In this week's class, we learned to figure pipe bears and other round, puffy shapes; how to make a shell border; and how to make and save drop flowers (star and plumeria.) We also learned how to make a clown out of frosting.

Figure piping

Clown on right has no head

My favorite: we practiced two ways of making multi-colored frosting. You can either pre-mix colors and add them into sections of the bag, or you can do the "lazy" way and get some color gel and a paintbrush and paint stripes on the sides of the bag. The first way comes out looking like the soft serve ice cream. The second way, brush striping, has a beautiful effect because it produces color shades of varying intensity- darker near the center of the stripe.

Brush striping

We ended class with a chance to decorate three cupcakes that the teachers provided. It was red velvet. We could ice it with the usual buttercream frosting, or buttercream mixed with cream cheese. YUM. I like the latter.

Mine

By the time class ended, I was quite tired, so I had already packed up my decorating mojo. I had really simple, plain cupcakes. I notice I tend towards a clean, Scandinavian, simple aesthetic in general- whether it's my living space, my glass work, my beading, or now, my cakes. But tonight's design plan was just laziness.

I like this more than I expected. I fell asleep thinking about cupcake designs I'd like to attempt for a party. Not too many people I know like sweets (versus salty) so I have been keeping a mental list of who I might be able to bake for. If I bake a cake a week I certainly can't eat it all.

P.S. Sorry I didn't take photos of everything I described. I was tired.

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