Cakes and Flowers

Hello again,
I took four more cake lessons this month. The second course is all about making flowers. I learned how to make rosettes, daisies, primroses, pansies, rosebuds, apple blossoms, crysanthemums, daffodils, and little african violets. We also reviewed the shell border and learned how to make the rope border. The basketweave was something we learned on the last night. I am happy to know how to do that. It makes a cake look so nice. I cannot say that I am the best at any of these yet, but I am getting better. I am now a pretty good rose maker, though. I learned that in my first course, and I have been practicing a lot. It doesn't take me forever to do one anymore. I figured out one trick that is helping cut down on the frustration and time. The trick involves the first part of the rose, the base. I can just put icing on there and shape it with my hands, rather than use one type of tip to make that and then use another tip for the petals. The next course is all about fondant and tiered cakes. I have heard that fondant is not really tasty, but that is what is used in most professional cake places. The fourth course is about fondant and gum paste. Well, maybe it is the gum paste that tastes bad. I'm not really sure. We learned how to make Royal Icing, which is made of meringue powder, water, and powdered sugar. There is something with the meringue powder that makes the icing harden, like candy. If you have ever bought 'candy' letters or shapes at the grocery store to put on a cake, you were buying this type of icing. The teacher said that you can keep these creations for ten years and keep using them! Wow. They are not very tasty, though. Then, we learned how to make icing called 'color flow'. This icing is made with a powder called color flow. You thin it out real watery, and pour it into a picture that you have made. You use this color flow to trace the outline of any picture you want, onto a piece of wax paper. This border dries. Once the outline is dry, you fill in the picture with the runny color flow. Once this dries, you take it off the wax paper and put it on your cake. My bluebirds cracked, but I got one to put on my 'finale' cake! I made lots of flowers, although my icing was so runny that they flowers are all lopsided :)



I am going to start practing my little flowers, with regular icing, and then maybe I will be able to post some decent looking pictures. I am posting my little cake, even though it is not in the best of shape. I had fun doing it, though, and that is what counts!