Sourcing Your Cake Decorations

It’s a fairy land of gold leaf Labrador-shaped cutters and hologram glitter out there, if you know where to look. Want to find out where Nigella buys her tiny cupcake roses, or where to order festive marzipan models? Here’s how to make your cake a modern masterpiece, and where to find the very best stuff to pile on it!

Shaped Candles and Figures

As well as number candles, you can now buy message candles, heart-shaped candles, wiggly candles, cat-shaped candles, multi-coloured flame candles, firemen-shaped candles, and magic-light candles. Phew! There’s an excellent selection of novelty candles at Caketoppers, but if you want regular ‘Happy Birthday’ or ‘Merry Christmas’ candles, start with your local supermarket or even Ebay.

If you’re assembling a wedding cake, you’ll be spoilt for choice. Choose from traditional or funny clay models of the bride and groom; alternatively, top with a ted, a cherub, or a pair of doves! We love the passionately kissing couple you’ll find at Blue Ribbons – perfect for a contemporary wedding cake.

Strike Gold

Nigella’s got a weak spot for gold decorations – the sparklier the better – and we can’t say we blame her! Today you can buy Edible Gold Leaf, gold dust, holographic gold sparkles, gold-coated almonds and golden chocolate dragees. Imagine a nut cake lined with white icing and completely covered in gold leaf – wouldn’t that be a great centrepiece for your next party? If you’re after an easy, but equally glamorous, solution, try the glitters produced by EdAble Art in County Durham – spectacular, holographic-effect glitter dust in disco shades like Neon Flamingo and Way Too Pink! Inspired yet?

Icing and Cookie Cutters

Whether you want to eat cookies shaped like poodles or tractors, there’s a cutter out there for you. You could spend hours scrolling through the cutters at Splat Cooking, which lists an astounding 400+ designs.

If you’re looking for a specific flower to decorate your cake – primrose, sunflower, lily or orchid – try Craft Company, whose flower department is highly specialised. Some of those cutters are for serious decorators only: the Singapore Orchid is a four-piece assembly job. But many are one-piece and just as gorgeous: try scattering your cake with random Daisy cut-outs in a contrasting colour.

Too Pretty to Eat…

Anyone with a sense of kitsch will be in heaven when they discover the little sugary creations at Blue Ribbons – cupcake toppers in the shapes of hens, tortoises, dogs, and even sea-horses! If you’re baking for a children’s party, you may find the Simpsons, Superman and Dora cake toppers useful – just stick and go.

Specialist supplier Marzipan World stocks just one thing: marzipan models. Fairly limited, you may think, but take a look: their marzipan models come in every shape and size, from tiny pumpkins to dragons, rabbits, and even sheep! Every one of their 150 designs is made by hand.

Sugarcraft

Queen of party cakes Jane Asher has set up her own mail order company, and although the site isn’t easy to use, the service is great. As well as coloured sugars, icing mixes, ribbons and cookie cutters, it’s a good place for cake tins and stands, and carries an exceptional range of sugarcraft flowers… including the rose on the cover of Nigella Lawson’s ‘Domestic Goddess’ book! You can order 100 tiny sugar roses for just £20.

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