i love to bake, but i am just starting out with the decorating aspect. last night i made my first fondant cake (pictured in my avatar) and clearly i do not have the proper tools, as i was very frustrated and had to imprvise a lot. so please tell me what tools make the cake decorating process a little easier for you and why? thanks everyone!

An ordinary table fork (or occasionally a spoon), and a bowl, for making the frosting.

A small frosting spatula that's at least 40 years old, maybe over 50.

Ordinary zip-top bags (storage or freezer weight, NOT sandwich weight), for use as piping bags.

A writing tip and a coupler.

(That comes out to 6, but like Bullwinkle Moose, I'm a heavy tipper.)

Your chalkboard cake is adorable!!!

There is a LOT of information on this same topic on a thread on the Wilton product forum. Here is the link:

http://www.wilton.com/forums/messageview.cfm?catid=6&threadid=164136

6 qt. KA mixer with Beater Blade

Several small offset spatulas

Multiple heavy duty large cooling racks (for turning out cakes)

Multiple Ateco "baking cores" (flat, stainless steel, non- pointed things that look like, but are NOT flower nails) for even baking of layers.

Hot knife ( heated X-acto knife sold at Michaels & Joanns) for cutting foamcore cake boards

Rae

Offset spatula, fondant smoothers, Xacto knife, pastry cutter, and extra small scissors (cuticle-type). Those are a basic need. A set of fondant modeling tools would be next on my list.

The chalkboard came out great .
Hmmm Top five,

A piece of acetate , for smoothing my fondant.
a pizza wheel, to trim fondant from the cake
My plastic sheets that I roll out with.
Drinking straws , I use these for all sorts of modelling and even for dowelling smaller cakes.
My tilting turntable

ONLY 5 ??? (this is just to get to the fondant stage!)

1. Agbay
2. Tall stainless 90' scraper for ganaching
3. Turntable
4. Large wooden rolling pin - with ball bearings in handles??
5. piece of acetate

A bench scraper that is a clean 90 degree angle at the bottom: ] rather than one that is curved or has a handle that lifts the edge of the scraper away from the board.

Rae

Oooohhhh it's sooo hard to limit it to just 5 things!!
Most have already been mentioned:
small off-set spetulas
many, many different tips
8", 10" & 12" pastry bags & parchment triangles
the bench scraper mentioned above
Wilton's "Big tip" aka: quick icer tip ( do mostly b'cream cakes)

Yeah 90 foot scraper!! bwahaha - we build BIG cakes here in Oz

Nup - just joshing! it IS in fact a 90degree one - the BEST thing for getting your ganache straight AND smooth - and also helps us get those razor sharp edges!

I'm not experienced enough to add much yet, but I LOVE my offset spatula. For the fondant accents I've done, I love my clear ruler and pizza cutter.