After practicing our
piping skills [read the last blogpost about it :) ] we had to decorate a piece
of cake .. This was a Victorian Sponge Cake that we prepared in the last
practical.
We had to crumb coat it or 'dirty ice' it as they say to avoid the crumbs mixing into our final coating of icing. We crumb coated it by using the same buttercream icing but by just adding a lil bit of milk to make it a lil runny so that it's thin when applied on the cake as crumb coating is a very, very, VERY thin layer.
After we waited a while, we applied the final coating of icing. I must say, this took the longest to apply as it had to be SMOOTH! In order to achieve the smoothness, you have to make sure your palette knife is constantly HOT.
In order to do this, keep your knife standing in a bucket of boiling water & wipe before using it to smooth the icing down. After every 'smoothing it down' motion you MUST return to your knife to the bucket of hot water. I didn't return it to the bucket a lot at first, I would do 2 or 3 'smoothing it down' motions before returning it and this action made the icing stick to my palette knife and a piece of the cake actually stuck to my palette knife too as I lifted the knife off the cake. Immediately I had crumbs in my icing which was wrong, therefore it's VERY important to constantly keep dipping your knife in boiling hot water. As Chef Julia says, remember the knife must be hot, NOT wet!
After that mission came the fun part - PIPING! I used a middle size star nozzle. I piped a border on the bottom of the cake and up the corners. I piped round circular flowers that looked a bit like roses on the top of the cake. & a bit of small star looking flowers around the middle of the cake.
Ya that's it from me. More cake decorating going to be done next week! Enjoy the pics & leave your comments!
We had to crumb coat it or 'dirty ice' it as they say to avoid the crumbs mixing into our final coating of icing. We crumb coated it by using the same buttercream icing but by just adding a lil bit of milk to make it a lil runny so that it's thin when applied on the cake as crumb coating is a very, very, VERY thin layer.
After we waited a while, we applied the final coating of icing. I must say, this took the longest to apply as it had to be SMOOTH! In order to achieve the smoothness, you have to make sure your palette knife is constantly HOT.
In order to do this, keep your knife standing in a bucket of boiling water & wipe before using it to smooth the icing down. After every 'smoothing it down' motion you MUST return to your knife to the bucket of hot water. I didn't return it to the bucket a lot at first, I would do 2 or 3 'smoothing it down' motions before returning it and this action made the icing stick to my palette knife and a piece of the cake actually stuck to my palette knife too as I lifted the knife off the cake. Immediately I had crumbs in my icing which was wrong, therefore it's VERY important to constantly keep dipping your knife in boiling hot water. As Chef Julia says, remember the knife must be hot, NOT wet!
After that mission came the fun part - PIPING! I used a middle size star nozzle. I piped a border on the bottom of the cake and up the corners. I piped round circular flowers that looked a bit like roses on the top of the cake. & a bit of small star looking flowers around the middle of the cake.
Ya that's it from me. More cake decorating going to be done next week! Enjoy the pics & leave your comments!
Until next time, keep your life frosted! <3
No comments:
Post a Comment