Lesson 5: The Victorian Rose

 

This is the most beautiful cake I have made to date. It was almost painful cutting into it as it had to be eaten. Last week (I am finally up to date with my posting) we learned to pipe Victorian roses with the Wilton petal tip #97

They weren’t as difficult to learn as I originally thought but without my teacher showing me exactly how it’s done they might not have turned out as well. The Wilton book shows you the positioning of the bag and the angle of the tip with accompanying pictures. So if you follow you could create the rose, although you might find that it does not look as good as the picture. Even after seeing my teacher do a demo, my roses either looked flat or wonky. I was getting frustrated.

She came around to me and held my right hand and showed me how to pipe it. Learning to create roses, I realize that it is crucial where you position the tip and how much pressure to use when squeezing out the buttercream. Of course your left fingers (if you are a righty) have to twirl the flower nail smoothly too with the right amount of increments.

Sound hard? Well, it is not simple but it is definitely do-able! I chucked quite a few roses when I thought they look wilted or like someone trampled on them. Not pretty. The buttercream colours were a choice of pastel yellows, peaches and pink with an accent of violet. It made the cake look like it came right out of an English rose garden.

Can’t wait to try it somewhere else… a cupcake perhaps?

Lesson 4: Icing the Cake

I have this love-hate relationship with the drop flower tip. I never seem to get consistent results using this tip. A lot of the time the petals separate from each other when I lift the tip. I don’t know if this happens to you. If it does, I’d like to hear about it so I can have someone to complain with. Crystal tells me to let the tip dip in a bit (what a tongue twister) before pulling it up and I do try that, it works for maybe 3 and I am over the moon and then it screws up again. This is when working with American Buttercream is better because with a simple toothpick you can sort of rectify the bodged job. However with the meringue buttercreams…

We start off the morning with practicing some of the previous patterns that we’ve learned like the shell, reverse shell, floret, ribbon, rosebud… gosh listen to me! Rattling off all these styles.

Then we get started on practicing icing a cake. We get a round wood block which in another life may have been a chopping block. We are taught the way to hold the spatula, how to drop the icing on top of the cake and the gentle back and forth motions required ensuring even distribution of the icing over the cake all the while spinning the turntable in short and smooth jerks. Ok, maybe “jerks” is not the right word to use to describe the motion but I can’t for the life of me think of the right word just now. You know what I mean.

The hard part was icing the sides of the cake. Holding the spatula at 90 degrees to the cake turntable at the 6.30 o’clock position and giving the spatula a 30 degree angle to the cake you have to then use those gentle back and fort motions to ease the buttercream evenly onto the sides of the cake. And at the same time you have to be tuning the cake around. PHEW! If that’s not daunting enough, you have to finish each dollop of buttercream with a sweeping motion away from you don’t get any crumbs on the spatula. If you do, you run the risk of ‘contaminating’ the rest of your BC. I hate seeing crumbs on the icing. Absolutely hate it… but it’s sometimes unavoidable. You clean one up and you see another. So the trick is to be really generous with the BC when you put it on the cake and just slowly sweep off the excess as you go along.

I was quite happy with my final result which we topped with drop flowers. Whether I can do that again is another question. Practice, practice, practice!

Lesson 3: The Rosebud

I am really enjoying my lessons and to be honest, I would enjoy it more if I understood what everyone was talking about. One of my classmates, Gyeong Ha (경하) is a right Little Miss Chatterbox but not in an annoying sort of way. I actually really like the chatter that she generates and although I don't understand, from all the expression with that "ya's" and the "yo's" that I am hearing I'm sure it's interesting stuff. She has a friendly personality and is quite wicked with her rosebud piping techniques.

Gyeong Ha taking a pic of her half finished cake

She broke the ice with me right away with her basic English and of course that endeared her to me right away. She sits on my right. Another classmate is Hee Young (희 영) who is a really nice and very focussed. She doesn't speak any English (unless you consider Konglish) but that simply does not deter her from striking up a conversation with me. From Day 1, she has been talking to me in Korean while I pick up maybe 3 out of every 10 words that she is saying and try to make out what she is saying from 3 or 4 sentences then I will either say "Mullayo" as in "I don't know" or do my best to answer in my broken Korean. Charrayo! (잘아어!)

I think of her as the Mama of the group. Not so much as because she brought her 9 year-old daughter for the first lesson who was quite well behaved and patient which is unusual for a 9 year-old (most of us are Mamas there) but she just looked out for me from the offset. When teacher tells us what tips to use, she sometimes forgets to switch to English and I understand most of the numbers albeit a little slower but sometimes when I am focussed on practicing, I don't hear it and Hee Young will show me which one to use. She's very dedicated and takes a 2 hour journey each way just to come to class. She's learning to hopefully start her own home baking business soon. Go Hee Young!

Hee Young decorating with 100% concentration. She's piping dots which they call 'teng teng' in Korean. All I was hearing at one point when Crystal was giving instruction was "(blah blah blah) teng teng (blah blah blah). [Repeat]". So I had to ask what this 'teng teng' was as no one thought to translate.

So in Lesson 3 we learned to pipe the Rosebud. There's 4 steps to it:

1) Base Petal

2) Overlapping Petal

3) Sepals

4) Calyx

No, I did not translate this from Korean... I have the book. It's in the Wilton Method of Cake Decorating: Course 2. The trick with this is getting the angle for the overlapping petal right. I get the best results when I don't let my tip touch the decorating surface and let the icing roll the base petal over. The sepals and calyx were easy. We piped these on to baking paper that was laid onto cake boards and made 2 colours of the rosebuds and put the in the fridge.

The reverse shell and the 'teng teng's'

After that, the teacher and assistants (there are 2... or 3) helped us ice our cakes. Once that was done, we piped a decorative edge on the base. I did the reverse shell which is my favourite so far. Then it was time to take the rosebuds out of the fridge to place artistically on the cake. Very pretty. I brought the cake out for a party I had the next day and no one dared to cut the cake! I plunged the knife in in the end so people could help me eat it.

Lesson 2: Clowning Around

Today we learned to pipe the floret with the Open Star #16 tip. I must say mine doesn't look as chubby but passes the grade. We continue piping stars for the Clown Car but I must say it was fun learning how to make the clown's body which was done with the Open Star #22 tip. The head is made from plastic but the body can be in all sorts of different positions. However, as the body is just buttercream, I am not sure how well it can hold up the head if it's not refrigerated.

Besides the Car cake, we also had a choice of 3 designs for cupcakes. We also learned to pipe grass which I have done before so it was quite easy then Crystal taught us the different ways to use the Round Tip #12 to create all sorts of different animals. Gave me a lot of ideas and really armed me with the ability to create more designs with just one decorating tip.

Florets to create the wool on the sheep

The duck is actually a candle and looks right at home in his little cupcake pond.

These are suppose to be images of my kids. I liked piping the hair although couldn't quite get the mohawk right for Zac.

Lesson 1: The Easy Stuff

So, I get to class at 9.20am like I was told and there are already 2 students there. Crystal (the teacher) introduces me to the other two ladies who are home baking teachers. But I get the first hint that Crystal will be doing basic translation services. Cool! I’ll figure out the rest myself.

I get a name tag with my name in English and Korean and Crystal sits down with me to go through a list of tools that I will need and those that I have the option to buy if I don’t have the equivalent. I brought the tools that I had already and we compared them with the list and also the Wilton products. Immediately, I can see the difference in the quality of the Wilton products. For example, my angled spatula that I bought from Bangsan market is a lot more bendy compared to the Wilton one which is pretty solid. Crystal pointed out to me that when I am icing a cake, the weakness of the no-brand spatula may cause unevenness when I am spreading the buttercream. Comparing the two, I must say I can see what she means!

I also got 4 Wilton Bags (two 12”, 14” and 16). I already had some bags but I was advised that the Wilton bags were cotton based and better. Bet you’re wondering how when the other bags look similar and are cheaper. Well firstly, the Wilton piping bags are made from cotton then covered with a waterproof film and this helps to reduce the amount of heat that is transferred from your hand to the buttercream (which can cause the buttercream to split) and at the same time, I found it gives me more control when putting pressure on the bag to squeeze out the buttercream. Having said that, the difference with the local brand is not that significant so I wouldn’t throw them away and get the Wilton ones just yet.

I used the disposable bags mainly because I am just too lazy to wash the bags! Grease is just so difficult to get off but now that I know the benefits of the better quality bags, I think I will save the plastic disposable ones for cooking instead of baking. We also had to get 2 sets of gloves each to ensure we work in a hygienic environment and also to create another barrier between the heat from our hands and the piping bag. I used to use plastic (see a trend here??) gloves before but now I have been converted to cotton gloves – the sort you see construction workers use here. Sexy eh?

I also got a whole new set of 24 Wilton nickel covered tips including a tip saver case. They are so shiny compared to the no-brand ones I get elsewhere! I had bought some Wilton tips before but I only got the ones where I couldn’t find the equivalents here like the 1M, 1B and the 313 drop flower tip. The irony is that Wilton tips are made in Korea but their sale is so tightly controlled that you can only get them from an official Wilton store. Before contacting them, I didn’t know that I could get them in Korea so had to buy them from overseas and pay through the nose for postage. And now you know, so if you are looking for Wilton products check out www.wiltondeco.co.kr

One benefit of the Wilton tips especially in the class environment is that the all fit the standard coupler. If you buy the locally made ones, many of them are of a larger size so you can’t just change the tip even though you are using the same icing colour. This is a real pain when you have to squeeze all the BC out, push out the tip, put the new one in and then refill the bag. Talk about wasting time! So if you aren’t fuss about this, then you’ll be paying half to a third less of the price. (Local tips range from KRW700 to KRW1000 and can be found in most of the baking stores in Bangsan Market).

After we sorted out the tools that we needed, we got down to business. Crystal went through the Wilton Cake Decorating Course Book I and would translate in bursts which was easy for me to follow. The rest I could read myself as the book is in English (phew!)

First we learned to pipe stars with Open Star tip #16. How difficult could piping stars be right? WRONG. There is a technique to EVERYTHING as I was quickly finding out! A size #16 tip should create stars of a certain size and at first I was being to careful about how much buttercream to squeeze out so my teacher kept telling me, “More volume.” After practicing with the #16 tips we moved onto the round tips and played around with the size #2 and #4 as well as petal tips to create a ribbon and ruffles for the edges of a cake. We also practiced with a drop flower tip to learn how to pipe simple flowers for the heart shaped cake we decorated.

The best thing was having the teacher hold your hand and guide you. It really made a difference as I could now see how much movement is required in the wrist and how much pressure I should be putting on the bag. The angle is important too so the practicing was very important.

Once we were done practicing which took about 2 hours, we moved onto the actual cakes itself. We were given sponge cakes and shown how to make layers out of them and put buttercream and jam in between the layers. The first cake was a bunny cake that we had to ice using the open star tip. It’s a small cake and it still took some time. At first I thought I’d be clever and pipe all along the bottom edge until Crystal caught me at it. Then she told me to do it in sections to create uniformity to the rows and columns which made it look a lot neater. Not like someone who went crazy with the piping bag.

Here are some pictures of the cakes we made. The bunny was just adorable! I almost didn’t want to cut it… almost but the need to taste it was greater. The heart cake was such a pleasure to do. We started running short of time towards to end so I had to pipe the flowers in a slightly haphazard fashion but I think in the end it looked like it was meant to look a little all over the place.

Can’t wait for the next lesson!

The Bite of the Baking Bug and Learning Cake Decorating in Korea

A couple of years ago, I gave up my 3” heels, pencil skirts and the stresses (and joys) of owning my own business to move to Seoul to join my husband and to prepare for motherhood. Did I miss the highs of closing a deal, troubleshooting last minute messes, dishing out customer service the way you should even though you know the customer is being a real pain in !#@$, handling HR issues (*groan*), while working with a fabulous team of people and mentoring newbies? SURE!

At the same time I was relishing my new role as a mother and being able to focus solely on my daughter (except for those stolen moments surfing the net). But there was a part of me that wanted to do something more… something to channel that extra bit of energy generated from a packed daily schedule and intense pressure from the last 10 or so years in the industry. So I turned to sewing little projects for the house, myself and of course my daughter R.

Next came cooking and then THE BAKING. I used to bake when I was living in London and had a better work-life balance. So I find myself enjoying new recipes and deciding to take it to another level for R’s 1st birthday. My husband, whose friends call Mad-dog suggested that I bake cupcakes as favours for the party. Hmmmm, not a small undertaking as I knew I would get no help from him but I decided that it was time to push myself with a little challenge.

These are the Red Velvet with Cream Cheese Frosting cupcakes I made for R's 1st Birthday as favours

Back in the days when my daughter would have two (or more) 2 hour naps a day, it was easier to get cake decorating done in a calm and focused environment. These days…not! Anyway, I started decorating and found myself really enjoying it! I felt so peaceful and got a sense of achievement when I completed each cupcake. After that, I started baking more cupcakes, cakes and learnt more ways to decorate from the internet.

Some of my initial cupcakes designs
Frogs in Pond theme which I did for a 2 year-old's Birthday. This was very special to me as it was the first time someone asked me to bake for them and not just for any occassion!

The next two were for a Bridal Shower.

I began uploading photos of my designs on Facebook and friends started noticing, and in particular, ex-colleagues. They all seemed to have similar comments. Most were surprised that I had a ‘hidden’ talent! Now, I don’t know whether they said that because I was a tough boss so they just couldn’t see me in a 'domesticated role' or they just didn’t think I had that sort of creativity in me!

Vegetable Garden Party Themed Cupcakes

Some friends who noticed my cupcakes were willing to give an amateur a chance and got me to cater for them. I first baked for a friend who wanted Frog cupcakes for her son and it was exciting but I must admit I was a little nervous. Its one thing decorating and baking for yourself but it’s quite another when you’re doing it for someone else! But despite some minor hiccups along the way, the birthday boy was delighted with his cakes.

Frogs in Pond theme which I did for a 2 year-old's Birthday. This was very special to me as it was the first time someone asked me to bake for them and not just for any occassion!

The second friend who asked me to make some cupcakes did it as a surprise for her husband’s birthday. As it was World Cup season, she wanted something football (soccer) related so I made cupcakes with Korean national jerseys and some with soccer balls on a bed of grass. Getting the right green for grass is not easy!

I had a 3 hour decorating lesson while I was on holiday in Malaysia back in May where I learned to decorate cupcakes with gum paste and fondant so I used that knowledge to make the jerseys and the footballs. You can read about how I did it here. Gum paste and fondant is like plasticine for baking.

It was a Spring Garden Theme and I had fun making the frangipani's and African Daisies. I found the snails most fun to make.

I really enjoyed the lesson and started seriously thinking about taking classes to learn some basic and technical skills. There is only so much one can glean from reading a book! I could pipe 2D flowers but I wanted to do more! I wanted to make roses or make my own sugar paste flowers and I knew I wasn’t going to get very far just reading about it.

So I started looking into lessons that I could take in Korea. My biggest hurdle is the language. Ordering food, asking for directions and a bit of haggling (very important to learn in any language) at the markets is about as good as it gets. So the teacher had to speak some smattering of English.

My first stop was Wilton as I have been going to their website for ideas on how to use their tips. Wilton’s decoration tools are like the Bible of cake decoration. So I emailed Wilton Korea and they redirected me to Crystal Kim who owns the Wilton Deco School here in Seoul.

I got straight on the phone and called her. Between my bad Korean and her English and I managed to get down a lot of details about the type of courses that she runs which includes the standard Wilton Cake Decorating Course I, II and III which lasts for 3 months. This is called the Hobby Course and there is the Professional Course which she conducts and lasts for 6 months. Basically you learn heaps more about decorating. She also gave me the number of one of her former students for me to get an idea of how she conducts classes, what it would be like and also allow me to find out first hand experience from a foreigner. I found this especially useful.

The lady I spoke to was from Sri Lanka and her name is S. She was really kind to answer the tons of questions I had. My biggest concern was whether I would be able to keep up as I was worried that the instructions would be mainly in Korean and they would go on and on and I would be without a clue!

S explained to me how her classes worked, how she found it (she really enjoyed it), the teaching style, number of classes, what she learned and whether she found it worth her while (very important as the fees aren’t cheap). That helped convince me to go ahead with it. I visited the school in Banpo-dong where it’s located to check it out and pay my first 2 months of fees.

Walking through the door of the school, the smell of buttercream just envelops you like a cloud. Yummm! The next thing that catches my eye is the beautiful fondant and gum paste creations along the wall. There’s Mario from Super Mario looking like he just walked out of the TV and many other little edible delights.

Crystal had a former student there called Stacy who spoke terrific English, to help give me more information and answer my questions. Stacy was very cool and she’s on the WiltonDeco website and get this… she’s been to Planet Cake for a course! Anyway, with the help of Crystal, Stacy got her Wilton Method Instructor certification from Australia as there is such a queue of people who try to get on that course in Korea that it is almost impossible to get in as it only happens once or twice a year. Crystal through her contacts within Wilton managed to help Stacy secure a spot in the much coveted WMI course in Sydney. Now Stacy is getting ready to move to Sydney in October where she got a job at a bakery in Sydney as a cake decorator. How fabulous is that? Go Stacy!

That's Crystal Kim (WMI) my teacher on the far right with the rest of my classmates

Here is the group prepping some of the cakes with another group working in the background. They were making a Barbie cake. (Can't wait for that lesson!)

Well, that was how it all started out from a simple suggestion from my hubby (he IS useful sometimes) and now begins a really fun and exciting experience for me. I will be posting my experiences during my classes as much as possible. If anyone’s got any questions, just post a comment and I will do my best to answer or direct you to the right place.