Ina Garten's Brilliant Parchment Trick For Mess-Free Cake Decorating

The Barefoot Contessa is back with a cake hack that any devoted baker will love. In 2022, Ina Garten spoke with Trent Pheifer, who chronicles his goal to cook every Ina Garten recipe on his Instagram account @storeboughtisfine, and as they chatted, she revealed a brilliant way to decorate cakes with much less mess (via YouTube). If you don't want to get icing all over and are searching for a neater, more streamlined cake decorating process, this just might be the hack for you.

Thankfully for bakers everywhere, Garten's smart cake decorating hack doesn't require much in the way of kitchen tools. All you need for mess-free cake decorating is a bit of parchment paper and a cake stand — which most avid cake-bakers will already have in the kitchen. 

If you want a beautifully decorated cake and a less messy decorating space, try this trick the next time you bake.

To use Ina Garten's easy hack — which Trent Pheifer dubbed "game-changing" (via YouTube), get out some parchment paper to accompany your cake stand. You'll ultimately end up with the parchment paper tucked underneath the cake stand in a formation that won't make your cake look messy when you ice it.

The steps are simple. First, take your cooled (but unfrosted) cake and place it on the cake stand. Then, grab some scissors and cut the parchment paper into triangles. (Garten suggests cutting squares of parchment paper and then cutting each square diagonally to make the triangles). After you cut the triangles, tuck each one under the cake — and be sure to overlap them instead of leaving space with no parchment paper covering it. Make sure that the ends of the parchment paper stick out so that you can easily pull them out once you're done decorating. Next, decorate the cake to your liking, slide a paring knife between the parchment paper and the cake, and then remove the paper. 

The triangle shapes will give you the cleanest cake edges, and you won't have to deal with the mess of putting your frosted cake onto a cake stand, either.

You now know how to avoid making a mess of your cake stand, but how else can you avoid getting messy when you frost a cake? First off — and perhaps most importantly — make sure that your cake is completely cool before you frost it. This way, you'll avoid your icing melting on top of your cake (and possibly onto your cake stand, too). 

Once your cake is cool, trim any peaks from the tops of your cake halves to prevent yourself from frosting the cake unevenly. Next, make sure that you place your cake on the stand with the trimmed side facing downwards — it'll help you stop crumbs from scattering everywhere (per The New York Times).

When you're ready to ice your cake, dab some icing on the parchment paper to make sure that your cake stays in place. Make your first layer of icing — this is called the "crumb coat," and it doesn't have to be thick enough to cost the entire cake — then chill the cake to let the icing set. Once your first layer of frosting is chilled, use an offset spatula to apply the second layer of frosting (per Bon Appétit). You'll get those "icing swoops" that you love to see on your favorite cakes — but without the mess.