Introduction

Welcome to my blog on cake decorating. I have learned so much from all of the sources I have found. I chose this topic because I the show Ace of Cakes inspired me to learn more about it. I never knew how much fun it is to decorate cakes. I was able to be creative while having a good time. My favorite part of decorating the cakes was getting to eat it after I made it.
When you read my blog you will learn many tips for cake decorating. I mention how to make fondant and the origins of cake decorating. I hope you will enjoy it. I also hope my blog inspires you to want to decorate cakes. You will find that it is harder than it looks but so rewarding. I would also encourage anyone reading my blog to watch the show Ace of Cakes.

Artistic Response

I made and decorated a cake for my artistic response.

First, I iced the cake with buttermilk icing.

Then I rolled out the fondant I had made.

After that, I placed the fondant on the cake.

The final cake!!!

Creative Response

Fran the Fondant
Have you ever wondered how to make a cake? It really is more complicated than many people think, but it is also so much fun. My name is Fran, and I am fondant. Everyday my baker, Suzy, uses me on her famous cakes she bakes. It fascinates me how talented she is. I have the luxury of watching her every step while she makes them.
Today, Suzy made her famous chocolate cake for her daughter’s sixteenth birthday party. The very first thing she does to prepare for baking is she preheats the oven to 300 degrees. Then Suzy mixes flour, sugar, baking powder, and cocoa together. In a different bowl she whisks buttermilk, egg, and water together. After that Suzy then takes the flour mixture and creams it with the liquids. Once everything is blended together, she adds a tablespoon of vanilla to give it a little more flavor. Finally, she puts it in the oven to bake for twenty-five minutes. That gives her the perfect amount of time to make me.
I am also specially made just like the cakes that Suzy bakes. If I am not made perfectly then I can easily crack when covered over the cake. She starts off with melting sixteen ounces of marshmallows with two tablespoons of water in the microwave. I am then stirred and put back in the microwave for thirty seconds. Suzy repeats this step until I am completely melted and pliable. That step usually takes three minutes. Can you imagine having to be stirred and heated for three minutes until you are completely melted? It can get pretty intense.
Next, Suzy will sprinkle three-fourths cup of powdered sugar on me. She then greases her hands and kneads me like you would knead bread dough. This step is very long and sticky; she kneads me for at least eight minutes. This is also when she add food coloring to me. Today, she colored me pink because the cake is for her daughter’s sixteenth birthday. Then she lets me sit on the table wrapped in saran wrap for three hours. This is my least favorite part of the day because it is so boring, but I at least get to watch Suzy bake other cakes. While I am waiting, the cake finishes baking and is cooled.
Finally, after three hours I am ready to be put on the cake. Suzy rolls me out on wax paper so I am one-eighth inch thick. She ten ices the cake with one-fourth inch thick of buttermilk icing so that I will stick to it. I am then placed carefully on the chocolate cake. The next step is my favorite because Suzy uses piping and icing to decorate me. She turns boring cakes into masterpieces. She cut out hearts and flowers out of the leftover fondant and placed them on the sides of the cake. Suzy used black piping to line the edges of the cake; she also wrote Happy Sixteenth Birthday in fancy letter.
I absolutely love being fondant because of all the ways I can make people’s days by the way I am decorated. Although it can be time consuming and complicated, I love it.

Critical Review Source 8

   I found a very good website on that has great tips on icing a cake.  The title of the page is called “Cake Frosting 101”.  It also has many illustrated pictures that helped explain how to ice the cake.  The website recommended leveling the cakes top because “level cakes are much easier to ice than mounded ones”.  It also mentioned that “cold icing difficult to spread and pulls on the surface of the cake, so give the icing ample time to warm and soften”.  Many icing tricks were also suggested like using a fork to make designs in the icing.

This was probably the best website that I have found. The pictures really helped me because I am a visual learner.  I tried warming the icing, and to my surprise it really did work.  It was so much easier to spread.  I also leveled the cake that I made.  This website was very helpful and I will definitely use it again.                                      

 http://www.cooksillustrated.com/images/document/howto/MA00_IScakefrosting.pdf

Live Interaction

   I went over to my aunt’s house on Wednesday to interview her, and also so she could help me decorate a cake.  First she taught me tricks on how to make fondant.  We used food coloring to make the fondant different colors.  Then she guided me as I cut different shapes out of the fondant.  She suggested that I use a cookie cutter to cut circles out of the fondant.  That way the edges would be perfectly smooth.  Finally we laid the fondant icing on top of the cake and decorated it with the circles we had cut out.

            I really enjoyed decorating this cake with my aunt because we had a lot of fun.  I loved the tricks she showed me with using a cookie cutter.  At first I was getting pretty frustrated trying to cut the perfect circle that it never dawned on me to use a cookie cutter.  I don’t think I could have decorated it by myself for the first time because laying the fondant on the cake was more difficult than it seems.  It was such a great accomplishment to look at the final masterpiece that we had created.  My aunt had great knowledge and was very good at teaching me.  I am so thankful that she was willing to spend her time helping me.  

Interview

Interview with my Aunt Becky (a cake decorator)

 

1.     How long have you been cake decorating? 5 years

2.     Why did you decide to get into cake decorating? Well I have five boys and I thought it would be a fun activity for me to do for myself. 

3.     Where did you learn? Michael’s and my sister-in-law who is a professional cake decorator.

4.     Do you have a business? No, but I would if I had more time.

5.     What different occasions do you make cakes for? Birthdays, parties, graduations, reunions, and sometimes weddings.

6.     What was your favorite cake you decorated? A sleepover cake. I put twinkies on top of the cake and iced them.  Then I was able to decorate them and make them look like girls in sleeping bags.  It was very cute.

7.     What do you like most about it?  It is very fun, and I am able to be creative while making some money.

On Wednesday, April 29, 2009, I went over to my Aunt Becky’s house to interview her.  She has been decorating cakes for five years, and she mainly decorates for birthdays.  I asked her the reason that she wanted to start this hobby and she said that “I have five boys under the age of ten, so it was a way for me to have some time for myself without the boys interrupting”.  She went and took classes at Michael’s and also learned a few techniques from her sister-in-law who is a professional cake decorator. My Aunt Becky said that the reason she likes it so much is because she “is able to have fun and be creative while making some money.

            I consider myself lucky that my aunt is a cake decorator, and that I got to interview her.  I never knew the reason behind her getting into cake decorating, and now I completely understand that she needed some time for herself.  I also loved the techniques that she taught me.  I now know that fondant can be colorful, and it is easy to dye different colors.  I have been inspired to go take lessons at Michael’s. 

Critical Review Source 7

 

Summary:

The article “Cake Decorating Made Easy” is a very resourceful cite. It has many different fondant and icing recipes on it with very detailed steps to follow.  This webpage also was designed with many pictures for the steps. At the very bottom of the page was a blog where people who have tried the recipes could comment on their experience. Many people rated how hard the recipe was to make, and others commented on the taste.

Response:

            I enjoyed reading this article for many reasons. It gave many recipes for fondant. I tried the marshmallow fondant recipe earlier this week, and it was actually easier than it seems. That might be because the directions were so easy to follow. The statement “making fondant is a very precise process and with one variable not working it can be a disaster” scared me at first, but I followed the directions exactly and didn’t have any problems. Overall, I found this website helpful, and it definitely increased my knowledge of how precise and organized decorators have to be. I also like the blog because I could determine which recipe would be the easiest for a beginner like me.

“Cake Decorating Made Easy”. Wilton Industries. 9 April 2009.

Critical Review Source 6

Summary

            The title of this article is “A Short History of Cake Decorating”. It describes the art of the decorating and how it came to be so popular. In the mid-19^th century the French began to serve dessert as a separate course at the very end of the meal. The development of temperature-controlled ovens changed everything for cake decorating because of the easier and more convenient way of baking. In the early twentieth century Wilton Industries began promoting baking and decorating products and even offered decorating classes.

 

Response

            I enjoyed reading the article about how cake decorating became popular. I liked the fact that the “French began to serve the dessert as a completely separate sweet course” because French pastries are my favorite treats. I also thought that is was very interesting that there were cake decorating classes in the 1920s. I thought it was a new trend.

 

 

"A Short History of cake decorating". Mommies Magazine 2008 9 Apr 2009. .

Critical Review Source 5

            There are many resourceful videos on youtube such as the one with Liv Hansen, the author for Betty Crocker Kitchen, instructing how to decorate cakes and cupcakes. She starts out the video by introducing the types of tools to use and how to use them before decorating the cake. Ms. Hansen then demonstrates the easiest and best ways to handle icing the cupcakes.

 

            I liked this source because the lady was very resourceful and helpful. She also was a very good teacher.  Her steps for piping were easy to follow, and I have enjoyed using her techniques.  I liked how she was calm but had fun while decorating.  The best tip I got from this was to concentrate while working. If you only halfway are working then it will show in the cake. I also liked how she decorated cupcakes instead of sheet cakes.  I have never thought of decorating cupcakes like you would a sheet cake.

Critical Review Source 4

I found a great website that gives tips on how to decorate cakes using fondant. It showed step-by-step techniques for decorating not only cakes but cupcakes, odd shaped cakes, and cookies as well. This site also gave coloring advice for the fondant. This is a resourceful site because it is a Wilton Industries site. This company is experts in cake decorating.

I really like the website that I found on cake decorating. My favorite part was how easy it was to navigate. It also had ideas for different decorations for many different occasions. This website also offers online tutoring for decorating cakes as well as an online shop. I liked this because I could easily ask questions and get answers when I was confused with how to ice a cake.

 

 

http://www.wilton.com/classes/

Critical Review Source 3

“Ace of Cakes” is a television show on the food network. In the show are a group of friends who work together decorating cakes. They are not your typical cake decorators though; the friends are very creative and make one-of-a-kind cakes. During one particular show they made a wedding cake replicated the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. Birthday cakes and special occasions are the themes of most of the cakes they make. The experts often use PCB pipes for unique designs.

I absolutely love to watch this show because of how creative the decorators are.  I have learned many techniques and tips from the show as well. One tip I learned was that if you use fondant on the cake then make sure the room temperature is below 75 degrees. If not then the fondant will crack making it difficult use which is very time consuming.  I have also learned that I need to have fun when decorating instead of getting stressed out because stressing will only make matters worse.

 

Critical Review Source 2

“The Wedding Cake… History, Customs, and Traditions” has good information on the cake that is dated back as far as the Roman Empire. It gives details to early traditions that led to the practice of new ones. Wedding cakes started to become popular during the 19^th century. There is also symbolism to wedding cakes being white representing purity. Previous to the symbolism white cakes were commonly used because ingredients to make the icing for the cake were hard to acquire. The traditional cutting of the cake is also symbolic to the bride and groom joining as husband and wife. Finally. The multi-tiered cakes originated from the English royalty for appearance purposes only, but today they are more commonly used.

I really liked this article because of how informational it was. It did a great job of showing how traditions and customs come about and how they relate to each other. I learned from this article the reason for some of these traditions. The article states “after the cake cutting ceremony, the couple proceed to feed one another from the first slice, this provides another lovely piece of symbolism, the mutual commitment of bride and groom to provide for one another”. I always thought that the couple did that for fun.

"The Wedding Cake... History, Customs, and Traditions." Hudson Valley Weddings 26.http://www.hudsonvalleyweddings.com/guide/cakehistory.htm.

Critical Review Source 1

Elaine Macgregor wrote Wedding Cakes: 25 Original Cake Designs. She began this book with an introduction to the importance of cakes in various cultures. The decorating of the cake has become a crucial tradition in weddings as well as many other events. There are many instructions for different ways to be creative while decorating. Along with the instructions were recipes for baking delicious cakes.

I found this book very helpful because of how easy it was to follow the instructions of new decorating techniques. One tip that has really helped me from this book is that “a characteristic of good cake design is as much in what is left off as in what is put on” (Macgregor 6). The author also did a great job of explaining herself with pictures and descriptive captions. This book has been very helpful for me because it was very informative about the history of cake decorating, and it gave me many helpful tips that have really improved my skills.

Macgregor, Elaine. Wedding Cakes: 25 Original Cake Designs. London: Merehurst Limited, 1995.