Saturday, October 10, 2009

Decoration is everything

Today Jessie came over with her husband and kids to show me how to decorate cakes. She had her work cut out for her, no doubt about it. In a surprising show of lack of common sense, I hadn't figured out that the student kit I bought would help me learn without the benefit of taking a class. There are printed 'cheat sheets' that you slip under a clear plastic practice board that allows you to basically duplicate the design step-by-step. I choose not to embarrass myself any further by revealing how I thought that was all supposed to work. (Shaking my head at myself)

At any rate, a couple of hours later, I ended up with a firm grasp of the basic designs I was interested in and a desire to take a more extensive cake decorating class once we get back to the states. It really was therapeutic to produce a decent looking cake. Now I just have to figure out how to ice a cake without spreading crumbs all over the icing.

The kids were suitably impressed, but truth be told, they just wanted to eat the cake. I don't blame them, it was really good. I can't wait to try another one. T's birthday is coming up soon and it would be nice to make him a decent looking cake myself. It was totally worth having a couple blue fingers (since I poked my thumb through the foil on the icing tint gel). Next cake I do, I'll take pictures and post them - bad or good results.

The only thing that surprised me was that with my recent lifestyle improvements in exercise and eating habits that I still ate some of the icing which was literally Crisco, butter, sugar and vanilla. It's so not fair that something make up of those ingredients tastes like heaven on earth.

No comments: