Nothing livens up a special occasion like a homemade chocolate cake. If you're making a chocolate cake for an upcoming event or for that special someone and wondering how to decorate a chocolate cake, you're in the right spot. This article will walk you through the best chocolate cake decorating ideas and tricks and provide unique ways that you can decorate your next cake recipe. Continue reading to get started!
Decorating a Chocolate Cake: Step-by-Step
Choose the Right Cake Recipe
There are several ways to decorate a chocolate cake, and each one begins with a good chocolate cake recipe. There's a variety of easy chocolate cake recipes to choose from from German chocolate cake, fudge cake, or even a vegan chocolate cake. Using a chocolate cake recipe that's been tried and tested will ensure that your cake is sturdy enough to hold any toppings you add. Chocolate cakes that are too moist or too dry won't take to handling well and could end up in disaster. If you're decorating more than one layer, you may need to use cake dowels and boards to support your layers.
If you want to use a box mix instead of starting from scratch, you absolutely can! Read up on our How To Make Chocolate Cake Mix Better article to turn plain box cake mix into outrageously good cakes!
Check out the recipes below if you're on the hunt for a chocolate cake that holds well when frosted.
Chocolate Pound Cake
The perfect birthday cake is one that’s overflowing with rich, chocolate-y flavor, like this Easy Chocolate Pound Cake recipe. It’sthe best dessert recipe for someone with a serious sweet tooth. Made with ingredients like cocoa powder, orange zest and coffee, it's a modern upgrade on a traditional chocolate cake that will leave all of your dinner guests in awe of your baking skills.
Whole Grain Chocolate Cake
Made with wholesome ingredients like Whole Wheat Pastry Flour and Vital Wheat Gluten, this Whole Grain Chocolate Cake recipe is a light and fluffy chocolate cake that you can enjoy as a layer cake, sheet cake or even cupcakes. Use this recipe the next time you plan on making a chocolate cake, and let us know what you think! From dessert tables to birthday parties, this chocolate cake is in high demand.
Use Homemade Frosting
Homemade frosting is one of the best-kept secrets for good cake decorating. Aside from tasting much better than store-bought frosting or cloyingly sweet fondant, homemade frosting is typically much easier to use. This means that it goes on smoother and is easier to use when creating fun and intricate designs.
Making frosting at home also allows you the freedom to choose a flavor that pairs perfectly with the chocolate cake recipe you've chosen. From traditional vanilla buttercream to Nutella, here are a few of our favorite homemade frosting flavors.
Easy Buttercream Frosting
A simple and classic frosting, buttercream provides a light and sweet flavor that tastes great on all types of cakes. Buttercream Frosting requires just a few ingredients and can be made in minutes. The buttercream texture is smooth and light, making it easy to apply to your cake without leaving behind a crummy mess. Work ingredients like cocoa powder to create a decadent chocolate buttercream frosting, instant espresso for that nice coffee hit, nut buttes and protein powder into the buttercream base for even more flavor.
Starting with the base recipe and with a few little changes, you can go on to do other types like Swiss Meringue, Italian Meringue, French, German, Rolled, Cooked, or even Vegan buttercream!
Nutella Frosting
A cake topping that's almost addicting, this Nutella Frosting recipe is loaded with rich, nutty flavor. It's an easy way to take your chocolate cake from good to great and tastes good when combined with anything. For a special treat, use this Nutella frosting as a topping alongside fresh strawberries. If you need to thin out your Nutella to make a ganache or for easy drizzling, you can use a bain-marie to slowly heat and melt the Nutella. Stir until you get the right consistency. Beautiful and delicious, it's a foolproof way to turn your chocolate cake into a masterpiece.
Cream Cheese Frosting
What would a Red Velvet Cake or a Carrot Cake be without it? A fun twist on traditional frosting, this Cream Cheese Frosting recipe is one of our most popular. Simple to make and absolutely mouthwatering, when paired with chocolate cake, the sweet and tangy flavors of cream cheese work to balance the bittersweet cocoa. This frosting has a light and fluffy texture, making it easy to spread onto the cake without leaving behind a mess.
Always Apply a Crumb Coat
Crummy frosting can ruin a perfectly baked cake. Putting the time and effort into making a cake at home, only to have it destroyed during the frosting step is never fun. To avoid the cake from getting in the way of frosting, we recommend applying a crumb coat as soon as the cake has cooled. A crumb coat is an extremely thin layer applied to the frosting before any other decorating happens. This is one crucial step in cake decorating you wouldn't want to miss. Crumb coating prevents any stray crumbs from getting in your actual frosting and ruining it. After a thin layer of frosting is applied, smooth it out using an offset spatula. Using a cake turntable or revolving cake stand makes it easier to apply and smooth out the crumb coat in an even layer. The cake is placed in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to chill. Chilling the cake after applying the crumb coat causes the frosting to harden and trap any loose crumbs, which makes spreading the rest of the frosting onto your cake a lot easier.
You have so many options on how you decide to decorate your cake. You can choose to go the traditional route or go wild with your decorations and experiment with vibrant colors, edible luster dusts, edible glitters, or compound chocolate molds. Or keep it simple and add another layer of crumb coat for that trendy naked cake! Finish with sugar flowers or edible ones and a handful of colorful dragées.
Get Creative with Toppings
Using the right toppings on your chocolate cake can transform the flavor and turn this dessert into a delicacy. For a simple old fashioned traditional cake topper, dust a thin layer of powdered sugar. Though frosting is usually the topping of choice for chocolate cake, many other ingredients can be used in combination with or in place of frosting. Continue reading for a list of our favorite chocolate cake toppings.
Fruit
Balance out the rich chocolatey flavors of your cake by adding a bit of refreshing fruit to the top of it. From strawberries and raspberries to dried raisins, several different types of fruit can be added and combined to create the perfect topping for your cake. Choose a theme for your cake, such as berries, or combine fresh fruits with dried ones to create a fun and unique texture. A classic topping is berries with whipped cream. Strawberries dipped in melted chocolate and nestled atop fluffy whipped cream is the ultimate summery treat!
Note: When using fresh fruit as a topping, add it right before serving the cake. Adding moist or wet fresh fruit to a buttercream topping too far in advance could cause the frosting and cake to slide around.
Edible Flowers
From roses to lavender, topping your celebration cake with edible flowers is an excellent way to tie it to an event or theme. Not only will flowers level up the look of your cake, but they'll also lend a floral aromato the desert and cause it to stand out from the rest. When choosing flowers for your cake topping, only select those that are grown organically and edible. While we don't recommend eating the flowers, you'll want to make sure they are suitable for eating just in case you find that a petal has snuck into your bite of dessert.
Chocolate
There's no such thing as too much when it comes to chocolate. Top your chocolate cake with even more chocolate for a rich and decadent dessert. From chocolate frosting, chocolate ganache, to pieces of chocolate shards, adding more chocolate to an already decadent dessert will only work to enhance the flavor even more. When topping your cake with chocolate bars and chocolate candy, we recommend starting with a light coating of frosting so that the add-ons have something to stick to.
Marshmallows
Take the sweetness of your next cake recipe up a notch and top it with marshmallows! A light and simple topping, marshmallows will add an ooey-gooey element to your cake without turning it into a sticky mess. For even more flavor, turn your topping into your favorite campfire treat and add a bit of crumbled graham crackers to the frosting to replicate the sweet crunch of S'mores.
Homemade Marshmallows
Want to keep the homemade baking theme going strong? Use this Homemade Marshmallow recipe to create a sweet topping for your next chocolate cake. Made with just six ingredients, these marshmallows are easy to make in vanilla, strawberry and chocolate flavors. What's more, you can use the leftovers to make actual S'mores over the stove!
Coconut Flakes
Take things tropical by working coconut flakes into your chocolate cake decorations. A healthier alternative to sprinkles, coconut flakes will upgrade your chocolate cake's taste, texture, and presentation. To use coconut flakes as a topping, start by covering the cake in a light layer of buttercream and then pressing the coconut into it. Coconut's light and subtle flavor make it easy to add to any cake.
Nuts
Upgrade the look of your chocolate cake by covering the top, bottom and sides with nuts. When working with a chocolate cake, we recommend using either peanuts or sweet pecans with a light frosting to provide a fantastic flavor. In addition to looking and tasting great, nuts also add a slight crunch to your cake, diversifying its texture. When used as a topping, nuts can be placed onto the cake whole, sliced, or crushed—the choice is yours!
Use the chocolate cake decorating tips and tricks above to ensure your next baking experience is full of fun and flavor. From cream cheese frosting to edible flowers, the ideas on this list will turn your home-baked goods into kitchen masterpieces. We can't wait to see what you come up with. From the Bob's Red Mill family to yours, we wish you all the cake-making success!
Do you have a cake decorating tip that you'd like to share? We'd love to hear more about the many ways that you decorate a homemade chocolate cake. Share your tips with us in the comments below. We can't wait to hear from you.
