PME Royal Icing and Piping Diploma

This week I have been back in Maidstone completing the final PME diploma, Royal Icing and Piping. With the completion of this diploma I achieved my masters in Sugarcraft. For me this was the hardest diploma and it was the one that filled me with the most dread. I have only done a little piping before and I usually have some issue with it. Making royal icing was a bit of a mission too as I was never sure I was doing it right and all these skills were things I looked at but scared me. 

I decided to do it as a 4 day intensive course as I got on so well with this last time. It's helpful for me to have all the equipment provided and so I just have to bring myself each day. I also find that it takes the pressure off practicing a little. I will of course practice but I don't need to do this in a time scale and can do a little each week rather than needing to get to standard by a set point. 

On this course we learnt a huge range of techniques. We learnt the basics so covering a cake in royal icing, getting a nice smooth and sharp finish

Sides Covered

Royal icing is rarely used these days and is considered quite old fashioned, however, it really is beautiful and the detailing you can create with it is so impressive, as I hope you'll see from my photos. We also learnt how to put patterns along the edge of the cake. 

Patterns along the edge of the cake

Throughout the 4 days we learnt how to use lots of different nozzles and piping techniques. We used these around the edges of the cakes but also created a display board to show all the variations. 

Finished display board

We learn how to make runout collars and designs. We used this to decorate the top of the cake and to create some swans. 

Run out collar for cake

Collar on cake with swans

We also learnt how to make string work, this didn't survive the journey home but fortunately I got a picture before I left. 

String work

We learn extension work for the edge for the cake and we topped this with lace work. 

Extension work

Finally we used basket weave to cover the top of the cake. 

Basket weave on the cake

Over the course of 4 days we used tubs and tubs of royal icing to create all these designs. We spent hours huddled over tables learning about piping but looking at these photos I feel like it was all worth it. There is lots more practicing required to perfect these skills but they look really beautiful and delicate. 

If anyone would like a royal iced cake I'd love to make another one. and practice these skills. Beautiful cakes,

PME Sugar Paste Diploma

Following on from my PME Sugar Flower Diploma I decided to continue towards my masters and get the Sugar Paste Diploma. I did this at the same place as previous, confection perfection, but I decided to do it as an intense 4 day course rather than over several weeks as I'd done previously. The course was more money, however, it included use of the equipment and all the materials. To me this is a big bonus as I didn't want to have to buy everything at once and I also didn't want to have to keep bringing cake. Having done the course I think that it's much better value for money to do it this way and intend on doing my final course as an intense one as well. 

Over the 4 days we worked on 3 main projects. To start off with we covered a round fruit cake, a square dummy and a board. We tiered these up and this was to become the basis for most of our work. We learnt how to put trim along the bottom in the form of twisted rope, flat rope, grass and marbles. 

Starting fruit cake turned upside down and levelled

Cakes covered and round cake edged

 The next job on this cake was to start decorating it. We learnt about decorative plaques and what they can be used for. We learnt how to make frills, Broderie Anglaise, swags, bows amongst other things. 

The side showing the frils, bows, marbles, decorative cut outs and the side view of the drape.

 This cake was then finished up on the final day with some modelling and a star burst on the top. We learnt how to model a sitting ballerina (mine hadn't dried properly yet so that's why she's wrapped in cling film). 

Over all view

Bow with pearl centre, swags and decorative plaques. 

Star Burst with hearts, stars and butterflies

Ballerina

Drape, bows, cut outs and Broderie Anglaise

Marbles, cut outs, bow and frills

Bows, sways and grass

Overall Cake

 One morning of the course was taken up with learning about carving cakes and covering them in basketweave panels. We were told the day before to pick something we wanted to make so I decided on a bird table. When I arrived the next morning it turns out that 3 out of 4 of us had the same idea!! The others changed what they were doing so overall in the group we created a cushion, handbag, dog basket and bird house (me). 

Carving cakes was more complex than I thought because of how precise it requires you to be. I had to carefully measure and square up all the sides to ensure everything was identical. I measure the roof so it was exactly symetrical. The sugar paste was stuck on in panels and I created a tiled roof and some vines for mine. We had very limited time so I wasn't able to do much more than this and most of us didn't finish, however, we learnt the required techniques. 

Front view of house

Side view, it got slightly squashed prior to this photo, it was straight before this! 

The final project that we did was a modelled scene on a board. We learnt how to make a pond scene with some grass and water. We then had a basic introduction to modelling where we learnt how to make a flat teddy bear. 

Flat Teddy

Having learnt the basics we then moved on to a 3D scene for a teddy bears picnic. We learnt how to create the teddy and make everything in proportion. We learnt about making a blanket and we then had fun creating as much food or accessories as we liked. I really enjoyed this task and I think the finished result is really good. 

Teddy Bears Picnic

Food!!

Pond and Handbag

By the end of day 4 I was exhausted but pleased to have passed another diploma. I learnt so much on the course and I'm full of ideas of cakes to create. Just as well because I have rather a lot planned in the coming weeks. 

I'm looking forward to completing my Masters by doing the final diploma on Royal Icing and Piping Skills. Hopefully I can do that before the end of the year. 

PME Sugar Flower Diploma

I decided to improve my skills by doing a PME Sugar Flower Diploma. These courses are run at select locations across the country and are tightly monitored by PME. I chose a shop in Maidstone to do my course, Confection Perfection, and I'm really glad I did as I've now found a great shop, great set of courses and a great bunch of people. 

I did the course over 10 weeks, 2.5 hours a week and we worked really hard over that period of time. I wanted to reinforce everything so I spent lots of time each week practicing the flowers and making many more. 

Over the course of the 10 weeks we've progressed from basic unwired flower plaques to creating individually wired petals put together as a flower. I've made some sprays and posies putting the flowers together. For our final assessment we had to create 4 seasonal plaques with the unwired flowers and then a display board for all the wired flowers. I'm going to show pictures of each of the flowers I've made by taking photos of that section of the board. 

Summer Plaque:

Summer

On this plaque we learnt how to make Gerbera and unwired Ivy leaves. 

Spring Plaque:

Sping

Primrose flowers and Leaves

Autumn:

Autumn

Acorns and Oak leaves with Autumn leaves. 

Winter:

Winter

Holly leaves and berries. Christmas rose and a Poinsettia. 

Wired Flowers, these are all pictures of my display board which can be seen at the end. 

Rose spray

Rose bud, half rose, full rose and full blown rose. Also rose leaves and rose petals. 

Carnation Posy

Posy of Carnations with wired ivy. 

Orchid bunch

Yellow Freesias with white Cattleya Orchids and yellow and red Cymbidium Orchids. 

Calla lily bunch

White Calla Lilies, White Jasmine, Lilly of the Valley and Berries. 

Honeysuckle

Honeysuckle and leaves.

Lily

Easter Lily, I put 3 lilies on the board, this Easter lily along with star gazer and a tiger lily. I also put some orange buds. 

Lilies

Blackberries

Blackberry stem, unripe, almost ripe and ripe berries along with various stages of the leaves (Summer through to Autumn). 

Complete Board

And this is the finished board. In the corners there is blossoms and also some daisies on the dummy cake. 

Through all this hard work I passed and achieved my first diploma certificate. 

Certificate

I'm very pleased and feel like I earned it. I have another diploma, plus a load of other courses, this month and hopefully I can get on to the last diploma. Once the 3rd is completed I'll have the set and will have obtained my masters certificate. I hope you'll agree that my flowers have certainly improved through the duration of the course. I feel like I've learnt so much and can't wait for other aspects of my decorating to improve when I attend the next courses. 

Plans for the future..

I haven't had the chance or the funds to do quite so much baking as I'd like recently. However, I had been looking into means to further improve my skills and produce better designs. Looking in the local area I couldn't find a course that suited my needs, I wanted a course that wasn't about baking but gave me specifics in decorating the cake. I also needed a course that would be at a suitable time for babysitting. So I my mum looked in the local area. We found a course in Lewisham college, however, by the time we'd decided to go ahead the course was booked so I'd missed my chance. So I set about researching some more and came up with 2 options. 

1) A sugarcraft course in Greenwich college, this is a beginners course lasting 20 weeks, 2 hours a week, which covers the basics of different materials. It uses sugarpaste, marzipan and other bits to create flowers, models and to decorate cakes. 

2) PME professional diploma courses, I discovered this courses when I was searching around. They are courses that are for people looking to start up a home business and cover the basics of running a business as well as going into details on the various elements. There are 3 modules that together make up what they call a masters. The modules are Sugarcraft, Royal icing and piping and Flowers. Each module is a minimum of 25 hours long and typically they cost around £200. Many places run these as either an intensive 4 day course or over several weeks, 5 hours a week for 5 weeks. I was really interested in this idea as each module looks really detailed and the description sounds like what I want. However, the courses all started in September so I would be missing a week with our holiday, this would mean that I wouldn't pass. I was also worried because some of the descriptions stated this wasn't for beginners, whilst I've done some practice with the materials I haven't had any training and was worried I'd fall behind and therefore not pass. 

So in the end we came up with a plan. I'm doing the Greenwich beginners course starting at the end of September. Im still going to miss a week but it'll be just 2 hours and I'll make it up with practice. The course lasts until 27th March so throughout this time I'll be practice practice practice. Once I've completed this course I'll start looking into the diploma courses more seriously. We would need to save up lots of money but if I can get my business running then this will be worth doing. I'll aim to start the diplomas in September 2014, either as an intensive course or a weekly course. Lots of places in London carry out the course so I'll investigate what is the best option for us. It is possible to do a really intensive course which covers all 3 modules and therefore gives you the masters, but of course the cost of this is more. 

I'm looking forward to my course starting and I hope to learn many new things and hints and tips. I know I have a long way to go but I can only get better.