I have started a 9 week Cake Decorating Course at my local college, and I am loving it!
Obviously, I have decorated many cakes before, but all my 'skills' are self taught, and honesty, I don't think anyone could possibly accuse me of having a 'technique', when my approach is very much 'cross your fingers and hope for the best'. I tend to rely on the fact that icing, and people who are eating icing, tend to be quite forgiving.
But have you seen some of the creations on social media that people manage to produce out of a selection of food colouring and a nozzle??? Well, I want a bit of that! So despite having some experience, I have signed myself up for the beginners class and I am going right back to basics - this week it will be crumb coating, but give me a couple of weeks and I am hoping for bouquets or roses and teddy bear figurines in a variety of poses!
I did notice there was quite a range of ability amongst my fellow students on our first session - we were asked to knead food colouring into a portion of fondant icing, and let's just say that for some of the class it was unfortunate that we were using red dye, as they managed to make it look as though some one had been slaughtered, and got themselves into the biggest and stickiest mess but hey, we all have to start somewhere, and I'll just be more careful who I sit next to at session 2, or else I'll just wear a bigger apron!