Last Saturday, I completed my Wilton Course 3 cake decorating class, which dealt mostly with ruffle and drop string piping, and using fondant to cover cakes and to sculpt. I have to say, I rather enjoyed this class much more than Courses 1 and 2. Why? Because I don't like buttercream. Icing is way too messy. Fondant is no sugarplum fairy either, but I'm very much a sculptor. I love to sculpt, and the fact that my creations are edible when made with fondant fill me with an overbearing sense of pride. Don't ask me why. This is what the final cake was supposed to look like:
I'm not too sure if you can see the picture that well, but you get the general idea. A ruffle and shell border, both cake layers covered in fondant, and fondant leaves and roses scattered throughout the cake. It's a pretty nice cake to work with for the final lesson of the course.
As I was making my fondant roses, I discovered that the Wilton method for sculpting them was absolutely tedious and barbaric. You have to cut about 5 shapes out of fondant with your flower cutters, and one by one use your flowerball shaper to mold them on a thin piece of foam, so the corners furl, then finish shaping them on a thicker piece of foam by forming the middle into a cup. What? Where dey do dat at? I decided to ditch the Wilton method and see if Youtube had a better way of making roses. I found exactly what I needed. I just tried to look up to video again to post a link, but I couldn't find it. The easier method was to roll fondant into tiny circles, flatten them, and attach them to the rose center. SO EASY. And this is how mine came out. Keep in mind these are only the rosebuds, not the full roses.
Once again, I'm too sure you can see it clearly, but you get there general idea. For the final cake we had to make 20 full sized roses, 11 medium roses, and 8 rosebuds. They recommended pink roses, but I think pink is an ugly color on this kind of flower. Yellow seems sophisticated. Plus, it's my favorite color. We also needed 20 something green leaves, and I achieved a really really pretty green by adding blue color to the remainder of my yellow fondant.
As you saw in the picture of the final cake, there needs to be two tiers. I was shopping at Whole Foods the day before my cake class so I decided to buy a box of all natural cake. It was called Naturally Nora's Cheerful Chocolate Cake. One thing to note when baking with this cake mix: follow the instructions on the box (the measurements for the milk/oil/whatever), but if you want to make your cake extra chocolaty, put about a half a cup of unsweetened cocoa powder into the batter. Yum. I particularly liked this cake mix and I think I'll use it again. Anyways, the two tiers. I forgot that I had bought TWO boxes of cake mix. I thought I only had one. So I halved the batter between my two pans. DON'T DO THAT. I don't know why I put equal amounts in both pans. It turned out so that my cake was top heavy and the poor plastic pillars I used to separate the tiers were trying sooo hard to stay up. Put 2/3 of the batter in the bigger pan, and the rest in the smaller pan. Makes it better. This is what both of my tiers covered in fondant, and set up with the pillars looked like.
Notice how the cake is lopsided? The pillars aren't supposed to be that tall. So a word to the wise, make sure your bottom tier is much bigger than your top tier. Alas, - There's a funeral procession coming out of my neighborhood right now. Never have I ever seen that!- despite my topsy turvy construction, I am very pleased with my final cake.
As you saw in the picture of the final cake, there needs to be two tiers. I was shopping at Whole Foods the day before my cake class so I decided to buy a box of all natural cake. It was called Naturally Nora's Cheerful Chocolate Cake. One thing to note when baking with this cake mix: follow the instructions on the box (the measurements for the milk/oil/whatever), but if you want to make your cake extra chocolaty, put about a half a cup of unsweetened cocoa powder into the batter. Yum. I particularly liked this cake mix and I think I'll use it again. Anyways, the two tiers. I forgot that I had bought TWO boxes of cake mix. I thought I only had one. So I halved the batter between my two pans. DON'T DO THAT. I don't know why I put equal amounts in both pans. It turned out so that my cake was top heavy and the poor plastic pillars I used to separate the tiers were trying sooo hard to stay up. Put 2/3 of the batter in the bigger pan, and the rest in the smaller pan. Makes it better. This is what both of my tiers covered in fondant, and set up with the pillars looked like.
Notice how the cake is lopsided? The pillars aren't supposed to be that tall. So a word to the wise, make sure your bottom tier is much bigger than your top tier. Alas, - There's a funeral procession coming out of my neighborhood right now. Never have I ever seen that!- despite my topsy turvy construction, I am very pleased with my final cake.
I'm afraid that's all I have for today. Til next time, be safe, drink water, and eat fruit.
WORD OF THE DAY: erudite - characterized by extensive reading or knowledge.
try using it in a sentence.
WORD OF THE DAY: erudite - characterized by extensive reading or knowledge.
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