Deliciously Decorated by Charlotte White {book review}

Decorated cakes have always impressed me. I am especially fond of artistically creative ones, but I have never really felt confident to decorate cakes myself.

Charlotte White writes in her introduction: “Contrary to popular belief, I am no magician and I do not own an enchanted oven. What I do possess are a series of tricks that I use to transform my cakes into little works of edible art.”

It is within her book that she shares her tricks! She really takes the time to go through each step and the book includes pictures! Which is extremely useful for new time decorators as myself. After I read the book through I couldn't wait to get started!

Now the baking part was easy, I halved the recipe for the Chocolate Mud Cake to make cupcakes. It’s an absolutely gorgeous chocolate cake, by the way! The Giacomo Casanova: Venetian Romance design (pictured below) inspired me; I really liked the purple and gold color combination.

Since this weekend was Valentine’s Day and since it was my first time working with royal icing sugar I kept it simple with some love hearts! This was my first time working with royal icing and I've only ever used fondant a handful of times before. Therefore I wanted to make something I was comfortable with.

I struggled a bit with the consistency of getting the royal icing quite right. It was still a bit wet as some of the dots were a bit drippy looking. I realized I have a lot to learn about royal icing and I am glad I have Deliciously Decorated to help me!

I had a lot of fun making these cupcakes from start to finish and here are a lot more techniques and tricks I have to look forward to trying out!

Here are a list of the designs I am inspired by:

Autumn: Golden Leaves Cake

Winter: Frosted Wonderland Cake (pictured above)

Candy Cane Cake for Christmas (pictured above)

Glamorous Ganache Cake (pictured above)

Organic Lines Ombre Cake (pictured above)

Wisteria Stained Glass Cake (pictured above)

Carry on Glittered Heart Cookies (pictured below)

Judy Garland: Dorothy’s Ruby Red Slippers

Scarlett O’Hara Southern Belle

Marie Antoinette: Rococo to Revolution (pictured/cover)

The best part of this book is that once the techniques have been learned they can be used to create your own creative cake masterpieces! Overall I think the book offers a lot for newbie cake decorators, like myself, and a lot for those who have been decorating for years! As I always say – you learn something new every day! So, why not learn with Charlotte White’s Deliciously Decorated!

notes: Deliciously Decorated by Charlotte White was provided for review by the publishers Ryland Peters & Small - all opinions are my own, for more information please see my contact/policy page above.