(November) Professional Development Cake Decorating

I love my alma mater. However, it did not teach me about how to decorate cakes and that is an essential component of the Foods 2 curriculum map. We have a competition – top chef of cakes – and students compete in kitchens for best in show!

Last year, we had one set of cake decorating tips for a class. It made it extraordinarily difficult to have students practice the techniques with different tips. I tried to teach the basic techniques but didn’t like saying “just do whatever you want” without guidance. I, too, at that time was learning how to use the tips and practiced a lot. However, this year I put in a grant application for cake decorating supplies and I was awarded the full amount! I was able to purchase a complete cake decorating tip set for every student as well as other cake decorating supplies to further develop their skills. With all of these new supplies, I needed to learn myself how to use the techniques to make awesome cakes!

So, to learn how to use all these new tools, I took an 8 hour cake decorating class. We worked with fondant and gum paste. Fondant is used to cover cakes and doesn’t dry as firm as gum paste. Gum paste I used to make those beautiful flowers on cakes and once dried can be painted/dusted with dust to make colorful flowers. I learned how to create mums, roses, daisies and other flowers out of gum paste and use fondant to create other shapes.

Overall, it was a worthwhile experience but I know I have much more to learn about this subject. Now, I have additional ideas to incorporate into class and help students figure out how to make better cakes.