Basics Of Cake Decorating

Frances Kuyper, better known as "The Cake Lady", is the hostess for this in-depth tour of the art of cake decorating. Ms. Kuyper has been plying her trade for 32 years and her expertise shows. The tools of the trade, including couplers, various types of icing tubes and drop flower attachments, and flower nails are shown and discussed. Kuyper also demonstrates the proper method for mixing icing (a daunting prospect for most, but she makes it look like a piece of ca... O.K.) Time-saving tips abound, and Kuyper's use of an icing blade takes bare layer cake to the fully iced foundation status in about 30 seconds. The second half of the video gives detailed instructions for making roses, daffodils, pansies, and daisies, as well as six different decorative borders. The only weak section of the tape is on air brush techniques. Until the camera moves in for a close-up, it's difficult to see where the spraying has had any effect at all (although it becomes immediately obvious upon close-up). Also, Ms. Kuyper standing there with a neat little air brush is a bit misleading. Somewhere off-camera there's got to be a generator. (One of the other three tapes available in this cake-decorating series deals specifically with air brush techniques.) This minor quibble aside, the Basics of Cake Decorating is an excellent instructional video in all respects, and one that should have patrons creating special occasions (such as the family dog's birthday) to try out their new skills. Highly recommended. (See ACOG CHILD­BIRTH PREPARATION PROGRAM for availability.)