In this month’s column, I continue describing what cake decorating classes are like. This is the second course of six that Lani Sonan and Lori Tamashiro offer at Cake Creations Dessert Haven.
Lei making and airbrushing started off the first class of this Intermediate series. We got to work with a variety of airbrushes, from a cheap starter one ($100) to the $800 professional grade one that the cake gals use.
It was SO MUCH FUN. I had no idea airbrushing was that addictive. I thought it was easy, and it made coloring the cake easier. It almost makes me understand why people like tagging, though I must clarify that I cannot condone illegal graffiti.
LEI
We also learned how to make six different kinds of lei: plumeria, carnation (which to me looks like torch ginger), ilima (with maile and pikake), Micronesian ginger, orchid, rosebud. I was tired. That's a lot of flowers. We all got tired forearms. It gets tiring to keep squeezing the bag after a while.
OCEAN THEME
Ocean-themed cakes are one of the signature items of Cake Creations, so in this class, we learned to pipe, airbrush, and decorate that. We got cake cardboards to practice on. We iced that and then decorated it.
First, Lori gave a demo of how she does it. I felt like I was watching Bob Ross' PBS show, The Joy of Painting. When I see him do it, it all looks easy and possible. Then I try and it's like, what the heck? Hence, Lori talked while she decorated, making it look so easy.
She talked about how to sketch out the canvas, how to draw the big items in first and let the little things fall into place around it, and then how to pipe all the figures in. We got a quick intro to gumpaste molds to add texture. We saw how to airbrush it.
In my hands, the piping bag, paintbrush, and airbrush gun were unwieldy and clumsy. Still, it was interesting to try. If nothing else it gives you real appreciation for how difficult the craft really is!
BOILED ICING
Lori taught us how to make boiled icing, which tastes like marshmallow and is much trickier to make than the buttercream we've been using for weeks.
COOKIES
This is such a dangerous hobby for my wasitline. I spend way more time in bakeries now than ever before. I now find myself browsing in the bakery aisle, or going to different bakeries, to just look at other people's work. I go to bakeries and I buy treats to eat and analyze, to study the texture and see what I should strive for.
I see things differently now that my relationship to baking has changed from passive to dynamic. I'm a novice, I readily admit. But it sure keeps life fun and fresh to try new skills.
On my own, I practiced making sugar cookies and icing them. I bought more cookie cutters (in addition to my hand me downs from Mom), and played around one week.
I am so lucky my housemate has a sweet tooth. The most massive sweet tooth I've ever seen, actually. How he stays so thin is amazing.
Most of all, I loved giving Olivia her custom cookie. She was so happy with it. To see the smile on her face when I presented it to her was even better than the reward of a sugary snack!
ASIAN THEME
Asian-themed cakes, like for yakudoshi, are another one of Cake Creations' biggest sellers. Lori decided to teach us, step by step, how to make her design. It's something she's created over the years after getting repeated requests and then feedback about what people like. She included a lot of Japanese elements in this.
To make it, she taught us how to pipe bamboo and a flying crane. My crane definitely needs work. Then, we followed her step by step as she piped and airbrushed the quarter sheet cake.
Lastly, we got to work with a new frosting - whipped cream - to see what it's like to use that kind of product. We got to design our own five inch yellow cakes to take home. Most people did a variant of the Asian theme she just taught us, but I forgot that I'm a bit of a non-conformist, and I did Hello Kitty. Taking this class brings back memories of how I was in grade school.
Using an illustration of Hello Kitty, I freehanded the outline in the cake using a little paint brush, and then piped the frosting in. Then I flattened it out and scraped off half the frosting. Then I added the detail.
Um, I forgot to color my frosting before piping it. Reluctantly, I airbrushed part of it, which I found difficult because the air blast started blowing away my frosting (the nose and some letters) when I got too close. If I held the airbrush further away, then it sprayed too many other things on the cake.
OK, live and learn. But, I like the basic design. Extremely girly, but I like it.
DESIGNER’S CHOICE
This final class of the course let us put all our skills to the test by designing a cake in whatever way we wanted. The teachers gave us a quarter sheet of chocolate cake and let us do whatever we wanted to it. It was a good way to give us an idea of how long it really takes to just ice the cake. It took us all at least two and a half hours to finish.
We used Pastry Pride whipped creme to frost the cake, then most of us used buttercream to ice. Buttercream pipes out smoother. I chose to practice Olivia's birthday cake (yet another design possibility), while most of the students practiced what we learned the previous class on Asian themes.
Lori also taught us how to make 3D figures out of frosting. You use straw and/or cardboard as the foundation to give it shape, and just pipe icing on it till you get the desired shape. Here, Lori piped a dolphin jumping out of the cake.
This class concludes the lessons on working with icing. Next class we start working with fondant. I'm glad I learned this!
Olivia loved her cake. So did everyone else in the house, and some neighbors!
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