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Final Cakes

Just finished doing my final cakes from all of the three courses i attended at Golda's Kitchen in Ontario, and i must say it was the best decision i made so far upon coming here. I did not know what was going through my mind for taking such a big leap, (for me it was since i hated decorating cakes before), i think someone just whispered to me and told me, "hey, you snap out of it and do this".

So i did, thanks to my brother who supported me all the way. You have got to have a brother like him to get you sign up for something like this, although decorating cakes was not as alien as cleaning windows off the 60th floor for me, it was something i find disdainful because there is so much dainty little bitty things to do for such an extended length of time. Imagine you sitting down for house and finishing only a couple of flowers such as an orchid? I could have made 5 kilograms of pandesal with that much time.

Well, there is really a time for everything eh. (that's what some of my classmates sometimes say) I met wonderful people who share the same passion and you get inspired by your teacher's dedication for perfection. My Royal Icing class for example turned out to be competition quality, she stresses the fact that one tiny bit of off key line or dot will send you home packing. She is right. Aim for the gold.
I will try to upload some images here just in case you do not want to click my tumlbr link but if once again it takes too  much of my time, please bear with me and press that link. Pretty please? Can't believe i am saying that.
 
This is the final Royal Icing project although i added tiny roses on top which i will take pictures later. Yup, i brought this dummy cake all the way back to New York. The top has a run out sort of gazebo box, blue filigree (which Maria wants to see done), tiny small white flowers using tip 59 degrees over a green fondant. 
The string work done on the next photo is to me the most difficult part, not only will the icing consistency and your speed in working matters a lot but your patience as well. The space in between each string should be narrow enough not to allow another string to pass through. If Maria sees them wide, she will make you repeat them, as in all of them. I had to destroy an entire two inch of this when she saw one, one off string that strayed to the left. Whew!

Then came the lace patterns that you have to prepare in advance, attach them gingerly, no shaking hands otherwise, you will break a string or worst destroy an inch worth of coverage which to me looks more like an acre!
A side view of the lace patterns, all of which should be perfectly aligned, sometimes i have to hold one for a minute because it droops. See one string that is sort of pushed back? I broke that one and had to re bag some royal icing and re-pipe this one string. Hard work but i love every piece i put into it. I will post more photos step by step in my tumblr account, because it is much easier to edit.
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