I can clearly remember the day I set out to my local craft store in search of my very first cake decorating tools. I had absolutely no prior cake decorating experience (unless you counted slathering canned frosting onto a casserole dish cake) but I was flying high on inspiration from Ace of Cakes, a cake decorating tv show I was obsessed with. Fifteen years later, I still use the same tools I picked up during that initial craft store run and wanted to put together a list of all the essentials you could need to start your own collection.
Cake Pan Set
While it’s perfectly okay to bake your cakes one layer at a time, it’s much more efficient to have a set of cake pans so you can bake all your layers at once. I always like to make triple layer cakes, so I recommend having at least three of your favorite pan sizes. My go-to size is a 6-inch round pan, but a set of 8-inch round pans are great to have on hand too. And opt for anodized aluminum instead of dark metal – it bakes more evenly!
Cake Turntable
It’s impossible to get a smooth buttercream finish without a cake turntable. It’s also just all-around easier to fill, stack, and decorate cakes with a turntable even if you’re going for a rustic look. The one thing I recommend is finding a non-slip pad to use with your cake turntable. This will ensure your cake won’t budge while you’re decorating!
Icing Smoother
It’s super important to find an icing smoother that you feel totally compatible with. I’ve tried a lot of them over the years, but my all time favorite ended up being this bench scraper by Norpro. I use it 100% of the time! I love that it’s perfectly level, easy to grip, and can be gently heated for a super smooth buttercream finish.
Icing Spatulas
Icing spatulas are extremely versatile. I use them to apply buttercream to my cakes before smoothing them, create sharp edges, add texture to my cakes, and more. It’s best to have a few sizes on hand for different tasks.
Cardboard Cake Rounds
Every cake I make is built on top of a cardboard cake round. This makes it much easier to transfer the cake off the turntable and onto a stand or into a box.
Piping Bags
Sure, you can use a ziploc bag for piping buttercream (I have in a pinch!), but it’s so much more efficient to have piping bags on hand. I like to buy the 16-inch size because it holds enough to pipe a lot of buttercream but can also be trimmed down into smaller bags.
Piping Tips
If you have zero piping tips in your collection and just want to start with a few, I recommend the two below. They’re both extremely versatile – 1M is great for rosettes and swirl borders, 4B is great for star shapes and swirls borders.
Cake Leveler
Every picture perfect cake starts with perfectly level layers. Since they don’t always bake up flat, it’s handy to have a cake leveler for cutting off domed or misshapen tops. This will make all of your layers the exact same height as well.
Food Color Gels
It’s so much fun to incorporate color into your cake decorating! My favorite brand of coloring to use is AmeriColor for a few reasons: they don’t add any weird flavor to your buttercream, they’re super concentrated so it doesn’t take a whole lot of food coloring to achieve the color you want, and they come in every single color you could possibly imagine. While they do have Nifty Fifty and Heavenly Seventy kits that include pretty much every color you could want in your collection, they also make a starter kit (below) that has all the basics.
Pretty Sprinkle Mixes
Quality sprinkles are always a good idea to have on-hand. They’re the perfect finishing touch for nearly any cake design. You can find good sprinkles at most craft stores and some grocery stores, but my favorite two brands are Fancy Sprinkles and Sprinkle Pop.
Anyone Can Cake: Your Complete Guide to Making & Decorating Perfect Layer Cakes
My book is written with beginners and those wanting to up their cake decorating skills in mind! It’s essentially everything I know about making and decorating layer cakes. The first half covers how to bake the perfect cake layers, create a structurally sound layer cake, and decorate it in all sorts of ways. It includes full guides and troubleshooting tips on ganache drips, coloring buttercream, and adding finishing touches like sprinkles and piping.
The second half is all recipes you could want to practice everything you learn in the first half of the book. It’s truly an all encompassing handbook that will set you up for success and help grow your skills!
I put together a little Amazon shop with all of these essential tools in one place. Click the link below to shop them all at once!
I’m cheering you on in your cake making and am here to support you however I can. Once you get your collection of tools going, be sure to check out my Cake Basics series to learn all the fundamentals! That series paired with my book will be a game changer. Happy caking!
I would like to buy a small cake stand for 6 inch cakes because I like the mini size and don’t need anything bigger for 2-4 people. I can’t seem to find one. Can you recommend a small stand to match my small cakes. Thanks.
Hi Linda! I like to display 6-inch cakes on 8-inch or 9-inch cake stands. There are a lot of options on Amazon here: https://amzn.to/3D48hzn and I have a few of my favorites in my Holiday gift list as well: https://amzn.to/3ZHRXwN
Hi Whitney, I admire so much your beautiful cakes and your posts, and you are truly an inspiration in the cake world. I always use your recipes when I make a cake and they are so easy to follow and make.
I have a question: for the icing smoother, I understand you use the Norpro 6″. Is this the only one that you’re using for any cake size ?
What if we have a 9″ with 3 layers, would you use same one?
I feel it’s too small, however I’d like to buy it.
Hi Laura! So happy you’ve been loving my recipes! I use the Norpro for every cake I make, but that said, my cakes are typically only 5.5 inches tall or less. If you need a taller cake smoother, I’d recommend something simple like this one: https://amzn.to/4dWjnUn.
Hi, please Help! What would be the best caramel recipe that can be added on top of whipping cream of a milk cake that does not discolor and loose it’s rich brown color. Every time I place my caramel on top of the cream layer after a day or two it turns out to be light in color and not so stabled. What would I do to cream to prevent moisture and what caramel recipe can be best to place as topping yet smooth and doesn’t change in color?
Thank you so much!
Hi there! I have two caramel recipes that work great as filling 1) Thick caramel filling https://sugarandsparrow.com/thick-caramel-filling/ and 2) Easy Salted Caramel https://sugarandsparrow.com/salted-caramel-recipe/ I’ve never had any issues with either of these changing color or consistency. With soft fillings like caramel though, you’ll want to add some stability for the filling. Look at the “soft fillings” section of this blog post to see what I mean: https://sugarandsparrow.com/fill-and-stack-cake-layers/ it could be that your whipped cream frosting isn’t stable enough to uphold the weight of the caramel.
Hi Whitney,
I have been baking cakes for years, however I am always looking to learn from those much better than myself. I purchased your book in December and have found it to be a great refresher to cake decorating and updated cake recipes.
I have a question regarding cake storage once the cake is completely decorated. What product do you use to store your cakes? I have several cake plates and domes, but have never needed one that is as tall as the three tier cakes before now. I find once the cake has been cut and will need to be stored to keep fresh difficult, any suggestions?
Thank you,
Heather
Hi Heather! So happy to hear you’re loving my book! I usually store decorated cakes in the refrigerator and once they’re cut, I place plastic wrap over the cut portion before storing it in the refrigerator. Here’s a blog post I wrote all about cake storage: https://sugarandsparrow.com/making-cakes-ahead/ hope that helps!
Your cakes are amazing! I’m truly a beginner, and I was wondering your thoughts on couplers for the icing bags and tips. I seem to notice that you just slide the decorating tips directly into the pastry bags. What are your thoughts on using couplers, and what to you find to be the easiest technique for this super-basic step in prepping the icing bags? Thank you!!!
Hi Heather! Thanks for your kind words about my cakes and I’m cheering you on in your cake making! So couplers are great when you’re using the same buttercream color and just swapping out the piping tips, and only if the piping tips are the same diameter in the circular end. I’ve definitely used them before in that case! But when I’m using a larger piping tip and a smaller one with the same color of buttercream I tend to split the buttercream between two different bags and just slide the tips right in. Hope that makes sense!
Love you content! For the icing smoother by Norpro, is it the 6″ size or larger? I checked out the 6″ but in your videos yours looks larger, but maybe not!
Thanks
Hi Valerie! It’s the 6 inch smoother 🙂