Decorating course... Part 4

So last Sunday was the end of the basic course as they call it. It was a kind of test, to assess how much we had learnt in the past 3 weeks. We had to bake a cake, make fondant and marzipan, and any flowers we wanted to use, from home! All assembling an piping had to be done in class.

For the cake, we had to use one of 2 recipes they had given. I used one for a basic vanilla cashew cake, that I divided into chocolate and vanilla. It tasted real good, and it was a little less sweet to make up for the super-sweet fondant, which I absolutely hated when I tried it. But surprisingly, it didnt taste so bad with the cake. It tasted pretty good, in fact!!!!! Can you believe it? I'm still shocked!!





I made the marzipan and fondant at in the week before the class, and it was pretty easy. Ofcourse, the rains were a big problem while making fondant, but a little extra sugar made it perfectt!!

For flowers, I made roses, leaves, and drop flowers. The roses were intended to be blood red, but they came out pink :( Since this was the first time I was actually dealing with colors, I didn't let this bother me too much. As long as the technique was right, I was happy. The leaves were also a bit too pastel green, but I didn't have the right colors!! And the drop flowers, well they were a nice mauve-ish color, but somehow, over a few days, their color got completely ruined, and I ended up not using them. I was pretty disappointed.



But in class, they totally cheered me up, and I started to cover the cake with marzipan and fondant. I apologise for not having any in-process pictures, but my camera was with my parents, who went out of town for a business meeting. However, they got me a lot of awesome stuff to compensate for it, that's coming up later!!

I began with piping after that, and they made the most amazing looking red icing ever. I think I've done a pretty good job with it, even better than the little part one of the instructors [who isn't too good with piping] did. The piping on the bottom was done by him, and the one towards the top of the cake was done by me, as you can see -



They had mentioned they would teach us filigree and lace work after the decorating was done, and told us to leave place for it on our cakes, if we wanted to. Going with the shape of the cake, I chose a filigree heart, that I think looks rather pretty!! What do you think?



So that was my cake. I had a number of problems with it, and by the time I got my camera back, a few of those things on the sides had broken off. Not everything was exactly as I wanted it, some of the instructors input was opposing my idea. But still, it was my first fondant cake, and second decorated cake ever, so I'm realllly pleased :D :D



And here's the haul which my parents got, for which I was glad to give my camera!! I know it may not seem like much, but we don't get much stuff here in India, so I was ecstatic. I was happier seeing these, than the clothes they bought for me :O :O :O There's a lot of other stuff, like chocolates, and loads and loads of brown sugar, that is still to come to me, since they were carrying more than the allowed weight. :D :D

Mom also bought fresh blueberries, something that I hadn't ever tasted before, in my entire life. I ate a few, and made muffins with the rest, which were soooo good! I'm craving more blueberries right now!!



And also, a few weeks ago, my cousin sister went to France, and bought chocolates, and this stuff for baking, though I only asked her to get sprinkles. Isn't she the sweetest?



Also, could anyone who can read French pleasee tell me what this says? Mom told me it was some pudding thing, but I need to know exactly - Thanks!!



So what do you say? Don't I have the bestesttt family EVER?? :D [Can you tell that I'm super-excited? :P]

Read more on this course - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11