Here’s How Duff’s Cakemix Will Turn You Into the Ace of Cake Decorating

I love baking.

There's no thrill quite like baking a cake or a batch of cupcakes, especially when they turn how just the way you had hoped they would.

But the best part about the whole process is getting to decorate your final creations with frosting, fondant and sprinkles galore. Unfortunately, I am not the best at this. Baking, I have down. But decorating is a whole different ordeal.

So when I stumbled upon Duff's Cakemix—a DIY dessert studio—I knew I had to visit, but not without my co-worker Brittney of course!

When Brittney and I arrived to the cake shop, we were instantly taken in by its sugary aroma. I don't think I've ever visited a place as delicious-smelling as this one.

We were then greeted by a friendly employee named Courtney who suggested take a look at some samples some inspiration before we decided how to decorate our cake.

There was an abundance of perfectly decorated cakes lining the back shelves for everyone to gawk and awe over.

I was a fan of the Stranger Things-inspired cake, while Brittney immediately took to the pizza-themed one.

After spending about 15 minutes examining the assortment of cakes and browsing through various step-by-step pamphlets, I decided on making a panda cake.

I took the the instructions with me to the front, and with the help of Courtney, I collected everything I needed to bring this panda to life.

We started off with a 6-inch white cake and then grabbed black, pink, white and green fondant, along with a container of white icing. For extra embellishments, we chose black and rainbow sprinkles.

Next, Courtney had us collect a circle cutter, a boba straw, a black edible marker and a pizza cutter.

After sharing a few helpful tips for the best way to create the various decorating components, Courtney sent us on our way to get started on the cake. And this is where the real fun begins!

The first elements needed for the cake were the eyes. I rolled out the black fondant and then cut out two circles using the cutter. Then I had to make the eyes a little more oval-shaped using my hands. Being a perfectionist, it took a minute for me to get the eyes to my liking.

Once that was done, I used the end of the boba straw to cut out the dots for the eyes and then placed them on the cake.

Next, I used the black fondant to create the ears and the nose. To make the mouth, I had to use the black marker. It didn't turn out quite how I would've liked, but it was still adorable nonetheless.

Brittney combined the neon pink and white fondant to create the light pink color for the cheeks. Shaping those to be equal in size took quite some time, but eventually I got them to a good place.

Before we were done, Courtney suggested we use the green fondant to make bamboo to go around the bottom of the cake.

Finding that a little too ambitious for our skills, Brittney and I decided to add a neon pink bow with rainbow sprinkles to our panda.

I'm just going to go out on a limb here and say this is one of the cutest cakes you've ever seen.

I was incredibly proud of my cake creation. This is just one of many photos I took with my completed masterpiece.

All in all, I had the best time ever learning the basics of cake decorating at Duff's Cakemix. You can definitely bet I will find my way back there very soon.

If you want to become a cake-decorating master or just really love baking, you need to make your way down to Cakemix, too. I guarantee you'll have one heck of a good time, no matter how your cake turns out!

 

If you dream of becoming a baker one day, THIS is the advice you need to follow courtesy of the Sprinkles Cupcakes' founder.