So in this 2nd lesson, I went to the class hands-full! Carrying a 8″ buttercake, tubs of buttercream, piping tips and all the necessary cake decorating tools.

You will learn about Star Tip Decorating, Curving line, Tight Zigzag, writing and also begin on piping rose. It’s normal that the rose look like cabbage instead

After all the practising on the practise board, it’s time to work on the famous Wilton Rainbow Cake! We’re showed how to do pattern transfer onto the cake, and also using what we have learnt earlier on the cake.

I seriously believe the amount of buttercream I’ve prepared for the lesson has supersede what I’ve done since I start baking! By the end of the whole course, I’ve used a good 0.75kg of shortening, not forgetting I’ve substitute half of the shortening amount with butter!

The scary part is about washing up the tips, they are so greasy! The trick to wash them is to  add detergent to the bowl (with tips) and pour in hot water to soak for 10 mins. Do wipe away the buttercream as much as you can with kitchen towel before soaking.

Nothing much for the 1st lesson except on how to

• Prepare buttercream icing
• Prepare a piping bag using a parchment triangle
• Use the coupler on a piping bag, how to prepare the piping bag
• Torte the cake
• Fill a cake
• Iced the cake
• Icing consistency
• Holding the bag
• Pressure control on the piping bag

You will go home with “homework” now. You’ve to prepare a 8″ buttercake (not any smaller), iced it and bring back to school for Lesson 2. The nightmare of sifting icing sugar begins with the need to prepare different batches of buttercream in different consistency and color for the famous rainbow cake!

I have been wanting to take some proper lesson on cake decorating so just when I thought work is not busy I went on to sign on for one. Things took a turn when work went crazy with me knocking off work at 2am, 10pm, leaving me practically with no time to “enjoy” my lessons. No time to practise and I had to prepare my buttercream like 5 days ahead and leave it in the fridge, no time to bake the cake despite buying the 8″ cake tin and Wilton bake-even strips.

The reason for me writing this 5 part entry is I find little information on what to expect of the class. I hope this will give those who will like to attend a better idea. In addition, I will not name where I took the class from so please don’t leave comment here asking,  simply because I’m not given any commission … er .. no .. that’s not the reason but it’s subjective to each and individual if the course benefit one. And do not expect much pictures cos I was busy listening and watching!

You will be given one set of student kit that includes these :

• Course 1 Book
• 2 x 10-inch featherweight bags
• 1 x disposable piping bag
• 2 x Standard couplers
• #7 flower nail
• Tips Round #3 & #12, Star #16 & #21, Rose #104, Drop Flower 2D and Leaf 67
• Practice board set
• Small straight spatula
• Tip brush
• Decorator brush

But … that’s not enough! Despite I thought I’m quite well equipped with baking tools, I end up spending another bomb buying more tools. These are what you need (not exactly what I buy thou)

• Turntable! Yes … you need a turntable to frost the cake. IKEA’s lazy susan is the best deal so far thou I will very much prefer a higher one, easier to work on.
• Angled Spatula – easier to frost the cake
• More piping bags for many many buttercreams you need to prepare
• Wilton Cake Leveler – you want a nicely cut, even cake layer right?
• Wilton bake-even strips – you want a perfectly bake level cake so that your cake can be nicely frost.
• Many colors – Try to get the Wilton Icing Set which is the best deal since you won’t be adding tsp of colorings to your buttercream. Just a tiny bit will do.
• Wilton Flower Lifter – you use this to lift your rose up before putting on the cake
• Extra piping tips especially Star #16 as in the Rainbow cake, you have 4 colors to work with and you won’t want to get yourself busy changing and washing tips.
• Parchment/Greaseproof Paper – for cutting 4cm x 4cm square to pipe rose, to trace your rainbow.
• Wilton Small Derby Clown Topper – you will learn how to pipe a clown in the 3rd lesson.

Ingredients?

• Shortening – Loads of shortening
• Butter
• Icing Sugar – Bags of icing sugar which I approximately use 3kgs of icing sugar.
• Piping jelly
• Meringue Powder
• Flavourings – to flavour your buttercream
• 8″ buttercake x 3

This is another set of 24 cupcakes order I took back to back with the earlier one.  I didn’t have time to take a picture of the whole set cos I only do the photoshoot in the morning, minutes before I rush out to work.

Upon checking with the customer, she don’t have a particular theme in mind but request for ships to be included cos her kid like it. And I also ask her color theme for the house which is blue!

It have been a crazy week and more to come too! I had 2 cupcakes order this week and the 2nd one left me with less than 24 hours to prepare, these are the times which I wish the body won’t feel tired and keep going on! There are just too many to-dos and planning on the plate. I happily went on to register for a baking class sometime back, didn’t expecting a busy work month in the office. I hope I will find some time to write more about the class I attend as I find very little information available on the web. And there is a work trip end of the month so lots of preparation work too. Well, I guess it’s good to be busy

The customer is really nice, she leave the design to me just that it should not be too girly and heart shape around.

Happy Birthday to Nic!