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For tube or loaf cake: Place cake top or bottom side up, as preferred. Frost sides, then top, following suggestions for frosting layer cakes.
To adorn the frosted cake
For decorating, use good-to-eat ingredients, chosen to go with the cake in color, texture, and character. Let the decorations be simple but artistic and effective. For example, the ingredients commonly found in the kitchen cupboard make beautiful decorations when used correctly.
Coconut—For an all-over sprinkle of coconut, use the canned moist shredded coconut with long glistening white shreds. Pat it on while the frosting is still soft. To tint, add a few drops of food coloring, then rub between the palms of the hands to color it evenly. For a rainbow effect, tint separate lots of coconut pink, green, yellow, and violet, and then mix them. To tint and flavor, rub 1 cup coconut with 8 fine-cut maraschino cherries or with the grated rind of 1 orange. For some cakes, golden toasted coconut is effective.
To toast coconut, spread a thin layer in a shallow pan, toast in moderate oven (350°F.) until a delicate brown, stirring often to toast evenly.
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{decorated cake frosting}
Chocolate—Striking effects can be obtained on a frosted cake with melted chocolate (see directions for Chocolate Rapture Cake, [p. 1]). For decorative dribbles or lettering, melt together over hot water ½ oz. unsweetened chocolate and ½ teaspoon Spry. Cool before using. For enough chocolate to cover the entire top of the cake and let it drip down the sides in interesting icicle formations, double these quantities. Melted chocolate can also be used for lettering as in “Happy Birthday” treatment. White frostings or delicately tinted pink or green mint frostings are especially pretty with melted chocolate decorations. Halloween black cats or witches for the top of a frosted cake can be made as follows: Draw or trace an outline of the desired shape on waxed paper, fill in the outline with melted chocolate. Put in refrigerator to harden, loosen from paper, and place on cake. Make other designs similarly.