Course description

Making a birthday cake that looks as good as it tastes is one of the most satisfying things you can do in a kitchen. This course takes you from your first smooth coat of buttercream to a stacked two-tier celebration cake, one practical skill at a time, with clear steps, sizes and quantities, and the safety know-how you need when you bake for other people.

There are 10 sections and 50 written lessons, and each one ends with a short, practical exercise. You follow Colleen, a medical receptionist in Swindon, through a year of cakes: the sponges that sank, the buttercream full of butter flecks, her daughter's rainbow birthday cake, a yellow digger for her son, a navy and gold two-tier cake for a 40th, and her first paid order for a local café. Every section has a practice pack with a worksheet, example answers, a cheat sheet and printable tools, including piping practice sheets, cut-out and run-out templates, number templates, buttercream and sugarpaste calculators, a countdown planner, a cake costing spreadsheet and an order form.

What you'll learn

• Getting started: a sensible starter kit, kitchen hygiene, the 14 allergens, planning a cake to the right size, and one reliable sponge, deep cake and cupcake recipe.
• Buttercream basics: smooth buttercream, colouring (including red and navy), how much you need, crumb coats, smooth final coats, sharp edges and simple textures.
• Piping: bags and nozzles, stars, rosettes, shells and borders, neat writing, buttercream flowers and cupcakes.
• Ganache, drips and finishing touches: ganache ratios, drip cakes, fresh cream fillings and the chilling rules, naked cakes, fruit and flowers, and edible and non-edible decorations.
• Covering a cake in sugarpaste: how much paste you need, preparing the cake, covering smoothly, covering a board, ribbons, and fixing tears, bubbles and bulges.
• Sugarpaste decorations and modelling: cut-outs and lettering, modelling paste, simple figures and vehicles, sugar roses and blossoms, and designing a themed cake.
• Royal icing, chocolate and sugar work: royal icing with dried egg white, run-outs and decorated biscuits, edible paint and lustre, caramel shards made safely, and chocolate decorations.
• Celebration cakes and tiers: design briefs, number and shaped cakes, stacking two tiers with dowels, countdowns, moving a cake safely, and cutting even portions.
• Baking for others and selling cakes: allergens at parties and events, registering as a food business, food hygiene training and ratings, allergen labels and Natasha's Law, pricing, orders and tax.
• Final project and next steps: planning, making and reviewing a real celebration cake of your own, and where to go next.

Who it's for

Home bakers who want their cakes to look special, parents making birthday cakes, and anyone thinking about selling cakes one day. You don't need any decorating experience. The course starts with a small, sensible kit and adds tools only when you need them.

What this course is, and isn't

This is a beginners' decorating course. It teaches one reliable sponge, deep cake and cupcake recipe as a base, then focuses on decorating. The safety and selling information is general guidance for home bakers, based on advice from the Food Standards Agency, the NHS and GOV.UK. It isn't professional food safety, legal or tax advice: if you sell cakes, check the official guidance and talk to your council's environmental health team.

What will I learn?

• Bake a level sponge, a firm deep cake and even cupcakes as a base for decorating
• Make, colour and measure buttercream, and give a cake a smooth coat with clean edges
• Pipe borders, writing, flowers and cupcake swirls with control
• Make ganache for drips, fillings and firm coats, and follow the chilling rules for fresh fillings
• Cover a cake and board smoothly in sugarpaste and fix common problems
• Make cut-outs, simple models, sugar roses and blossoms, royal icing run-outs and chocolate decorations
• Design, stack, move and cut a two-tier celebration cake safely
• Bake safely for others, with the 14 allergens, non-edible decorations and burn first aid in mind
• Understand registering, hygiene training, allergen labels, pricing and tax if you'd like to sell cakes from home

Frequently asked questions