Last Wednesday was my first Wilton cake decorating class...I thought I would see how 'talented' I was. So, I took a cake to work and iced it really well...so I tried my first attempt at some roses going by the instructor and by the pictures in the booklet. Well, I guess my icing wasn't stiff enough as my roses were alittle droopy. Could it have been that the area I was working in was quite warm and the icing lost it's stiffness? I followed the recipe exactly so I don't know what happened to my roses.
Then last night, I thought I would try something new. My sisters birthday is today but the family is having a birthday party for her in a couple of weeks so I wanted to try out a chocolate cake recipe from scratch. The cake itself was ok, but when I made the icing from the Wilton booklet, it came out too dry. It would barely stick to the cake when I was putting it on, and then later, when making a shell border, my hands got aching so bad because it was too stiff. So, I added some water to it, but it still seemed to dry.
What am I doing wrong with the Wilton recipe in the Course 1 booklet?
Sorry this post is so long but any advice would be appreciated.
I experienced the same thing in my first class! If you just keep adding about 1 tsp of water then mix, then if it's still too stiff do it again until you get the right consistency. A good rule of thumb is when it is stiff you should be able to pinch off a little and roll it into a ball w/o it sticking to your hand, med is the same except it may stick a little, then thin is when you cannot do that at all. When you are making your roses make sure that it isn't to warm in the room or that YOU are not too warm as your body heat with soften the icing in the bag from your hands. That happened to me in class as well and talk about the droopiest flopping roses you've ever seen!!!! Good luck!!
Learning the right icing consistency takes a lot of trial and error. The error part is frustrating, but it also rewarding when you finally have one of the Aha! moments! I live in a warm climate so our instructor told us to keep our icing in the fridge until right before we left for class. The classroom that we worked was pretty warm also so I kept my icing in a cooler on the 30 minute drive to class. That helped a lot.
When making the icing for spreading on a cake, I keep adding water or milk until I can easily spread in on the side of my bowl with the spatula. You won't get as many crumbs in your icing if you keep it on the thin side.
Keep practicing and you'll figure out what works the best for you!
Icing consistency is one of the most difficult to master.The other was the rose for me in my first class.....oh and writing on a cake was an other.
That was over 15 years ago.
Don't get discouraged it takes time and alot of practice. You are alot braver than I was. I didn't even try to decorate a cake until the one we brought in for the last class.
You'll do just fine.
Sharon
Countrykittie,
Welcome to Cake Central. I agree that icing consistancy is one of the hardest things to figure out when you first get started. I wanted to suggest a great chocolate icing recipe, it is called Chocolate Syrup Frosting:
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-2033-92-Chocolate-Syrup-Frosting.html
It is so creamy and yummy. Super easy to pipe. If it seems a little too thin, just add a little extra powdered sugar.
Good luck with your classes and post your photos!!
Cindy
I had trouble my first class but realized I'd used a 2 pound bag of p sugared instead of a pound talk about stiff LOL
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