How shall I put it?

I baked a cake and some cupcakes for my mum’s birthday this year.  I baked her cake and cupcakes 2 days before i fell sick. Planned to decorate it on the same day i was to bring the cake to her birthday dinner. My dear hubby assisted me in decorating the cake and cupcakes too! He saw that i was going to faint while doing the deco.

Here is it : My first attempt on my own…. A Super Moist Chocolate Walnut Cake/cupcakes, topped with Chocolate Frosting.

I have never in my 30 plus years ever saw ‘twin’ egg yolks. Best thing was, every single one were the same!!!!

Did a heart shaped small cake, iced the cake with yummy Van Houten chocolate melts.Had to leave the frosted cake over night before actual decoration.

Decorated all these within an hour… not exactly how i wanted it to look but i would say it’s not bad…

Those tiny coloured hearts were done by Ed.

Mom was happy (i think..), brother loved the cupcakes, i pushed the icing aside before taking a bite though…LOL, it was super sweet!

All in all, with some fever, sore throat and cough - I DID IT!!!! Now let’s see what other design should i make…probably a ‘Sheep’…. (baaaa…)

I have never really liked cupcakes or cakes with too much icing from young… but Meng Choo’s cupcakes made me feel otherwise… Infact, she got me so interested in learning cupcake decoration! (well, she did not actually persuaded me or anything like that but her pictures got me wanting to learn!!!!)

Thanks to the world of internet, i finally found the place that teaches. It’s exactly where she got her certs and all!!!

Thru some research and fact finding, i found that she doesn’t only use icing for her decoration but mostly fondant and gum paste. Check out the pictures and you will see why!!!

So, I enrolled myself into ICCA (International Centre of Cake Artistry Sdn Bhd) at Seksyen 14, PJ. To be eligible for the Fondant and Gum paste decoration class, i am required to do the Wilton’s Cake Decorating Course 1. No choice but to endure the decorating class first! It was fun and i can’t believe I could decorate!! (well, not a great decorator but of course, given LOADS of practice, am sure i can deliver a professional looking cake.)

Here are my beginner’s work throughout the 4 weeks of decorating class.

First requirement, need to know how to bake buttercake! My first attempt and see the sunken middle and the dome? It was undercooked!!! Had to bake for another 20mins for it to form. Panicked like hell till Peter saved it for me… Pete said “doesn’t matter how it looks as you will be covering it with icing anyway!” True true… *phew* Thank goodness for the icing!!! LOL

Next comes the 1st ‘masterpiece’ - The Rainbow cake. We made this on our week 2 with the iced/frosted cake I made. We had to decorate this entire cake within an hour!!!! Ta-dahhhh….

Week3 was more design methods and the most difficult is the Wilton’s Rose petals. We had 2 weeks to prepare 8 roses for our graduation on the last week. After much complaining and getting annoyed with petals not turning out the way it should be, i almost got it! My god sisters were giving me loads of encouragement by saying “yours looks so much better than the book! At least yours looked real.” ed was just commenting that I just had to be perfect as i am “Ms Perfectionist!” Bugger…. My fingers/wrist and arms got so sore after the 5 hours of piping out the petals.

The ‘Wilton’s petals’ :

I piped the clown’s body with icing! Now i can tell you the trick to doing the clowns on cakes!

Now, my final product! The graduation cake with Wilton’s Roses. The amazing thing was, when i took the roses to class, i was nervous to take it out as i thought my fellow classmates faired better than me in piping. But to my amazement, mine look the best!!! Sigh, and i was so worried about my roses for a week!!!

My Masterpiece - The Graduation Cake. I added the extra silver balls to enhance the cake design and it really helped with the overall look.

This is what i was supposed to achieve. The Wilton’s Rose cake, the true masterpiece.

Coming next: My first personal design of a heart shaped cake with heart cupcakes!