If you want to cut beautiful decorative icing shapes for your homemade cake creations, but are short on time, you can save yourself the trouble of rolling out your own fondant or gum paste sheets by using pre-rolled frosting sheets designed especially for the Cricut Cake cutting machine. The sheets are sold under the Cricut brand name in packs of three sheets. They come in a variety of colors and measure 10" x 10".

The secret of cutting perfect decorative shapes with ready-to-use frosting sheets and the Cricut Cake is to find the right combination of shortening (not too much or too little), cutting pressure, and cutting speed.

How to Get the Best Cutting Results with Frosting Sheets

Here's how to use premade sheets with the Cricut Cake:

Start with the cutting mat clean and dry.

Brush a generous coat of white shortening onto the mat with a pastry brush. If you can see a white coating, you've used too much.

Take one frosting sheet out of the package and reseal the bag to keep the others fresh until you're ready to use them.

Peel off the backer paper. The sheet should be flexible. If it is brittle, it won't cut properly.

Brush shortening onto the back of the frosting sheet.

Carefully lay the sheet on the Cricut Cake cutting mat.

Use a rolling pin or the Cricut Cake smoother tool to smooth out any bumps or air bubbles. This also adheres the frosting sheet to the mat. If you have applied it properly, the sheet will look wet and semi-transparent. If you see any white sections, this means you haven't applied enough shortening there. Lift the sheet and add shortening where needed.

Feed the mat into the machine and use the keypad to choose the design you want to cut. Ideally, the design should be 3" or larger. Cutting really intricate images will work better if you increase the size of the image and cut at the larger size.

Set the machine to medium speed and medium cutting pressure. You want to cut through the frosting without cutting the mat. If you see that the machine is cutting the mat, reduce the pressure setting.

Push the "Cut" button to start cutting.

Troubleshooting Cutting Problems

It may take a little practice to master perfect cutting, but most problems can be solved by following these tips:

Frosting clumps up during cutting. This is caused either by not using enough shortening, or by air bubbles under the frosting sheet. Try again with more shortening and smooth the sheet carefully, following the instructions above.

The sheet slides out of position during cutting. This is caused either by using too much shortening or by cutting when the frosting sheet is too warm. If you have this problem, try again using less shortening. If you're working in a hot room, apply the frosting sheet to the mat, then put it in the freezer for 5 minutes before you cut. Leave the sheet in until it gets firm, but don't let it stay in so long that it becomes brittle.

Keep the cut shapes in a sealed plastic bag so they don't dry out until you use them. You can also reuse any frosting sheet scraps that are 3" x 3" or larger. The sheets can't be re-rolled, though.