Decorating with Many Techniques - Post #5

For my final post I thought that I should include some color to my cupcakes. To add color I used four different colors to make a swirl frosting. I did three different designs for my cupcakes this time. The first design I did was a swirl. In this design you need a piping bag with a large nozzle tip or plain nozzle tip (45). To start the design you have to start from the outside edge and slightly lift the piping bag in a circle. This technique is amazing for the swirl frosting as well. This really brings out all the colors in the frosting. The next design that I did was the rosette. In this design you need a star nozzle for the piping bag. To make a rosette you have to squeeze the icing onto the cake and pull up sharply to break the icing (45). For all these designs you need to keep your hand very still. I made a couple of mistakes from moving too quick and not pulling up sharp enough. The last design I did was the blobs which need a plain nozzle tip for the piping bag. According to the book, "it's easiest working in ever-decreasing circles" (45). This design does not sound flattering at all but it is quite unique. It looks as if you put a lot of time into it, even though it was the quickest design that I have ever done. This design is very simple but can look effortless if you make the design the correct way.


Do you think by mixing the colors for my frosting that it made the cupcakes stand out more even with simple designs?

First Cake Decorating: Simple Cake Designs for Beginners. London: Collins & Brown, 2014. Print.

Decorating with Many Techniques - Post #4

For this next technique I will be making simple designs. I am using a piping bad with a plain nozzle. This is a good choice if you want simple lines or dots. I am making beads that need icing of slightly softer consistency so there are no sharp points of the end of the beads (64). I feel the best type of frosting is a whipped form. Whipped icing is much softer and easier to work with when making simple designs.



At first I was having a hard time with the beads at the ending of the chain. The bead at the end had a sharp point and I couldn't figure out why. At the end of the paragraph the book states to, "smooth off the beads with a damp finger if necessary" (64). That helped majorly with my third try at making the chain of beads. I noticed also that I needed to pull up more sharply to break the icing completely. With both of those suggestions, the beads turned out very good in my opinion.

Do you think that more simplistic designs are as eye catching as more difficult designs?

First Cake Decorating: Simple Cake Designs for Beginners. London: Collins & Brown, 2014. Print.

STEP-BY-STEP Cake Decorating Pt.4 -- Ritu Buttar

Cake Decorating

I decorated cupcakes for my fourth blog post, using the star tips. I think it turned out okay, but I would definitely stick to regular cakes since you can just do much more on a bigger surface.

"We are no longer afraid to bake, and our creations are becoming more sophisticated and adventurous as time goes on" (Sullivan). As time goes on people are learning how to add their own unique touch on things, exploring what they can do in the world of cake decorating. For this attempt at cake decorating I used Italian meringue buttercream frosting and chocolate ganache.

Ingredients: Italian meringue buttercream

• 5 large free-range pasteurized egg whites
• 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 2 1/4 cups unsalted butter, softened
• flavoring, optional

(Sullivan 26)

Ingredients: Chocolate ganache

• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 7 0z (200g) good-quality dark, milk, or white chocolate, broken into pieces

(Sullivan 38)

Directions:

• Put the broken chocolate and heavy cream into a pot.
• Put the pot on the stove and stir over low heat
• Let cool for 1-2 hours before spreading

(Sullivan 38)

First I spread the ganache on the cupcakes and then started piping stars on the cupcake - "Create Individual stars (below) or link them together as a border, using a medium open-star tip" (Sullivan 76). It was really easy to get the hang of piping stars, since the tip is so easy to use.

I also attempted to do the Rosette technique - "Use a medium open star tip to swirl tiny rosettes that can be linked or used individually. I tried to do a really big Rosette in the middle of my cupcake, and it didn't really turn out well. Instead it turned out looking like a swirl.

All in all I think that I'm going to stick to decorating cakes because they are easier to decorate since they have bigger area for decorating.

What are some themes that I could base my decorating on?

Sullivan, Karen. Step-by-step Cake Decorating: Hundreds of Ideas, Techniques, and Projects for Creative Cake Designers. London: DK, 2013. Print.   



All-Purpose Cupcakes - Real Sweet

All-Purpose Cupcakes                                                                                               ~Neetu Buttar

In this blog, I am going to be going step by step to show you how to make the best cupcakes for any event you'd like! There are hundreds of different types of cupcakes, and sometimes it can be hard to just choose one or two, not knowing what other people would like as well. With this cupcake, "you have many mix-and-match options when it comes to the sweeteners and nondairy milks here" (Sever 116). The reason I decided to bake cupcakes was because there really are no limits to what you can and or want to add.  

To get started, we are going to need a few ingredients:

• all-purpose flour; 2 c.
• baking powder; 1 tsp.
• baking soda; 1/2 tsp.
• salt; 1/2 tsp.
• almond milk; 1 c.
• honey; 3/4 c.
• vegetable oil; 1/3 c.
• lemon juice; 1 tbsp.
• vanilla extract; 1 tbsp.                  (Sever 116).

First off, we are going to need to preheat the oven to 350 degrees, so the oven will be ready when the cupcakes are ready to be baked. In the process of making the cupcakes, an important thing to remember is that "this is a great basic cake that can be flavored with a variety of zests, spices, and extracts" (Sever 116).

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a bowl, whisk the flour, baking power, baking soda, and salt together.
3. In another bowl, whisk the milk, honey, oil, lemon juice, and vanilla extract together.
4. Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients in an electric mixer and mix together.
5. Line a muffin tin with paper liners and divide the batter equally.
6. Bake for about 18-20 minutes until golden brown.                    (Sever 116).

I also cut this recipe in half, so it now yields 6 all-purpose cupcakes.

1. 
   
   
   
   
    You can really use any kind of frosting you want to decorate these cupcakes. You can also add food coloring to the cupcake mix to make baking the cupcakes a little more fun, like I did.

End Result:

These all-purpose cupcakes turned out great, with surprisingly enough sweetness to it, as there wasn't direct sugar poured into the cake. The frosting also helped with the sweetness. If there was one improvement that I could make, I would say my preciseness of making the cupcakes could be a little bit more neat and clear. But, the cupcakes really did turn out pretty soft, and moist, as well as fluffy.

Question: What would you add in these all-purpose cupcakes to make it unique to you?

• Sever, Shauna, and Leigh Beisch. Real Sweet: More than 80 Crave-   worthy Treats Made with Natural Sugars. New York: William Morrow, 2015. Print. 

Decorating Cupcakes with Many Techniques - Post #3

For this post I will be doing something very different from my other posts. I will be doing an extra step before I frost my cupcakes. Before icing them I fill my cupcakes with extra icing. To do this you need a piping bag with a plain nozzle tip (44). Then, using that piping bag with the plain nozzle tip, you squeeze the frosting into the cupcake.



Next, I did a simple flower design on the cupcakes. Since elegant type of designs are my favorite, i made it look quite elegant and neat. According to Collins and Brown, "the icing on the cupcakes is almost as important as the cake underneath it" (44). I definitely agree with this statement. If you decorate a cake and the cake underneath it isn't nice, the whole pastry is ruined. I learned this a while back when i first started to bake. It helped a lot when it came time to actually decorating the cakes.

Do you guys agree with the statement about the icing and cake?

First Cake Decorating: Simple Cake Designs for Beginners. London: Collins & Brown, 2014. Print.

Decorating Cupcakes with Many Techniques - Post #2

Decorating pastries is a relaxing hobby that I enjoy a lot. There are so many techniques and tools to help you with decorating. There are also so many designs that you can create. I will be using many piping designs for this post. To first create piping designs you need disposable piping bags with different shaped tips to use. Next, you need icing that is not too stiff nor runny to help with controlling placement (63). The tips for the piping bags I used are the plain tips and star shaped tips. The plain tips are used for lines and simple designs and the star shaped tips are for more complex designs like flowers.



After baking the cupcakes, I let them cool down for about 10 minutes. Then, I put chocolate frosting in the piping bags to decorate. I used three different tips. I used a plain tip, a star shaped tip and ribbon nozzle tip. To create most of these designs you need to hold the piping bag at an angle.



To make simple lines, the book recommends, "Holding the piping bag at a 45-degree angle and 5mm above the surface, then pipe towards you, securing the beginning of the line to the surface with a little pressure" (64). At first, I had a hard time trying to make the endings of the lines sharp and clean. But I noticed that holding the piping bag at an angle really helps with the precision of where the frosting is going to begin and end.


The last design is the flower (rose) design which uses the star shaped tip. To make this design the book suggests to, "Press out some icing to the size of the rosette you want, lifting the bag slightly to give the rosette space (64). By lifting the piping bag, it gives the flower a more realistic look to it. My favorite design was the flower. It makes the cupcake look very elegant.

Question: What other techniques should I try to make the pastry look elegant?

First Cake Decorating: Simple Cake Designs for Beginners. London: Collins & Brown, 2014. Print.

Decorating with Many Techniques - Post #1

Making pastries has been a part of my life for a while. Ever since I was young, I have made cakes, cupcakes, pies, and more. I used to watch my grandma in the kitchen make cakes and she would let me help her. Ever since then, I have loved to make pastries. Something that is even better than making pastries alone is decorating them. Cake decorating has changed so much over the recent years and there is so many thoughts you have to put into it like the type of cake, the size of the cake, the flavors of the cake and icings, and so much more (6). That is the joy of making pastries. There is so much you can do with baking. That is why I enjoy it so much.

The technique I used here is called feather icing. This creates an elegant look on cupcakes. The icing I used here is called glacé icing. This icing is very thick and leaves a shiny effect after the icing dries. To make this effect on the cupcakes, this book suggests, "Draw a cocktail stick or fine pointed knife through the piped icing in one direction and then in the opposite direction to create the feather pattern. Work quickly or the icing will form a skin and set before the pattern has formed" (69). The first cupcake I decorated looked a little messed up because I didn't work fast enough like the book stated. In the picture the person was using a toothpick, but I didn't have a toothpick so I used a small knife.

Question: What kind of pastry should I decorate next? What kind of decorations should put on it?

First Cake Decorating: Simple Cake Designs for Beginners. London: Collins & Brown, 2014. Print.