19 September 2011 - Chocolate Paste Course

On Monday I attended a chocolate cake course at a nearby cake decorating school.  I've done quite a few courses and this one was by far the best.  I didn't have to take anything with me, they provided everything including the box and bag to take the cake home in.

I arrived a bit late as it was much further away from the station than I thought it was!  Upon arrival there was a six inch three layer chocolate cake ready made and buttercreamed, the point of the course was to decorate so I was pleased we didn't waste time with that bit.  Our lovely teacher Erica spent some time explaining chocolate paste to us and how best to work with it and then we got going.  The first thing we did was cover the cake, it is covered in white chocolate paste which tastes divine!  We then covered the board.  I picked up lots of tips from Erica to help me with covering with sugarpaste too so I was very pleased about that.

Next we were supposed to use the bead makers but they had gone missing so instead we got to use a sugar craft gun and make a rope to twist and put around the cake.  I have ordered one as I think it is going to be useful.  You can use them with sugarpaste too.

After that we got going with our fans, we spent quite a long time making fans, we used mini rolling pins to emboss them before folding up the chocolate paste.  We made fans of different sizes to give some interesting variation on the cakes.

Then we broke for lunch and had a nice chat while we all grabbed a sandwich and some people carried on making fans.

After lunch we tackled the roses. I had made roses before but all self taught and Erica was great in helping me work out where I was going wrong with my roses, she also taught us a cool technique where you work the petals on to a cone on your table.  We were using the dark chocolate paste which was much firmer than the white.

After the roses we made some balls and and leaves and dusted them.  Erica did a transfer sheet demonstration, that's the shards of stripey chocolate, all very cool.  I have ordered some to play with.

Then eventually we got to put the cake together.  We started playing around with designs and once we were ready we stuck the bits on with melted white chocolate.

I was really really pleased with my finished cake.  I took it to work the next day and everyone loved it.  I am making a chocolate wedding cake later in the year and now I feel confident that I'll be able to do it without too much stress!

side of cake

back