Wilton cake Decorating Course 2 : Class 3 and Graduation

 Hello friends yup this is the final blog concerning Course Two in my cake decorating adventure..Sorry it took so long to update as I was completely knackered from all the baking and flower making and needed some well deserved rest. Well let me tell ya..making flowers out of royal icing is truly a skill to be reckoned with...the amount of concentration needed is enormous and one wrong move and your flower goes kaput!! So here is the documentation of class 3 and the final graduation class. WARNING : There are a lot of pictures! Hehe..

All handpainted and here I am letting it dry on a piece of foil on my muffin pan.

In class 3, we were taught on how to pipe all kinds of flowers. We made flowers using royal icing which is an icing that has tons of meringue powder so that it sets to be hard. So here is my favourite among all the flowers...LILLIES! At first I made a mistake by piping five petals instead of six..I had made 12 until I realised they were all wrong.Then I had to do it all over again with six petals..phewwh..well all I can say, practice makes perfect!

We did the Wilton Rose again (in orange) and the ribbon rose (in bright pink). Both beautiful but using different techniques.

As promised my improved pansies made using gum paste.

These are my apple blossoms (left) and my primroses (right)

These are my lovely bright daffodils

I like making these I don't know why..perhaps because it's a sunny colour and I find the corn starch pinching of the petals a very fascinating technique.

 These are my violets...for these I would have preferred a darker purplish colour though ..still they're cute :)

Now this is the preparation of my Course Two final graduation cake.I baked a three layer chocolate cinnamon cake. This cake was a moist aromatic wonder and quite heavy after all that layering. In the background, you can see the meringue powder which to me is super expensive but also super useful especially in the making of buttercreams and icing. For those who don't know, meringue powder is basically powdered egg whites.

This was after crumb coating the three layers with buttercream

 Back in class for the final day of course two and we learned the reverse shell borders, rosettes and the basketweave

 Doing it on the practice board was one thing but doing the basketweave on the actual cake was another.It was time consuming and required some concentration indeed. Oh and did I mention, you need a LOT of buttercream!

 Then it was time to decorate the cakes with all the flowers we had made prior to coming to class. This was my creation. A symmetrical design.. Muahahha!

 This here was my neighbour Sabrina's creation with her cute fondant bees. The dark coloured basket was made by our instructor Angeline.

 These were my other classmates beautiful creations

 I think the one on the left belongs to Michelle and she made her basketweave with a different tip than the rest of us. Here Sally sempat lagi giving us the peace sign while finishing her masterpiece hehe

Mine again!

 Yeah mine was the big FAT one right in front.

 Fireworks and celebration!!!! I received my second cert in the Wilton Course from Angeline Stanley our instructor.

 A smiling class pic is a must! From the left and I hope I've got the spellings right..Fadia, Michelle, Sally, Sabrina, ME, Pee Lee, Angeline, Misako and the three other ladies I'm not so sure of their names as they just joined us for this course.

 You can't tell here but I was completely knackered but still proudly posing next to my cake.

 In the box and ready to go home.

 And then a quarter in the tummy...hehe..

 So there you go.. the journey for my course two had ended..:) I shall be continuing to Course 3 Fondant and Gumpaste in the Wilton Method of cake decorating series in May along with my perky and gung-ho classmates. We are looking forward to finishing this course together and as expected we became fast friends because of our common interest. Cake decorating...What a great way to make friends!

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!