Decorating Course.... Part 1

I know I know, I just did a post on a decorating course. But as I mentioned in the earlier post, this new course is a much more professional course, and after just one session, I'm in love with it. I learnt quite a lot, and was even excited enough to come home and practice what I'd learnt the next day :D

I learnt how to bake a rich fruit cake, and the basics of how to pipe with Royal Icing. Below is a detailed account of the session, do read on :

The guys who I'm learning from, and all the other students and Catholics. For some reason, I don't know if this is something that happens only here in India, but they lovvve the rich fruit cake. Every occasion warrants a few of those cakes. So ofcourse, they taught us that, and I can now bake one perfectly, even though it's not something I'm used to.




They then taught us how to make Royal Icing, with real egg whites. Moving onto the piping, the part I was really looking forward to. :D
The first session only involved the basics, such as dots, lines, drop strings, cornelli etc. In the picture above, is the first line I ever made, and I was quite pleased that I did so well in my first attempt. However, I had major problems getting it to work later [not pictured :P]



That's me trying to do the cornelli and trellis work. For piping, they gave us each a few decorating tips, and a reallly painful syringe type icing gun that people used manyyy years ago. They said they prefer using that, but after just one hour of using that, I gave up, as you can see above. I was just getting the basic method done, promising to practice at home. I still have a sore thumb - from all the pressing on the gun - today, 2 days later!



That's why, when practicing at home, I used the usual disposable plastic decorating bag. Worked like a charm :)



I haven't got about to buying a turntable yet, so this is the setup I created. Funny, but it works :P




Doing the drop strings - I haven't perfected it yet, but it's surprisingly easy. I didn't bother with marking and measuring, I just made them as I felt like :P



WARNING : Do not try to re-use a tip that has dried up royal icing in it!!!
I wanted to switch back to tip #1 for completing the trellis work on the outer circle, but in the 20 minutes or so that I was using tip #3, the left over RI in the tip dried up. The bag burst all over me, when I thought just squeezing harder would push it all out, and I could use it :P [Yeah, I don't think too practiacally]





That's the extent of my patience, and sitting in one place do something of the sort. After the bag burst, I was just too frustrated to continue. I justified with saying that I learnt how to do lines, I could always do the rest some other time [As you probably understood by now, I'm super lazy]

Though ofcourse, you can clearly see in the picture, I haven't really learnt how to do the trellis work. I don't like the tip #3 at alll!!! :(

I should improve soon enough, and atleast be able to make straight lines. HOPEFULLY!!

I WILL CONQUER OVER YOU, ROYAL ICING!!!!



More on this course - Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11