Sunday, July 24, 2011

Cake Decorating Challenge

I recently noticed a fun challenge on the wonderful 'miso bakes' blog and I had to throw my hat into the ring!  I think what will be happening is that she will be announcing a cake decorating challenge each month and people will post their take on it.  This is just the sort of thing I need, it is really easy to get trapped in the same boring cake designs and this helps to develop technique, and also to get used to using tools that arent in my standard repertoire.

This was the challenge for this month:
A 6 or 8-inch cake iced with white (or off white) buttercream decorated with pink piping using the Ateco / Wilton #104 rose tip.
Unfortunately I didnt read the instructions very carefully, so my cake is all white!  I quickly iced a mango chiffon cake that I was planning to serve for a tasting, and then went about making a pretty design on it.  This is swiss meringue buttercream, which is so wonderful for cake decorating as it is silky smooth.   You'll notice that the cake is showing through a little, I would have needed to add another coat of buttercream to hide that. 

The benefit for me is that this comes out looking very cute, and is a very fast technique, so I can offer people a more affordable option than my usual cakes, since time is money!

7 comments:

Kitt said...

Another option you might offer to the budget-conscious is decorating a store-bought cake. The only reason I suggest that is that I regularly get the round carrot cake from Costco and have them frost it with a spray of roses in the same cream cheese as the frosting, and it looks very elegant.

Costco also did my wedding cake, but I couldn't find anyone willing to frost it the way I wanted, so I put a spray of flowers on it instead.

Jennywenny said...

I have had the costco carrot cake and I agree its pretty good! Its not something I normally need to do since I'm always trying new recipes!

Kristin said...

awesome job on the ruffle!! perfectly circular.

Mary said...

The ruffle design is totally pretty and cute. I like the simplicity of it.

Mary said...

We don't decorate cakes made by others because people will assume it is yours. Most of our cost is in the labor to decorate anyway so we are not really saving money. For the budget-conscious we make floating tiers which require no architectural supports and have the customer provide their own stands. Fresh flowers are also (usually) an inexpensive option for decorating.

Jamie said...

Jenny, I'm sorry this wasn't featured, it's gorgeous!!! I hope you can do it this month too. Thank you for letting us know about it too!!!

Jennywenny said...

Thanks Jamie! She did pop me on there later! I have to remember to read the instructions next time though!!