It's Just Abbey

Huzzah and hurrah! I am back and in action after a much needed mental health day. What do I have for you, my loyal readers? Why, I have the continuation of my cake decorating adventures!

Without further ado, I give you Cake Decorating 201 – The “That’s What She Said” Edition!

Before we went into the first class our homework was to make a batch of royal icing. Now, the last classes we went to we made butter cream icing. It was fluffy and happy. It just kinda hung out until you needed it. Royal icing is much different.

* 3 tablespoons Meringue Powder
* 4 cups (about 1 lb.) confectioners' sugar
* 6 tablespoons warm water

Just do a little math in your head and compare the dry to the wet ingredients. My first concern was that my stand mixer was going to die! It already struggled a little making butter cream and that allowed much more liquid ingredients. So I threw everything in and hoped for the best. At first nothing happened. And then the water reacted with the sugar and meringue powder and clumped together making my mixer slow way down and start crying. I was freaking. It’s too dry! Make it stop!

That’s what she said.

I added a tiny bit more water in hopes of saving my poor little mixer and it worked! I got a nice consistency going and was pleased. But here is where butter cream and royal icing differ. Royal icing is thick thick thick and designed to dry out and harden. After you get it mixed you have a limited time to get it out and into an airtight container. You don’t want it getting hard too soon.

That’s what she said.

So I trotted off to class with my little mixture and was ready for a new class with my mommy.

It was pretty much the same class except two women dropped (no offense ladies, but you won’t be missed) and the addition of my mother’s friend from work. We were back in action.

This class is just about making flowers and basket weave designs. We only started with one with just to get used to the royal icing. I pulled out my concoction and just stared at it. It was all shiny and resembled Elmer’s Glue. I immediately ate some. Yes, kids. Here at IJA we fully support eating Play Dough and glue. It is just a developmental process. And just to be clear, I did Google it and guess what I found:

“A quick search on the internet reveals that 'elmers glue all' is just a PVA suspension ... so if you only eat a little bit then you should be fine, but if you drink a whole bottle then your ears will fall off!”

Thank you WikiAnswers! Go forth and eat glue!

Okay, where was I? Oh yeah, frosting. So I put some of my glue icing in my piping bag and we stared making flowers. Royal icing is so different to work with. Butter cream just streamed lightly and freely. No hassle. Royal? It was hard, tough to manage and gave me hand cramps.

That’s what she said!

So we played around a little and these were the glorious results. Don’t mind them being white. We didn’t bother adding any color. Besides, I like the glue look.

My mom made hers with lilac butter cream. She was a bad student and didn’t do her homework. Tsk tsk.

In classes ahead we are going to learn to make what seems like every flower imaginable. Do you need a cake that looks like Mother Nature threw up all over it? Call me in a few weeks. I will hook you up! You want a three tiered cake with fondant? Eh… Apparently that isn’t until Cake Decorating 301. DAMN YOU! I will never work at Charm City Cakes at this rate! Gah!

Sadly there won’t be any actual cakes until week 4 so you’ll all have to be patient. I will be sending out pieces of cake to anyone who wants them so if you want to get on the waiting list for some cake send a self addressed stamped envelope to itjustabbey@gmail.com

Sorry this was so short. I promise next time will be longer and much much better.

Boom. That’s what HE said. A-thankyou.