Degrees Of Illumination

To ease into my indepth project I reviewed what I had learned in the basic cake and cupcake decorating class that I took last year. I don’t quite remember every technique but that is probably for the best as it means I have lots to improve on. Anyway, I discovered that I can still create stars, vines, swirls, and dots. These are fine for making ordinary looking cupcakes or cake a little prettier but they don’t require that much skill. I begin my cake decorating course at Michaels on Monday and I am really looking forward to learning more methods of decorating. I especially want to learn how to make a variety of flowers, I don’t know why but I always enjoy eating cupcakes more if they have flowers on them.

I decorated these cupcakes last year with the methods I learned during the class I took.

As for my mentor, her name is Jennifer Swan. She began cake decorating about 8 or 9 years ago when her sister-in-law got a book of fondant children’s birthday cakes and they tried to make one together. Jennifer thought they looked like “edible works of art” and has been cake decorating ever since. She makes cakes for birthdays, friends, family, and church but has never considered a career in cake decorating because she believes that would take all the enjoyment out of it. I have never tried to decorate a cake using fondant before but I hope with Jennifer’s help I will be able to by the end of my project.

Also, I found my recipe for Butter Cream Icing, which is absolutely delicious, that I used to decorate the cupcakes in the picture. I always have to be careful not to pile on too much though because it is very sugary. After completing the recipe I simply mix in a drop or two of food coloring to create icing that looks almost as good as it takes.

Butter Cream Icing (yields 3 cups):

Ingredients:

1 Cup Crisco White Vegetable Shortening

1 tsp Wilton Clear Vanilla, Almond, or Butter Flavor

2 tbsp Milk or Water

4 Cups Icing sugar (sifted, then measure)

1 tbsp Wilton Meringue Powder

Pinch of Salt

Directions:

Cream shortening, flavoring and water. Add dry ingredients and mix on medium speed until all ingredients have been thoroughly mixed together. Blend an additional minute or so, until creamy. For a thinner consistency add 1 or 2 tsp more of water to the recipe. And for Chocolate Butter Cream add 3/4 cup of cocoa and an additional 1-2 tbsp of water and mix until blended in.