The basics!
- Claudia Steele
- Apr 1, 2016
- 2 min read
For those who already know me, you know that I went to college for hospitality management and although it does teach culinary it does so in a limited fashion. Most of what I learned, I learned at Chiado a fine dinning restaurant where I first started working in high school. Even though I knew a few things and picked up a few more along the way I decided that there was no way that I could ever open a business knowing I didn't have the educational background needed to back me up. So after a big discussion I signed up for school. My first course was the basics of cake decorating. I thought this would be a breeze however I found it very informative. It just goes to show that the basic are always important. We covered cakes in royal icing and butter cream and I learned how big the difference between real butter cream (what I use) and the stuff they sell you in the grocery stores. I was shocked when I saw recipes that stores pass off as butter cream but they have no butter at all. That's right the stuff in store cakes is made of lard or shortening with butter flavouring. Keep that in mind the next time you buy one of those delicious looking cakes at your local store. I started to realize why good cakes cost so much. Its not just the time, labour and over head but the quality of the ingredients. I guess its true what the say, "you get what you pay for!".
We made one Styrofoam cake covered in royal icing as a project to learn the different techniques. I was surprised to learn that although not as common a practice as before, some brides still request a fake layer on their wedding cake. Some do so for cost, though its still cost them a fair bit since the decorating is really the hard part and not the baking. Some just to add height and some because they want to keep the layer as a memory. The second cake was real but we were only given about an hour to finish. We had to cut, fill, ice and decorate. I filled mine with Bavarian cream and iced it with butter cream. Then I decorated it for Maxxine who I had promised a cake to when I started class. Don't be fooled by her size either she helped to eat most of it!!!
