Subtleties and examples of decorating the cake berries

Today, an increasing number of pastry chefs rejects thick cream rosettes and bulky figures - the use of fruits, berries and flowers is considered the most stylish and popular. With the help of available and common ingredients, even at home and without special skills, you can turn a regular biscuit into a work of art.

The choice of berries should depend not only on taste preferences, color and size, but also on the amount of juice contained. Those fruits that are filled with excess liquid are not recommended, that is, you will have to eliminate melon, watermelon and gooseberry, as well as cranberries. Berries, of course, must be fresh and bright, dense and not overripe, without cracks and stains. Strawberries are not forbidden to use directly from the stalk.

In the case when it is necessary to use frozen berries, it is important to ensure that they do not lose shape. To this end, the fruits are first transferred from the freezer to the refrigerator, and several hours later they are taken from the cold and warmed at room temperature. Canned berries before use get rid of sweet syrup and filter. It is important to remember that sourish berries are usually chosen to neutralize the excessive sweetness of the cream.

By the way, raspberries are perfectly combined with blackberries or blueberries and crispy macaroons, and kiwi is a good fruit addition in almost any case. When the cake is decorated with raspberries and strawberries, it is worth covering them with chocolate, completely, half or stripes. The color of the berries should depend on the shades of the cake.For example, the chocolate base requires the addition of red fruits, yellow or orange cherries stand out brightly against the background of light yellow jelly, and the figs and blackberries will decorate a cake covered with lavender cream.

The easiest way to decorate the cake with your own hands - use berry decoration. As a rule, if the top of the cake is covered with light cream, for example, white, then the placer of ordinary bright berries is enough to create a decent decor. In this case, the cream is made of four proteins, a cup of powdered sugar, two tablespoons of lemon juice and a briquette of butter. Preparations begin with the fact that the proteins separated from the yolks are cooled and in a dry container they start to be whipped with a mixer. This should be done at a low speed, step by step, pouring icing sugar.

As soon as the mixture begins to resemble the foam, it will need to be placed in a water bath and heated for about four minutes to completely melt the sugar. Then the substance is combined with warmed oil and lemon juice and beaten again until it becomes fluffy. Using a pastry bag or special devices, the cake is coated with cream on the top, sides, and between the cake layers. Berries are placed on top either randomly or forming a certain picture.

Classic is considered a combination of strawberries and cream. To make a cake with their help, 400 milliliters of high-fat cream and six tablespoons of powdered sugar are required. The cooled cream is whipped until it gets lush peaks, and before starting the process, fat is additionally scraped from the insides of the package and combined with the total mass. A bowl and a whisk should also be frozen in the fridge for about five minutes. Beat first at medium speed, and then gradually increase it.

Somewhere a couple of minutes later you can add powdered sugar, and it is worth stopping when steep peaks form - in about ten minutes.Then the cake is covered with cream, and the strawberries are neatly stacked on the edge and in the middle. You can also cut the berries into thin slices, and then “stick” at the edges of several levels. By the way, this dessert can be decorated with several strawberries in chocolate. To create such a decorative element, you will need a bar of chocolate, a bit of milk, about ten large fruits and, if desired, nuts.

The chocolate is melted in a water bath, if necessary, using milk to create the desired consistency. Then each berry is dipped in the resulting substance, and then placed on the surface of the cake. Such a decoration can be supplemented with a nut crushed to the state of dust on the grater or chocolate curls drawn with the help of a pastry bag. By the way, strawberries can be dipped in either bitter, milk or white chocolate.

In Russia, the use of jellied berries forming a separate layer of cake is quite common. In this case, you will need to use the packaging of gelatin, a tablespoon of granulated sugar, half a glass of plain water and a teaspoon of lemon juice. In addition, it is more convenient to work with a sliding form. First, according to the instructions gelatin is dissolved in water until it swells. Somewhere in a quarter of an hour you should place it in a water bath so that the powder is completely dissolved.

As soon as the substance boils, the fire will have to extinguish and add lemon juice and granulated sugar to the saucepan. On the already prepared biscuit, fixed in a sliding form, the cut fruits are beautifully placed. Jelly gently poured the top layer, and you need to move from the center to its edges. In another embodiment, the berries are simply lubricated with a jelly substance. The cake is removed in the fridge and served when the gelatin layer is already frozen.

If it is necessary to make jelly colored, then dyes will have to be added at the stage of staying in a water bath. They, by the way, can be replaced by berry or fruit drink. Red jelly will be perfectly combined with strawberries, raspberries or red currants, and yellow - with a yellow cherry variety.

Working with berries, you can use the technique of carving. For example, the fruits are cut in length by thin slices, and the resulting pieces are used to fold the flowers. For volume, the composition can be placed on a chocolate stand or in a hollow on the cake. A simpler solution is to cut the berries to the base to get peculiar petals.

For convenience, the fruit can always be strung on a toothpick, and then secure in the selected location. A handful of berries, which is crowned with an ordinary waffle cone, will look very beautiful and original, and the usual Napoleon will get a second wind if you decorate it with a wreath of raspberries, strawberries and blueberries and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

To prevent the berries on the cake from sinking, properly dip them in caramel, sprinkle with non-flowing powder or cover with a special transparent pastry gel designed for this purpose. Also, so that the fruits glistened and did not slide out of their place, they can be smeared with cakes with added sugar.

To make the cake beautiful, it’s enough to stick to a few recommendations and not be afraid of experiments, because even when the berries are spontaneously laid out on the surface of the lush cream layer, the picture looks great. Small compositions and single fruits are also best laid out at the edges, and large ones should be placed in the center. Sometimes triangles are formed from whole berries or their pieces, converging tops in the center, and they should be supplemented with miniature chocolates.

Biscuit, completely covered with snow-white cream or light cheesecake, will look expensive and elegant, if a berry crown is placed on its top. In this case, slices of strawberries, blackberries, red currants, raspberries and blueberries are freely located on the edge. A couple of small sprigs of mint will be a necessary decorative addition.

Luxurious cake with cream cheese cream and also embellished, thanks to a variety of berries. The main role here will be played by large strawberry used directly from the stem and located on the edge.

Laconic single-tier cake with a blue coating will sparkle with new colors, if you place a fruit and berry crescent on it. For this purpose, strawberries, whole and half, blueberries, sweet cherries with twigs and halves of seedless apricots will suit you perfectly.

A very original decision would be to decorate a regular pastel cake with a berry crown with a small biscuit. Blackberries and raspberries are used along with square neat crackers and large blueberries. In addition, halves of yellow cherry tomatoes are the highlight of the cake. Abundant harvest will allow you to create a bright decor, making a berry "cap", from which chocolate streaks flow. Ripe raspberries, blackberries and red currants completely cover the surface of the cake, and some currants placed at the edges are not even separated from the twigs.

The dessert with a chocolate and berry covering will surely be remembered. First, the surface of the usual bright cake is completely filled with chocolate, gently flowing down the sides. Then half of it is filled with ripe berries - raspberries and blueberries, and the fruits of the latter should still be more. The second half is decorated with chocolates, chocolate bars and other goodies.

Confectioner's advice on decorating the cake, see below.