Most cakes are decorated either with buttercream or fondant. At Half-Baked Ideas, our buttercream is the real thing. We use a Swiss-meringue buttercream that uses nothing but sugar, egg whites, real Madagascar vanilla and real butter, NO SHORTENING. It's light and creamy, not too sweet, and serves as the perfect accompaniment to our delicious cakes. Our chocolate buttercream uses the same recipe as the vanilla but with the addition of real Callebaut chocolate and cocoa powder. You can taste and feel the difference. With most, if not all supermarket cakes, the icing is made with a certain proportion of shortening. Butter melts at body temperature, shortening does not—which is why icings made with shortening leave a filmy aftertaste on the palate. Many people are unaccustomed to the flavour of real buttercream except on the rare occasion when attending a wedding reception. So you may be surprised to learn that all of our cakes, regardless of the size or occasion use the best we have to offer.

The other decorating option for many cakes is something called fondant. Fondant is basically a sugar dough that can be rolled and shaped to cover cakes. If you've ever been to a wedding and seen the cake with the super-smooth appearance, it was probably covered in fondant. Fondant has a bad reputation with many people - memories of those tasteless wedding cakes -  but the flavour has improved dramatically over the years. We use a product called Satin Ice which has a pleasant vanilla flavour and comes in a rainbow of colours. Nevertheless, though fondant is edible, the point isn’t necessarily to eat it. For some cakes, especially  sculpted cakes, the fondant becomes a sculptural element and is an essential component. Our cakes are designed so that the fondant seals in the freshness and preserves the cake and buttercream which is beneath any cake with fondant. You can think of fondant as a thick, dense coating that’s meant to be peeled off like a banana peel. That’s not to say you can’t eat it—it’s just that it’s pure sugar.

Regardless of which option you choose, you can be certain that the cake you receive from Half-Baked Ideas, will use the best possible ingredients and most importantly, will be delicious.