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

 

 

Helping out Tom & Rays

     Tom & Rays told us that they wanted us to make some cakes again, they didn't ask for an apple sauce raisin cake, and they said that any box cake was fine as well. Mom didn't really want to go out to the store to get all the ingredients, so she just made 2 box cakes and used 2 containers of already made icing. But! It was still good practice for me to ice a cake. I'm starting to find it easier and easier to ice a cake.

 

 

Mmmmmmm.

Are you hungry now?

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

-Cake Crumb Girl

 

    

Course One: Wilton Cake Decorating Basics: Lesson Two

     Our homework for class this week was to bake a cake by using bake even strips or using a cake leveler after it's cooled down, and then ice the cake using the techniques which also included the paper towel technique on our cake.
     I wanted a even cake. But I didn't want to use the cake leveler, since it's such a waste of cake. And I didn't want to buy the bake even strips by Wilton. So instead, I searched Pinterest to find ideas.
     I got an old bath towel and cut about 2 inches off of the long length part.

Then I went along with the steps that you do with bake even strips, I got cold water on them, wet, but not dripping wet, and double knotted them around my cake  pans, you may need to cut yours a bit thicker if you cake pan is taller.

Ta da! Now stick it in the oven, but don't let any of the towel touch the bottom of your oven.

I was very impressed. I've never had such an even cake! If only I'd learn this trick earlier. I don't think I'm ever going without my old bath towel strips again! ;)

SUCH A DIFFERENCE!

Mrs. Cristol taught us to make a "dam" with a piping bag and a coupler without a tip. So basically you're turning the turntable while piping on the outer end of the circle, it's just like tracing a circle.

Then spatula some icing or filling in the middle.

All iced up and ready to go to class. (Notice how "even" it looks. Those strips really work!)

 

Today in class there was less talk, more work. Mrs.Cristol was putting our skills to the test by seeing if we had really learned from her demonstration in class on how to ice a cake last week, if she corrected the icing on your cake, and came up to fix it for you, you'll know you did something wrong. Surprisingly I was the only one with the cake that she didn't fix.

 

One of the students put their cake on a can pan with foil, Mrs. Cristol explained that it would be very difficult to decorate on a cake pan, so she went out to by a pack of cake boards for it.

I thought you might find it interesting to see how a Cake Lifter works.

Mrs.Cristol said to scoop it under the cake, let gravity do it's magic;

then when it's on the cake lifter, bring the board under it and let gravity do it's magic again. And there you have it! :)

We moved on to learning some basic piping:

For the dots you hold the tip slightly above the surface, pressure, let go of pressure without moving, then lightly round it off, pressure, no pressure, round off.

And then moved on to the art of clear piping gel.

I wanted to make a fish cake, So in our practice board there's three basic outlines:

A cupcake,  a burger and a fish.

 We traced it on a sheet of parchment paper on top of the practice board

Then, flipped it over and pressed it lightly onto the cake and lightly pulled it off.

I'm not sure if you can see it, but the piping gel is on my cake and I'm ready to start on the fish.

The basic pattern was to practice on the practice board, then once you felt comfortable, do it on your cake.

Believe it or not, it actually took pretty much the whole two hours to finish the cake. :)

Mrs.Cristol has been joking that I'm going to be the next teacher at Michael's Craft Store because one of my classmates was having trouble getting down piping dots, so I stopped what I was doing to help her and she got it after a few trys :)

 

Thanks for stopping by! Have a fantasic week!

 

-Cake Crumb Girl

 

 

Course One: Wilton Cake Decorating Basics: Lesson One

     Mrs. Cristal started out with the most basic fundamentals of cake decorating; from choosing the right brand of cake pans to baking your cakes evenly by explaining why they bake uneven in the first place. The rim of the cake pan sticks out farther than the rest of the pan, so it warms up the quickest and the top of the cake finishes before the bottom of the cake does. This is problem is solved by "Bake Even Strips" produced by Wilton Company. To make it work you simply run cold water on the strips and wrap around the entire side of the cake pan, which lines up with the rim of the cake pan, making everything bake at the same pace. 
     Next, we moved on to the famous Wilton icing. Mrs. Cristal told the class that it's better to double the recipe. It only makes 2 1/2 cups. I'll give you the recipe doubled.

     Class Buttercream Icing:
      (Stiff Consistency)
2 cups solid white vegetable shortening (Crisco is best)
2 teaspoons of Wilton flavor
15-16 (or 4 1/2 tablespoons) tablespoons of milk or water ( water is better, milk is fancier for special occasions such as weddings)
2lbs pure cane confectioner's sugar (Domino's is the best)
2 tablespoons Wilton Meringue powder (makes the icing have a nice light crust- may be eliminated if someone has an egg allergy)
pinch of salt (optional)

Cream shortening, flavoring and water. Add dry ingredients and mix on medium speed until all ingredients have been thoroughly mixed together. Blend an additional minute or so, until creamy.
Makes 5 cups.

     So...what happens when you put powdered sugar in a mixer? There's normally a cloud of powdered sugar that explodes even if you start it on low. Mrs. Cristol found the answer to this problem by simply draping two paper towels over the stand mixer, then removing when thoroughly mixed.
     Stiff Consistency is for decorations, such as flowers with upright petals, like roses
to test that you made it right, place your icing in a bowl and insert a straight spatula all the way in the center of the icing and jiggle the cup a little, the spatula should not move very much if even at all.
     Medium Consistency is made by adding 1 teaspoon of water for each cup of stiff consistency icing. It's used to create stars, dimensional decorating, borders and flowers with petals that lay flat.
Use the same test as the stiff consistency, the spatula should move slightly and start to lean to one side.
     Thin Consistency is made by adding 2 teaspoons of water for each cup of stiff consistency icing. It's used for writing, printing, leaves and icing the cake. Use the same test for stiff consistency icing, it should move easily around the cup.
     Mrs. Cristol put it easily if you want to go from Stiff, Medium, to Thin. Her formula is:
2 teaspoons from stiff to medium, 2 teaspoons from medium to thin. (This may vary and need to be adjusted)

I wrote some notes in class about this recipe. I think some are helpful, so I'll share them with you.
>< Mrs.Cristol explained why shortening works better than butter.
Butter melts in your hand, crisco doesn't,  if butter melts in your hand it's going to melt in your piping bag which equals messy decorating! For goodness sake use crisco, even though it's a nightmare to wash.
><When trying to decide whether to use water or  milk just think of it like this...milk goes bad after a few days, so it's perfect for weddings since so many people will be there to eat it, but water is better if it's just for you and your family, water doesn't go bad near as quickly as milk does.
>< When recipes say something like" 2-5 teaspoons" ALWAYS start at the minimum and work your way up tot the maximum if needed.

    

My favorite trick from Mrs. Cristal teaching us how to ice a cake was:

"You only need to touch the cake once, the first time you put icing on the side is the only time you'll be touching the cake with your spatula. You don't want to cross that line, just keep adding on and moving your icing around the cake."

My second favorite was "After the cake has crusted lightly, place a paper towel on top and smooth it over with your hand. Same on the sides, just in smaller portions. If you like it to look smooth, use parchment paper."

Me and my classmate decorated the simple butter cookies we brought by doing stars:

(squeeze, turn, squeeze, turn, squeeze...etc. to make sure the stars line up. You don't want any spaces)

Our homework this week is to bake a two layer cake using all the techniques we learned in class, ice the cake and bring medium consistency buttercream in four colors to do a fish cake.

Thanks for stopping by!

-Cake Crumb Girl

 

 

My cupcake class at Michaels

     To be honest the entire morning I wasn't really looking forward to my cupcake class. I was feeling nervous and wanting to cancel. But I'm so glad I didn't.  My teacher was one of the best teachers you could possibly have. I was the only one in the class today, so I had some great one on one time with my teacher, Mrs. Cristal. She asked me how I got interested in cake decorating and told me about some of her previous students who have opened small businesses. Mrs. Cristal has been doing cake decorating for 30 years and has been teaching classes at Michaels for over 5 years now.

     I've been signed up for this class for over a month, it was supposed to happen in July but she had to cancel on us. So I've had plenty of time to get all the supplies I need.
     When I got there at Michaels they told us we'd be working at the makeshift classroom ( the classroom in the back was under construction so they put two tables in the front of the store, so of course a lot of people passing by interrupted the class, but I didn't mind) my mom had left and I had all of my stuff laid out on the table. The first thing my teacher told me to do was get out a pastry bag, a coupler, scissors and my 230 tip. 230? I didn't have a 230. I started to freak out a little bit. I had a 103 tip. Did I read it wrong on the website? I told my teacher and she brainstormed. "Okay. This is what we're going to do...you're going to LOVE this idea. Go to the cake decorating section, get the cupcake set and bring it back here to me."
If only you could've seen how my jaw dropped. My heart tends to feel achy and very heavy when I feel like I'm about to do something wrong. I stared at her for awhile and finally asked "Isn't that stealing?" She let out a bark of laughter "Not at all dear! I work here!" I looked at her again, acknowledged her comment and walked off to the cake decorating section and brought back the kit (which was $8.99... so that didn't help me feel any better about taking it). She was just as I left her, still laughing about my question. She looked at me and laughed "If only more kids were like you. There would've been SO many other kids that would've gotten it without question." I had told her in the beginning that I was probably going to be a bit different than the average teenager that she teaches. She asked me about shows on tv and the mall and was completely shocked that I'm not a regular for either of them. I think I gave her a new perspective on teenagers...there are some good ones out there. Where was I? Right! Cupcakes...
     I filled 8 cupcakes with icing and the 230 tip out of the cupcake set (which she decided to let me keep since  she'd canceled out on us.) The 230 tip is called a bismarck tip, it's longer and smaller than the average tip, you simply center the bismarck tip in the middle of the cupcake and push down until you're almost at the bottom then come back up with heavy pressure. I've seen many other ways of how to fill a cupcake in library books. Some people prefer to cut out a small hole, pipe in some icing, then put the small hole they cut out back in the same place, tap it down lightly and pipe a decorating over top the cupcake. Filling a cake is a completely different matter, if Mrs. Cristal teaches me how, I'll explain it to you. :)

These two are her examples for me.

Can't say mine was as good, but hey..she's been doing this for 30 years. I've barely been doing it for 5 months!

She taught me some basic piping on waxed paper. Stars, dots, and rosettes.

I already know them, but it's so much better to be taught it person. I learned better dots and way better rosettes than what I was doing for my Olympic cake on week six of Thursdays with Cake Crumb Girl.

Doing 90 degree stars over the entire cupcake was defiantly my favorite thing I learned today.

(Mind you all these cupcakes have made it through travel, so they may appear...damaged. I forgot to take my camera and only remembered when we were almost half way there.)

My teacher let me use all her sprinkles and color mist spray (which I used above)

This two hour class was very much worth it and I had a great time getting to know my teacher.

-Cake Crumb Girl

 

 

 

    
    

A request from my Aunt

     I received a call from my Aunt a few days ago. She works at a restaurant in Damascus, Maryland called Tom & Rays (I've actually worked there a few times to help her out). She was asking if I was interested in making two cakes for the restaurant. The person who normally makes cakes for them was out of town on vacation. So I accepted the offer. Plus she was paying me $15 each cake.
    I decided on making my Grandma's Apple Sauce Raisin Cake and my Nana's Red Velvet Cake.

I put my Grandma's cake in the oven right before I went to do school for the day...or at least went downstairs to do school anyway... ;)

After I finished school I worked on the red velvet cake.

Here I'm working on indents with a spoon to create a whipped look.

 

I think it turned out looking pretty professional.

 

My Aunt called last night. The apple sauce raisin cake went over very well. There happens to be quite the buzz going on about the new cake in town. She took the cake at 4 o'clock pm and there was only two pieces left when they closed, so she requested us to make another one!

How exciting!

Thanks for stopping by!

-Cake Crumb Girl

 

My Uncle's birthday surprise!

     My Aunt and Uncle invited Britney( my sister) and I to join them, Kurtis and his girlfriend, Bryanna to a week long vacation at a beach house near Fenwick Island, Delaware.
 During vacation it was going to be my uncle's birthday.  So I decided to surprise him with cupcakes.
My uncle LOVES lighthouses. I came up with an idea of finding 5  images of nautical clip art on Google images. I printed them out on card stock and taped them to a toothpick, which I stuck in the cupcake. I thought they turned out quite good!

     It took us until 12am to finish them. Uncle Dean didn't go to bed until about 10pm. Then I had to get the cupcake batter  mixed, heat up the oven, let the cupcakes cool...etc. I didn't have the equipment to make my own icing so I used store bought spray icing. It was actually very hard to convince uncle Dean to get eggs. I needed three eggs for my cupcakes!

They went over very well and I think uncle Dean appreciated them.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

-Cake Crumb Girl