped entirely with whole red berries, with the strawberry triangle facing upward, looks gorgeous and delicious in photos and in person. You'll agree, such a delicacy evokes romantic thoughts.
Slices of green and orange fruit on white cream
You can see in the photo that green and orange fruit slices look more delicate on white frosting. These could be kiwi, grapes, orange, lemon, tangerine, or pineapple. Again, the easiest way is to tightly arrange the fresh slices on top of the cake, one after the other. This will make it look more appetizing.
But you can also experiment. For example, you can create a rose shape in the center of the pastry yourself. A canned tangerine or peach works well for this.
Chocolate glaze decoration
Fruit is also a great decoration for chocolate-covered baked goods. If, as with white icing, you want to emphasize color contrast, orange, red, and green work best. You can create an asymmetrical decoration on just one side of the cake using orange, strawberry, or raspberry "petals" and mint sprigs.
On the remaining chocolate area, you can write a wish in beautiful cursive letters using white frosting. This looks very stylish in the photo. The decoration on the chocolate icing can also consist solely of dark and red berries. This will look less contrasting, but still very attractive.
Decorating a large portion cake
What if you're making a large rectangular cake and want a fruit garnish on each guest's plate? To do this, you'll need to segment the baking surface into the required number of pieces, design a fruit garnish, and arrange it on each segment.
This means you need to come up with a decoration for one small cake, and then repeat it on all the pieces of the larger dessert. This could be something minimal, like a single raspberry or strawberry. Or, conversely, you can create a beautiful arrangement of different fruit slices on a small piece. Decorating the cake with fruit in this case will take more time, but the result will definitely delight you and your guests.
Children's cakes
Decorating children's desserts requires a special dose of imagination. A good decoration for such cakes is to create animal-themed decorations using fruit slices. Here, start from the shape of the fruit or berry and consider what part of the animal's body it might represent. For example, half a strawberry would work perfectly for a cat's ears and paws, round berries would be the eyes, and so on.
Fruits in jelly
Cakes decorated with fruit jelly on top look even more impressive. The dessert takes on a brighter, more luscious appearance, and it's also practical, as the fruit adheres more securely to the surface. Many private companies decorate cakes and pastries this way, but it's also quite possible to do it at home.
To achieve the desired result, you need to follow simple rules:
- When the cake is ready to decorate, spread a small amount of jam or confiture over the top. It should just cover the entire surface, but not overpower the flavor. This prevents the jelly from seeping into the cake.
- To ensure that the filling is evenly distributed across the top, but does not spill over the sides, the cake must be placed in a suitable sized pan with high sides.
- To make the jelly set faster, place the cake, along with the fruits and berries, in the refrigerator for a couple of hours before decorating.
- Don't pour it over the dessert right away, let the gelatin mixture thicken a little, but don't overdo it.
Consider in advance the color of the jelly depending on the fruit. If you're decorating the cake with multicolored fruits, a clear filling will work, but if you're using a single-color icing, choose a mixture in a matching shade.
To prepare jelly you will need:
- 200 ml of water;
- 200 ml of any juice that matches the taste of the cake and the fruits used for decoration;
- 20 g gelatin;
- 3 tbsp. sugar (optional).
Cover the gelatin with water and let it sit for about half an hour. Then pour the juice into the saucepan, add sugar if necessary, bring to a boil, and slowly pour in the gelatin mixture, stirring constantly. Wait until all the gelatin has dissolved, and then remove the saucepan from the heat.
While the jelly cools and reaches the desired consistency, create a fruit arrangement of your choice. This could be a simple circular pattern or a more intricate design. Once the filling is ready, begin spreading it over the dessert, moving in a spiral from the center outward. Refrigerate the jelly to set. Afterward, you can decorate it with additional elements, such as chocolate chips, cream, etc., if desired.
