Pressure piping

This class has all been about royal icing; in particular about pressure piping. With this technique you can make the whole animal kingdom, if you wish. The key is to know when to press and when to stop and to know how to build your animal step by step. Most animals are made out of a round shape or a water drop shape. By putting more or less pressure on your piping bag you can give it any shape you wish. 

Here are some very fun and cute samples of what can be done with pressure piping. 

Today was the first day we covered and decorated a real edible cake and as I don't see myself making a lot of animals with pressure piping I decided to decorate my cake with flowers. I have to say I am getting really good at it!

As this module is all about using royal icing for decoration we all got to work with a cake that the school made earlier. It was quite a big cake so I manage to cut it in 4 even (yah!) pieces. On the cake I sprinkled a bit of sugar water. This is just a simple syrup made of 50% sugar and 50% boiling water and to make it extra flavorful we added a dash or two amaretto liquor. After that I spread some cherry jam on one layer and some apricot jam on the other. On the last layer I used half cherry and half apricot. Then I coated it all with some Italian butter cream. This is not simply butter and some powdered sugar creamed together, but made with egg whites, sugar water and butter. Because the base of this butter cream is a meringue mixture it's silky smooth and not overly sweet. I think I can eat a whole bowl of if just by itself! 

After the cake was covered it has to be chilled in the fridge for a bit so the butter cream can firm up. In the mean time we kneaded some white fondant and since I love blue I added some color to it. 

I spend the afternoon making flowers and decorating my cake. 

And I was very pleased with the results.

I even had time to decorate a ginger bread house!