My Finale Cake

I enjoyed myself in the final test (and passed) despite the fact that nothing really went as planned. I’m moving on to the more advance fondant and gum paste course next. 🙂

Below are some of my key learnings from this cake decorating journey so far–

Good strategy does not mean good execution – I spent significant time coming up with the design before going to the test. I was fairly pleased with my “strategy” but I did not put it to test. The design was way too ambitious and I could not complete it in the allocated time. 😦

Expect the unexpected – I cut my finger during the final test (probably by one of the icing tips). I was wondering why some of the icing was turning pinkish before I noticed the long cut on my second finger.  I had to bandage it as the bleeding would not stop – I could not pipe properly or as fast after that.

Having fun is the essence of everything – Kudos to my fab classmates and instructor. We had lots of fun throughout the course.

Quality vs. Aesthetic  – I finally understand better now why cakes with complex decorations may not taste as good.
– We cannot use fresh cream for the complex designs on cakes. We need a stiff medium that usually contains shortening and A LOT of sugar. These ingredients make the cream harder to melt but at the same time, excessively sweet.
– We cannot use soft sponge cakes as the base for decoration. They cannot hold the heavy cream well.  I bought cheap, heavy butter cakes to use for my decorating practices.

All these reasons explained why I fed all my cakes to the bin. 😛

BTW, Wilton is a great place to start if you are interested in cake decorating – I’m SO glad that I stumbled upon it.

Read Wilton Decorating Basics – The Corelation between Practice & Perfection
Read Wilton Decorating Basics #3
Read Wilton Decorating Basics #2
Read Wilton Decorating Basics #1