Instructions: Put affection into frosting, BY KIM BOATMAN, Mercury News

When Alesha Morgans grandmother died last year, she specified only two bequests: a library table and her cake-decorating equipment.

She wanted me to have her pans and tips, says Morgan, a Fremont mother of two in her early 20s. At her funeral service, I dont think anybody who got up to speak didnt mention one of her cakes. Cake decorating is definitely a heritage thing for me.

Cake decorating might seem like a relic from an earlier time, one of those quaint hand skills that is vanishing from our hurry-up culture.

But it is alive and well, and even thriving. When time is a commodity, making something becomes a gift in itself.

I get new people all the time. Im getting kids who used to come in with their mothers, says Barbara Belstler, who owns Barbara of Paulines Cake Decorating Supplies in Willow Glen. I had a 16-year-old boy who did the cake for his grandmothers 50 th wedding anniversary.

A spokeswoman for Wilton, the big name in cake decorating supplies and classes, says Gen-Xers are discovering decorating as a creative hobby.

Perhaps thats because theyve learned what I have: Cake decorating is not as hard as it seems. Certainly, theres a high skill level in making cakes replete with borders, flowers and the works. But simply by using the right equipment, acquiring minimal skills and using a few tricks of the trade, anyone can make a cake that will leave em oohing and ahhing.

Mothers crowded round to see the cake Morgan made for daughter Chelseys sixth birthday party. Morgan piped shell borders around the base and top of a sheet cake, then added purchased Dragon Tales characters.

Adding a little border like I did to Chelseys cake adds so much, she says. It makes it go from a homemade cake to looking semi-professional.

My own journey as a cake decorator began when I was flush with new love.

Certain that my oldest sons first birthday wouldnt be complete without individual hand-decorated little Mickey Mouse cakes for him and his day-care pals, I found myself piping stars onto rodent faces at 2 a.m.

My husband attempted an intervention. I think youre too invested in this.
Learn by doing

Little did he know. My kids cakes have become a sort of tradition, a measure of love, creativity and, on occasion, my improving skills. Ive assembled trains of mini-loaf cakes, ground Oreos to make dirt for construction cakes and cut and assembled a sheet cake to resemble a fire truck.

So its no surprise that a friend and I recently took a cake decorating class at the Fremont Adult School. Still, I felt a bit like I had stepped into a time warp. Here we were, two professional women (shes a techie who now stays home with her kids) taking a class where June Cleaver would have felt at home.

But we found ourselves in the middle of a trend. The class was overflowing with about 20 women, many younger than we. The makeup reflected the ethnic diversity of the community, as well. We all wanted the same thing: to learn enough to make beautiful cakes for family and friends.

Perfection not the goal

Each week, my kids waited up past bedtime for a peek at my homework, fully decorated cakes that surprised even me. Were they bakery-perfect? Hardly. But people dont focus on the places where you and your decorating bag have gone astray. Its the total package they see.

It does require a little bit of skill, says Donna Ballatore, 40, a Sunnyvale cake decorator extraordinaire. But there are a lot of creative people out there. You can use your creative juices, and people appreciate it.

Ive learned over the last few years to work within my limits. Ill probably never make a decent rose, but then, my boys want cakes with a more industrial feel. So Ive veered away from traditional cake decoration. Creative uses of candies, graham crackers, pretzel sticks and similar items make fine stand-ins on the construction truck, train and fire trucks my kids want. When I see an orange gumdrop now, I see a construction cone.

You can create almost any pattern you want, says Ballatore, simply by printing out clip art from the Internet. Cut out the art, lay it on the cake and trace around it with a toothpick, cutting away sections as you go to reach the interior lines of the design. Then you can pipe and fill with icing.

Knowing a few tricks, I felt equipped to take on my biggest project yet a couple of weeks ago. My kindergartner wanted one reward for reading his first 50 books: a cake shaped like a school bus. Hed seen the cake in a magazine.

It took a couple of hours to cut, assemble, then decorate the cake, which included chocolate mini-doughnut wheels, licorice bumpers, Chiclet headlights and Mentos faces peering through the windows.

The bus listed to port, and it appeared to have lost a rear axle. The words School Bus slanted downhill. But my reward came when I held my son up to see it. Bravo! Bravo! he said.

If you would like to email yourself the recipe for later use, or share the recipe with your friends or family, enter the email addresses below and this recipe will be emailed to you and others as well.