Hand Work

Colors are my fascination and it very well translates to my interests be it the arts, fashion, beauty and lately, cake decorating. It was my first day of class last Thursday and we were only five students in class. It gave the instructor ample time for each one. Perfect! The whole experience felt like home to me and I know, I have found my passion in life. Envisioning how I see myself in the future was a problem before till I took a few steps back to see the bigger picture otherwise known as my life. I tried my hand in different things to feel how it was like to cook, bake and basically to create things. Cake decorating has been of interest to me lately and I want to do this as a business. As a craft, it thrills me and encourages me to think of more colors and designs.

Lesson #1 was an introduction to making icing and the different tips needed. I also had several hands on exercises on making dots, lattice, string work and basketweave. These are all tip techniques that I have to master. Doing the exercises brought me back to the time when I was in kindergarten learning how to write my ABCs. On a parchment paper, I slid a guide paper at the bottom where I had to follow the strokes shown on the paper and practice the different hand angles and pressure of squeezing the piping bag. For the final project, I chose an intricately designed one layer cake adorned with flowers. Well I plan to make it two-tiered to make it more challenging. This should be my masterpiece at the end of the course.

I'm happy to find what I truly love to do and I wouldn't mind "working" on this as my business. It'll all be fun and it'll never feel as if I have to work a single day in my life.

The top and bottom are the lattice techniques while the middle rows are purely dots. The dots are used for designs when you want it to look like pearls. Don't ask why I chose pink colored icing. I love the color pink!

These are the string works. It can be one, two or three layers. These are usually placed on the sides of cakes.

This is the basketweave. It's called such because it looks like a basket right? I had to make this really precise and spaced evenly. Cake decorating very well fits my OC personality and my keen attention to details.

Loops and more loops. I love how I twist my right hand to form the loops.
My masterpiece. For now, this is just a photo of what I'll be copying at the end of the course. I chose this design because of the flowers and I love the color pink. I love the small designs on the icing and this will test my attention to details. Also, I think if I do practice this design, I think the concept is sellable. I plan to sell wedding cakes in the future.