Cake Decorating

General Rules

1. Completed record sheet must be signed by your 4-H leader at your club’s record book signing.
2. Project is divided into three levels:
   1. Beginner       Grades 3-5    4-H 1053
   2. Intermediate  Grades 6-8    4-H 1054
   3. Advanced      Grades 9-12  4-H 1055
3. The cake decorating project provides skills-based educational experiences that provide an opportunity for mastery before building on that experience to develop more advanced skills.
4. All cakes must be created using a Styrofoam, foam, or other solid dummy.
5. Unless specified otherwise, cakes are to be iced using Royal icing.
   1. Youth may practice skills using buttercream, but this type of icing will not withstand environmental conditions when being displayed an extended period of time.
6. When exhibiting cut-up or tiered cakes, a diagram and descriptions indicating how the cake was assembled must accompany the display. This diagram and description can be attached to or written on the skills sheet.
7. All exhibits must include a completed Cake Decorating Skills Sheet (4-H 710) attached to the cake board. These exhibit sheets are available from the 4-H website https://extension.purdue.edu/4h or your County Extension Office. Complete the exhibit sheet as it instructs, selecting the correct level, writing in the skills descriptions, recording what tips were used and documenting the page number where the skills you used can be found in your student guide cake decorating book.
8. The Wilton Method of Cake Decorating Students Guides (see #2 for project book number) and their support material will be used as the project booklets until the booklets run out. Wilton has stopped printing materials, so when manuals are depleted, youth should use the Wilton website (www.wilton.com) for guidance. 
9. Cakes exhibited on stands or special tiered apparatus, where there is no base cake, the boards must be thick enough to hold a real cake and large enough to hold your borders.
10. State Fair Exhibits – A total of three exhibits may be selected for State Fair competition. One from Beginner Division, one from Intermediate Division, and one from Advanced Division.

Beginner – Grades 3-5

1.  Cakes must be on a cake board approximately 3/8” thick and 2"-4” larger than the cake. For example, if the cake is 8” in diameter, then the cake board must be 10” - 12" round.
2. The cake board must be neatly covered and well taped or otherwise attached underneath.
3.  Cakes exhibited in the beginner level are to be a single layer and may be round, square, or rectangular and the cake board is to be no more than 12x12. Maximum cake height is 5 inches.
4. Exhibited cakes must demonstrate the minimum five techniques from their given level outlined in Indiana 4-H Cake Decoration Skills and Techniques, 4-H 710A, but may also include higher/lower level techniques that have been mastered. Any higher/lower level techniques will not be counted as part of the minimum five, but nevertheless will be evaluated for quality.

Intermediate – Grades 6-8

1. Cakes must be on a cake board approximately 3/8” thick and 2”-4" larger than the cake. For example, if the cake is 9”x13” rectangular, then the cake board must be 11”x15” to 13"x17" rectangular.
2. The cake board must be neatly covered and well taped or otherwise attached underneath.
3. Cakes exhibited in the intermediate level are to be a single or double layer and may be any shape. Maximum cake height is 12 inches.
   1. Youth may choose to decorate an inverted (upside down) character pan or create a 3-dimensional cake. It is also permissible to cut-up pieces of Styrofoam, foam, or other solid material to create a new shape, like a butterfly or castle for example.
   2. The cake board is to be no more than 24”x24”.
4. Exhibited cakes must demonstrate the minimum five techniques from their given level outlined in Indiana 4-H Cake Decoration Skills and Techniques, 4-H 710A, but may also include higher/lower level techniques that have been mastered. Any higher/lower level techniques will not be counted as part of the minimum five, but nevertheless will be evaluated for quality.

Advanced – Grades 9-12

1. Cakes must be on a cake board approximately 1/2” thick and 4” larger than the cake. For example, if the cake is 26” round, then the cake board must be 30” round.
2. The cake board must be neatly covered and well taped or otherwise attached underneath.
3. Cakes exhibited in the advanced level may be multiple layer and/or tiered and may include multiple cakes, like a wedding cake. Maximum cake height is 36 inches. 
   1. Youth may choose to create a character or 3-dimensional cake by cutting up pieces of sytrofoam, foam, or other solid material to create a new shape.
   2. Dowel rods, plates, etc. should be used to support multiple layers and tiers.
   3. Fondant icing and gum paste is permissible
   4. Cakes may be any shape and cake board is to be no more than 36”x36”
4. Exhibited cakes must demonstrate the minimum five techniques from their given level outlined in Indiana 4-H Cake Decoration Skills and Techniques, 4-H 710A, but may also include higher/lower level techniques that have been mastered. Any higher/lower level techniques will not be counted as part of the minimum five, but nevertheless will be evaluated for quality.

For more information, visit the Cake Decorating Project Page of the Indiana 4-H Website.

Related Files

• Form 4-H 710A - Cake Decorating Skills Chart
• Form 4-H 710 - Cake Decorating Exhibit Skills Sheet (to be attached to cake board for exhibit)