Course Two: Flowers and Cake Design: Lesson Four

     Today was the final week of Wilton Cake Decorating, Course Two, Flowers and Cake Design.
I chose one of the hardest looking cakes in the book again! I really enjoy doing choosing a difficult cake because if I can't somewhat do or complete the hardest cake, then I've learned almost nothing; need to try harder and start over again and again until it comes naturally. Thankfully, it has all come so easily for me. I was a bit hesitant for this course. Starting with Thursdays with Cake Crumb Girl, The roses were extremely difficult for me and never worked out right. And I knew that more difficult flowers than the rose would be covered in this course.
      I can now look through my old pictures and laugh at them. I've learned the correct way for doing practically anything and everything I never thought possible in the way  of cake decorating. And the friendships I've made at these courses...are extremely priceless, my one and only classmate, Elba was going to go on and finish the courses but decided today that she wants to continue them with me. She'll be starting back up in January with me for course 3! It's so great to know that I'll have a fantastic friend to join me in the rest of my Wilton Cake Decorating journey.

Above Picture ^: The basket weave and the reverse shell was covered in the lesson today. I tried doing the basket weave during Thursdays with Cake Crumb Girl. And I did it completely wrong!(There are way easier ways to do it!) The above picture was done with tip 21.

Above Picture ^: First, I lined up my cake. First I put a line in the icing with a spatula, then I went directly across and made a line in the icing there as well, then I spun the turntable to half way between the lines, then went across from that line and made another impression in the cake until it was divided into fourths.And then, divided the fourths in half, and continued doing this until the lines were almost equally a little less than one inch apart. (Believe me. This alone makes basket weaving on a cake so much easier)

Above Picture ^: I started by creating a line from the bottom of the cake to the top, and then added another line directly on top of that line. Then I made stars (called spacers in this technique) on about the next line away. Next, I created a line straight across from one spacer, over the line and ending right after the second spacer, and did the remaining two.(Go to next picture)

Above Picture ^:  After connecting the spacers with a line, there were spaces between the double line and the spacer to the right, where I piped at a 45 degree angle at 4:00 and squeezed until the next line, and then created spacers on top of where that line ended and piped another line from the bottom of the cake to the top. And so on etc... (if you have any questions on how to do this, just comment and ask me.)

Above Picture ^: And finally I piped a basic shell border around the top of the cake, created a small mound of icing in the middle, and began placing my roses made with royal icing, a week in advance.

Above Picture ^: My Final cake of Course 2 is complete!!

Above Picture ^: My lovely classmate's cake.

Above Image:  Elba is the lovely lady wearing a gray shirt and black belt, Mrs. Cristal is the wonderful woman sitting in the front and last, but not least, I'm the one standing with a pink scarf and black shirt.

I can't wait to see these wonderful girls again!

Have a fantastic week!

-Cake Crumb Girl

Course Two: Flowers and Cake Design: Lesson Three

Hello everybody! Hope you all are having a great autumn week so far (:
My Wilton Cake Decorating lesson last Saturday was so much fun. These flowers have been amazing to learn and quickly become adorable decorations for a cake.

My classmate, Elba and I learned the cute little daffodils.

Violets. (I know they're supposed to be purple.... Just haven't bought the U.S. famous Wilton coloring called purple just yet :P)

This is the Lilly nail. You can use foil from home, but make sure it's a low grade. Mrs.Cristol recommends a dollar store brand, the thicker it is, the harder it is to save your flower in the end, So you want a very light kind.

Take the other half of the Lilly nail and press down.

This is what should've happened. Now fold the remaining underneath the nook of the Lilly nail.

I wanted to keep taking pictures and instruct you all on how to make a Lilly, but  it got a little busy (;

I have videos. But I would need her permission to put them online. Maybe next time!

 

For this coming Saturday, it will be my last class with Elba. I'm taking off the Wilton courses for the rest of this semester and doing little fun things here and there with cake decorating and will be starting back with the courses in 2013.

 

Also this coming Saturday is the final cake of course 2!

Mrs.Cristol told me that I tend to have a habit of picking the hardest cake in the book as my final one :P I have to admit. I like to challenge myself to these things! ;)

 

Have a great week!!

-Cake Crumb Girl

Autumn Cupcakes for Thursday Classes

                             Hello Everybody! Hope you all are having a great week so far.
Tomorrow is Thursday Classes and my mom suggested to me to make some cupcakes once and a while for the snack bar at CBA. I thought it was a great idea and tomorrow is my first swing at it. We'll see how it turns out and I'll try doing them again.

White cupcakes with orange sugar sprinkles for that Autumn touch.

Orange colored icing and fall colored sprinkles.

Placed in cups for protection :P

And tied with fall colored ribbon.

 

The set price is 50 cents. And all money goes towards a lower price for our yearbooks. Now I just hope that no one knocks over the display!

We'll see how it turns out!

-Cake Crumb Girl

Course Two: Flowers and Cake Design: Lesson Two

Hello Everyone! I hope you all are having a great week!
 I'm going to start out by giving you the Wilton Royal Icing.

Royal Icing Recipe:
(Stiff Consistency)
3 level tablespoons of Meringue Powder
1 lb (4 cups) sifted pure cane confectioner's sugar
5-6 tablespoons lukewarm water

Place confectioner's sugar and Meringue Powder in a bowl. Sir or mix at low speed until blended. Add water and mix 7-10 minutes at low-medium speed until icing loses its sheen.
To prevent drying, be sure to cover the bowl with a damp cloth while working with icing.

Store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.
To reuse, beat on low to restore original texture
Makes 3 cups

Step by step process of making and using a parchment bag:

 

Hold out the triangle square with the tip pointing upward.

Hold the left corner like so.

bring it up.

Twist it in.

Make sure the corners line up.

Bring around the other corner.

It will form a  W. (You want a small one, not spaced very far apart.)

Pull on them in their natural direction.

If you look down your parchment bag and can see a hole, pull up on both sides, it should be gone.

 

You don't want to be able to see much.

Fold over the W.

Make two tears.

Fold it over.

 

Congratulations! You now know how to make a parchment bag!

 

Now, drop a coupler in and screw on the little circle from the outside, rip the remaining little triangle off at the end of the coupler and twist on a tip.

Then drop in some icing:

 

Lay it out on the table.

Fold over a corner like a doggie ear in a book.

Do that for both sides.

Roll towards the icing.

Do it again.

Fold it in your hand.

 

Flowers I have completed in Lesson Two:

 

Roses.

Apple Blossoms.

Primrose.

Tulips.

 

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great week!

-Cake Crumb Girl

 

 

 

Course Two: Flowers and Cake Design:Lesson One

Hello Everybody! Welcome to my experience of Course Two, Wilton Cake Decorating, Flowers and Cake Design.

In this lesson we learned all about color wheels and how they relate to cake decorating:

Complementary Colors: are colors directly across from each other. Example : Yellow and Purple,  Orange and Green. Mrs. Cristol explained that Complementary colors make each other look good even though they are complete opposites.

Neighboring Colors: Is a group of 3 to four colors sitting next to each other on the color wheel. Maybe you're throwing a birthday party, but didn't want to use just one color for the cupcakes you're making, you would want them to somewhat go together.Example : Yellow, Orange, and Red. Or Yellow, Pink and Red. (Depends on your color wheel).

Monochromatic Colors:  Making one color choice but using either less or more gel paste to make a bolder or lighter color. Example: Light pink, Medium pink, and Dark pink.

Triad Colors: Three colors spaced equally apart on the color wheel. Example: Green, Orange and Purple.

Then Mrs.Cristol lead my partner and I into the basics of gum paste and fondant.

Gum paste is mainly used for flowers, while Fondant is used for covering the cakes.

The most important tip learned was that: Fondant and Gum Paste pick up everything while you're handling it. Put it down on the table? You'll get specks of dirt. Drop it on the floor? It's no good.

Fondant and Gum paste dry very quickly. When not in use, it should immediately be wrapped up in cling wrap.

Coat your hands with vegetable shorting to avoid sticking of any kind and either dust or coat your working space with a dust pouch or vegetable shorting to avoid picking up dirt.

Glue Gum Adhesive:
Break about 1/4 teaspoon of Ready- To-Use- Gum paste into very small pieces in about 1 tablespoon of water, let rest for about 1 hour.
May be kept up to 1 week.
(This is used to "glue" parts of flowers together.)

Preparing a Dusting Pouch:
Fill the pouch with 1 tablespoon of cornstarch and 1 table spoon of confectioner's sugar. Pull the cord to close the pouch and tap lightly to dust when needed.
(this is used for your hands and or work area, and also used for gum paste tools.)

For class today my partner and I cut our gum paste packages into 4/4 and used one packet of the neon fondant and kneaded 1/4 of the gum paste with one of the four colors of fondant and worked them together.

My partner and I went on to making button flowers and pansies:

Button flowers are made by rolling out the gum paste and fondant substance and put into a cutter.

Pansies are formed by rolling out the gum paste and fondant substance into a see-through square and are cut with a flower cutter, then roll the ball tool over them like tracing on a foam square, then using the ball tool again, and on a bigger square of foam we "abuse" the flower by hitting it and making it pop up. Then finally glue everything together.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

-Cake Crumb Girl

Course one: Wilton Cake Decorating Basics: Lesson Four

In lesson four Mrs. Cristol taught my classmate and I how to do the ribbon rose. That may sound easy, but it quickly took up an hour and a half of the class leaving only a half hour to finish our cakes.

As I said in my last post, I wanted something challenging. And so it was. Not picture perfect, but it's still pretty (:

 

Mrs.Cristol told me that very rarely does anyone choose this cake as their final project. Most people don't want to go through all the trouble of making all the different colors...etc etc.

But taking these courses, I want to get the most that I can out of each lesson. (:

Course One has been a fantastic adventure.

I'll be back soon for course 2!

 

-Cake Crumb Girl

Course One: Wilton Cake Decorating Basics: Lesson Three

     Homework this week was to bake 6 cupcakes and bring to class. Mrs.Cristol told us to bring more, so I baked 12 and froze the rest of the batter.
     I already knew some of the basics of cupcake decorating from my cupcake class, but I told Mrs.Cristol that I wanted to master the cupcake swirl this time, if you check out my post about my cupcake class at Michaels you'll see the picture of my somewhat but not completely failed cupcake swirl. I think I made quite an improvement yesterday with a bit of practice.

And yes, both of these are my work. Obviously the one on the right is after I had a bit of practice with it. (:

I LOVED learning the shell boarder in class yesterday. I've tried it before, but just tried it based off of pictures, not actual experience.

Hold your pastry bag at a 45 degree angle at 6 o'clock. Have your tip just above the surface of your practice sheet. Squeeze, "puff puff puff" down. Lift up your pastry bag and repeat, squeeze, puff puff puff, down. And so on.

For rosettes make a complete star and go up a level, imagine a clock. Start your rosette at 9 o'clock, move to 12 o'clock. Move to 3 o'clock, move to 6 o'clock, stop pressure and round off at 9 o'clock.

Next, me and my classmate picked up our cupcake nail.

Hold the cupcake nail like shown below with three fingers on the outside of the stick and your thumb and picky on the inside of the stick. Always move the nail clockwise. Mrs.Cristol laughed at me several times yesterday for going counterclockwise.

Don't spin the nail too fast, work at a slow pace unlike my classmate, which was practicing using the cupcake nail with a cupcake on it simply trying to learn how to move it when her cupcake went flying! This can be a dangerous tool. :P

Shown above are shaggy mums and pompom flowers.

Three of these cupcakes are Mrs.Cristol's work. The pink shaggy mum farthest to the left is hers, along with the cupcake with sprinkles and the lone white cupcake in the corner. The rest is my work.

Mrs.Cristol found it very impressive that I followed her instruction, but got better results. I simply told her that I was doing what she told me to do! I don't have any deep dark secrets of cake decorating. (Yet, anyway..)

I enjoyed the shaggy mum. And the pompom flower was surprisingly easy. The one closest to the front of the box is my last one, so I improved even in a few minutes.

 

Next week is my final Saturday of course one!

I wanted to go a step up in my cakes, so I'm choosing a challenging one.

Mrs.Cristol told me that there's a lot of work involved in the cake I chose, but I told her that it'll be rewarding in the end. She smiled and laughed at me. Saying that half of her students that are adults just take the class and get by with the basics.

I like the look of the cake and I think I'm ready for it.

I have to make the border flowers in advance and dry them. Which is 12 of each color.

They're called the drop flower. We tried this in class today. Tip: 2D, Hold pastry bag at 90 degrees, Face your knuckles at 9 o'clock, squeeze while gradually turning to 12 o'clock, stop pressure and lift up.

I kind of got carried away with practicing. :D

I'm so excited for next week.

I'll be taking course two in October, but I'll be missing a Saturday. No worries though! Mrs. Cristol said that I could catch up by coming to a Thursday class that week to make up for it.

 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

-Cake Crumb Girl