All of Saturday was devoted to icing a cake. She told us the day before that we were going to learn how to ice a cake. I was ecstatic; finally, another step toward making my own cake. The previous days whenever the workers would ice a cake I would watch them and analyze their movements. They made it seem so effortless. After all that time watching them, I was thrilled to do it myself, but little did I know that icing is actually very difficult. You have to use an equal amount of icing on all sides (and therefore apply a consistent amount of force when squeezing the icing bag), hold the spatula at a certain angle (or else you will rip icing right off the cake), ice the cake with speed and precision (because the faster you work the more manageable the icing will be)...it was a lot to take in all at once, but, after one through run-through with Sandy, I attempted to ice a cake on my own. In approximately six hours straight, I completed three attempts. The first two where decent for a beginner; the top was uneven and the sides contained a lot of air bubbles in the icing. For my third attempt, I decided that if I were to succeed I would have to ice the cake a lot faster—and I was right. After cutting my time from over thirty minutes to less than one minute, the top was even and the sides were pretty smooth. I didn’t have time to try again to see if I truly mastered this technique, so I am hoping that my third attempt wasn’t mere luck.
The last several minutes a worker briefly taught me how to do decoration borders, and I will hopefully attempt that Tuesday.
Eileen! This sounds like so much fun and I’d love to be in your shoes right now. The skill that is involved in making and icing cakes is really underappreciated and I’m glad you’re able to see and experience all the hard work that goes into it. People don’t really think about how much effort it takes to create a cake unless they watch those cake shows on TV, and you’re getting to experience it. It sounds really tiring to have frosted a cake for six hours. And good job on your improvement! I don’t think I could do it, it sounds like so much stress is involved. You sponsor sounds really generous and kind, too, taking out the time to teach you and help you to improve. When will you get to create your own cake? Will that be your final project? Are you going to create anything besides cakes, like cupcakes or brownies or something like that? Make sure you post pictures so that I can see how everything turns out! I definitely can’t wait to hear more updates.
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