Unicorn Cake Decorating Class

I had the privilege of conducting a class for the Miss Singapore Lumiere International World 2017 finalists at Charlissa Baking Studio over the weekend. The majority of this lovely bunch of ladies have never baked or decorated a cake before, so what could be better than popping their baking cherry than having them create a Unicorn Cake?

Unicorn Cake in a pretty box

The studio is brand spanking new, having held their launch about a month ago in mid-May, with sister company Milleaville Macarons. (and by sister company, that studio name is a combination of the names of the owner and her 2 lovely sisters!) I love how "girly" the place is, with soft pink walls, light wooden workbenches, white KitchenAid mixers and pink cake turntables. The studio is well-stocked with everything a cake decorator could need, so it was a breeze setting up the class! 

all set up and ready for Unicorns!

We started with the Swiss Meringue buttercream (SMBC). Because of our warm climate, even with the aircon on, making SMBC takes a good 40 mins on average, simply because it takes so long to cool the meringue down to room temperature, before the butter can be added in. 

demo on crumb coat technique

The students were then put to work filling and crumb coating their 3-layer vanilla sponge cakes. With enough practice, one could do this in about fifteen minutes or so, but it took the class far longer, since most of them did not know how to properly hold an offset spatula, position the scraper correctly or smoothly turn the turntable! I definitely tried my best to guide them along the way! 

filling & crumb-coating in progress

Once the cakes were all filled, crumb-coated and put in the chiller to harden, we got to work on making the unicorn's gumpaste horn and ears. I got extra long BBQ skewers to support the horns onto the tall cakes. We used gumpaste because it dries much faster and harder than fondant. We did mould the unicorn's eyes out of fondant, since we wanted them to stay soft enough to be able to take on the cake's curvature later on. I love how creative everyone was, making different types of eyes for each of their cakes! 

applying the white buttercream finish

It was then time to colour the buttercream for the finishing coat on the cakes. The natural colour of SMBC is a little off-white, because of the yellowness of the butter that is used. To get white buttercream, one has to add white food colouring! It's perfectly ok to decorate the cake using naturally coloured off-white buttercream, but I just think it's a little bit nicer when it's a bright white colour. 

rainbow mane in progress

Once again, we busted out our off-set spatulas and scrapers to put on the final buttercream coat for our unicorns. The participants found it particularly challenging to get a nice sharp edge on their cakes, though I'm glad they at least learned the proper technique so that they can perfect this skill with more practice at home. Always a good reason to bake more cake! 

piping rainbow manes

Now, with the hard work done, it was time to brighten things up with the unicorn's rainbow mane, and put the whole cake together! We tinted the buttercream four colours (purple, blue, yellow and pink) and used the cling film technique to create rainbow-swirled colours in the piping bag! Armed with the universal 1M piping nozzle and rainbow buttercream, the participants went to town creating lovely rainbow manes for their unicorn cakes! I think this was the most fun step for many of them. 

adding the final gold touches

The finishing touch was to paint the horn, ears and eyes gold, using some gold lustre dust mixed with lemon extract. 

the finished unicorn cake!

hard work paid off! 

Many of the participants were amazed that they were able to create a beautiful rainbow unicorn cake without any prior baking experience! So glad to have been able to teach this lovely group of ladies some new skills. I'm proud of what they were able to accomplish and am impressed by their creativity and style!

boxing up our creations

 tall clear cake boxes that perfectly matched the pink walls!

I thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon conducting this class, in the company of some talented (not to mention gorgeous!) ladies from Miss Singapore Lumiere International World. Definitely looking forward to my next baking class with Charlissa Baking Studio! Do head on over to their page if you're interested in learning how to whip up some sweet treats!

Well done, ladies!