My Journey as a Cake Decorator (Part 2: My 1st handmade Flowers)

After informing my family and friends about my interests in becoming a cake decorator (temporarily just for fun!), I offered them up to 10 decorative cakes which I will do FOR FREE! I mean I need to practice and what better ways to do it for the people you know. So my 1^st customer was Ms Lee Yin Mei. She requested a birthday cake for her mom who will be celebrating her 62^nd birthday. Well actually I offered to do the cake; she has no say on that matter! :P

I plan to do a carrot cake and try the design from ‘The Whimsical Bakehouse’ using roses, blossoms, buds and leaves. Very ambitious but that’s me! I’ve always receive huge reviews with my carrot cake and I baked for Mei's birthday so why not for her mom. I made the cake 2 nights before the delivery date. I wanted to try out this technique which I’ve read from blogs and forums. ‘Freezing the cake’ – apparently this technique will make the cake more moist and soft. Because of the freezing technique, the moister from the cake will not dry out. So that’s what I did. I wrapped the cake with cling film and placed it in the freezer over night.

The next day I made the cream cheese frosting. Took the cake out of the freezer and started frosting it. I placed it inside the fridge and allow the frosting to harden. I began my training in doing the flowers using buttercream frosting. The difficult part was getting used to the flower nail. Turning it counter clockwise, rotating the head between your left thumb and forefinger. Using the piping bag was not that hard. After accomplishing the flower technique, it was time to do the decor. I need to tell you this, when I was decorating the cake I had an audience. My mom, brother and sis-in-law, you can imagine the stress I was in! Anyways, I begin doing the flowers and placing it on the cake. 2^nd error – DON’T BE TOO AMBITIOUS! Enough said! The cake turned out awful. The design and colours I use was horrendous (according to my bro). I was confused and de-motivated. I left it as it is :(

When everyone went to bed, I crept downstairs to the kitchen, took the cake out and got rid of the horrendous flowers. I cleaned up the cake by spreading some leftover cream cheese frosting and place it back in the fridge.

Early the next morning I started making the flowers. I told myself to keep it simple and nice. I decided to do red roses and few yellow roses and leaves in the middle of the cake. My brother woke up and saw the flowers and said “HAAaaaaaaaaaa kan cantik!” (translate – “HAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa way prettier! (or better)” . I was very very happy with myself *pat on the back*.

The customer was very happy and it was her 1^st time eating a carrot cake. HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUNTY!

p/s: Yes! The cake was way soft and moist! Great 'freezing the cake' technique!

The Result