Wilton Cake Decorating Course – Final Week

I had the final class of my Wilton Cake Decorating course on Monday night, not sure what I’ll do with myself now it’s all finished! We spent the first half of the class learning how to pipe writing and ribbon roses. Piping writing is still tricky, it’s hard to keep it looking neat but it really helps if you have a thin consistency of buttercream to work with. I found that my buttercream wasn’t thin enough, so midway through a letter, the buttercream would break off, so some of my words ended up a bit lumpy when I tried to join them back together.

The ribbon roses looked simple to make when Carrie, our instructor, showed us the first time. Turns out, they aren’t as simple as they looked! The buttercream needs to be a stiff consistency for the roses to hold their shape and look good, I found that even though my buttercream was a good consistency, the top edges of the roses tended to break a little, but I think it made them look a little more authentic, rather than having a really straight-edged rose. The ribbon roses are very pretty but you can’t pipe them directly onto a cake/cupcake as you have to turn the rose whilst you pipe, so they just need to dry out and harden before they can be picked up.

To mark the end of the course, we had to design our final pieces – either a cake or cupcakes using the decorating techniques we have learnt throughout the four weeks. I decided on baking a cake for my twin cousins’ 13th birthdays – the cake itself is a two-layer lemon sponge, filled with lemon curd and buttercream. The cake is covered in a layer of white vanilla buttercream – one of the best cake coverings I’ve done I think! For once, I didn’t get curved sides on the cake because I didn’t put too much buttercream on the cake. There were a few visible crumbs but overall, it looks smooth enough to pass.

I made the drop flowers before the class and kept them in the fridge so they would set enough for me to pick them up. It was a good idea at the time, although I didn’t account for how warm the car was when I was driving to class; I had to blast the air con to make sure the flowers didn’t fall to pieces on the way. You can pipe drop flowers directly onto cakes/cupcakes but I didn’t want to risk it, in case I piped it wrong – can’t really recover from a white background! I secured the flowers with a blob of buttercream and added the leaves. Had a go at the piped writing which looks okay, a little wobbly and uneven but at least it’s legible! I finished the cake off with a dotted border and a sprinkle of glitter. I think the girls were quite pleased with their cake…. hopefully it tastes good too!