Wilton Way of Cake Decorating

The Wilton Way of Cake Decorating – Volume One: A Complete Encyclopedia is the “Granddaddy” of cake decoration guides.  Written by Norman Wilton and published in 1974, The Wilton Way is the classic guide for cake decorating.  As the inside cover states, “if you could own just one book on cake decorating, this is the one it should be.”

Norman Wilton became a cake decorator naturally as his father, McKinley Wilton, was a cake decorator who started The Wilton School of Cake Decorating in the 1930s.   Norman expanded the business into Wilton Enterprises, a company that developed new and innovative tools for cake decorating. 

This is an extensive volume, totaling 328 pages.   The instructions are very detailed with accompanying full-color photographs demonstrating how to decorate with classic buttercream icings, royal icings, and fondants. 

Contents of the book include:

1. The Cake Decorator’s Tools
2. Icing – Basic Material of the Decorator
3. Techniques of Color
4. The Decorating Cone and How to Make It
5. The A-B-C’s of Decorating
6. How to do the Basic Borders
7. Measuring and Making Patterns
8. How to do Advanced Borders
9. the Beautiful Art of Flowers
10. Making Flowers on the Lily Nail, How to make Leaves
11. Flowers Made with Special Techniques
12. Special Decoration Techniques
13. The Techniques of Lettering
14. Color Flow … “Drawing” in Icing
15. Star Method: Simple Decorating
16. Decorating Cakes without a Tube
17. Using Novelties to Save Time
18. The Art of Sugar Molds
19. The Art of the Tier Cake
20. Modeling with Marzipan
21. Molds Make Decorative Shapes
22. Figure Piping – Three-dimensional Decorating
23. Decorating in Minature