In the past month, I have attended two baking classes - both of which I received as birthday presents (lucky me!) - which have taught me new skills and provided me with new decorating ideas!
Let’s start with the first: Cupcake Decorating at Pip’s Cooking School, Moonee Ponds, Melbourne. This course introduced new cupcake flavours and various decorating techniques. As fondant is familiar to me, I decided to use this opportunity to practise my piping techniques. Piping has never been my forte and I was pleased to learn about the use and results of different tips and how to create flowers and leaves, and patterns. We were thrilled to leave with half a dozen cupcakes to indulge in!
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| Chocolate Cupcake with Piped Chocolate Icing |
Next class was at Planet Cake in Balmain, Sydney. I was both nervous and excited about this class as the end products are usually of high quality and I feared mine would not meet this expectation. After introductions, our teacher, Jessica, who is an expert cake decorator, guided us in making a Hot Air Balloon cake - Novelty 101.
We rolled out blue fondant to cover our boards and added a white cloud. Our chocolate cakes had already been baked and cooled and our next step was to sculpt them into shape using cardboard templates. The excess cake would be added to the other side to complete the shape of the balloon and scraps would be placed on the top (glued with ganache) to give the balloon height. After shaping, we ganached our cakes and let them set. We then smoothed out any ridges (using a hot knife) so that the fondant would be placed on a smooth surface. Time to cover our cakes! We rolled out fondant (in our preferred colours - I chose a dark purple) and added stripes (in lilac) along the balloon as well as patches of colour at the top and bottom. The basket was styrofoam covered in complementing stripes and teddy was moulded and carefully placed in his basket. We then added coloured wire to attach the basket to the balloon and piped decorations. We were all impressed by the results!
Jess provided us with tips such as removing ganache from fondant (brushing a small amount of water and wiping away with a tissue) and removing corn flour from fondant (brushing with rose spirit). Overall, the class was a success and I walked away more confident about cake decorating!
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| Hot Air Balloon |
And then the panic set in. The cake had been placed in a 40x40cm box. How on earth would I get it home to Melbourne? After much deliberation, my partner and I decided to purchase a couple of boxes in the event that we would have to disassemble my cake. I probably should’ve measure the actual balloon before leaving because it didn’t actually fit into any of the boxes that we had purchased! More panic! I decided to call up my airline and ask for options. Apparently, my only two options were to either check it in - which was a definite no because I have seen the way staff handle fragile boxes and bags! - or see if it would fit on the conveyor belt through security and pray for a nice crew to help me out! At this point, I am stressing! I have spent hours on this cake, was told that it would retail for $300-400 and I was not ready to part from my hard work! Luckily, I did end up with a nice crew and they were happy to let us board first to carefully place my cake in the overhead compartment. Thank you, Virgin Australia! After a delayed flight, we were finally home and my cake was safe and sound on my dining table… only to be demolished by family the next day! Delicious!
