A Rose By Any Other Name Would Taste Just As Sweet!

On Monday night, we "graduated" from our Wilton Basic Cake Decorating Course. Cakes were on us, of course! Our final lesson was about making icing roses and letterings. It was fun and frustrating at the same time!

Making real-looking flowers requires stiff consistency icing. My icing was too stiff it felt like my piping bag was constipated! I was silently fuming inside because I had to add drops of water to soften it and was consequently lagging behind in the lecture's pace. Our instructor told me to use piping gel instead to make the icing smoother. That did the trick!

I caught up eventually, but my first attempt at the rose was comedic. I kept dropping the blob of rose base off the flower nail!

"Oh, you got a jumper!," exclaimed our instructor.

But patience is a virtue, and I managed to squeeze out my first icing roses short of acquiring carpal tunnel syndrome. Tadaaah!

Our cakes were all abloom with roses that night! It was an edible garden of roses! And to make it official, we all received our Wilton Certificates of Completion for the course!

If I become rich someday off of cake decorating, could I possibly afford a Honda EU1000iA? One can build cake castles in the air, right?

Something important I learned from this course is that "consistency is key" when it comes to mixing your icing. It can't be too stiff, can't be too soft. It has to be just right for whatever it is you're trying to make! And as with anything else in life, consistent practice is key to perfection!