What I done at school this week

Well, I didn't win the Easter competition, but quite frankly I didn't expect to. The other entries in the finals were amazing! But the cake was most delicious ;)

Anyway, I don't know if I've mentioned this in a previous post, but I've enrolled in a cake course at my local campus. It's a ten week course with a class every Monday evening. So far I've done two weeks - the first was just an introduction with information on what I'd need to bring and the things we'd be doing. I went for the advanced course, but apparently that and the improver's course weren't very popular (which surprised me as I thought cake decorating was really fashionable at the moment) so they have merged the two courses into one. There's still only about 6 people on it though!

So the second class was this week, which covered how to make a lavender sprig and how to use stencils. The lavender was actually started on week one - we learnt how to make each individual flower head and that was our homework... to make 16 of them! I managed but it's fiddly work, it involves making five little rice-shaped 'petals' for each flower head - that's 96 in all! Just for one sprig! It just goes to show how people can easily justify charging hundreds of pounds for a high quality cake with sugar flowers. The amount of work that goes into it is phenomenal.

It was the first time I've ever used flower paste as well, when I made roses I stuck with fondant (also known as sugar paste) and they never really dried out properly. The flower paste has more glue in it which makes it stronger - you can roll it out thinner and it dries harder.

So here's my fully formed lavender sprig:

Not much considering it was at least 2 hours' work. But hey ho, it's given me the chance to try something new.

Then there was stencilling. I'd been instructed to buy some dusting colours for this, and also for the lavender, so the colours I bought were 'Foliage Green' and 'Lilac'. The green said it was edible, and the lilac said it wasn't edible, but only 'non-toxic'. I couldn't find any lilac that was marked as edible. I don't know if that means it's not available or what. I'm sure I'll find out.

I was really pleased with how my stencils turned out, so much so that I've bought a load off eBay today! Although the second time I tried one of them, I put it upside-down, so it got all smudged from the powder left over from the previous attempt. They also ended up a bit battered after being carried home in the box:

Together with the lavender.

The first attempt (sat on a rubbish half eaten cake.)

The smudged (and squashed) second attempt.

Quite possibly my favourite of the three.

Next week: shoes!

Easter Competition

I'm a finalist!!

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.315602458505848.71737.115300861869343&type=1

Hopefully you can see this... if not then go to Facebook, find the Cake Masters page, like it and check out the 'Easter competition - Bake for Fun Finalists' album. My basket cake is there!

Ooh I'm all fizzy with excitement :-D

Easter Basket Cake

Well, Cake Masters have had another competition on for Easter. I don't think this one has a prize, but I thought I'd give it a go anyway.

Ever so original, I thought I'd have a go at an Easter basket style of cake, as there is a technique of piping butter cream where you can create a basketweave effect which I'd not had a go at before. I think you really need a special nozzle for the job but I made do with one of the plastic ones I got with my piping kit from Hobbycraft - it seemed to do the job.

I wrapped the sides of the cake with fondant icing before piping on the design, so that the sides were even. On the top is chocolate butter cream (which you can't actually see under all the decorations), many many many Creme Egg Minis (thanks Cadbury) and three chicks made from fondant. I added some flowers and leaves for a bit of colour:

The piping was very fiddly and didn't come out as neatly as I'd have liked. I think I got the icing consistency wrong as it kept curling up as it came out the nozzle. But I was pleased with the overall effect, even though I got butter cream all over the kitchen floor (it kept coming out of the top of the bag!)

I was going to add a handle, but I didn't think a fondant one would keep its shape, and I didn't want to spoil the fact that the entire thing is edible by making one from cardboard, so I just left it.

Still, not bad for a first attempt at a basket, I like to think.

More cupcakes

Another mate/colleague had his last day at our company recently, and since he's a big fan of F1 and cars in general I had a go at these:

It's the first time I've tried recreating an image with fondant... I made templates with baking paper and used those to cut round. It was fiddly but I think I pulled it off! :-D

I made two separate templates for the helmets, one for each colour, then fitted the pieces together. It was harder than it sounds as the black fondant stretched as I lifted it up so I had to trim it to size as I fitted the pieces together.

The wheels were done using circular cookie cutters, silver spray and the end of a large piping nozzle to do the smaller holes.

The written message was just to use up the royal icing left over from my previous cake. :-)

There was plenty left as well. Enough for these:

Royal Icing

So I finally got sick of the sight of the half finished cake that was sitting on the table for days and decided to complete it. I just rushed through it as I'd lost the enthusiasm.

Here's how it looked after I'd finished applying the royal icing. I don't think Ceri Dz (who did the YouTube videos I learnt the method from) would be particularly proud of it...

I used up the rest of the royal icing to pipe on a design and used the flooding techniques learnt from Elaine McGregor to do the heart and a collar on the board.

The icing was still wet when I took the photo...

The cake was nice although half of the icing got left behind as it had set so hard. I nearly had to get a saw out just to cut a slice!