Save Money Buying Cupcake Decorating Tools and Equipment

I'm learning to make my own decorations for cupcakes,cakes and cake pops with  the use of free videos on Youtube.
When I went to buy different tools such as plungers and the fondants for decorations. I was amazed at the prices that the specialist cake supplier's websites and Facebook pages were selling these things for plus with postage added on, it made them quite expensive to buy. I then dithered whether to have go at decorating myself because of these expensive prices, that is until I did a bit of homework myself.

Here's my tips on keeping the costs down for decorating your cakes, cupcakes and cake pops.

Most of my decorating equipment I have bought on eBay - which I would highly recommend as I get free postage and the items are a fraction of what some sites are selling the exact same items for.
They take a few weeks longer for delivery as most of my cutters, plungers and moulds comes from China. The colouring gels I order also from eBay or buy from my local shops. Fondants are either ordered on line through eBay or again bought from my local shop or supermarket.

I am sorry to say, that if you buy from a specialist cake/cupcake website or even on a Facebook page leading you to their website, you are paying a hell of a lot more money and it really pays - pardon the pun - to shop around for cake decorating tools to buy and it is so easy to search on the internet.  Just go to eBay - type in their search bar - for instance sugar paste cutters - and when I just did it, the page came up came with 3 Rose Leaf Cake Sugar Paste Sugarcraft Cutter Plunger £2.89 with free postage, yes that's a set of three plungers with free postage for that fantastic price. I also bought a huge piece of dimpled foam at a fraction of the cost - so bakers, cupcakers etc have a good search round before you buy - you are probably buying decorating tools from the same manufacturers that these cake decorating websites buy theirs from  anyway - don't forget if you make your purchase via eBay you are also protected.
Another big winner on saving money is cupcake cases - I find these are best in my local shops as well as eBay.
So there you are, just a simple bit of searching and you can save a lots of money, which is great for both cake and cupcake hobbyists and the cupcake and cake professionals. I reckon on average I save 50% on costs ,sometimes even more. In these hard and economic times you CANNOT AFFORD NOT to look around for the best deals and save money. Yet you will still be able to design and create stunning cakes and cupcakes as you are using the same tools at a fraction of the costs these specialist websites for cake crafters are selling them at! Why pay more - look at the photos, you can see they are the same!

Below you will find pictures of my second attempt of learning to make my own cake decorations.
The reason I have decided to make most of my own is that I find I am throwing pieces of fondant away that is so wasteful and can be used as decorations. I also find I am enjoying learning to do it!

A selection of my tools

I think plungers and cutters are my favorites - probably as I haven't mastered moulds yet - more video watching!

I'm very proud of my butterflies :-)  The foam is a piece cut off from my larger buy

Later on you can see how some of them I have coloured.

Aren't these snow flake cutters clever!

The plungers for the snow flakes above came in a set of three so you can really go to town and do different sizes.

Added three pink balls made by Dr Oetker - even his balls aren't perfectly round.

I brushed on some silver pearl food dust - just enhanced the butterfly a bit more with that lovely sparkle.

Not sure if the gold colour is a bit too deep?

 I mixed gold pearl food dust with a few drops of white alcohol to make a paint and brushed it on. When left to dry the surplus paint  reverts back to dust as the alcohol evaporates - it really does ,so again no wastage.

With some tiny beads added down the centre this will complete the decoration for the butterfly.

This fluorscent food paint brushed on nicely - and on my fingers, so next time I will wear catering gloves.

My food decorations are not quite completed but when I have, I will carefully box them up and make sure they are well sealed as the fondant - I am told on different videos, websites and Facebook that they can be kept for around 6 months.

I hope that I have inspired you to have a go - it's great fun!
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