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No one could understand Cake Decorating more than the ones who spend their time dreaming up grand designs on genoise to suit each occasion and the person that the cake was made for. Not only do Cake Decorators spend a lot of their precious time on decorating their cakes, they sacrifice their delicate hands as sugar dries them out.

Being a Cake Decorator by training, of course I would say it's the greatest art form. Artists create with paints, brushes and canvas. We create with the cake as our canvas, icing as our paints and piping tubes, palette knives or sometimes brushes for that extra blush on the marzipan cat's cheeks. We are sculptors and potters, kneading the sugary dough into a teddy bear or a cute little strawberry to adorn the once blank canvas. Be awestruck by the talents of a Cake Decorator who can mould flowerpaste into the most life-like roses that eating them will be a shame. If we were artists, we will probably beat many of them hands down. As not all artists could mould, paint, write and bake.

We require skills for drafting a cake on paper just like an architect drawing a blueprint for his engineers to build a skyscraper. We have eyes trained to conjure up the perfect colour scheme for a cake made for a child or a wedding ceremony. The most essential element of Cake Decoration is knowing which icing is most suitable for which cake base. Like an artist who knows his canvas and paints so that he can create his latest masterpiece.

We are never limited by the types of ingredients we can use on a cake as long as they are edible they can be used. Icing sugar, butter, chocolate, marzipan, jams are all in our list which is similar to an artist's oils, watercolour, charcoal and pencils. The colours and texture from different mediums create different artpieces for an artist and Cake Decorator alike.

Our equipment list of piping tubes, bags and knives can compare to the artist's scalpel and paintbrushes or even the tools of a sculptor. Just like an artist requiring different size paintbrush to achieve a different effect. A Cake Decorator's set of piping tubes serve the same functions nonetheless.

One last point to note is every decorated cake can be sold like a painting but it can't be kept as long as Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa or even be auctioned for a higher price. The cake's function is served and a photograph is probably the only evidence to preserve this sweet memory.

Learn more about this author, Sherene Tan.
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