My inaugural post! We'll see where this goes...
I had always thought it would be fun to learn how to decorate a cake, so I gladly accepted my sister Julie's invitation to join her and several friends in a beginning cake decorating class at The Decorette Shop in southeast Portland. The class met Monday evenings for seven weeks. It was a lot of fun, and our instructor, Sally, was great.
Week 1 we learned about color flow. We taped a simple line drawing of a butterfly onto a small piece of cardboard and covered the drawing with plastic wrap. Next we piped royal icing in the outline of the butterfly and then flooded the outlined sections with colorful icing. After the piece dries a few days, you can peel it off the plastic wrap and place it on a frosted cake. By the end of our first class, we had created a rabble of beautiful butterflies.
Week 2, we learned about crumb coating, cake carving, splitting and filling layers, and making icing basketweave and ruffles. The result: an old-fashioned baby buggy.
Week 3 we made flowers -- roses, sweet peas, daisies, mums, and daffodils. The flowers were piped onto parchment squares. They dry quickly and can be transferred to an iced cake.
Week 4 we made a doll cake. The skirt is cake (baked in a special "doll skirt" pan or carved from stacked layers. And, yes, the bottom half of a full-size doll (covered in plastic wrap) is inserted into the center of the cake. The following doll cakes are the work of other students in the class -- apparently I forgot to photograph my cake.
Week 5 was figure piping and probably the most fun of all. We piped ducks, swans, storks, elephants, and mice. Love this pink elephant and the little ducky diving for its dinner.
Week 6 we learned a lattice-style icing pattern. Looks so simple, but was more difficult than I imagined. Tired hands and arms (from squeezing the piping bag) cause the fine lines to wiggle, and even the most simple-looking garland border was challenging. I thought I would decorate the top of the cake with pink roses, but ran out of time after making just one. I have a whole new admiration for professional cake decorators.
In Week 7 everything we learned in the previous weeks came together to create a tiered wedding cake. Much to my amazement, the finished cake actually looked fit for a celebration.
