A cake is often reserved for special events, and its decoration needs to be as beautiful as its taste. Serif is a great typeface to use for designing cakes, thanks to its elegance, classic look, and versatility. Designing a cake (and creating a neat, clean decoration) depends on practice and combining the perfect design elements.
A cake for a special event needs to deliver the eventโs spirit with clarity and beauty. This guide will help you create a cake to commemorate a special day.
Writing on cake is a part of cake decorating technique, and it can be a daunting task. Any beginner knows the challenge of keeping the lines neat and well-aligned. This rings true especially if you make the decoration with an icing bag.
Before picking the right serif font to use, here are several tips to make clean writing decorated on a special event cake.
This is a basic cake decoration tip for beginners and experts alike: put the cake in the refrigerator first! If your cake is coated with buttercream, refrigeration will make it harden and easier to write on.
Royal icing is the tape of icing cream more suitable for cookies than cake, but beginners may confuse it with regular icing. Royal icing will harden after you apply it on cookies. However, if you coat the cake with buttercream, the fat will break down the icing, resulting in messy lettering.
Write down the lettering you plan on your cake on a piece of kitchen parchment. Make sure the lettering can fit on the cake surface. It is best to start with letter decoration before you add others, like fruits and flowers.
If you use a digital serif font, print the lettering on a piece of clean paper, and trace it on the parchment using nontoxic ink.
Continuing the previous point: after recreating the lettering on the parchment, put it on the cake surface. Use a toothpick to make little holes on all the lines until you can see little holes on the buttercream. These holes will be your guide to ice the cake.
Hold the icing bag at 45-degree angle, and take your time tracing the lettering. Avoid dragging the bag tip through your icing. Take a step back or reposition your arms when necessary.
What is the best font for icing a special event cake?
Generally, beginners should avoid fonts with a lot of gaps between characters. This requires you to maneuver the icing bag a lot, which can be overwhelming.
Serif or cursive font is a great option for cake decorating. The notches on serif typeface can be your way to embellish the lettering and hide your mistakes. Meanwhile, cursive reduces the necessity to lift the icing bag frequently.
If you want to use serif fonts to decorate a special event cake, consider these seven great recommendations.
Belgin is an elegant font that combines vintage charm with modern sensibilities. It has beautiful notches and curves with some asymmetrical strokes. It is a great font for adding a sophisticated touch to any message or writing on a cake. The little details make Belgin great for intermediate-level cake decorator.
You can also use the fontโs special ligature that has exaggerated swashes. They add beautiful characteristics to your decorative cake lettering. This font is ideal for an icing bag with a slightly larger tip size.
Premium Butter is a serif font with fine quality, thanks to its thin strokes and decorative capital letters. This font is ideal for a cake with a small surface size. Beginner cake decorator can also use Premium Butter to reduce mistakes because there are fewer lines to ice.
You can also use this as a โpractice fontโ before moving to a slightly thicker one. The embellished capital letter variation adds a beautiful touch to a special event cake.
Rumelaz Gekinsa is a modern serif family that has balanced form and shape, perfect for beginner and intermediate cake decorators. It has medium thickness, great for readable cake lettering without taking up too much space. The font comes in regular and italic versions for those who like extra challenges in cake decorating.
Another great option with thin strokes, Micky Thank adds a touch of vintage charm in any special event cake you make. The font has a great flow and balance, a perfect option for expert cake decorators. You can use Micky Thank on smaller celebration cakes and cupcakes, such as for a modern wedding.
Nugita is a modern serif font with various small details that make it distinctive, without sacrificing readability factor. The alternating thickness and the glyph variations add a slight quirk to your cake decoration. The overall look is chic, stylish, and elegant in a more subtle way. Nugita also does not take too much space so you can use it with other decorative elements.
Thick but not blocky, Winky Milky is a great font to make a strong statement on your cake decoration. If the special event involves a lot of guests, this font will make the cake more visible. The font has a modern look with a slightly playful vibe; a perfect option for cake decoration using a bigger icing tip size.
Magistic Duo is a perfect duo, coming with a bigger modern serif font and a smaller cursive font. A perfect option for an expert cake decorator, Magistic Duo provides a more sophisticated decoration with the variations it gives. You can use the duo if the cake is big enough for all the design elements. Perfect if you like challenges when decorating a special event cake with multiple fonts.
A special event cake needs a distinctive, exceptional decoration to celebrate the occasion. With this guide, you can create a beautiful cake using the right technique and serif fonts. Make the special day even more memorable with a well-decorated cake with the perfect font and technique.