Wilton Cake Decorating Course 2 : Lesson One and Two

Wey-hey-hey!! After a week off from decorating, I was back for course 2 of the Wilton Cake Decorating syllabus at ICCA. This time classes were still 2 hours long but instead of just every Saturday, it was Saturday and Sunday mornings. There are four lessons altogether but for this post I shall combine lesson one and two.

Yeap, Course Two is Flowers and Cake Design. Here is an overview of the course according to the brochure :)

Your Wilton Method Instructor will teach you to create breathtaking icing flowers such as pansies, lilies and the famous Wilton Rose. Then, you’ll discover the secrets of arranging them in a beautifully balanced cake-top bouquet.

Your amazing flowers will be framed by an impressive boarder treatment or basketweave design. With the skills you learn here and your ability to make flowers in advance using gum paste and fondant or royal icing, you can create beautiful blooms at your convenience, ready to place on any cake.

Topics covered in Flowers and Cake Design include:

• Basic Principles of Cake Design
• Gum Paste and Fondant 101
• Button Flower
• Pansy
• Making Royal Icing
• Making a Parchment Bag
• Flower Nail
• Rose Base, Rose Center
• Apple Blossom, Primrose
• Rosebud
• Daffodil
• Violet
• Using the Lily Nail, Lily
• Making Stems
• Guidelines for Flower Arrangments
• Floral Cake Design
• Reverse Shell
• Basketweave
• Wilton Rose

So there you go. Can we say exciiiiiiteddd??? hehehehe..

 My student kit

 Lesson one we learnt to make button flowers and pansies using gum paste. Gum paste is almost the same as fondant except that it's more pliable and usage is more towards cake decorating than actual consumption.

 What did I learn? It is crucial to get the gum paste as THIN as possible in order to manipulate it with the ball tool to create realistic looking petals. Mine here looks like crap. Haha. But I did it again at home and it turned out better.

 Lesson Two I learnt piping the rose bud using royal icing. It's not as easy as it looks. I had to pipe several times to get it right.

 We also learnt the primrose, apple blossoms, lilies and the Wilton rose (again). Due to the time constraint, I haven't done the lilies and the apple blossoms yet (it's basically the same as the primrose but smaller) but I'll show you in my next blog along with the improved pansies.

Here is a pic of a macaron that my friend Sally made and brought along to class. It's a wasabi flavoured macaron. Interesting right?? It's was suprisingly delicious..sweet with a sudden burst of wasabi in the palate.  A daring and innovative flavour. Maybe I should try making macarons next. I shall 'beguru' with Sally when I have the time :)) Oh and the background is the Baking Class going on next door.

Ahh..this here is my homework. Yup. Homework. 40 flowers altogether. How I'm gonna do it I don't know with baby in tow ..haha..but that's the challenge right?

Keep following me on my next post next week for the final two classes. Cheerio!