cake decorating tips

Ok, some after heaps and heaps of researching, I have found that Cairns does not offer cake decorating classes :cry: Problem is, I reeeeeeeally want to learn how to cook and decorate a cake properly. All I know is butter icing, and if I say so myself, I'm getting pretty good at it :D But I'd LOVE to learn how to use Fondant. I have found a place here that finally stocks it (only one store in Cairns that will would you believe!) but I have no idea how to use it.
So, can you learn this sort of thing out of a book? If so, anyone know of decent books for me to learn from?
Thanks :)

to make the icing FLAT like on christmas cake use a old card like a birthday card/Christmas and rub it also gets cracks out :)

there are some good books out there myn are old but well detailed.

not sure.. but i do know, \

yup the warmth of you hands and fingers moulds it.. I have used lots of fondant with a friend who is a professional wedding cake maker.

and so its doesnt stick you use a little CORN FLOUR.. not much lightly dusted when you roll it out.

good luck

another tip
use unwaxed dental floss in a sawing motion back and forth to cut your sponge in half.

one of the books i own is
"cake decorating simplified"

by rosenberge.tucker its quite good but old

you can make your own fondant too i did i made some and made a train cake once hehe

There's a great website that I've used before - google cake central (the us one, not the aussie one.) Perhaps try YouTube for how to vids as well?

Yeah I second You Tube vids...there are heaps showing you how to roll out fondant and decorate with it. It's easy once you know how!

If you're wanting to make little figurines, it's just like making shapes with playdough :)

A tip for colouring fondant - don't use food colouring, it makes it all sticky. Buy the proper fondant colouring paste. It goes a looong way too. Use a toothpick to dip in the colouring paste and then poke into the fondant, little by little and knead, knead, knead until you get your desired depth of colour. That's the most time consuming part.

Jodi, I would love to use fondant too, just don't have the courage with the humidity when it's DD's birthday. I have read there is a recipe to make your own too, that way you can modify it slightly to suit your climate, but I haven't had a look for it yet.

So, since I have never used it myself, I have read a few tips. If you use cornstarch or icing sugar when rolling the fondant out, remember to lay the fondant icing sugar side down on the cake so you don't have white marks all over it IYKWIM?? You could have blue fondant with white icing sugar marks all over it and lay that side out..wouldn't look good.

Youtube like the other girls said. If you go there for a look see, you have to check out Planet Cake. They are down south somewhere? Sydney? But they did Jennifer Hawkins birthday cake. They have 2 videos on youtube, 1 is how to make a bow, the other is how to cover a cake. Pretty cool to watch too.

Also on youtube is the Culinary Institute of America. I love their youtube video of a Cupcake Bouquet..love love love it! It's buttercream, but if you find them, you may find they have some fondant videos??

Cake central like rosie77 suggested is good too.

Did you check the local TAFE for courses? DH's great aunty use to teach them at TAFE years and years ago..

Just checked and Planet Cake is on FaceBook, with a link to their blog :)

Are you sure there are no courses you can do? I know there are 2 tafes in victoria that offer weekend cake decorating courses.. Tafe's are good for them.

A really good book well books as there are 2 in the series is "The International school of Sugarcraft" - Nicolas Lodge. It is full of detailed info on how to decorate cakes with fondant and ready roll icing. As a pastry chef I have looked onto these books for quite sometime now :D They are from america and can be bought online.

I phoned the TAFE, actually I phoned them first. They used to offer it here but no longer do.

That sucks! where do trainees and apprentices go in your area then? thats silly, they should offer something like that!
Well those books are very good anyway :)

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If you go there for a look see, you have to check out Planet Cake. They are down south somewhere? Sydney?

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They are in Balmain. They did our wedding cake and IT ROCKED!

The TAFE here only offer Cert 111 in Food Processing. I don't really want to spend that sort of money (and not to mention the time) just to learn to decorate a cake :(
I've even contacted some of the cake places around Cairns and they all said there is no-one at the moment offering cake decorating classes. Closest is probably Townsville, which is still too far away.

Thanks for all the tips, looks like I'm gonna teach myself from books or YouTube.

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another tip
use unwaxed dental floss in a sawing motion back and forth to cut your sponge in half.

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I use an electric knife to slice mine through the middle.

Jodi.. i agree.. get onto you tube. You can learn how to do anything on there. And sometimes you will learn more from you tube than a cake deco course. And secondly.. practice. Get some fondant and play with it.

Re the tip of using corn flour for rolling out the fondant.. only use corn flour when you are using sugar paste (the stuff that dries rock hard). When working with fondant (just buy the Orchard premade stuff from coles $4 a box, is cheaper than decorating supplies and easier than making it yourself), use PURE Icing sugar when rolling it out. Using corn flour will cause your fondant to dry out and crack.

If you want to make figurines, dont use fondant.. unless you add some gum trag or tylos to it otherwise they just wont hold shape. We use sugar paste/gum paste. You can purchase it from cake decorating shops.

But if youre really keen on doing a course.. have a look for a cake decorating shop around you.. i dont know about Cairns but around Sydney alot of cake deco shops offer courses as well.

If you want any tips or any other info just let me know.

xx