Online Cake Decorating Classes and Training Programs

Cake decorating courses start with a simple buttercream swirl on a cupcake and build to elaborate bouquets of icing flowers and detailed fondant dioramas on multi-tiered wedding and special occasion cakes. Online cake decorating classes are typically offered for personal enrichment and don't count for credit toward a degree or other credential.

Online Cake Decorating Classes Overview

Because cake decorating is a tactile skill, most classes and training programs are offered in-person through local adult education venues. Home bakers and aspiring professional cake decorators can find in-person classes at community colleges, learning centers and university extension offices, as well as through commercial locations like craft stores, hobby shops and baking supply stores. In-person classes through a community college or learning center may count for college credit in a certificate or associate's degree in baking or pastry arts.
Online cake decorating classes aren't generally offered for college credit, but some are available to baking hobbyists as individual interest classes through businesses. Students can work at their own pace, but course access typically expires after six months.

Online Requirements

Online cake decorating classes require few computing resources beyond an Internet-connected computer capable of displaying graphics and videos. Course platforms may require cookies and JavaScript to authenticate a student's registration as current. Courses are typically static and do not feature individual instructor feedback. To practice techniques demonstrated in online courses, students need a set of cake decorating tools, including piping bags, decorating tips and flower nails, along with basic kitchen supplies and ingredients for baking practice cakes and mixing icings.

List of Online Cake Decorating Classes

Cake Decorating Basics Class

The introductory class starts with baking cakes and cupcakes that take decoration well. The course also covers leveling, filling and sealing cakes to prepare for tidy decoration, as well as basic techniques for holding and using piping bags.

Buttercream, Fondant and Royal Icing Techniques Class

This class covers types of icing for cake decorating and the situations that call for buttercream, fondant or royal icing. Recipes, preparation and basic techniques for each icing are discussed with step-by-step guides and videos.

Flowers and Figure Decorations Class

This class, taken midway through a course, covers using buttercream, fondant, gum paste and royal icing to form larger 3-dimensional figures such as flowers, animals and people to decorate cakes. Students learn to top cakes with scenes using piped icing, fondant cutouts and molded figures.

Wedding and Special Occasion Cakes Class

These advanced lessons incorporate multiple decorating techniques for elaborate multi-tiered wedding cakes. Taken toward the end of a lesson sequence, these classes also cover the planning and designing of creative baked centerpieces for special occasions like baby showers, holidays and children's parties.

Food Service Sanitation Class

Cake decorating is also a component of baking and pastry arts associate's degree and certificate programs at community colleges and vocational schools. Cake decorating classes taken for college credit generally require campus attendance for hands-on guidance in developing proper technique, but foundation courses in the degree program, like sanitation, are sometimes offered online. This course covers food safety and prevention of foodborne illness in commercial kitchens and is typically taken early in a baking and pastry arts degree program.