Tuesday, September 13, 2011

It's time for Basics 105!! Bring on the extended tiers... :o

Basics 105


"INTERMEDIATE" is what we now are according to our PC Passport!!! I can't believe that I am no longer a "beginner" with only a month's worth of experience. Despite all the excitement, I somewhat feel rather "inadequate" to be awarded with such title. I had dejavu... My mind flashing back to the moment when I had just passed my driving test and was finally legally permitted to drive without supervision.  But deep deep down inside, I knew I wasn't ready but was too proud to admit that I was worried about running someone over whilst trying to figure out when to change gear!

So what does it take for one to become an intermediate student, you may ask? Answer: PASSION (and a drop of MADNESS!)! You have to be crazily passionate about cake decorating, you must be super committed, you must long to learn and try different things, you must go all out and be confident about what you do, and, finally, you must remain inspired and enthusiastic. There's just no way that I'd still be here working my butt off if I didn't 100% love and believe in what I do, as it is a very demanding business - both mentally and physically.

For Basics 105, you really have to crank it up a notch as you've got to work at a decent pace whilst still maintaining 'the standard'. We had a good class actually. Everyone was in high spirits and seemed to be enjoying themselves. After having spent hours ganaching our cakes, most of us were covered in chocolate and my heart truly went out to Michelle, who was facilitating that day! The afternoon was spent making the beautiful peony rose and berries, then it was time to go home.

On the second day, we were shown a new way to cover a tall rectangular cake, which Jess said was the same principle as baby cubes. Because we were actually covering the cake on the board with the centre-pole, you can't actually do it the 'normal' way but have to do it in three stages instead. First, you cover two of the sides individually. Then you cover the remaining surfaces in one go. After lunch, Jess showed us how to stencil, which turned out to be one of the easiest things that I've learnt so far but the result was so satisfying!

Now that I think about it, this cake was actually pretty fun to make.

Stencilling is such a simple yet effective way to decorate your cakes, hence why I've just spent my weekly allowance investing in a set! It was great to be more 'in control' of your cake in terms of designs (not that I haven't been trying to divert from the instructions in the past.. *ahem*). I decided to go for brown with white stencilling and gold borders. Do you like it?


Pam xx

2 comments:

giovanna said...

i loooove it! absolutely gorgeous!

retete- ina said...

wow,elegant,superb,congratulations

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