‘Cooking for Fun’ group learns cake decorating
The “Cooking for Fun” group at Bruce First Baptist Church learned to decorate cakes during their cooking lessons this year.
Susan Wilbanks led the group, shared a number of decorating tips, which included:
Use Duncan Hines white cake mix for the best results and only use the egg whites;
Always use clear vanilla in white cake icing;
Instead of using flour after greasing your pan with shortening, sprinkle a bit of your dry cake mix in the pan or use Baker’s Joy spray with flour already in it;
Cold eggs are easier to separate;
Cakes will continue to cook in a hot pan, so after removing them from the oven, only leave in the pan five minutes, then turn the cake out of the pan onto a wire rack to cool completely;
Use dental floss to trim the top of cake;
Always put tops of your cakes together in the middle when stacking two, and
When using buttercream icing, use a soft paper towel, such as Viva, to smooth out icing on the cake. After putting icing on, let cake set about 15 minutes and place paper towel over the cake. Using light pressure flatten your hand and smooth out the icing on the cake. Carefully lift paper towel off the cake. Continue to move the paper towel around until all is smooth. If icing comes up on the paper towel then you need to let it dry a bit more.
Buttercream Icing
1 ¼ cups Crisco shortening
½ tsp. clear vanilla
¼ tsp. butter flavoring
2 lbs. powdered sugar
2 tsp. meringue powder (optional)
14 Tbsp. hot milk (may take a little less around 11-12 Tbsp.)
Add flavor to Crisco shortening in mixing bowl. Mix short time and add powdered sugar and meringue powder alternating with I tsp. of milk at a time. Keep in plastic container in fridge. Can keep in fridge up to two weeks.
Chocolate Buttercream Icing
2/3 cup butter
2/3 cup Crisco shortening
1 cup cocoa
1 cup canned pet milk
1 Tbsp. vanilla
¼ tsp salt
2 lbs. powdered sugar
Cream butter and Crisco shortening; add cocoa and milk and blend well. Add sugar, 1 cup at a time. When sugar is blended, add salt and vanilla. Mix until blended. Keep in refrigerator in a covered container.
