Category: Learning project

Now that my EDTC 300 class is coming to an end and I have completed all of my learning project posts it’s time to reflect upon what I have actually learned. If you haven’t seen any of my previous learning project posts the skill that I choose to learn was icing and decorating baking. I will give you an overview of what exactly I learned in each week of my journey and my overall process of learning online.

Week One – Simple Swirls

This was the beginning of my journey and it started off with preparing myself and getting supples. I started my online learning process early on by using this article to figure out what kind of stuff I might need to buy. It was very helpful so that when I went to start baking I wasn’t left wishing I had bought some of the stuff I would later see in many videos. After I had finished getting all my new supples it was time to start baking.

For my first week I decided that I would start off fairly simple and ice cupcakes. I made my favourite kind of cupcakes, white wedding ones and every week I used the same buttercream frosting recipe. Both websites were very easy to follow and made my first week of baking a bit less stressful. After my cupcakes were cooled and my frosting was ready I used the four different icing tips from this video to ice my cupcakes. They were fairly straight forward and the video was helpful but looking back on it I can notice now that her icing is not a very good consistency so maybe it wasn’t the best to look off of. Either way it was a great first week for a beginner like myself to start to get a handle on icing cupcakes.

Week Two – Icing Up Swirls and… Roses?

This week I made the same white wedding cupcakes and built on what I did in week one. The first week was all about becoming comfortable with icing as I was just starting out. So this week I decided I would continuing to work on those skills with a little extra challenge. I iced multiple amounts of cupcakes with the Wilton 1M tip that I used last week and with the practice it was very easy to see my improvement with the swirls. This made me realize it was a good decision to keep practicing. However, I did do something different as I made the swirls multicolour by adding different colours of icing in my piping bag. It felt intimidating at first but I watched this video online and it made the task seem way easier. It gave hints like not letting the colours get too mixed or you would have a gross brown colour.

Lastly, for this week I decided I would really push my self outside of my comfort zone and attempt to ice roses. For this I watched this video and at first I misheard what she had said so they weren’t working out quite right. I watched it again and learned what I was doing wrong so it just showed that she knew what she was doing and even though it’s just a video I still had to pay close attention. Overall, this week was a success as I got better at my previous skills and tried to push myself with a more difficult technique.

Week Three – Mixing It Up

This week was the biggest jump that I made in my progress. After making cupcakes in week one and two this time I decided I would attempt to create my first cake. I made a simple white cake and baking it was fairly straight forward. However, icing the thing was much harder than I anticipated. I watched this video and it taught me many things that I otherwise would not have known. I learned that when you ice a cake at first you put a very thing layer of icing on so that you lock in the crumbs and then you have to put it in the fridge to set. After that I put a much thicker layer of icing on as the video showed and using my icing spatula to make it as smooth as I could. After that I used my cupcake icing skills to fancy it up a little. Overall, the first cake I had ever made turned out fairly well in my opinion.

Week Four – Dripping with Flavour

This week I would be making another cake but I would try something a bit different. For the cake itself I used a different white cake recipe from the week before. This week I decided I wanted to make a drip cake. For this I needed to make a cake that was tall so I had to make 3 cakes from my 9-inch cake pan and stack them. When on the internet I came across this video and it had everything that I was planning on doing. It gives great detail on how you need to stack the cake and explains not only how to make the chocolate ganache but how to drip it on the cake as well. It was perfect to learn from and besides my icing maybe not being as smooth as I’d hoped I really loved how the cake turned out.

Week Five – A Piece of Cake

Then it was finally time to create my very last cake. For this cake I decided I would try making a three tier wedding styled cake but in a somewhat miniature form. I used the same white cake recipe I used in week four as I really enjoyed it and once my cakes were cooled it was time to get icing. This project I found more difficult than the past two weeks because for this cake I essentially had to ice three separate cakes. It was difficult for myself but the more practice I could get with icing cakes the better. Now the new technique of building the cake I would be learning came courtesy of this video.  I had to make adjustments to how I would build because my cakes were significantly smaller. However, it still told me specifics like using cake dowels that I would have never thought of. After I finished building it I used the piping skills I learned in week one and two to make the cake look much less plain in my opinion.

Takeaways

Overall, I really enjoyed the whole process of learning online that I took part in for my EDTC 300 class. Regarding finding recipes it was something that was done with ease, instead of looking in cook books I would search it up and have my recipe within a minute or two. Then for the different icing and decorating techniques I would go looking on YouTube for videos. Rarely could I not find exactly what I was looking for. It is just shows how far the internet has come, where if you want to learn how to do something the resources will be there for you. For myself without these resources I’m not sure where I would have even started. All I can think of would be cook books but that wouldn’t overly help with knowing how to ice roses exactly unless you had complete step by step pictures. I’m just saying that these resources on the internet that can be used to learn online should not be overlooked as they can go such a long way.

As for what I have learned regarding icing and decorating cakes there is quite a bit actually. After completing this project I can say with confidence that I can bake cupcakes and cakes without over/under cooking them. Besides that I learned multiple icing techniques for cupcakes and feel they are at a high standard. When it comes to cakes I learned the fundamentals of icing them but I know that I still need a significant amount of work as I know they could be much smoother but that will come with time the more I do it. I learned how to make chocolate ganache and drip it on a cake. Lastly, I learned how to stack cakes and build a 3 tier style of a cake. I wanted to learn skills like these because I’ve always been interested in decorating baking but have never had the motivation. This project has taught me patience and that with hard work you can develop skills that you weren’t sure were possible. In the end, I’m proud of what I was able to achieve during my learning project.

For the final week of my learning project I decided I would try something a bit different. That of course would be a three tier wedding styled cake but in an almost miniature form. The reason that I felt like this would be a difficult cake to make would be the fact that I have to essentially ice three different cakes and place them on top accordantly without ruining them. So for this project I’ll be taking the concept of icing a cake that I learned in week three and four but I will also be using one of the cupcake piping techniques that I learned in week one. It should be a challenge because it’s much easier when I only have one task that I have to do for a project so we’ll see how it ends up. I’ll be using the white cake recipe I used for week four as I found it was beyond delicious. Also, I will continue to use the same buttercream frosting as it has been very reliable for me so far. Now, let’s get baking!

                                  

First I made the cake batter and put the cakes in the oven. When they we’re all finished and out of the oven I had to let them cool completely so I let them sit for a couple hours. When I felt they were ready I cut the rounded top offs off with my serrated knife. After this it was time to get icing the cakes and this was a pretty long process. Each cake I had to ice separate and considering the two previous weeks all I had to do was ice one full cake I had to be more patient this time. However, it was good because it helps improve my skills because the more cakes I ice the better! Anyways, icing each cake was a similar process as I would put them on the cake stand and put a thin layer of icing on them to lock in the crumbs and then into the freezer to set. After that they would get another thicker layer of icing and I tried to get them as smooth as possible using my icing spatula. Then since I would be moving and stacking them I decided that it would best to have them in the freezer again for a bit to set so that they wouldn’t fall apart when I was transferring them.

Next up for the cakes was the building process and to help me out with that I ended up using this helpful youtube video:

I found this video very helpful as it made the whole idea of building this cake less complex than I originally thought. However, if you watched the video you might notice how much larger her cake is. Usually the style of wedding cake is much bigger than the cake I am creating. I used one cake for each tier and for her cake it’s quite clear that she stacked roughly 3 cakes for each tier before icing. I thought about doing this but it would have taken longer and I already proved I was capable of doing this technique in week four when I stacked the cakes. So using this knowledge I realized that some of the things she was doing were a little unnecessary for my cake. I couldn’t find a video for the exact type of cake I was making but this one was still helpful. The main difference was she put four cake dowels in each tier and then one very long dowel through the whole thing. For my cake I knew I would only need the one long dowel to keep it in place.

                                   

After the cake was built it was then time to decorate it and make it look more appealing. For this I went online looking at pictures of cakes to see what I might want to do. I decided that I would use my icing techniques that I learned in week one and two for this. I wanted to show how far I have come from learning just the four most simple icing techniques from this youtube video. It was very helpful and I was able to apply what I learned from it to my future projects including this weeks.

Overall, I was very pleased with how my last cake came out. The sides were not as smooth as I had hoped for but again that is something I will have to continue to work towards. I feel that the building process of a three tier cake has it ups and downs. I do find it more difficult when you have to ice multiple cakes. However, putting the whole thing together wasn’t that hard because I only had to put the dowel in the middle of it. As I said earlier it would have been even more time consuming if I had each tier with two or more cakes. Nevertheless, it’s something I will try in the future hopefully. Besides that I still have to work on creating a smooth icing surface on a cake but I was able to use my cupcake icing skills with the swirls which was my favourite part of making this cake. Well, I think that’s a wrap for week five of my learning project, hope you enjoyed my last cake. Stay tuned for my review post where I’ll talk about my whole experience of learning these skills online throughout the past weeks!

This week for my learning project I decided I would once again make another cake but try a different style to decorate it. In week 3, I decided that I would go for a simple icing technique for my first cake. I wanted to try a little different approach this time around but overall still practice my skills a bit more. I once again chose a white cake but used a different recipe then I used last week. However, I’m still using the same buttercream frosting recipe from the first batch of cupcakes. At this point I don’t even have to look it up when I go to make it. I’m more interesting in the aspect of new decorating skills than new types of frosting.

Last week when I made my cake, I used a fairly wide pan and that made it fairly hard to ice the top surface. This week I decided that I would stack smaller cakes as shown in the recipe I chose. So I made my cake batter and then I had to cook a cake in my 9-inch round cake pan and repeat the process 2 more times. Once I had my three cakes cooked and chilled it was time to begin the “building” process.

So to build my cake I had to cut the rounded tops off of the cakes so they were all decently level. Then as you can see in the photos above I placed the first cake down iced it and then placed the next cake on till it was built. I put a significant amount of icing in-between the cakes so that they wouldn’t move out of place. However, to really set the cake into place I put it in the freezer for about half an hour. After I pulled it out of the freezer I used my icing spatula to put a thin layer of icing on the top and the sides and the reason for this is to set all of the crumbs in. After the thin layer was on, it was again time to let it set and pop it back in the freezer for another half an hour. After it was set I grabbed my icing spatula again to put a much thicker layer of icing onto the cake. I smoothed it out as best I could by pressing the edge of my spatula against the cake and spinning the cake stand. Now that this was complete, I was ready for the next step of decorating my cake. For this week I decided that I would be attempting to make a drip cake. Here’s the video that I followed to help me make the chocolate ganache and place it on the cake.

I felt that this video was very helpful for all aspects of my project as it gave various tips. It was my first time making a stacked cake and I followed the various instructions she gave regarding letting it set and having a good amount of icing between each layer of cake. Also, when it comes to the ganache I was very unfamiliar with how it was made or how I would place it on the cake. This video makes it seem very doable for even a novice at decorating like me. Overall, I found the video very helpful.

Instead of explaining how I put the chocolate ganache on here’s a little how-to video I made of the whole experience, hope you enjoy!

I was pretty happy with the end results I feel as though my icing was fairly decent definitely not as smooth as in the videos but I’m seeing progress. Ive noticed that in all the videos I’ve been watching lots of the people have been using this tool that after searching I have learned is called a cake icing smoother. I’m very interested in picking one up and seeing if makes a big difference because I feel like it might be better to use then just the icing spatula. The drip technique was a little overwhelming at first but having videos like the one I posted to look off make the whole situation of learning at home less daunting. Next week will be the last of my learning project and I have a plan in mind for what cake I will be making. I’m thinking it might be a bit difficult but I hope you come back to see how it goes!

For this week I decided that I would attempt to make and ice my first cake. In week one I started simple and iced some cupcakes and built on that in week two. Now that I am at the halfway point of my project, I thought that it would be time to really challenge myself with a cake. The recipe that I chose was a white cake and if you have seen my previous posts that shouldn’t come as a shocker. I thought about going with chocolate but I just prefer a white cake and after all I’m the one that has to eat it. Also, the icing I have been using is a simple buttercream and I have not switched recipes as it has worked great every time I have used it. The whole decorating the icing is what I am really trying to improve my skills in.

               

The recipe for the cake was fairly straight forward but it took over an hour and a half between prep work and the cooking process. After it was out of the oven, I let it cool completely. I knew from baking shows that the next thing I had to do was cut the top of the cake off since it was rounded and that would be more difficult for me to ice. After I was done I flipped the cake so that it would be easier to ice. I was pretty sure this was the right way to go about it but my girlfriend assured me it was before I got the chance to look it up. Next up was to ice the cake and while researching how I came across a very informative video to look off of.

The first step to icing a cake is to first put a simple first layer on and for this process I used a cake icing spatula. You don’t need very much icing at this point because all it’s doing is locking in the crumbs of the cake. After I completed this I had to put the cake in the fridge for roughly an hour to let the icing really set.

After the thin layer had set, I begun to ice again and it was much more difficult than I thought. The cake pan I used was fairly wide and it was making it hard to create a smooth service on the top of the cake because it was so big. The sides of the cake were much more manageable because it was no longer than a couple of inches and my spatula was longer. However, after struggling for quite some time I got it to a point that I felt it was acceptable. I think next time I will use the technique in the video of using smaller cake pans and staking them because it made the top much easier for her to ice.

Now I had a cake with a layer of icing on but it did not seem complete to me. So I thought I would incorporate the skills I learned from week one. I grabbed a icing bag and used the Wilton 2A tip and put icing on the bottom and top around the cake and also used it to make six little swirls on the surface. This was the end result:

Ascetically considering this was the first cake I have ever made and iced I am proud of what I was able to do. I feel like I will be saying this a lot in these posts but I know I have work to do to become better. However, when I began icing I was getting a bit frustrated because I realized that the cake was wider than in the video and that’s why it was more difficult then intended. Next time I think it will help drastically if the top surface area is smaller than my icing spatula. Again, this is something I never would have thought of before I begun icing but by the time I started it was too late. It’s all about learning as I go and that will help not just my skills but the knowledge I have on the topic of decorating baking. Next week I plan on making another cake and I have an idea on what I’m going to do for it. After learning what I have with my first cake, I’m optimistic that my next one will turn out even better so make sure to come back next week and check it out!

For week two of my learning project my goal was to hopefully build on what I learned from week one and try something a little out of my comfort zone. I decided that I would use the same cupcake and buttercream recipes because they worked so well the first time and then I would focus on my icing techniques. The cupcake recipe was for white wedding cake cupcakes and the icing was a simple buttercream frosting. So after a couple of hours in the kitchen I had another batch of cupcakes ready to be decorated.

I decided that I would start by using the wilton 1M tip that I used in week one so that I could practice on my skills as they clearly still needy work. However, I still wanted to change it up a little and that’s when I came across this video.

I wanted to add a little challenge to the simple swirling techniques created by the wilton 1M tip. For this I had to make different colours of icing which wasn’t very difficult. However, when I put the three colours in the piping bag I had to make sure that they weren’t mixing together and forming a gross brown because that wouldn’t be very appetizing. It was a little harder then I thought considering this was only my second time using a piping bag but I think I did a fairly good job. These were the results for this technique.

I feel as though that the swirls were better then my previous work with the same wilton 1M tip that I did in week one. This just showed me that I was right to practice a little more instead of only trying to advance for this week. However, I still had 6 cupcakes left and wanted to give myself a go at a harder icing technique and that was roses. I researched and came across a very informative video on the process of piping roses.

It was very daunting at first while watching the video but I had the 123 petal tip that she suggests. So I decided I’d give it my best shot and if I failed horribly it would still be a fun and productive experience. As I begun, I felt frustrated as I felt my petals weren’t coming out right. I watched the video again and picked up some key pointers that I some how missed. She mentions that the icing has to be chilled so it does not melt or run at all and that it gives more defined petals. The other pointer was a simple mistake by myself, the 123 petal tip has a fat and skinny end and I was using it the opposite way. After that I feel as those my roses started to look noticeably better. Again, I’m not stating that they look anywhere near as good as the video but I feel I did a pretty good job for my first time.

Overall, I think that this was a very productive week for my learning project. I built on what I did in week one by doing more simple swirls to continue to practice. I felt this was important because I got into a rhythm and it just felt more natural compared to the first week. I’m also glad that I did put the effort in and made the different colours of icing because it was something that I thought would be very simple but it was actually a more difficult task then it appeared. It reminds me that many aspects of icing and decorating baking is harder than it seems. Then for the roses, I’m glad I challenged myself with attempting this. I wanted to improve my skills with decorating and that won’t happen if I don’t try going out of my comfort zone. Next week, my plan is to use my decorating skills to make my first cake so make sure to come back and see how that goes!

Before I could even start baking and decorating some yummy treats I had to do a little research. I had to find some recipes and look for what I might all need to decorate some cupcakes. I found a helpful article and from there I made a list and headed off to the store.

I decided quite early on that I would start off with cupcakes before moving on to cakes in the later weeks. I figured I would start off with my favourite cupcakes and they are called white wedding cake cupcakes. I remember having them at some point of my childhood and thinking they were the best baking of all time. However, this was my first time attempting to make them from scratch so I was not sure how exactly they would turn out.

                                 

After finishing up baking the cupcakes, my next task was to make the icing. I choose a buttercream frosting recipe as that is the most common when decorating cupcakes. I completed it and after I got the right consistency, I had a very important choice to make… what colour shall I make the icing? I ended up going with a lavender as it is one of my favourite colours and thought it would look somewhat modern. For these cupcakes I wanted to go very simple as I have relatively no experience in icing. So I searched up what were the most common icing techniques and came across this video.

These are the end results:

Wilton 1M

Wilton 2D

Wilton 2A

Wilton 4B

As you can see from my work I clearly did not have secret amazing icing abilities. However, for arguable my first time icing cupcakes in my life I feel I did a pretty decent job. Its very subjective to which ones look the best but in my opinion you can some what see the improvement when I iced my first compared to the third. I think you can especially see this in the Wilton 2A tip where the first cupcake I iced was all over the place but by the third I seemed to almost have a better grasp  of it and it looked significantly better. I knew that this wouldn’t be super easy that is why I started with cupcakes, one colour of icing, and 4 of the simpler icing techniques. Obviously I have work to do if I want to improve my skills but this is why I choose this as my learning project. Next week I will try to challenge myself a little more and make a bit more creative cupcakes. I feel I still need a bit more practice before moving onto a more difficult task like a cake.

Welcome to the beginning of my adventure. For my learning project my goal is to learn how to decorate and create excellent looking baking.

Photo Credit: afagen Flickr via Compfight cc

Throughout my life I have always considered myself a “foodie” as I like to make new recipes and dishes. However, one thing I have shied away from would be baking. I was more of the person to buy the pre-made cookie dough and to not start from scratch. This is why as I thought and looked on the internet for ideas of what skill I could learn, I kept coming back to making appealing looking baking. I remember in my childhood trying to ice a cake and it ending in disaster so I think this is the reason I may have never attempted it again. The most I can currently do is slab a piece of icing on top and calling it finished.

As I begin my journey of improving my ability to decorate various types of baking, I am going to start very basic. First, I’ll try to gain knowledge on icing techniques in general before I move on to the baking.

This was a video I found and at first it made me feel a little over whelmed but I will try my best. After I feel as though I have learned some icing techniques, I will try them on cupcakes. Eventually when I feel I have made significant progress I will try decorating cakes. I will have to gather more information because I’m sure there is more to learn than just icing techniques. That’s why I think this will be a fun experience because I’m eager to know what goes into creating great looking baking!

As the project begins, I feel as though I will be taking a trip to the store soon to gather a bunch of new supplies. It should be a fun and tasty journey!

Photo Credit: annamatic3000 Flickr via Compfight cc