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These demonstrations of my process may give you a better insight on my learning throughout this project. I learned so many new skills and techniques through this experience!
Wednesday, 12 June 2013
Taking a Look at my Process
Here are the Piktocharts I made for each set of cupcakes, outlining my inspirations, process, hurdles, and final product for each. Also, I have attached the five glogs I have created for each cupcake of the Students' Choice set. These are step-by-step tutorials that anyone can use to make these cupcakes at home!
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These demonstrations of my process may give you a better insight on my learning throughout this project. I learned so many new skills and techniques through this experience!
These demonstrations of my process may give you a better insight on my learning throughout this project. I learned so many new skills and techniques through this experience!
Monday, 10 June 2013
Looking Back
Wow- I can't believe I decorated over 30 different designs of cupcakes over these 3 weeks! I gained a lot of useful skills, techniques, and I had loads of fun doing it! Here's a look at my work station:
After collecting peer review, a few of my peers had some questions.
Q: How long did it take to make each cupcake?
A: Each cupcake varied in time, as did each theme. To elaborate, the Intensely Rainbow cupcakes took me about 2-3 hours, while the Fruitastic! cupcakes only took less than an hour. This depended on factors such as the type of icing I was using, what the designs were, and how hard the techniques would be to learn. Preparation is key, and for some themes, the preparation times were longer. For example, the Intensely Rainbow cupcakes required 6 different colours of icing, as opposed to the simple white buttercream icing the Fruitastic! cupcakes needed. In general, each cupcake took from as short as 2 min to as long as 10 min to decorate.
Q: Which cupcake was my favourite to decorate?
A: To be honest, I enjoyed creating the majority of them. However, the sunflower cupcake from the set "Summery Flora" was definitely the most enjoyable and had the most successful results. When I saw this cupcake online, I thought it looked really detailed and visually appealing. As well, I wasn't quite sure on how it would turn out, given that I used my own homemade piping tools (the petal shape). Piping without piping tips took some time getting used to how I should hold the bag, and how much pressure I should apply to it. On the other hand, I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the finished product- out of all the cupcakes in this theme, the sunflower decoration was the most realistic.
Q: What were the tools that I used to decorate the cupcakes?
A: To decorate my cupcakes, I used a variety of plastic piping tips, as well as sandwich bags. Furthermore, for some patterns, I made my own tips. Here are some of the equipment I used:
If you have any more questions about my process, feel free to comment below!
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| Pretty messy, huh? |
After collecting peer review, a few of my peers had some questions.
Q: How long did it take to make each cupcake?
A: Each cupcake varied in time, as did each theme. To elaborate, the Intensely Rainbow cupcakes took me about 2-3 hours, while the Fruitastic! cupcakes only took less than an hour. This depended on factors such as the type of icing I was using, what the designs were, and how hard the techniques would be to learn. Preparation is key, and for some themes, the preparation times were longer. For example, the Intensely Rainbow cupcakes required 6 different colours of icing, as opposed to the simple white buttercream icing the Fruitastic! cupcakes needed. In general, each cupcake took from as short as 2 min to as long as 10 min to decorate.
Q: Which cupcake was my favourite to decorate?
A: To be honest, I enjoyed creating the majority of them. However, the sunflower cupcake from the set "Summery Flora" was definitely the most enjoyable and had the most successful results. When I saw this cupcake online, I thought it looked really detailed and visually appealing. As well, I wasn't quite sure on how it would turn out, given that I used my own homemade piping tools (the petal shape). Piping without piping tips took some time getting used to how I should hold the bag, and how much pressure I should apply to it. On the other hand, I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the finished product- out of all the cupcakes in this theme, the sunflower decoration was the most realistic.
Q: What were the tools that I used to decorate the cupcakes?
A: To decorate my cupcakes, I used a variety of plastic piping tips, as well as sandwich bags. Furthermore, for some patterns, I made my own tips. Here are some of the equipment I used:
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| Sandwich Bags |
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| Round Tip- used for a variety of cupcakes including the dotted rainbow cupcake (Intensely Rainbow) |
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| Jagged Tip- used for a few cupcakes including rose cupcake (Summery Flora) |
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| 8 Pointed Star Tip- Used for a variety of cupcakes including two of the "Pastel Patterns" cupcakes |
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| 6 Pointed Star Tip- Used for a few cupcakes including rainbow tower cupcake (Intensely Rainbow) |
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| Homemade Petal Tip- used for three flower combo cupcake (Summery Flora) |
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| Homemade Leaf Tip- used for some cupcakes including the sunflower cupcake (Summery Flora) |
If you have any more questions about my process, feel free to comment below!
Sunday, 9 June 2013
Students' Choice- Showcasing my Skills
So now, after decorating 5 sets of 5 cupcakes, I've gained quite a bit of knowledge and skills which I can use later on in the future. I asked my fellow peers what type of cupcake decorations they would like to see, and I combined those inspirations with a few of my own to create my final set- Students' Choice. This set showcases five different cupcakes (with no particular theme) which demonstrate the techniques I have learned throughout my Genius Hour Project. For each cupcake, I also created a Step-By-Step Page for each of these five cupcakes using Glogster, so you can try making these at home too (I will be showing them during my presentation).
1. "Heart Cutout" cupcake- inspired by Hanna W.
2. "Cookie Monster" cupcake- inspired by Winki Y., Izabelle E., and Jenny S.
3. "Kitty Cat" Cupcake- inspired by Paige W. and Hanna W.
4. "Cheetah Print" Cupcake- inspired by Mandy L.
5. "Chocolate Swirls" cupcake- inspired by Angus L. and Anurada A.
For the class set, I decided to do the "Heart Cutout" cupcakes because they seem like something everyone might want to learn how to make, in contrast to the other four cupcakes. This cupcake is fun to make, and all of the supplies can be found in your home. I chose this cupcake because it is relatively easy to create. Overall, I have had a wonderful time creating a total of 30 different cupcakes, and I can't wait to present my project to our class!
1. "Heart Cutout" cupcake- inspired by Hanna W.
2. "Cookie Monster" cupcake- inspired by Winki Y., Izabelle E., and Jenny S.
3. "Kitty Cat" Cupcake- inspired by Paige W. and Hanna W.
4. "Cheetah Print" Cupcake- inspired by Mandy L.
5. "Chocolate Swirls" cupcake- inspired by Angus L. and Anurada A.
For the class set, I decided to do the "Heart Cutout" cupcakes because they seem like something everyone might want to learn how to make, in contrast to the other four cupcakes. This cupcake is fun to make, and all of the supplies can be found in your home. I chose this cupcake because it is relatively easy to create. Overall, I have had a wonderful time creating a total of 30 different cupcakes, and I can't wait to present my project to our class!
Sunday, 2 June 2013
The Last of Sets ...
Set #5 - the last theme! Well, I also have a "random" set where I will be doing a whole lot of mixed cupcakes, showcasing the skills I've learned already. As well, I will be baking a class set for my presentation later on.
This set was called "Fruitastic!", because the theme was fruits! I used a layer of buttercream icing for the base, and then added assortments of grapes, huckleberries, watermelon, apples, and oranges in various patterns on top.
I learned some major skills from this theme. To elaborate, I learned how to finely cut fruits, which I could apply to other foods such as vegetables or meat in the future. In addition, now I am pretty good at making my own buttercream frosting, because I've done it so many times. To be honest, I had many ideas in mind for this theme so I didn't use any outside inspirations. I already had all of the fruits handy at home, except for the huckleberries which I picked from a nearby patch. Surprisingly, I didn't come across any major hurdles during decorating, because from the past sets, I've learned some lessons and prevent any problems from occurring. All in all I had a wonderful time creating these somewhat healthy (not really) cupcakes!
This set was called "Fruitastic!", because the theme was fruits! I used a layer of buttercream icing for the base, and then added assortments of grapes, huckleberries, watermelon, apples, and oranges in various patterns on top.
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| "Fruitastic!" |
I learned some major skills from this theme. To elaborate, I learned how to finely cut fruits, which I could apply to other foods such as vegetables or meat in the future. In addition, now I am pretty good at making my own buttercream frosting, because I've done it so many times. To be honest, I had many ideas in mind for this theme so I didn't use any outside inspirations. I already had all of the fruits handy at home, except for the huckleberries which I picked from a nearby patch. Surprisingly, I didn't come across any major hurdles during decorating, because from the past sets, I've learned some lessons and prevent any problems from occurring. All in all I had a wonderful time creating these somewhat healthy (not really) cupcakes!
Saturday, 1 June 2013
Time is ticking, as I move on to Set #4
I have only about two more weeks before this project is due! Wow, time flies!
For this set of cupcakes, the theme was candy, in a variety of colours. Since the focus was on candy, I decided to go simple with the frosting and use Nutella. However, I did end up making some plain icing sugar icing as well, for the rainbow cupcake.
Before starting this project, my friend sent me a picture of this amazing rainbow candy cupcake, and we were planning to make them. However, we never got around to doing it, but I decided to incorporate it into this set. As well, I found some other inspirations online such as the turtle candy cupcake. I went to the local candy shop to buy the candy I would be needing. Then, I started decorating! This set wasn't hard, but it wasn't easy either. Three of the cupcakes I came up with on my own, so I had to experiment and try things out for myself. For example, Nutella had a different consistency than I was used to with the other icing, so it took a few tries to get it right. For the twizzler cupcake, I had to cut up some twizzlers for the inside shards, and that was pretty innovative I think. To add, for the turtle cupcake, I couldn't find the exact candy I was looking for so I had to cut it up too. Finally, for the chocolate swirl, I cut up some chocolate pieces- that was fun!
I also came a across many unpredictable hurdles. When I was making them, I found out that I didn't have as much time as I had previously thought. This left me in a time crunch to finish the 5 cupcakes. Also, as I said before, using a new medium (Nutella) made it necessary for me to practice before actually decorating the cupcakes, which took some time as well. Furthermore, for the twizzler cupcake, the two ends of the heart would not stay put, even after I tried melting the tips and connecting them and applying honey to keep them together! Finally, for the rainbow cupcake, the rainbow candy was thinner than I had expected, and it kept on collapsing. This was very annoying but I managed to make it look presentable. This set was quite fun to create, and I learned a lot of tips I can use in the future.
Here are my inspirations:
For this set of cupcakes, the theme was candy, in a variety of colours. Since the focus was on candy, I decided to go simple with the frosting and use Nutella. However, I did end up making some plain icing sugar icing as well, for the rainbow cupcake.
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| "Candy Crush" |
I also came a across many unpredictable hurdles. When I was making them, I found out that I didn't have as much time as I had previously thought. This left me in a time crunch to finish the 5 cupcakes. Also, as I said before, using a new medium (Nutella) made it necessary for me to practice before actually decorating the cupcakes, which took some time as well. Furthermore, for the twizzler cupcake, the two ends of the heart would not stay put, even after I tried melting the tips and connecting them and applying honey to keep them together! Finally, for the rainbow cupcake, the rainbow candy was thinner than I had expected, and it kept on collapsing. This was very annoying but I managed to make it look presentable. This set was quite fun to create, and I learned a lot of tips I can use in the future.
Here are my inspirations:
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| http://www.ufunk.net/food/rainbow-cupcakes/ |
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| http://family.go.com/food/recipe-852443-squirt-happy-turtlecakes-t/ |
Thursday, 30 May 2013
The Halfway Mark
For the third set of cupcakes, I decided to do a floral theme, in summery colours- yellow, orange, pink, green, and white. This was probably the hardest set so far, because creating flowers needs specific piping tools.
Set #3: "Summery Flora"
First, I searched up some pictures of floral cupcakes. However, many weren't doable because I didn't have the proper piping tools. On the other hand, I found a website that demonstrated how to make my own piping tools, only using a ziplock bag! I used two homemade piping tools, and one of the plastic ones I already had. Flowers were very hard to make because the icing had to be firm enough to hold shape. However, I managed to complete this set.
I messed up on these cupcakes multiple times, and I had to redo two of them. From this experience, I learned some lessons and refined my skills and techniques. This set really taught me how to hold the piping bag properly, and apply the right amount of pressure to get the perfect petals/leaves.
Here are my inspirations:
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| http://www.sugarcraft.com/catalog/misc/tipusage.htm |
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| http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/rose%20cupcake |
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| http://faceyourbatter.blogspot.ca/2010/07/sunny-sunflower-cupcakes.html |
Tuesday, 28 May 2013
Moving on, to Set #2
Today, I decided to take up the "rainbow" theme. I used skills I learned from yesterday, as well as from books and online tutorials. The colour scheme was the rainbow, so red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. I made sure to keep the shades vibrant!
Set #2- "Intensely Rainbow"
First, I had to draw out my five designs. I searched on Pinterest and Google Images for some inspiration. After that, I started decorating!
This set proved much harder than "Pastel Patterns". Making icing in 6 different shades was quite time consuming and tiring. As well, due to my lack of piping tools, I had to re-use the same tool with different colours. Switching alternately, washing in between took so much time and effort too. Honestly, this set took me about 2-3 hours to decorate, which was RIDICULOUS!! For five cupcakes, which would be eaten in less than 2-3 minutes, the decorating time was quite lengthy. For the last cupcake, I actually separated the batter into 6 different containers and tinted them. This set was more about pretty swirls, rather than detailed patterns. However, I did create a larger swiggly line (cupcake #3) and miniature dots (cupcake #4) which were techniques used in the last set as well.
Overall, I learned so much from this set, including using multiple different icings, making my own buttercream icing (I ran out of my commercial icing), putting food colouring into the piping bag for colour contrast, tinting cake batter, adding heighty swirls and keeping them high, as well as adding candy as decorations too.
Here are my inspirations:
Monday, 27 May 2013
The Challenge Begins!
Today, I baked my first batch of cupcakes, and decorated one set!
Before, I had to prepare. To start, I bought all of the ingredients I needed at the local grocery store and candy store. My mother gave me an old cake decoration book, and it had some great tips! Next, I surfed the web for some tutorials and inspirations. Then, I drew out some sketches of ideas. Planning took much longer than expected- I had to determine colour, what design I would do, what supplies would I need, what skills would I learn, and so on. After that, I started baking!
I practiced decorating on some parchment paper, and that proved to be quite useful. I decorated a set (5 cupcakes) in the theme of patterns. I chose to do pastel colours; pink, blue, and white was the colour scheme. Here are my inspirations (mind you, I used icing, while these decorators used fondant):
I came across a few hurdles, but managed to overcome and learn from them. First, when I was dipping the cupcakes in soft frosting, I realized the paper cups on the cupcakes were too big and that caused some issues. However, I managed to ice the cupcakes and it didn't turn out so bad. Next time, I will make sure to fill the cups up exactly 2/3 or more, to ensure the cupcakes rise over the cups. Second, when I was decorating one cupcake, the pattern didn't come out as expected. The reason was because the piping tool was a little too large. To cover up my mistakes, I did a different pattern on top of it- it looked fine!
Overall I had a wonderful time decorating my first set of cupcakes, and I will definitely put my skills and techniques to use when I decorate the next sets soon!
Set #1: "Pastel Patterns"
Before, I had to prepare. To start, I bought all of the ingredients I needed at the local grocery store and candy store. My mother gave me an old cake decoration book, and it had some great tips! Next, I surfed the web for some tutorials and inspirations. Then, I drew out some sketches of ideas. Planning took much longer than expected- I had to determine colour, what design I would do, what supplies would I need, what skills would I learn, and so on. After that, I started baking!
I practiced decorating on some parchment paper, and that proved to be quite useful. I decorated a set (5 cupcakes) in the theme of patterns. I chose to do pastel colours; pink, blue, and white was the colour scheme. Here are my inspirations (mind you, I used icing, while these decorators used fondant):
Overall I had a wonderful time decorating my first set of cupcakes, and I will definitely put my skills and techniques to use when I decorate the next sets soon!
Tuesday, 21 May 2013
Hello World!
I'm Ruvini, and this will be by blog to log my process for my second Genius Hour project. To find out more about what Genius Hour is all about, and to check out my first Genius Hour Project, visit on-my-pursuit-of-happiness.blogspot.ca.
This is my second project, and I will learn how to decorate cupcakes with icing, using various techniques and equipment. I have brainstormed a few things so far, including a schedule (considering time is short), what I need to buy, and how I plan to present my project.
To be honest, I had planned to do my project on learning to play the guitar. However, I soon realized that would be very difficult and I would be setting myself up for disaster because we only have one month to complete this assignment. This was a major decision and I hope my new project will work out!
Here is a draft of my proposal:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ga9J-I61_NabwUrpECoEaKVyVgcbZRwSIiFdB9eqi0I/edit?usp=sharing
This is my second project, and I will learn how to decorate cupcakes with icing, using various techniques and equipment. I have brainstormed a few things so far, including a schedule (considering time is short), what I need to buy, and how I plan to present my project.
To be honest, I had planned to do my project on learning to play the guitar. However, I soon realized that would be very difficult and I would be setting myself up for disaster because we only have one month to complete this assignment. This was a major decision and I hope my new project will work out!
Here is a draft of my proposal:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ga9J-I61_NabwUrpECoEaKVyVgcbZRwSIiFdB9eqi0I/edit?usp=sharing
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