Butter Cream Icing and CAKES!

Milly's Kitchen run cake decorating courses and I have been interested in doing one for a while so when I got some vouchers I decided now was the time. I chose to do the decorating basics as I haven't done any fondant work and this course was just for butter cream.

The first surprise was we didn't use butter - it was all done with vegetable shortening which, when made with icing sugar and water, can be kept in the cupboard. The other new addition to the recipe was meringue powder which firms everything up. 

First week was being told and shown all the basics. Second week was doing them all. The train cake was my first attempt. It's amazing how long you can spend trying to get the first layer of buttercream smooth on the cake. the train design was transferred to the cake using piping gel so the rest was kinda like colouring in.

Cake number 1

 Week 3 was cupcakes and practicing using different tips in our piping bags. Week 4 was the last one where we learnt to do roses and then were let loose to do what we wanted on our last cake.

Cake number 2

A couple of weeks later, after a trip to the zoo, Chloe and I decided to make a zebra cake. She told me I had to put a zebra on the top so I used the piping gel transfer technique.

And then the big ta-da for the inside! I'm really happy with how well this worked. You put 3 Tbsp of mix in the middle of the tin, then 3 Tbsp of the contrast colour in the middle of that and keep alternating until you run out of mix. Chloe made her own which was eaten before I got a pic but it worked really well too.

TA-DA!!

Soft Tutu Skirt - kinda

When I was little my mum spent FOREVER making me proper tutu's for my ballet competitions. If Chloe ever gets into that then I'm sure I would do the same, but for now I have followed the pattern I have seen many places where you simply knot the fabric/tulle around either a ribbon or a piece of elastic. 

I opted for elastic as I thought Chloe could put it on easier. I got some white, pink and purple soft netting and cut myself some strips. This was all completed in an evening and I thought Chloe would enjoy playing in it....I was wrong. For some reason she didn't like how the colours striped at the top so it was given to a friend. I'm going to try this again sometime with stiffer tulle to try and get a more stand-out tutu.

Plunket Book Cover - Alex

I finally got around to making a cover for Alex's Plunket book. It was really just a matter of picking up some stiff felt for the cover as I had everything else at home. I went for a little train that I had used for a cake design as he likes trains. Doing his name in the cloud made it easier to get a better colour with the paints. Last step is to sew down the big cloud and it's done.

The border is a bit wiggly as Alex was sitting on my lap and kept trying to push the button to cut the thread.