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I recently took a cake decorating class at The Cake Works, a cake and wedding supply store in Campbell, CA. I obviously know how to bake but have wanted to perfect my ability to make the things I bake pretty. That and I bought a pastry bag and three tips over two years ago and they have sat neglected at the back of my pantry since coming home with me. So off to class I finally went. For four nights I would enter the store wearing clean clothes only to leave two hours later covered in buttercream. But it was well worth the mess! Now I have my own toolbox arsenal of pastry bags, tips and frosting dye as well as the know-how to actually use them.

This was our final for the class. My mom made and frosted the cake and I decorated it. Isn't the grass cool?!

The best part about the class was that since we had to bring our own frosting to class to practice with, this was the perfect opportunity for me to try out some buttercream recipes. They provided a recipe for practice frosting (see recipe at bottom) that called for high-ratio shortening, which is similar to all-purpose shortening but has emulsifiers added to it to create lighter products like icing. While the taste isn’t the best the consistency is great to use when practicing decorating with tips for the first time. The second buttercream I made was Martha’s Basic Buttercream. Super simple recipe and while at first I wasn’t sure if I liked the flavor it definitely grew on me. The texture is so smooth and creamy and it sets up nicely. One tip: it’s easier to use this buttercream to frost the cake instead of using it to decorate.
 
The final buttercream recipe I decided to try was the Silky Vanilla Buttercream from Cindy Mushet’s “The Art and Soul of Baking”. This was a tough one for me! My first attempt failed horribly. Since the base of the recipe is a meringue, you are heating the sugar and egg whites over boiling water until they reach 160 degrees. While I was following the instructions regarding taking the temperature of the mixture, the recipe gives no time estimates for how long it will take for it to reach the desired temperature and I like time estimates. It helps me gauge things especially in a recipe that I’ve never tried before. Well, I way overheated the first batch of frosting because it was whipped up by the time I got it to the mixer. Attempt number two went much more smoothly. I got the mixture to the right temperature and into the mixer where it whipped up nicely. I might have been a little over-eager about the timing of adding the butter (again with the no time estimates) because I think the mixture was still a little too warm but it still came together in the end.

And after all of that standing over boiling water and whisking by hand and nervousness about the buttercream being broken, I’m not sure I liked this one all that much. There was a little too much butter flavor for me however the consistency and texture was great. The recipe called for one pound of butter so I might try only using three or three and a half sticks next time.

Now I will dazzle you with my amazing cake decorating skills. Duff, here I come!

I thought the ruffles that tip #35 made were pretty

I need to practice a little more making roses

Practice Icing

1 lb. powdered sugar
1 c. high ratio shortening
¼ c. water
Flavor to taste (I used 1 tbls. of vanilla)

Mix all ingredients together for 10 minutes. No refrigeration is required. Super simple.