Turn pre-made decorations into custom tiered cakes

1. To create the whimsical tiered design, begin by marbling fondant. Twist together ropes of white and blue fondant to give a more evenly distributed pattern that is swirled rather than splotchy. 2. Sheet the fondant and look at both sides before deciding which side to cover the cake with. 3. Cover a 6-in. round with the top trimmed at an angle with the blue marbled fondant. Smooth and trim the excess fondant at the base of the cake. 4. Sheet white fondant and cover a 4-in. round with the top trimmed at an angle as well as a 9-in. round that is 1-in. high. Stack the cakes with the 9-in. on the bottom, the marbled 6-in. round in the middle and the 4-in. round on top. Position the angled cakes so the angles offset each other. Center dowel the tiers to provide additional support, strength and stability to your cake while you decorate and during transport. 5. To create a bow, cut ribbon from suppliers into 5-in. strips that are 1-in. wide. Add a small amount of hot glue to the base of the strip and fold the ribbon over a piece of floral wire to create bow loops. You will need about 15 loops to create the bow topper for the cake. 6. Once the hot glue has dried, assemble the loops into groups of three and use floral tape to secure them together. Then, assemble the groupings together and secure with floral tape. By using the smaller groupings and floral tape, you create more stable bows with loops that are easy to manipulate into place for a "puffy" bow. 7. Place the bow on top of the cake. Use more of the ribbon to create borders around the bottom of the two angled tiers and trim the cake board. 8. Make "edible" sand by combining white and brown sugar in a 50/50 ratio to produce a realistic color. A good amount for decorating purposes is one cup granulated sugar, 1 cup brown sugar and 1 Tbsp of meringue powder with just enough water (about 3 Tbsp) to dampen it. Using this ratio creates a mixture that sets up, sticks together and stays in place on the cake. Add the sand to the corners of the bottom tier and cake board. 9. Use a paintbrush or ball tool to create indentations on the top tier. Then paint a small amount of simple syrup into the indentations. 10. Use tweezers to place multi-colored dragees. The combination of indentations and simple syrup will securely hold the dragees in place. 11. Cut apart a spray of pre-made sugar flowers. This allows you to add glitter to the blossoms and provides more control over how you place them on the cake. 12. To add a little glitz to the blossoms, use simple syrup and edible glitter. Paint around the edges of the blossoms or leaves, coat the entire petal or just the center with simple syrup. Then, sprinkle the glitter over the flower. The glitter will only stick to the simple syrup. Apply the glitter to the flower over a paper plate so the excess can be collected and reused. 13. This design has a beach theme, so paint some simple syrup on the edge of pre-made flip-flops and add a bit of glitter. 14. For glittery seashells, combine pearl dust with alcohol and paint it on the outside of pre-made shells. 15. For butterflies, paint the wings with pearl dust combined with alcohol; then cover the bodies with simple syrup and add glitter. The combination of the two techniques on the butterflies helps bring the whole design together. 16. Once all of your pre-made items are customized to your liking, strategically place them on your cake. Use a dab of royal icing to help secure the shells and flip-flops in place. 17. By angling some of the tiers, using varied heights and customizing pre-made decorations, you can create a truly unique cake that is perfect for customers' beach themed parties or weddings. Ashley Vicos Like many girls of her generation, Ashley Vicos' love of baking began at age 5 with an Easy-Bake Oven. That love has become her career as she now owns Atlanta-based Sweet Ashley's, a commercially licensed cake studio, where she creates custom cakes and teaches cake decorating classes. Vicos stars in her own show–Have Cake, Will Travel–airing on the Food Network, and has competed in several televised decorating challenges. The faster you can produce your product, the more money you can save–from labor costs to utilities. Although many decorators may shun the pre-made decorations available from suppliers, you can make the decorations unique by using your imagination and talent. Remember that time is money, and it can take a lot of time to fashion delicate sugar decorations by hand. Taking a few minutes to customize purchased decorations creates a unique cake that commands attention as well as a premium price. By using pre-made decorations, you can complete this topsy-turvy beach design in about 90 minutes. If you need two cakes, work on them at the same time and you can complete both in two hours.