Let There be Cake
25/6/08 09:10![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madrobinsLast night I had my second cake decorating class. My homework was to make a first batch of decorator's buttercream. Yes, it has butter in it, but the butter is only 1/5 of the total, um, shortening component (the rest is hi-res shortening, pure white and not as greasy as Crisco). Add in two pounds of pure 10X confectioners' sugar, clear Vanilla (who knew that regular store vanilla has carmel coloring in it?) and meringue powder for added stiffness.
When the frosting was contained, I had to build a cake, double ice it (first is the "crumb icing" to contain the crumbs and seal the cake, second is the normal exterior frosting) and bring it, along with a pile of tools and such, to class.
And here is my first cake, made for Avocado in celebration of her trip to summer camp tomorrow. The assignment was to lightly press cookie cutters (a heart and a flower) in the center of the cake as a guide for icing, then sketch in my message with a toothpick, then trace it all in frosting. My teacher says green should only be used for accents, because people don't want to eat green things (she should take to my children, who disagree with this theory) but I couldn't bear the idea of making it all pink or something more traditional. After the top part was done, we learned to make the scrolling (with a star tip, make a tightly set backward S) on the edge and bottom of the cake.
We also got to make blossoms! All frosting flowers are built on petals like this, so I'm going to get a lot of practice making flowers (I'm supposed to make fifty or so for homework this week, in addition to making another fully-frosted cake for next week's lesson.
See the swirlies?
By the end of class my hand was so sore; it's impressive how much fight a parchment bag of frosting can put up!
When the frosting was contained, I had to build a cake, double ice it (first is the "crumb icing" to contain the crumbs and seal the cake, second is the normal exterior frosting) and bring it, along with a pile of tools and such, to class.
And here is my first cake, made for Avocado in celebration of her trip to summer camp tomorrow. The assignment was to lightly press cookie cutters (a heart and a flower) in the center of the cake as a guide for icing, then sketch in my message with a toothpick, then trace it all in frosting. My teacher says green should only be used for accents, because people don't want to eat green things (she should take to my children, who disagree with this theory) but I couldn't bear the idea of making it all pink or something more traditional. After the top part was done, we learned to make the scrolling (with a star tip, make a tightly set backward S) on the edge and bottom of the cake.
We also got to make blossoms! All frosting flowers are built on petals like this, so I'm going to get a lot of practice making flowers (I'm supposed to make fifty or so for homework this week, in addition to making another fully-frosted cake for next week's lesson.
See the swirlies?
By the end of class my hand was so sore; it's impressive how much fight a parchment bag of frosting can put up!