So I've been learning cake decorating from my friend Christy. It has been fun.
My first cake was a birthday cake where we just practiced doing using the star tip, writing and drop flowers and most important, icing the cake. I also learned how to use parchment triangle bags. I wrote Happy Birthday on it and the next day we invited Christy's kids over and dressed up for a happy-unbirthday party. They loved it. It's hard not to love something that includes cake.
My second lesson I learned shell borders and more flower practice. I forgot to take a picture of that cake which happened to turn out fabulously. It said flower power and I used really bright colors. Very 60's. Additionaly, my hand mixer just happened to die while making the frosting for this cake so unfortunately I had to convince Steve that I really needed a Kitchen Aid. IT's so sad, I know!!!
My third, and most recent, lesson I learned how to make roses. I made carrot cake and filled it and iced it with cream cheese frosting. I don't actually recommend using cream cheese for your final icing though as you can see that it cracked. I would use it for a crumb coat and then use buttercream for the outside. I thought roses were going to be ridiculously hard but it turns out that they weren't so hard as long as the frosting is the right consistency. I mention this of course because my original cream cheese frosting was way too thin and the flowers just sunk into themselves as I made them. I hurried and whipped up some buttercream frosting though and it worked like a dream. Here are pics of the most recent cake. I even did a cute little border along the bottom and tried to put flowers on the sides. It turns out that putting flowers on the sides is better if you let them dry first and then just glue them on later. I didn't really have a plan but I still felt pretty successful.
My first cake was a birthday cake where we just practiced doing using the star tip, writing and drop flowers and most important, icing the cake. I also learned how to use parchment triangle bags. I wrote Happy Birthday on it and the next day we invited Christy's kids over and dressed up for a happy-unbirthday party. They loved it. It's hard not to love something that includes cake.
My second lesson I learned shell borders and more flower practice. I forgot to take a picture of that cake which happened to turn out fabulously. It said flower power and I used really bright colors. Very 60's. Additionaly, my hand mixer just happened to die while making the frosting for this cake so unfortunately I had to convince Steve that I really needed a Kitchen Aid. IT's so sad, I know!!!
My third, and most recent, lesson I learned how to make roses. I made carrot cake and filled it and iced it with cream cheese frosting. I don't actually recommend using cream cheese for your final icing though as you can see that it cracked. I would use it for a crumb coat and then use buttercream for the outside. I thought roses were going to be ridiculously hard but it turns out that they weren't so hard as long as the frosting is the right consistency. I mention this of course because my original cream cheese frosting was way too thin and the flowers just sunk into themselves as I made them. I hurried and whipped up some buttercream frosting though and it worked like a dream. Here are pics of the most recent cake. I even did a cute little border along the bottom and tried to put flowers on the sides. It turns out that putting flowers on the sides is better if you let them dry first and then just glue them on later. I didn't really have a plan but I still felt pretty successful.
As a side note. I also found this great video instruction segment on how to start making and decorating cakes. The women included a recipe for making your own cake pan grease. I used it on the 3rd cake and it worked like a dream. My cakes just popped out of the pan.
http://www.monkeysee.com/play/982-cake-decorating-how-to-prepare-your-cake-pan-for-baking\
Her receipe for the goop is as follows:
Mix together:
1 c flour
1 c shortening
½ c oil
1 comments:
CAUTION to all husbands: The homemade cake pan grease looks just like frosting. When you try to snitch some get ready for a big surprise. I quickly labled the container it was in so that mistake would not be duplicated.
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