Fall Forward, Spring Back

No, the blog title is not backwards - it's intentional :)

After my previous post about all Fall activities, my cake decorating class is reminding me of spring... spring flowers, that is.

I don't have to make a cake every week like in Course 1, hence no pictures of cakes recently. The first two classes in this course entailed working with royal icing and color flow to make these:

apple blossoms

mums (my least favorite to make so far)

leaves for violets

and violets (so far my favorite to make)

This picture below is a partially done bluebird that will be used for our final cake. It is done using the color flow method, where you outline whatever design you want and then "flood" in the colour inside the outline for a smooth finish.

All of these items are dried for a short period and then placed into an airtight container to be put together for the final cake. I didn't know that sugar flowers can last for a long time if kept under the right conditions.

It was kind of funny that I learned how to make the violet flower, because the day before class, a friend and I stopped by Cupcake Royale that was located next to the farmers market we were going to. They had a lavender cupcake with lavender buttercream frosting that I had to try.

See the little purple flower on the cupcake? Looks pretty similar to these pretties in the photo that I made in class below, no?

I'm thinking that any occasion to make cupcakes in the near future will certainly have some sugar flowers as a little garnish on top. It certainly makes for cute toppings!