A good mixer, preferably hand-held, is always a good idea. Whilst spoons can do a good job sometimes, a quality hand held mixer will save you a lot of pain if you are mixing for long periods of time, then you can be sure you will be glad of the help after a while. Cake decoration accessories are there to make your life easier otherwise, whats the point?
A good spatula is another essential part of cake baking and decoration. If you have ever tried to get all of the mixture out of a bowl at once, you will understand where we are coming from! However, as well as just the scooping thing, they are also rather nifty for manipulating icing and frosting. Consider them a Swiss army spatula (patent pending).
If you are someone whos not necessarily top notch with drawing and other artistic ventures, wed definitely recommend picking up some stencils to aid with your designs. Whilst they are not one hundred percent essential cake decoration accessories, they will do wonders for your work if you regularly make cakes that emulate characters and shapes. The last thing you want when creating a football cake for your son is a wobbly football that looks more like a Dalek!
If you are going for a special occasion especially birthdays, then it is always a good idea to invest in a few candles. Obviously people associate them more with birthdays than anything else- especially those who still hold a burning vendetta against the one that just would not go out but when used carefully they can actually be used creatively for other occasions as well. The spirit of everything from Halloween to Christmas can be evoked using these unique illuminations.
One of the main ways to further advance your creativity in cake design is to step up (not literally) to multi-tiering. This is an entirely different challenge, and one that will often require its own unique cake decoration accessories. Cake seperators will help you work on the individual layers before bringing them together, and a good sharp knife will help you to sculpt shapes and other effects into the tiers. Its not an easy method to get used to, but once you do you will be surprised how much fun tiering can be.
Finally, and perhaps most obviously, you will never get anywhere without the most essential of
cake decorating accessories: icing. It can form shapes, it can evoke scenes from classic movies, it can spell out messages and it can replicate landscapes. Learn to manipulate icing in the right way, and you are well on your way to becoming a real cake decoration expert.
