Monday 23 July 2012

Wilton Decorating Course - Flowers and Cake Design

You may recall that I quite recently completed the Wilton Decorating Basics course at the Greensborough Cake Decorating Centre (whoah, that's a lot of links!). Well, the next logical step was to enrol in Wilton Flowers and Cake Design. As discussed previously, the Wilton way isn't the only way, or necessarily the best way, but I personally respond well to that sort of instruction.

This course was held over four weeks and, again, we built up our skills and ended with a pretty cake at the end. Because I'm lazy I will just post photos of the flowers we learnt (piping flowers in royal icing has always been something I wanted to know how to do), and a picture of the finished cake.

First up, we learnt to make these cute but crazily annoying button flowers out of gumpaste, using a mould. There's quite a good chance I won't use the mould again, and, that if I do, I will quite likely swear and throw it across the room at some point - the flowers have a propensity to stick (although you do eventually get the hang of poking them out of the mould without destroying the flower). But if someone really wanted these cute button-style flowers, well I guess I'd make them again... after a calming drink or two!*

Next was a pansy, again from gum paste. We were taught to use a balling tool for this one. I'm not a big fan of the pansy - I found it to be quite an ungainly flower - but perhaps that has more to do with my clumsy hands than anything else. It might look nicer a little smaller, too.

After that we learnt to make royal icing - you can read about it until the cows come home, but until you've actually seen it I think you'd pretty much just be lucky to get the consistency right. I've done it as per instructions three times before, and improved each time but still not had the desired result. But once I saw it demonstrated it was okay. The key is, it should defy gravity! But if you need to use your #1 tip then you should be thinning it down, otherwise you have no hope of pushing it through that tiny hole.

The next few flowers were variations on the same theme - apple blossoms,

primroses (don't ask me why it roatated the picture... also, I think my pink icing was a wee bit runny, and I should also mention that most of my flowers had a small accident on their way home so they're a bit smooshed),

daffodils (my favourites! Can't wait to make them with orange centres), and

violets.

We also learnt to make a Wilton rose
(the full seven outer petals)
(only five outer petals)

and an oriental lily (mine's a bit wonky, but that's because my brain is incapable of dividing an invisible circle into six even pieces. This is one I'd love to improve on!).

Lastly, we were taught reverse shells and ropes (ropes are used below, although not good ones!)
and basket weave, to make the final product upon which we stuck the flowers from earlier classes.

Again, I will show you how to make these at some point when I'm less lazy, but I reiterate that there is no substitute for a proper class. I strongly urge you to find one near you!

*the author in no way advocates the use of alcohol as a sedative or other mood-altering device to assist in the more frustrating steps of cake decorating. But advocating and casually suggesting are two quite different things, right??

18 comments:

  1. I think my favourite is the lily - looking forward to seeing more cake photos!

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    1. I love the lily's potential. Imagine a whole lot of them cascading down the side of some tropically-flavoured cake... now, all I have to do is learn to divide a circle into six even parts in my head!

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  2. I love the Lilly and the basket weave. I'm probably going to take the second course as well but not until the fall, the thought of baking in the heat of the summer didn't appeal to me. Flowers are tough I find although I think the worse thing invented was the "swag"

    Your cake looks beautiful.

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    1. Luckily it's winter here, otherwise I wouldn't have been quite so keen! I'm about to do the third course - fondant and flowers, I think it's called - and then I think I'll steer clear of courses and just bake stuff for a while to get some practice in.

      Is it sad that I consider it normal to pipe flowers in front of the TV on a Friday night? :)

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  3. Bravo! I am very impressed, these look great.

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  4. They look incredible! You must have amazing levels of patience to make those things in the first place.

    Important question: Do they taste as good as they look?

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    1. Yes. Yes they do. Okay, so they mainly taste like sugar, and have a hint of a meringue flavour about them (unsurprising, given that they are basically a variation on a meringue recipe!). But it's always fun to eat flowers :)

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  5. Beautiful florals! You must have a steady hand ;) They looks beautiful and so professional, well done :)

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    1. Thanks! I have a little secret, though - there is always an ugly side to a cake where you warm up and get your hand in, and in this case I covered it with flowers ;)

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  6. I've taken the beginner and fondant course...but not this one yet! You did a great job with your flowers and basket weave cake!!

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    1. Thanks Andrea :) I'm about to do the fondant course, and I'm a bit nervous because my only attempt at fondant was a roaring disaster! Wish me luck...

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  7. WOW! You are soooo talented! You did really great! Vanessa... I had to stop here after the super nice comment you left on my blog! Nice to meet you! I hope we can become really good friends! I left you a response on my blog too ... :)

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    1. Thanks Paloma, you too :) I love the idea of your coffee recipe round-up and might join in at some point in the next few weeks.

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  8. Hi Ness, this is my first visit to your blog! I am very impressed, I love what you've done on this post, the flowers look so good! I make the odd celebration cake on order and yours look as good as any I've made if not better! Am going to browse through your other do's!

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    1. Hi Lin, I just had a look at your celebration cakes and loved the pirate ship! The two doll cakes also reminded me - one of my cake decorating teachers told me she was running a class on how to do that, and one of the girls made their doll a goth princess. She said it was one of the most effective cakes she'd ever seen.

      Thanks for stopping by :)

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  9. These look fantastic! Thanks for stopping by my blog. I'm following you back from What's Cooking in the Burbs. Have a great weekend!

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