Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Cake Failure

Oh my! I have my 2nd class tonight in beginner's cake decorating, and was supposed to bring a frosted cake (homemade) in for tonight's class. Well, I made the cake okay, and got it leveled just fine. Then I made up the icing we were supposed to use. We were supposed to make up the batch of icing for the cake - using half of the icing for the cake, and half to bring in to use tonight to learn to make roses and other flowers with. Well, I started to ice the first layer, and it sure took a lot of icing. Hmmm..... I should have thought something was amiss. I put the top layer on, and piled a bunch of icing on top of it, and was starting to spread it, when it hit me. I was supposed to use the giant icing bag and this huge wide tip to spread the icing with. I remembered being instructed on how to do that, so I stopped what I was doing, and I put the rest of the icing in the pastry bag, and proceeded to finish the cake with that. Luckily, the cake icing sets up in about 15 minutes, so you can take some parchment paper and smooth it out with a smoothing tool, and it doesn't look THAT bad now, but at least I know that from now on, I'll never make THAT mistake again. I had to make up another batch of icing for tonight's class to use for learning how to make the roses and other flowers.
I guess I shouldn't write myself off of this as a hobby, just because I messed up on my first cake.
But boy do I feel dumb. One thing is for sure - I now know how to ice a cake properly. On to class tonight, probably with the worst looking cake there. Sad but true. I got my blood pressure up so high, over a CAKE for goodness sake!
Nothing like making a mistake for learning how to do it right next time.
I need a drink.

3 comments:

Carolyn said...

Hey...don't worry about your first cake...if you were perfect, you wouldn't need the class. You're taking the class to learn...and you always learn from your mistakes. And...take a picture of your finished decorated cake so we can see it...and as you continue taking the classes, you will be able to see how you progress and how much you learn.
Carolyn

Sandy said...

Good luck with your cake making - cake decorating was *my* thing before I got bitten by the p&q bug, made my daughters 3 tier heart shape wedding cake and my sisters wedding cake plus all the other celebatory occasions over the years.
Take it one step at a time and remember to breathe.
Sandy

Anonymous said...

Hi Sandy and Carolyn,
Well, my second cake turned out MUCH better than my first. And I am ready for class tonight, with my icing in the correct thickness, and already dyed to the colors I want. And put in the pastry bags with the tips on that I need. I guess I was hard on myself (duh) after the first class. I'm signed up for a fondant and gum paste class starting on Feb. 7th, for 4 weeks. So I am LEARNING. Going to keep on taking all the classes they offer.