Royal Cake Decorating

Little did I dream when enrolling for any course on Advanced Royal Icing a long time ago, which i could be copying the appearance of the Queen’s wedding cake.

When she married in 1947, McVitie and Cost of Edinburgh presented the Full (then Princess Elizabeth) having a wedding cake. The breathtaking four-tiered cake was nine ft high, and was decorated with 100s of filigree-like bits of royal icing. Round the sides from the cakes were delicate, curved ‘galleries’, similar to the turrets on Scottish forts – so loved through the royal family.

And i’m sure imaginable the way you felt when told i was designing a cake within the same design. Fortunately, our cake, already covered in marzipan, was just six inches across. So using the weekend before us, and also the guidance of the experienced tutor, we set to operate.

First, the royal icing needed to be beaten towards the correct consistency – much less stiff, or it wouldn’t spread easily, or too soft otherwise it might run lower the edges from the cake. It needed to function as the consistency of beaten double cream – soft enough to provide an even, even layer. Each layer needed to dry prior to the next was applied, and also the cake given three layers,

Next we began to pipe the dainty lace-like bits of royal icing. Everything needed to prepare yourself ahead of time – the designs for that cake were organized, each under separate bits of transparent, non-stick paper. Curved moulds of varying dimensions were placed prepared to receive each section immediately it had been piped.

This time around the icing needed to be another consistency. Well beaten, therefore it would hold its shape, but soft enough to undergo an excellent nozzle (tip). And also to make certain the nozzle didn’t become blocked, we pressed the icing via a square of nylon material. Then started the job of piping a large number of filigree pieces. As each bit was finished, it had been carefully placed within the right sized curved mould – a us dot of icing under each corner from the paper stored the pattern in position.

It will help when piping depth to maintain the elbow near to the body. This prevents the arm moving. Supporting the icing bag using the finger from the opposite hands is another wise decision – celebrate sure the piping goes wherever you would like it.

Speaking about icing bags jogs my memory to express that for any task like the one above, just use a little icing bag. The bigger the bag the greater difficult it’s to manage. Along with a bag produced from baking parchment is more powerful than a single produced from greaseproof paper plus much more ‘user-friendly than the usual nylon material bag. They are hard to grip and therefore are usually way too large for dealing with royal icing.

And thus we spent two intensive days piping. It didn’t help that people informed to not talk! Not too we felt similar to talking, we needed all of our concentration for that task in hands. Eventually all of the pieces were finished. Now came the task of creating the look.

Again the consistency from the icing was transformed. We needed a firmer icing. Utilizing a wooden spoon we re-beat the icing (this one thing managed to get slightly firmer) after which added sieved icing sugar. A rather bigger nozzle (tip) was selected, and that we go about positioning the fragile sections in position. When the paper have been lightly peeled from the back of every piece, a type of icing was piped onto it, also it was carefully put into position.

Eventually we could relax and admire our work. Cameras arrived on the scene and everybody relaxed and agreed it absolutely was a weekend worth the effort. Our next worry was ways to get the cakes home successfully!

Some years later I made the decision to brighten our son’s wedding cake within the same design. This time around it had been on the three-tiered cake – but that’s another story. Still, as Shakespeare authored ‘All’s well that finishes well’ also it did.