TheGreatCoursesPlus - Cake Decorating

TheGreatCoursesPlus - Cake Decorating

Explore the sugar art of cake decorating with Jenny McCoy as your expert guide to the essential tools, materials, and techniques for professional-quality results.

https://www.thegreatcoursesplus.com/cake-decorating

1: Introduction to Cake Decorating

Ground yourself in the fundamentals of cake decorating as Jenny discusses the elements that make up a decorated cake. Discover a few basic tools, plus the timeline for making your first cake!

2: How to Bake a Cake

Get right into action by learning to make a yellow butter-based cake. Find out how to prepare the pans, mix the batter, and bake it to a beautiful golden brown. You can use the same recipe to make a chocolate version, too!

3: Making Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Jenny shows you how to make her favorite decorating frosting: Swiss meringue buttercream. It's a step up from the traditional one-bowl, powdered sugar-and-butter variation.

4: Constructing a Single-Tier Cake

Trim your baked cakes so they're uniform and level every time. Find out how to stack up the layers, fill them with frosting, and frost the entire cake with a crumb coat. You'll add a final coat for a sharp-edged flat finish that will get you ready to start decorating.

5: Buttercream: Textured Finishes

Discover three techniques for texturing cakes with buttercream: horizontal ridge, vertical stripe and a simple-yet-beautiful brushed finish. These finishes are not only beautiful and on trend, they're also great at covering up anything that's less than perfect.

6: Buttercream: Preparing to Pipe

Set yourself up for piping success by learning to color buttercream for endless customization. Jenny shows you how to fill a piping bag with buttercream and pipe a line of frosting.

7: Buttercream: Simple Designs & Borders

Once your buttercream is colored and in a pastry bag, practice making a few simple designs with two different tips: round and star. You'll see how to turn your designs into borders.

8: Buttercream: Piped Roses & Leaves

Continue to work on your piping skills by learning to pipe the classic buttercream rose with Jenny's step-by-step instructions. Don't worry if you mess up; since these beauties are away from your cake they can go right back in the frosting bowl.

9: Fondant: Handling & Coloring

Conquer the pliable sugar dough known as fondant as Jenny shares her best tips for handling, storing and coloring to make gorgeous, professional-looking decorated cakes.

10: Fondant: Rolling Out & Covering a Cake

It's important to give yourself a pristine, clean canvas for decorating. In this lesson, learn how to roll out fondant and drape it beautifully over your cakes. Jenny will also walk you through some common problems and explain how to fix them.

11: Fondant: Cutouts

See how to make a variety of fondant decorations from just a few simple cutters and place them securely as you make a cute and easy "Happy Birthday" cake. Plus, learn Jenny's secret no-stress method for writing messages on cakes.