How Duff Goldman Decorates Gorgeous Cakes With Ice Cubes

Celebrity baker and Food Network star Duff Goldman is no stranger to innovation, which he uses with aplomb to create spectacular baked goods. In an exclusive interview with Tasting Table, the "Ace of Cakes" host shares his favorite easy hack for creating beautiful, edible flourishes, which can be executed by any home baker looking to visually elevate a dessert.

If you're familiar with Vermont's iconic sugar-on-snow snack, which involves pouring hot maple syrup onto a bed of snow, Goldman's sweet garnish technique is somewhat similar. He begins with either sugar or chocolate, which he melts down. The resulting hot liquid is then poured into a heat-safe dish filled with ice. When the ice and the melted chocolate or sugar collide, the cold temperature causes the hot substance to harden. It immediately solidifies into whatever shape it was curled into when it hit the ice. "It makes these crazy shapes," Goldman said. "You pour the hot sugar into the ice and it drips down and it does this whole thing."

When the formations are fully cooled and solidified, they can be placed atop sweet dishes and baked goods as decorative, edible adornments. While there are common mistakes everyone makes when baking a cake or other sweet treat, we promise Goldman's delish deco hack isn't one of them.

It's not surprising that Duff Goldman has cultivated many helpful baking tips over the course of his decades-long career — some of them decorative, like the edible flourish trick, and others more fundamental. To better execute frosting letters and words on baked goods, he advises keeping consistent pressure on the piping bag and writing quickly. If you make a decorating mistake, you shouldn't sweat it — you can always hide it with fondant or simply clean it off and begin again.

Goldman has learned the hard way that some steps should never be skipped in cookery, no matter how optional they may seem. Sifting is now the tedious step Duff Goldman never skips while baking, thanks to the urging of his Food Network co-star Nancy Fuller to give it a try on a recipe he was struggling with. Goldman, who was admittedly once a sift-skipper, has now repented and religiously sifts his dry ingredients whenever it's called for.

In addition to his many tips for well-executed baking, Goldman also has advice for how and when to serve completed desserts. When it comes to cutting cake at a party, he recommends letting the star baked good come to room temperature before slicing into it. He also recommends waiting to cut the cake until right before it's time to serve.

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