I have finally completed the Course 1 of Wilton's Cake Decorating Courses. It was fun and interesting. It covers the basics of cake decorating. One can get the hang of various tools and materials needed for decorating a cake after completing this course. What seems impossible at first looks quite easy after taking the class. I decorated 3 cakes during the 1st course.
They were not perfect but at least I'm getting better than simply slathering frosting unevenly on my cakes. Like any other art, cake decorating too requires a lot of passion, patience, and practice. So if you are patient enough and can devote some quality time to practice you can master it in no time.
Usually each course has 4 classes, with one class per week. So in a month, you will be completing 1 course. Having 1 class per week also gives ample time for you to practice and clear the doubts you have when you go for the next class. Depending on the instructor you can take a cake or a cake dummy to the class. I hear that some instructors are strict and ask you to get the cake.
Mine was flexible so quite a few in my class got the cake dummy. I didn't know that such a thing existed, so I baked a cake. It's a model cake made with styrofoam available in various shapes (I have seen square and circle) and sizes. So you can practice on it, after you are done wipe the icing with a damp sponge and reuse it.
Cake dummy is available in Michaels and other cake decorating supplies stores. If you live in Canada, locate a Bulk Barn near you and forget Michaels.
You can get almost all Wilton cake decorating, candy making supplies at cheaper prices than Michael's. They even rent character cake pan sets.
Another interesting tip which I found here, is using a cake pan upside down instead of buying the cake dummies. That's really awesome. It's very easy to use, already in the shape and size of the cake you will be baking, easy to clean and you can reuse it countless number of times.
Assuming that you can bake a decent cake the next step is preparing the icing. The course book has the recipe for the Buttercream Icing used in the class. The recipe calls for meringue powder, which is a combination of egg whites, cream of tartar and other unrecognizable chemicals. Now, this was the first hurdle for me. I was in such a dilemma whether to use that powder or not.
I have eaten store-bought cakes and will also be eating it in the future and I don't mind the eggs. Bringing eggs home and cooking with it, is my phobia. By getting this powder I was not bringing actual eggs but I did not want to post here even the pictures of the cakes decorated with that icing. When I asked my instructor about a substitute for the meringue powder, she felt sorry that she did not have an answer.
I was thinking maybe I should use an equal amount of EnerG Egg Replacer powder itself. Then I discovered Wilton's Buttercream Icing Mix.
The instructions read that I just had to add water and butter/margarine to it and beat it with a mixer. When I read the ingredients, I was happy that nothing related to eggs was mentioned. So I happily picked it. After coming home I was scanning the list again and found mono-glycerides.
I have read earlier that unless and otherwise it is clearly specified vegetable derived mono-glycerides, all other glycerides are derived from animals. So I couldn't use that and returned it. Many omnivores and even some vegetarians may be thinking what's the big deal.
In this day and age of packaged and processed food one can't be really sure about what one is eating and the source. But what to do I'm one among the million quirky vegetarians!
The day for the 2nd class was nearing and I was supposed to take 3 cups of icing and here I was still wondering what to do. I thought maybe I should simply follow the recipe, prepare it, learn the decorating techniques and once I'm sort of good, I can start experimenting with a substitute for the meringue powder.
But I need not have worried after all in this era of Google serving information at your fingertips. A couple of recipe sites had Wilton's Buttercream Icing without the egg powder and the reviews were good too, telling that it had the consistency perfect for decorating. It was the exact same recipe given in the course book but minus the meringue powder. So I too decided to do the same and kept my fingers crossed.
To my surprise my instructor while testing each of our icing with some designs told me that mine was perfect for decorating and she couldn't believe when I told her that I did not add the meringue powder.
So girls, one problem solved. (There is another one in the 2nd course too! Yes, I enrolled for it and the 1st class is already over. Hope I will be able to find a solution for the Royal Icing too). What a relief!
Now that we have found an egg-free buttercream icing recipe, what to do next? We would be requiring icing in 3 consistencies. Stiff, Medium and Thin. Stiff consistency icing is used to make those gorgeous roses and other flowers and objects you see on the cakes. Medium consistency is used to make borders and related designs. Thin consistency is for writing on the cake and frosting the cake.
So while preparing the icing, you usually start with stiff, then add some water to get medium consistency and some more water to get a thin consistency. One should be careful while adding water, it's usually 1 or 2 tablespoons to the maximum. Again any mistake done is not irreparable, you can always add some confectioner's sugar or water to get the desired consistency.
Cake decorating is a massive topic and I'm a beginner. So I will try my best to cover important things here so that those who are interested and don't know where to start can get some sort of an idea of how to go about it. If you feel that I have overlooked something or have any questions/clarifications please feel free to leave your comments here or email me and I'll keep updating the answers in the subsequent posts.
If you tried this Vegan Buttercream Icing recipe, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below!
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Recipe
Vegan Buttercream Icing Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup Vegetable Shortening
- 1 teaspoon Wilton's Clear Vanilla Extract
- 1 teaspoon Wilton's No Color Butter Flavor (Optional)
- 4 cups Confectioner's Icing Sugar
- a pinch Salt (optional)
- Approx 2 tablespoons Milk/Water (As Required)
Instructions
- In a bowl, add the shortening, vanilla and butter flavoring and 2 tablespoons of water. Cream until light and fluffy.
- Add sugar one cup at a time and beat after each addition until all the ingredients have been thoroughly mixed together.
- Blend an additional minute or so, until creamy. This produces 3 cups of stiff consistency icing.
- For medium consistency, add 1 teaspoon of water to each cup of stiff consistency icing. For thin consistency, add 2 teaspoons of water for each cup of stiff consistency icing.
My Notes
- You could use Butter Flavor All-Vegetable Shortening. In that case, you can omit the Wilton's Butter Flavoring. I couldn't find butter flavored shortening so I had to use the usual one and hence I added 1 teaspoon of butter flavoring. If using the extra teaspoon of butter flavoring, go slow while adding the water. Also look for trans fat-free shortening. I was not able to find it and used the regular one and each serving has 0.3gm trans fat.
- Icing consistency is key while decorating a cake. But don't worry if you don't get it right because fixing it is quite easy. If the icing is very thin add some icing sugar until yo get the required stiffness. If it's too stiff add water (drop by drop) to dilute it.
- Milk or water can be used while preparing the frosting but I read elsewhere that using water is better.
- Icing keeps good for 2 weeks when stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
- The Wilton cake decorating course book which was supplied to us during the class, has a lot of useful information, tips, and tricks organized in a neat manner. You can also find this on their site. The information on the website is spread all over, so I'll give some important links in the next section.
Taste & Texture
- Even though the name of the icing is Buttercream, we don't actually use butter. Instead, we use solid white shortening. That gives the pure white color (so when you decide to mix colors you can get better shades) and also the correct structure for the designs. To keep the icing at it's whitest we use the Wilton's clear Vanilla Extract and no color Butter Flavoring. The usual vanilla extra is in dark brown color and when it's added it will tint the shortening and the icing will not be in the purest white.
- I saw a couple of recipes, where only butter is used or half butter and half shortening is used, but I have tried it only with shortening. As I have mentioned earlier I didn't want to experiment too much at this initial stage of learning. I read quite a lot of reviews, that some people don't like the greasy aftertaste that shortening gives and so they used butter instead. I felt that when the icing is consumed together with the cake you don't feel the greasiness but you definitely feel it when you eat the icing alone. Also, the vessels get very greasy and it's messy to do the dishes in the sink. Better use the dishwasher. The taste is really good though, just like the bakery ones. I actually was experimenting with white cake recipes. So for the 3 cakes, I baked during the course I tried 3 different recipes and felt that the icing really covers up even if the cake is not that good. Can you believe that this frosting is actually vegan?
Other Information
Explore Wilton's website for a lot of information about cake decorating. It's very extensive. To help beginners I'm putting out a list of useful links here.
3 Wilton's Cake Decorating 101
5 Golda's Kitchen
(An excellent retail and on-line baking/cake decorating supplies store based in Canada. They ship overseas too.)
6 Bulk Barn (Another amazing store in Canada with tons of cake decorating supplies and some locations offer the Wilton Classes too. You can usually find this store in big malls.)
7 Baking 911(Has extensive details on decorating cakes, cookies and more, with lot of tips and tricks)
8 Michael's 40% off coupon (If you live in Canada, check this out. You can print this coupon and take it to the store and get 40% off on any one item. It's really a huge money saver when you are buying a big ticket item like a professional cake decorating tool set. I got a $200 dollar set for $100 because they had a 50% off special that week.
Sonali Gawde says
Hi Madhuram,
I am also interested in doing Wilton cake making course.
But i am aware how to get it. So please could you help me how to do
it.
Regards,
Sonali
Madhuram says
If you live in US, use the following link to find out classes near you,
http://www.wilton.com/classes/classlocator.cfm
Sonali Gawde says
Hi Madhuram,
I live in India at Mumbai. And not sure where will will i find good cake making classes.
Madhuram says
Google it and you should be able to find some classes.
priya says
hi madhu,
i live in India...here wilton's icing mixture iz not available... can u suggeat me some other vegan substitute....
Priya, in that case you have to prepare the icing right from scratch just like I have mentioned in this post. http://www.egglesscooking.com/2009/11/04/vegan-buttercream-icing/ Shortening is nothing but Vanaspathi (both are solidified from vegetable oils), but I'm not sure how different the texture is and how vanaspathi works out in frosting. So your better bet is to use butter instead.
Indu says
Hy Madhu!
I am beginner, and I am humbly asking for help with fondant.
Since I am vegetarian I do not have vegetarian gelatina powder, only in little "crumbs", I really need fine powder.Do You have a vegetarian substitute and how are You making fondant? By reading Your article I found out that glycerol is also from animals, I live in Croatia and I do not know are they glycerol from plants in our pharmacy!
I am making butter cream with sugar and vegetable grease, or butter, and it is ok!.
Please some advice about fondant.
Sincerely,
Indulekha
Hi Indu, I did not make the fondant but got it in the store and later realized that it did have some animal derived ingredients in it. I did hear that purely vegetarian fondant is available too, the brand is Satin or something. See if its available in your country. While searching for homemade rolled fondant recipes, I do see that we require glycerine to make it but glycerine is mostly animal derived, so I really don't know what other option we have.
Check the recipe I found here. I have not tried it myself.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080821215418AANnv7t
spice says
Thanks dear.
spice says
Hi Madhuram,wanted to know if your buttercream icing has little crystalized taste to it or it's smooth & creamy....I used wilton recipe minus Meringue powder....it's not totally smooth & creamy I mean u can feel little crystal feeling on your tongue, nothing like melt in the mouth....I'm not sure if it's suppose to be like this or I need to work on it more....will appreciate your answer..thanks.
Hi Spice, I'm trying hard to recollect the taste and texture. I think it was smooth enough. I'm sorry that I don't remember it exactly. All I know is it tasted good, the consistency was perfect. Also I used lesser sugar than mentioned in the original recipe. I used 3 cups of sugar instead of 4 cups.
spice says
Hi Madhuram,
I wanted to ask u the professional cake decorating set u bought...does that have all the tools u need for all the 4 wilton courses...do u really find the whole set useful.Thanks in advance.
Hi Spice, I would suggest you to get the course kit as you go because the tool set I got does not have everything needed for the courses. I ended up buying the course kit too.
vani says
hi,
i did make this version of icing, without that powder and my instructor was amazed to see this icing and the consistency of this, medium, and stiff.. it was really superb and perfect. thanks a lot ... and it was really helpful for me.
i have recommended ur website to so many ppl and my friends also...great work and u are really amazing and superb:)
thanks
vani.
Thank you very much Vani for taking the time to leave your feedback here.
vani says
thanks for your reply. i meant joann store, it is like micheals in usa. visit http://www.joann.com... it is nice store and i am taking my classes there for cake decorating...:)
vani says
hi madhu,
also wanted to ask you do u know any store in USA,,, has a cakesupply store........other than michael and joann.. pls let me know....thanks in advance.
Vani I think you could do a google search "cake decorating supplies" and the name of the city in which you live. It should give you some results. I found an excellent store in my place like that only.
vani says
hi madhu,
i am taking the classes of wilton 1.thank god and thank you for letting me know that meringue powder contains egg whites... i am so happy i found out before i prepare icing on my cakes as we in my family are pure vegans and no eggs at all....so i will definitely follow ur recipe for preparing icing and take it to my class next week.....thank you very much..
You're welcome Vani.
renu says
Thx for your reply...i will stick to the method posted by you .. One more question, we are supposed to take a baked cake covered with icing to the class. Do you have a suggestion for the icing? my classmates were suggesting to buy one ...have never decorated the cake before, have no idea how it works.
Thank you so much, must say your posts on wilton cake decoration are very very helpful.
Renu, you're welcome. They actually tell you in the class to frost it with the medium consistency buttercream icing itself. That's what I did for 3 of my cakes. For the fondant cake I didn't have time to make the buttercream icicng and used the store bought icing before covering it with fondant.
renu says
Hi,
I have enrolled to Wilton cake decorating course 1. I need to make icing for the next class...i just read u didn't add meringue powder, my instructor said it is important to get the right texture, how did you manage to get the texture?
Renu it does work. The cakes I have decorated and posted here, the icing was made without meringue powder. Just omit it and follow the rest of the instructions and you will be fine. Actually the buttercream icing recipe in the Wilton's site itself does not mention meringue powder.
vidhya says
hi
i reading ur recipes and posts. i shld appreciate u for ur posts.
i have been baking for many yrs and now come to the level of taking bday orders and party orders.
reg the buttercream icing i agree with bharti- pure butter tastes divine but it looses it shape soon even with ur hand heat. so use 1/2 butter and 1/2 butter flavour crisco. it works fine in all consistencies.
also i usually use fruit pulp as an egg replacement but with ur idea i used yogurt with a package mix and it turned out great.
i make a mermaid wilton cake with pineapple cake mix,milk,yogurt,oil .it came out so well.
thanks once again for ur work
vidhya
Thanks for the info Vidhya. I too am going to try that ratio the next time. I don't get butter flavored Crisco here. So I should be adding the butter flavoring instead.
payal jain says
hi madhu,
can u plz tell me what actually is vegetable shortening and crisco...i have found these words everywhere in many cake decorating methods ,but dunno what are they coz i cant find them in india...and what is the substitute for that...once i tried making buttercream icing with white butter and it tasted yuck n greasey...so from then onwards i use only whipped cream icing...u have seen my cake decorations...but sometime icing doesnt get that stiff to make firm flowers...plz help me....
Payal, vegetable shortening is nothing but the Vanaspathi (Dalda brand which is quite famous) we get in India. It is better to avoid using that, because it is unhealthy than butter, because it has trans fat. Here it is possible to get trans fat free shortening but I'm not sure about it's availability in India. Actually I too am going to try with butter alone once I'm done with the classes. Since India is very hot, I think you would have to keep it in the fridge every now and then while you are working with buttercream.
soumya says
Hi Madhu,
Wonderful information....I also finished my first course yesterday.Its really very nice to see how easy it is to decorate the cake if u know some simple tricks and tips.It will be gr8 help to have something online where u can refer n clear all the doubts.I am looking forward to see some of ur decorated cakes.I shall post mine soon.
That's great Soumya. I'll definitely check out your creations.
Namratha says
Madhu, glad to hear you've completed course 1, reminded me of when I did mine beginning of last year. 🙂 Good thinking with eliminating the meringue powder..I've done it more times than I can count, simply bcoz I forgot to put it in there 😆 and the buttercream turned out just fine. And I second Bharti on the butter-crisco combo...double the Wilton recipe and use 1 cup butter and 1 cup Crisco, tastes great and you can never tell crisco is in there! I've found this works best when the recipe is doubled as opposed to using only 1/2c butter and 1/2c crisco.
Thank you very much for the butter/shortening tip, Namratha. I'm definitely trying it.
Sumathi says
Hi Madhu
Congrats on your course completion.. I too did two courses and the icing i used was vegan only.. I omited the meringue powder, added 3/4 butter and 1/4 crisco and the icing would hold well and taste great.
For coursse two I did make a vegan royal icing using conrflour and lime juice.. the flowers did hold up well but were soft when compared to the royal icing flowers..
Check this link you would get a good idea : http://hoppobumpo.blogspot.com/2008/12/great-eggless-royal-icing-experiment.html
Thanks Sumathi. I too came across that link when I was searching in Google. My friend also mentioned about using cream of tartar.
Bharti says
hey Madhu
I'd taken a decorating course at a college and the teacher told us that we were NOT to ever dispose of the shortening in the sink. Apparently it completely messes them up! Imagine what it would do to our insides. I love cake decorating but truly despise the taste of shortening frosting. I too used it for practice and still will use it in really small amounts for decorating with but can't ingest that stuff in large quantities. My take on it is that you learn and practice with it but move on to better options for your own consumption.
But yeah...all those expensive wedding cakes done by professionals..they use this stuff to decorate with.
FYI, half butter half shortening does hold up and is much better tasting than the only shortening frosting. I've used this in the past for my kids birthday cakes that involved heavy decorating.
Thank you very much Bharti for the clarification about half butter and half shortening frosting. I'll try this definitely. I know that shortening is completely unhealthy, so I really didn't think twice before throwing the leftovers. That's why I too was planning to use cake dummy only for the 2nd course if I had to take a cake every week. Fortunately it's only 1 cake for this course.