Well... If I knew you were coming, I'd have baked a bigger cake!
Welcome to Home Sciences at
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!
We have one requirement, and one only:
Make it look pretty.
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Home Sciences! Home Learning No. 1;; ‹Icing a Cake›
The Video [click the link and watch~ it's useful]:
Watch it.
Your Quiz [click the link, screenshot your results and submit it]:
Here!
The assignment is, quite simply, to submit in an iced cupcake.
You will be marked on taste and presentation.
When handing in your cupcake, state what flavour the icing is, what nozzle you used, and the icing recipe you opted for.
Don't be afraid to submit more than one cake? You might even get extra credit.
Optional work [not gonna force you to do this]:
Prep for next lesson! We'll be moving onto bigger cakes, exciting, exciting, and more decorations. Sketch me a cake you'd like to (attempt to) make for next lesson to boost your cred.
This is all due in on Monday 16th Spetember... So get cracking!
The best frosting for decorative cupcakes would be either buttercream or a cream cheese frosting, I would recommend buttercream due to the slight tangyness in cream cheese, but whatever tickles your fancy.
In order for the frosting to have enough body (be thick enough) to hold up, you need a good base to start with. Make sure not to add to much liquid, or allow your ingredients to be too warm. I would not recommend using muggle canned (pre-made) frosting to pipe on cupcakes, it’s usually not firm enough to hold up. Some people add powdered sugar to canned frosting to thicken it, but this is foolishness because it's easier to make it yourself. Some witches try and use excessive magic to create the perfect icing, they just get ridiculously messy.
I'll teach you how to make the perfect buttercream... Any suggestions on flavours? We'll go for lemon shall we?
Ohkay!
Basic buttercream frosting comprises of butter, icing sugar and milk.
I'll make enough frosting for 16 cupcakes. To start off, you'll need 500g icing sugar, 120g unsalted butter, 30ml fresh lemon juice, 1 teaspoon lemon zest and 2 tablespoons milk. You'll be able judge these quantities in time and add more lemon zest or juice or both - all depends on your audience's tastes.
And the rest is easy peasy.
Just beat all the ingredients, save the milk, until smooth. You might want to add the icing sugar in bit by bit, depends on how patient you are. The key to avoiding a lumpy icing is doing this incredibly slowly and precisely. When that's done? Add in the milk slowly, still beating it.
Voila. Icing.
Feel free to add some food colouring or concentrated gel colouring to experiment with different shades. Or you can try a basic colour changing charm. Does everybody remember? No? It's Colovaria. And make sure you're pointing your wand at the target, for goodness sakes.
Now!
Basic decorating... Observe,
(Left to Right) Large round tip, Open star (Wilton 1M), Closed star (Wilton 2D), French tip.
I've left out the more difficult nozzles... You can study them privately and submit in a cupcake having used a more difficult icing nozzle for extra credit.
To frost cupcakes, you’ll want to use a large (sometimes called jumbo) decorating tip. The four most common shapes (openings) are shown above. The Wilton 1M and 2D are often available at muggle craft stores... But there's a new shop opening next to Beauxbatons, we'll go there on a field trip next week.
I like to use a coupler to hold my tips in place, for these large tips you’ll need a large coupler as well. Large tips can also be used without a coupler, by simply setting the tip inside the bag, then filling with frosting.
Hold the bag steadily, work from the outside towards the in. Frosting requires a steady hand... Don't rush.
And when you're done? You may add sprinkles, and pearls, and glitter and everything your heart desires. Don't over do it. Remember! It has to ultimately look pretty.
