There is magic about a beautifully decorated cake at a gathering. Whether it is a birthday cake or a 4-tier wedding cake. A work of art in confection is the centerpiece of any special occasion. While it is a long haul from spreading canned frosting on a sheet cake to creating a work of art that will stop the show, it is a fun and rewarding experience to travel the road.

There are mentors that can help you to discover the beauty of buttercream, since the new resurgence of interest in cake decorating. There are several cake decorating clubs. One of the oldest cake decorating clubs, The Fremont Frosters, to one of the newest, The Contra Costa Cake and Sugar Society.

The 40-year-old Frosters have members from Santa Clara to San Leandro, California, who share years of experience, tips, and tricks with other members of the club. They gather once a month, they have a website, and a quarterly newsletter called Sweet Graffiti, which is filled with seasonal cake-decorating ideas and pictures. Each month a member gives a presentation on cake decorating at the meeting. They find that all levels of cake decorators will learn something from each demonstration. 

Once most of the members see how a design or decoration is made, by breaking down the process, they see how simple it is to learn the different artistic techniques. It is easy to see it wasn't a big mystery after all and can be learned with practice. 

Cake decorating classes are more popular than ever. Craft stores are filled with information about classes, and tools for cake decorating. If you are not careful you can spend a great deal of money on tools to help with cake decorating. Starting out, you don't need to have everything you can get your hands on when it comes to Cake decorating.

All the beginning cake decorator needs are tips to make leaves, borders, swags, disposable icing bags, and couplings to attach the tips. An icing rule for smoothing the top of a cake is helpful, a paint edger from the local hardware store will work for this. 

There were many more cake decorating clubs in the 1960s when women spent more time in the home and were able to take up the art of cake baking and decorating. As time went by and most of the women began taking jobs, most of them were disbanded.

Many women are watching new cable TV food shows that are enticing home bakers back into cake decorating and learning European techniques such as using rolled fondant. The interest in cake decorating is huge and growing bigger every day. Enrollment in Wilton cake decorating classes has grown over the past few years.

Many people think cake decorating is easy, because the TV pros, who have been cake decorating for 30 years, make it look that way. They don't understand that it will take a good deal of practice to be able to get the same result as the pros do.