Solitary chicken - need advice

[Guest]

I love baking and I make wonderful tasting cakes BUT when it comes to decorating them I make disaster cakes.

 

Today's effort was for a competition that I know I had no hope of winning but I wanted a shot at. No idea why I chose to make it a chocolate cake I know they always crack up. And before it did all the cracking it was looking lumpy. The competition was the Aga 300'th birthday and I was trying to make it look like an Aga lid. Here is a pic - the top has fallen apart a bit more since I took it. There is no way I could take this down to the Aga shop tomorrow to enter it - shame as its a wonderful prize - an Aga Kmix mixer!

 

 

[Blackrocksrock]

I think it looks smashing - the only way to do it right would be to go to classes but it is lovely and would imagine it tastes devine

[Guest]

I'd like to do classes but I can't really afford a lot at the moment and TBH anything after 7pm is too much for me - I'm up late tonight!

 

I've got beekeeping classes starting next month and whilst I'm looking forward to them I know that the late nights will kill me!

 

What I need is a Saturday morning class - but not starting too early as I have to get my bouncy castles out.

 

Actually I think maybe I do too much!

[Olly]

I'm not brilliant, so I usually use butter-icing because it's easy. If you're using runny icing, sorry can't think of the correct term, then it's worth piping butter-icing rosettes round the edge to contain it, and then flooding the middle.

 

Anything more elaborate and I use fondant ready-rolled ... just like plasticine, you can get really creative with it although I hate the taste. I'm going to do a class one day and learn to do royal icing, my mum was very good at it and she decorated our wedding cakes for all of us.

 

I do think it's one of those things that you just need to practise and practise - get a piping bag, make up some icing and just make loads and loads of squiggles and rosettes on a chopping board or a plate till you get the hang of it.

 

And yes, judging by the other things you post about Pengy, I think you probably do try and pack a bit too much in! As I recall you look after your son and your mum, run a house and large garden, work full time, keep cats, several chickens and a new dog I believe? and you built your own chicken run, I don't think you should beat yourself up about a bit of cake-icing!

[craftyhunnypie]

Pengy - I would take that down to the shop! People will appreciate the fact that it is homemade & you had the great idea to make it look like an Aga lid. Go on girl - you might just win!

In it to win it & all that stuff!

I worked in a cake decorating & bakery shop & the cakes that sold first in the window were the more homemade looking ones - rather than the smooth iced ones! Please take it to the competition!

 

Emma.x

[Guest]

I tried fondant icing that you roll out before - even bigger disaster!

 

I did take it down to the shop which had one bloke in it who knew nothing about the cake competition and said "the girls who usually work here would know" I have to say that shop is totally useless - this is fairly typical of the service I've had whenever I've been in there. I'm going to fire off an email to Aga later on.

 

It seems as if I am about to come into some money (rather complicated but the grandparents suddenly need to offload some) so I might see if there are any local shops running classes on the weekend.