<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"  Helenka Ostrum, our intern from Barnard College of Columbia University in the City of New York, loves to bake. Here she shares with you her take on new tools that can help you create impressive looking cakes....just in time for Mother&amp;#039;s Day brunches, spring bridal showers, and graduation parties.  TV shows like Cake Boss, Ace of Cakes, and Cupcake Wars showcase beautiful cakes. But when it comes to decorating a cake at home that looks like the ones on television, well, that&amp;#039;s another story. Luckily for you, we&amp;#039;ve found 3 products and an outstanding book to elevate your cake decorating skills to the next level.   Brys + Edgewood Fondant Cake Kits ($38 - $48) I&amp;#039;d always shied away from using fondant because I heard it was difficult to work with and didn&amp;#039;t even taste good. But B + E makes decorating with fondant easy and the results delicious! Select from 13 themed kits and opt for chocolate or yellow cake. Cake kits include kid-friendly designs like a train, dinosaur, and lollipop as well as seasonal ones like a candy cane, pumpkin, and butterfly. Also offered are designs for any occasion, like &amp;quot;Mauvelous&amp;quot; which produces a cake topped with crinkled fondant in a purple ombre pattern. B + E sends everything you need including detailed instructions, a disposable pan, chocolate or yellow cake mix, buttercream icing, a cake tray, and fondant, all packaged in a reusable bag. You just need to add water, eggs, and oil. I made the L\u00EDneas cake, a square striped with pink and red fondant. After kneading and rolling out the fondant with a rolling pin, I cut and draped the colored strips over the buttercream-frosted cake. Measurements printed along the edge of the instruction pamphlet helped me roll out the fondant to the exact size needed. The instructions and illustrations were easy to follow and everyone at GHRI marveled at the final product and loved the moist chocolate cake with marshmallow-flavored fondant. Below you can see my cake on the right and B + E&amp;#039;s version on the left.    Oodle Tip Disposable Pastry Bags ($10 for a box of 10) Can&amp;#039;t find the correct piping tip size for your pastry bag? Worried about whether or not your pastry bags are clean from your last decorating session? To the rescue: Oodle Tip, a pastry bag with a pre-attached plastic tip, which you can cut to produce many different shapes and sizes. After you&amp;#039;re finished, throw the bag away. If there are junior cooks in your house, you might like the smaller kid-friendly pastry bags called &amp;quot;Little Oodle Doodle&amp;quot;.   Dena Designs Designer Prints collection for Lucks ($10.99-$15.99) are the easiest way ever to customize your cakes. Just peel these strips of edible paper printed with edible images off a backing sheet and gently press them onto the side or top of your cake. A bevy of designs are available including pretty ones for showers or birthday parties and others themed for holidays or the seasons. With Mother&amp;#039;s Day just around the corner, you might like the one that reads &amp;quot;To Mom with Love&amp;quot;. In case you&amp;#039;re wondering, they&amp;#039;re printed with food colors on a starch and sugar base and meld to the surface by absorbing moisture from the icing.   Bake It Like You Mean It: Gorgeous Cakes from Inside Out ($29.95) Of course a cake should be just as beautiful on the inside as it is on the outside and Gesine Bullock-Proado&amp;#039;s new cookbook, Bake It like you Mean It is designed to help. It&amp;#039;s filled with recipes for sponge, cheese, mousse, pound, butter, and yeast cakes in innovative flavors and designs. You can choose one that reveals a heart pattern when you cut into it, a multi-layered chocolate pyramid, or a sunshine creamsicle cheesecake with an orange sun on every slice. Some of the interior cake patterns have to be seen to be believed! I made the raspberry and lemon checkerboard cake with buttercream frosting and decorated the outside with LUCKS Designer Prints (pictured above). The cake was gorgeous, delicious, and a perfect way to welcome spring!  How do you decorate your cakes? Let us know in the comments below!  Want to learn how we put consumer products to the test and keep you safe? Sign up for a tour of the famous Good Housekeeping Research Institute. If you visit, be sure to say hello when you visit the Kitchen Appliances &amp;amp;amp; Technology Lab. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/institute/a23780/tools-for-cake-decorating/>