I've decided that cake decorating is a lot of fun, but it's not nearly as much fun as people make it look on TV. I can tell you why it's not that fun. Duff, The Ace of Cakes, has "people". Duff's "people" even have "people". Therefore, they can all sit at their clean, roomy, work spaces while someone else scrubs bowls, spatulas, tips, couplers, pans and mixer attachments and takes out their trash. Heck, they even have their own baking guy that does all the oven watching for them.
I, on the other hand, have people that leave half eaten pizzas, empty milk jugs (the trash can is less than three feet away), dirty paper plates, etc. ON my workstation. Thus, not only do I have to toss my own trash and seal my own icing leftovers, but I have to throw away other people's trash and bag up other people's leftovers.
Roomy my workspace is not. Somehow all of my projects seem to require every tool, tip, book and ingredient I have. I have to keep moist towels, baggies, decorating bags, couplers, 60 plus decorating tips (and whatever project I'm working on is guaranteed to need tip 104 for use with at least 4 different colors), 4 spatulas, 2 boxes of gel color, paint brushes, fondant iron, parchment paper, waxed paper, plastic containers, plastic wrap, the stand mixer, 2 flower nails, and my tool box leave me with about 1 square foot of free space to actually decorate a cake or make decorations. The counter tops in back of me are filled with freshly washed bowls, spatulas, plastic containers, mixer attachments, tips and couplers. The sink is filled with unwashed bowls, spatulas, plastic containers, mixer attachments, tips and couplers.
One day I'd like to walk unannounced into Charm City Cakes and see if there are at least smears of daffodil yellow icing in anyone's hair.
5 comments:
Your cake is beautiful, Jean!
It is, it's a lovely cake. I almost hate to think of cutting into it!
it's gorgeous!
I am starting cake decorating classes in April. I signed up already and got the "starter kit"... any advice to a novice cake decorator?
Oh cool Barb! You'll love it! The absolute best advice I can give you is to go out now and buy stock in Crisco and C&H Sugar. Next go out and buy at least 8 of the 2 lb cans of Crisco and at least 8 of the 2 lb bags of C&H pure can sugar confectioner's sugar. Then you won't have to race out to get either for 4 weeks.
Pick up 2 or 3 four packs of couplers. Do get the small cake leveler, 1 small angled round tip spatula, 1 small angled pointed tip spatula and one long angled round tip spatula from Michaels or JoAnns or ABC. Any time you have an extra $2.00, buy an extra #104. You can never have too many 104 or 103 tips, especially if you plan to do course 2.
Have at least 10 plastic containers and lids in a size that will hold 1 to 2 cups of icing. Also have a couple of larger ones that will hold 6 cups of icing.
The plastic icing bags are infinitely easier and more convenient than making the parchment bags.
Keep a wet (not dripping) towel on the counter near you to stick your tips into so the icing doesn't crust in them while you're working with different colors and tips.
Have fun!
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