The highlight of this week’s lesson was decorating a dummy cake, but we began by practicing how to cover a cake with royal icing and pipe several types of flowers.
You can finish a cake with royal icing, ganache, or buttercream; for this session we used royal icing. I hadn’t previously learned the proper technique for icing with royal icing to achieve a smooth finish. My usual method is to apply a thin layer of buttercream to set fondant, so working with royal icing was a new experience. I forgot to photograph my iced dummy cake, though it looked smooth and neat — I was pleased with the result.
Piping flowers was enjoyable to practice. The instructor made it look effortless, but when I started piping myself I realized it takes more control than it appears. I managed to create several pretty flowers. Eventually I relaxed my expectations and began making more whimsical, “fantasy” flowers instead of trying to replicate exact real-life blooms. That approach suited me well and produced some charming results.
The best part of the day was decorating the dummy cake. We applied the piping techniques we’d been learning over the past weeks. I covered my dummy with a pastry-pink fondant and then piped details in royal icing. It went well, and I’m really happy with the final look.
Next week we’ll test these techniques on a real cake. I’m already looking forward to it!