Well I found out I'm on the shortlist for the show. I will know by next week when the shortlist is finalised and sent to TV3 for them to consider. But I still don't know any more info!
In regards to the extra baking that I said I would have up on the site this week I got my calender muddled and it will be up next week. Sorry.
Mum and I started a Wilton decorating course last week at Milly's in Parnell. The first week was an overwhelming information session where we learned what we are doing, how to make buttercream icing and all the different products we will need for the course. Mum and I left with our heads exploding and our wallets much more emptied ( Milly's is heaven for bakey people like us!).
What I found interesting and probably against everything I believe in for my own baking is that the so called buttercream we are told to make and use for this course involves anything but butter or cream. The recipe for the Wilton buttercream is 1 cup of sno creme - this is just whipped fat. 4 cups of icing sugar, butter flavouring (butter flavouring!) and meringue powder. It is sweet and generally lacking in any real flavour as far as I am concerned. After always making and using my own buttercream made from real butter and real milk and flavours as natural as I could get them it seemed cheaty.
Last night, for session 2, we learned how to pipe stars, curves, dots and the base for the rose. Talk about messy! It wasn't a good start when our instructor Mel came around and tested our buttercream we had to bring with us. My stiff, medium and thin icing turned out to be medium, thin and really too thin but with mums icing being all stiff we worked it out in the end! So we were off to a good start. Despite the mess we had a really good time. Sitting in the back row we giggled and laughed with our other course participants. Especially the lady who we had found laughing her head off while scraping her cake off the carpark when she arrived!
I also discovered why the Wilton buttercream is preferred. It is certainly much easier to work with than real buttercream, especially used in the right consistency. It dries easier and is much more pliable and generally less messy to use. In terms of getting the look of a professional it is far superior. Which makes me ask the question. Do people prefer looks over taste? I know what I would choose any day, so I don't think the Wilton buttercream will be making many appearances on Delissimon. The skills I am learning will though.
Anyway here's our first efforts at cake decorating "The Wilton Way":
I love that she piped "1st Attempt"! Mum fed hers to her hungry nursing colleagues at work this morning after joking she'd leave it anonymously on a paper plate in the lunch room. I think she did an awesome job, especially as she has never done this before!
This is my one. See this angle? You don't see the back part where the cake smashed its way over on the ferry to the course. Oops.
No comments:
Post a Comment