So I'm a newbie caker and stumbled across the 'tips' thread the other day and figured since I was making a list for myself, I could post it for everyone (33 pages is a LOT to read!).  Hopefully I didn't miss any, feel free to post any if I did!

• Making cake balls out of cake scraps

  • http://cakecentral.com/a/how-to-make-cake-balls

• The flower nail trick

  • Just grease and flower a metal flower nail, place it faced down in your baking pan, pour batter around it and bake your cake as usual for a flat top

• Viva paper towel trick

  • http://cakecentral.com/a/how-to-create-faux-fondant-the-paper-smoothing-towel-method-viva

• Using violet to cancel yellow to get a pure white icing

• using a microwave to clean tips
•           Place tips in a microwave safe bowl. COVER with water, add a few drops of dish liquid.      and microwave for 30 sec. or so. They will be very hot and Clean!

• Wrapping still warm cakes in plastic wrap to keep them moist

• Frozen Butter cream Transfer (BFCT)
•               http://cakecentral.com/a/how-to-create-a-frozen-buttercream-transfer
• Freezing cakes

• upside down smoothing

  • http://cakecentral.com/a/upside-frosting-technique

• Pressing down on cakes/using weights to level cakes right out of the oven (apparently just placing them upside down on a counter top will work too!)
• Using a spackle knife/bench scraper to smooth icing

• Using vanilla/caramel coffee mate to flavour cakes

• Marshmallow fondant (MMF)

• using cocoa powder in place of some icing sugar. Then you just need a small amount of black food dye!

• putting fondant/gum paste in the oven with JUST the light on so it dries out faster

• Dyeing MMF while in the melted marshmallow stage-WAY easier!

• making a plastic wrap 'tube' of icing to put in your icing bag

  • http://cakecentral.com/t/38404/great-tip-from-my-instructor

• coordinating your cake board with scrapbook paper to match the design of your cake

• using crumbled up cake toasted to make sand

• using Hershey's kisses for rose centres (instead of the 'blop' in the centre)

• red kool aid for red food coloring

• If you forgot to bring your eggs at room temperature, just submerge them in tepid/warm water in 2-3 minutes.

• If you forgot to bring the butter to room temperature, use a grater with large holes and grate it just like cheese

• cupcake cakes (I couldn't find a good thread discussing how to do this, if anyone could post a link that'd be great!)

• cake extender

  • http://cakecentral.com/a/cake-mix-extender (there are several recipes for this)

• Chocolate transfers (again, I couldn't find a good tutorial/thread on this so any help would be great!)

• Cake dressing so your cake releases easily from the pan

  • equal parts Crisco, flour, oil mixed together and then applied to you baking pan using a pastry brush (make sure to get the corners)

• Melvira smoothing method

  • http://cakecentral.com/a/quick-easy-smooth-icing-using-a-roller-melvira-method

• Introduction to americolor

• using a silicone pad (silpad?) to roll out fondant so it doesn't stick! Can also use vinyl

• Using a Play doh fun factory for fondant decorations

• Ironing wax paper on to ribbon to make it grease proof

• Pink fondant, or any fondant with red in it will fade if exposed to light for too long, so keep those in a dark place to dry

• Using Spaghetti strands to for extra support of fondant heads/limbs/etc.

And by far the most repeated tip in that thread was the amount of help/support/encouragement that is available just a click away!  Not to mention the inspiration you can get from the beautiful photos in the gallery!

well how very sweet and thoughtful of you

<shouting>

snowbunny86 for president!!!!

Thanks!  Hopefully somebody will find it helpful!
 

83 peeps beside you & me so far!

Sure beats the heck out of trying to browse through 33 pages for that one hint you remembered in there somewhere!  Thanks for being so considerate.

Now, if you ever want to know about " gourmet flavors " and go trough 413+ pages lolol ;)

Thank you for the recap, alot less intimidating then going trough it all.

Ahaha I've seen that one! Waaay too much to go through!