Everyone who embarks on cake decorating, from those mums or dads simply wanting to make their kids cakes to those that want to earn a fully fledged living, each have their heroes, idols and other inspiring decorators they love to name as favourites.  In Australia, Planet Cake has unashamedly risen in the ranks and become popular in commerical circles and in the lives of the famous also!  One of the things I love most about them is that they are open and sharing in their content, methods and techniques but also in their ‘why they do what they do’.  Some people call them a sell out,  but I disagree,  as Paris Cutler clearly explained at a recent demonstration, their techniques and cakes are commerical based, they often have A LOT of cakes they need to get through in a short amount of time, so their importance is based around getting the absolute best result possible in the least amount of time. They consider themselves perfectionists, but I think they clearly realise they are also realists, they have time constraints and bills to pay and really isn’t that every cake decorators life!?!

I’ve been wanting to do a class for a while, but have had some difficulty in deciding where to start!  With some cake decorating experience behind me, it was hard to know where to throw myself in.  If you are having the same issue then don’t be shy in contacting Planet Cake as they will help you find a starting place.

So finally I got the opportunity to do a Planet Cake Course, I can’t explain how excited I was.  I bought their book, which I then passed on to my niece, I need to buy myself another now!  And we even gave one away on the blog when they were published.  I don’t know what I was expecting but I loved the book when it came out, I really liked the cake designs, and the progression the book took, from beginners to more experienced decorators there is something in there for everyone.

But I digress so back to the class.  It started on a Saturday, the beginning of the rest of my cake decorating career…. heheheh so to speak.  I parked the car and nervously headed to the Planet Cake studio.  What would it be like? Would I be able to keep up?  Would my cake be a disaster when I finished?  Would their be any other newbies?  What would Anna Maria be like? And well you know all the general questions that I’m sure everyone on their way to their first class would have!

There’s a real weird quality when Handi walks in the door, like this familiarity…. you feel like you know them, you know these faces, like you know the faces of the people from your favourite TV show, Joe Blow on the street might not know him but you’ve seen him on TV, he’s a star hehehehehehe!  Thankfully Mr Star had coffee and was able to direct me down to the coffee shop for my caffeine fix, I was worried how I would possibly be able to decorate without having my skim mocha first whew!

The class maximum was 12, this class had 10 students, after introductions it appeared that all the other girls had done at least one if not more previous Planet Cake classes, so I was the virgin of the bunch.  Having said that, many were more than happy to revisit some of the early steps either because Anna Maria was new to them as a teacher, and they were interested in how she showed the steps or just to help refresh their minds in what to do.  This made me feel better that I wasn’t holding the class back in any way.

Everything is waiting for you when you arrive, tools, cake, board etc, but excitedly some tools were new to me, and I soon discovered that some of them I would not be able to live without and others I wouldn’t be spending money on, that’s the beauty of classes like this!

I won’t bore you with a step by step per se because really if you’ve done or are going to do a class you’ll have or will get to experience it first hand.

I’ll sum things up in what I learnt.

• Torting a cake….. I was to discover the trick to getting this done right is actually all in the right knife!
• Ganaching…. what did I learn here?  That you may need to spend more than 5 minutes ganaching to get the finish you want, but this will actually save you time and fondant later!

• X-ray film… if you can get your hands on some then DO!!!  In an exciting twist for me I had to recently have a couple of x-rays!  So here I was ready to go with some, I cut mine up the minute I got home!
• Working with styrofoam, it’s messy but get your hands on some sand paper and don’t be scared to give it a go.
• A groove board for wiring leaves and flowers….. I hated it, I tried it and didn’t like it, we were told Greg Cleary can’t work without his, more power too him, you should try it for sure, I hated it….. just one of those things! ;D
• Airbrushing… I’m glad mine had little closed bottles, I kept spilling the colour everywhere, helpful tip do it over the sink!

• Rolling fondant Planet Cake thin… I was nervous as all hell, I’ve heard and seen how thin they roll the fondant, I just wasn’t sure if I could do it, light bulb moment of the day, right up there with the torting, the most helpful thing in getting this right is that you have a rolling pin that works for you!  You know I have to admit I have a very supportive cake friend who has been telling me for months that I should get a big heavy wooden rolling pin, I’ve been yeah yeahing her for months…. after falling absolutely in love with the wooden rolling pin at Planet Cake I went and purchased two as soon as I was able to get to a shop that sold them!

• The secret to perfect stripes, invest in a pasta machine!  I came home and bolted mine directly to the table, I can’t believe I left it sitting in it’s box for over a year!

All the while Anna Maria was really great in going round the class, helping correct technique, giving further tips and advice and so on.

The girls in the class were a laugh and a half.  Some of them had plans for their cakes, birthday’s, orders, and so on, and some didn’t, mine is still sitting in it’s box as I couldn’t figure out who to give it to… and part of me doesn’t want to see it dismantled hehehehehe

For those of you who are interested my new tool list included:

• A sharp long knife for torting, the other side can be used for smoothing the top of a ganached cake
• Big heavy wooden rolling pins
• A variety of flat and angled spatulas in different sizes
• X-ray film
• A couple of very sharp paring knives
• Silver card board bases
• Bench scrapers
• A couple of different sized cutting boards
• Pasta machine
• A large plastic table cloth (cut up into large but usable covers – great for cutting all those stripes up but not having them dry out)

For suppliers try the Planet Cake Store, Sweet Pak Aus, Food Utensils, Spotlight or any from the list in the far right column, don’t be scared to shop around! ;D

When I started decorating I went and did a community college class, and I found it fantastic.  The teacher I had was great and I was able to learn some important basics.  Now after a couple of years of decorating, even a couple of competition entries and quite a few cakes under my belt my thirst for knowledge has not disappated, however, my time is at a premium, I want to be able to get in and out with my learning and Planet Cake really achieved that for me.  In one weekend we touched on ganaching, covering, corners, spots, stripes, styrofoam work, airbrushing, creating a flower, and a little bit of modelling.  That’s a lot of things to cover in one weekend, and somethings we just touched on, but we all had the opportunity to experience each thing, and these I feel that the new skills I’ve learnt will only improve my cakes in the short and long term.

People look at Planet Cake courses and say they are expensive… yes in some respects in comparison to other things they can seem that way, but after doing one, what I came out of the class with and what we covered in content I really got more than my value for money.  Most people I know who’ve done one class, like a tattoo, can’t wait for the next one, other classes, such as community college classes require you to bring your own ingredients, your own tools, and there’s often homework that you need to do as well, don’t get me wrong I loved my community college class when I did it, but at the end of the day the costs are not all that different.   So yes I am already planning my next Planet Cake class.

As with everything cake decorating related, don’t be shy in trying different things, have a go at a Planet Cake class and see how you feel about what you learnt.  Remember their methods are just that one particular way of doing things, the point is to take what you need and discard what you don’t. Don’t be shy in contacting them either, I’ve found every single person I’ve dealt with at Planet Cake to be super nice and more than helpful.

Join me tomorrow when I announce an exciting Planet Cake sponsored competition… yep there’s a Planet Cake voucher to win that will enable you to do a Planet Cake Class!  I’ll be letting you know what you need to do to enter to win!

A cutting wheel in Cake Decorating is a tool used for cutting out or tracing around shapes in fondant, modelling paste, pastillage, marzipan and so on. It is used to help give your cut a nice clean edge, where other tools such as a knife or scapel might drag at the paste or leave a rougher edge.

Probably the most common or at least most well known tool used is the PME Cutting Wheel, it has two different sized wheels that can help you get into those nooks and crannies.

Some of the things you can use it for include cutting a line freehand, cutting out ribbon strips or tracing around a template (sometimes a paper template is all we may have!)

Another option is the Wilton Fondant Cutter embosser that has two cutting wheels and an embosser (which we will cover in another tools series).

But you can also use a pizza cutter, my one here has a straight and wavy edge. The pizza cutters however are quite large and not very dextrious for cutting out letters and the like. But they are good for large squares or ribbons or even cutting the fondant away from the edge of the cake.

As you can see many tools have more than one use!

You can buy a cutting wheel from most Cake Decorating Suppliers in Australia and Internationally, check out our Supplier Directory for your nearest supplier, although you can purchase from many of them online as well!

Remember you are only limited by your imagination! Have you discovered a very cool tool to do the same job, please share it with us by leaving a comment or contacting me through the contact page.

So when you are starting out there are a lot of things to take into account when trying to get your cake level, how it is baked, how you measured, how you cut or torted (optional), or even whether your bench is level.

More importantly when you start stacking cakes, it becomes even more important for the ones underneath to be level!

There’s a great hardware item you can use the spirit level!  Now don’t be put off they come in all sizes, you don’t need one that is a foot long!  You can get little ones which are perfect for cake decorating.

You can get them from hardware stores like Bunnings (I picked one up for $2), so another nice cheap item.

Or try your cheap shops, when I was in Hot Dollar the other day I found this little baby, along with two tape measures (one for home, and one for the bag, another helpful item!) for $3.99.  This one is great because it has the vertical, horizontal and angled level you can use and just the perfect cake size, so not a huge space stealer!

Once you are more experienced you can start to judge more by eye, but I think you’ll find not very many experienced decorators rely on judging it by eye when stacking is involved I’d highly recommend getting things even with this gadget!

How to use:

• Place on top of cake or
• Hold against side of cake or
• Place against any line of cake that you need to check is level
• Check if line moves inbetween the two centre lines, if so cake is level!

Do you get your cakes level using another method?  Please leave a comment letting us know how you do it!

There are loads of tools out there, cheap and expensive, this new series will hopefully shed light on a variety of equipment.  You don’t have to agree with everything I say, it’s totally up to you to decide what is useful for you and what isn’t.  If you have any tips or tricks with the tool we discuss, please go ahead and post a comment!

Today’s tool is

Tweezers

As any woman knows there are different types of tweezers!  In Cake Decorating it bodes well to have several different types. Pointy ones, flat ones, bendy ones, they all serve a purpose dependant on your needs. They can make a cake decorator’s life much easier for those little things we can’t grab hold of and those nooks and crannies we can’t get our fingers into!

You can use them to do such things as

• Place small items on a cake
• Place small items on the side of a cake
• Pinching the bottom of items on a piece of wire
• Poke holes in models such as eyes

and so on!

The really big bonus is that they don’t have to cost a lot!  Always a bonus.

Inspired by my recent Cheap Shop, Cheap Tools, Getting Creative post I popped into Hot Dollar to pick up some ribbon and cupcake wrappers, and there I spied a packet of 4 different tweezers for the grand old price of $2.50.

My favourite ones are the angled ones they really help get into awkward positions with their little angled head.

Remember if you are using them to apply edible pearls or small items like that, the items need to set or you need a very light hand, I don’t have the light hand and have squashed many an item, so that’s my tip to go with this tool!

So go on pick some up today, you never know when you may need them!

Do you use tweezers in decorating?  What ones are your favourite?

Some people might think a cheap shop, a $2 shop, considered a cake decorating supplier, what!!!

But let me try to change your mind , places like Hot Dollar are just a crazy treasure trove of cake decorating materials. From cheap paper, plastic and ribbon to cover your boards, to boxes to organise your tools, to cake tins, cupcake wrappers and kitchen tools, to as big as your imagination can stretch!

See the thing is you can buy the most expensive tool there is, if it works for you that’s OK, you should keep using that tool. BUT what if you just don’t have the money, what if you are just starting out and want to try a few things before committing fully to the hobby, what if you are just someone who likes to see what they can do with stuff both cheap and expensive, what if, what if, what if!

I adore cheap shops, their kitchen sections provide a treasure trove of cupcake liners and mini cutters, skewers, tins and so much more. Then there are the craft sections with scrapbooking materials and not to forget the tool section with their containers that make for great storage! You really are only limited by your imagination! And seriously you spend $2 and it doesn’t work out no big loss! But I do challenge you to only spending $2 when you walk into one of these places!