Final Project

For my final project in ECMP 355 I chose to take part in a learning project.  I have always loved watching cake decorating shows on TLC and thought I would enjoy learning how to decorate cakes myself.  Lets just say after taking part in this I am much more appreciative of cake decorator’s work on those shows.  It isn’t as easy as they make it look!

When it comes to baking I am no rookie.  I have always been known for my chocolate chip cookies, cheese cakes, and trifles.  I never did ice cakes or decorate them much though, instead I would make death by chocolate or a trifle in bowls and this required no decorating.

I began my learning project with the intent to learn more about decorating cakes with fondant icing.  I was given a recipe to make fondant from scratch but thought for my first cake that it might be best if I bought some from Bulk Barn.  I began watching videos on how to apply fondant to cakes.  I discovered I needed to first ice my cake with butter cream icing and then apply the fondant.  My first cake turned out better than my second.  For my second cake I wanted to make a square base and stack a round cake on top.  I never got this far because after I butter creamed the cakes and applied the fondant they looked awful!  They were really lumpy.  After turning to online sources I discovered that a crumb layer of butter cream was applied first, cooled and then a second smoothing layer was applied.  Also I watched various videos on how to create cakes that were stacked.  I had no idea how much more work this was.  Every cake layer needed to be stabilized with wooden poles and they also needed something underneath them.  I was far from being ready for this stage.

A few more cakes didn’t turn out as I wanted so I began to get frustrated.  My Aunt gave me some icing decorating tips to use and several pans when she heard I was learning how to decorate cakes.  I began learning about using different decorating tips and took decorating my cakes down a different pathway.  I really enjoyed using decorating tips over fondant icing, I found my cakes looked better and tasted better too!  If I hadn’t of tried using decorating tips I probably would have ended my cake decorating career but now I actually want to continue learning and decorating cakes this way.  Check out my progress throughout semester and the various online sources that helped through my learning project.

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