Wilton Cake Decorating Course 3 : Gum Paste and Fondant Class 1 and 2

 Hello everyone, I'm back for Course Three in the Wilton Cake Decorating series at the International Centre of Cake Artistry. This time classes are more intensive as we did Class 1 and Class 2 in one day so it took four hours to complete. Next week we are doing the same too for Class 3 and Class 4 but that will be in my next blog. This is what I received in the new syllabus !

 This board basically explained all that we did on that day..pretty intensive but nothing too stressful.

 I totally love the silpat mat on which I rolled my fondant on..a bit pricey but sooo worth it...wonder why I didn't get it earlier?

 So these were my rose bases and mum bases..all ready for the next classes.

 This is the base for the carnation

 The finished carnation!

At the end of the class this is what I managed to finish..the calla lily, rose, carnation that were all made from gumpaste and the bow which was 50% fondant and 50% gumpaste. Unfortunately my bow kinda broke after I got home so I probably need to cut and assemble it again :P Well that was basically what we did for this session, class 3 and graduation will be on the next blog..kinda sad that the classes are gonna end soon but it's okay. Now time to plan my final graduation cake! Till then folks!

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!

Wilton Method of Cake decorating:Course 1 Lesson One

Woohoo!! I finally attended the first class in Course 1. I was five minutes late due to baby wanting a last drink from the 'tap'..lol! There was also a slight jam on the way to Kota Damansara on this lovely Saturday morning but I managed to get to class in time for the class introduction.

My instructor was Ms.Angeline Stanley. From what I gathered she has been teaching at Wilton ICCA for about five years now and is an established cake decorator.You may checkout her website http://www.angelinestanley.com/ to see her cute cakes. There were 14 students including moi and all had their special reasons for joining this course. They ranged from retirees to aspiring cake business people like myself. There was even one guy and he wanted to learn cake decorating for his wedding events business. Aaaaand as always there's that one overachiever student who asks a lot of questions and has been attending all the other courses to one up herself! haha!


Well today was more of an introductory class. It still was full of information. Information that you would definitely not get by just watching Youtube. All and all we were taught on how to tell the difference between stiff, medium and thin consistencies of icing. Then we were taught on how to colour the icing and she gave many tips that was not stated in the Wilton Course book. We were also taught on how to properly ice and tort a cake. I mean I've done all that before but the techniques were really useful and methodical.

This is what was in my student kit.

We were taught about the use of different tips and how to use them with couplers and piping bags.I found that it was very useful how Angeline described how to manipulate the piping bag using the angles of your wrist and in reference to the positions on the clock. At last we were given a demo on the famous Wilton rose. Angeline made it look so effortless!

Finally like in any class we were given HOMEWORK! Yes for the next lesson we were supposed to bake a cake of our choice, tort and ice it ourselves and bring it to class. Apparently we are to complete a rainbow decorated cake in Lesson two. Even though it looks like a simple cake, I think it's an important base to all cake decorating skills. For that, I'm excited!