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:

http://www.sugarcraft.com/catalog/misc/tipusage.htm

http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/rose%20cupcake

http://faceyourbatter.blogspot.ca/2010/07/sunny-sunflower-cupcakes.html

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: 

http://spoonful.com/recipes/taste-rainbow

http://www.thegloss.com/2010/09/29/culture/cupcake-store-refuses-to-make-gay-rainbow-cupcakes-because-theyre-gay/

http://www.withsprinklesontop.net/?p=1068

The Challenge Begins!

Today, I baked my first batch of cupcakes, and decorated one set!

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):

http://treatsastastytaters.blogspot.ca/2011/10/cupcake.html 

http://cupcakestakethecake.blogspot.ca/2008/05/cupcake-interview-with-hello-naomi.html

http://www.thepolkadotcupcake.co.za/gallery/polka_dot_325/

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!

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