In an effort to get my creative juices flowing, I recently took a piping techniques class at Sugar Flower Cake Shop. Upon arriving, each hopeful soon-to-be piping expert was handed a laminated practice piping sheet along with a pastry bag and tip. The lead instructor came around to each table to demonstrate the proper way of piping stars, shells, rosettes, rope borders, scrolls, and dots. After sufficiently practicing each piping technique, each student was given a 4x4" cake. We all set about coating the cake with pre-made butter cream; a lengthy process which involved numerous rounds of coating with butter cream and refrigerating in order to obtain a uniformly square shape. After several layers of butter cream, we were finally ready to practice our newly acquired piping skills on a three dimensional object. We all maniacally set off, all hopeful that our natural talent would be somewhat comparable to that of Sylvia Weinstock. Alas, none of us turned out to be the next Sylvia. However, with lots and lots of practice, we all very well could be on our way to cake stardom. Overstatement of the year.
Finished cakes in the studio.
We got to bring our cakes home. Proud of my first attempt at piping.
In reviewing the class itself, I would not return to take another class at Sugar Flower Cake Shop. The assistants were not very helpful when asked to demonstrate or correct our piping technique. Often we were shown a different method from what the lead instructor demonstrated. The class would have been a lot better if there were fewer students so that each student could get adequate individual attention. Cake sizes were too small to get a real feel of piping and little instruction was given on how to make the cake perfectly square and smooth. Germaphobes beware. Butter cream initially used to practice piping techniques was scraped off the boards and put back in the original vat of butter cream, to then be reused on each cake. I'll be sticking to YouTube for further piping instructions.
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