Deciding to decorate baked goods can help your baking business (or your dinner table) stand out from the rest in fun and creative ways. You can capture attention with decorations which are fun, elaborate or simply bizarre. These seasonal ideas may help get your creative juices flowing so you can create some really awesome baked treats that make people want to buy more.
Idea 1: For Christmas
Play it Safe: Decorate your cookies like Christmas trees, presents or gingerbread men.
Be Creative: Try using a pound cake as the body of a train. You can use icing or chips of candy - try butterscotch - for most of the details. For the smokestack, try a carved piece of cake or a stack of small cookies, or round candies held together with icing. Choo choo!
Idea 2: For Easter
Play it Safe: Easter egg or chick-shaped cookies are always popular.
Be Creative: Why not make your easter eggs 3D? You can get baking pans with indents that look like half of an egg. Fill them with cake batter or even cookie dough. Once they're baked, trim them up before you take them out of the pan so that the top is flat and even. Pop the egg halves out and stick them together with icing for whole eggs. Decorate them as you please, then nestle them together in a bed of green dyed coconut grass.
Idea 3: For July 4th
Play it Safe: Make some cupcakes with fireworks or American flags iced on.
Be Creative: Instead of using icing to decorate your baked goods, try some fresh summer fruits. You could make an American flag cake with blueberries, strawberries and cream cheese icing. It's sweetly seasonal and better for you, too!
Idea 4: For Halloween
Play it Safe: Pumpkin-shaped cookies abound at this time of year.
Be Creative: How about some sweetly spooky 3D ghosts? Stack cookies on top of each other, holding them together with icing. Make sure you leave a cookie with a nicely rounded head on top. Roll out a sheet of white marzipan or fondant and drape it over the stacks, then trim it at the bottom. Decorate with black icing for eyes and a mouth.
Idea 5: For Thanksgiving
Play it Safe: Berry cobblers and pumpkin pie are traditional Thanksgiving fare.
Be Creative: Instead of sharing communual pies, give everyone their own dessert with plump turkey-decorated cupcakes. For even more seasonal appeal, try a rich chocolate chip pumpkin cupcake recipe instead of plain chocolate or vanilla. Ice each cupcake with orange frosting. You can make the tail out of anything you want, from shards of chocolate to slices of candied fruit to candy corn. A single candy corn makes a fine beak.
These ideas may help you spice up your business and your holiday meals with fun and creative desserts. With treats that are more exciting than any others, your baking business is sure to thrive.
