My first class, for this my third teaching trip to Rome, was the pretty flower posy cake – a current favourite with our UK students. Walking into the teaching room was a lovely experience, lots of enthusiastic students very pleased to see us including many familiar faces: Rosaria, Angela, Teresa, Gaia, and Francesca, two of whom have also attended my classes in the UK.
I usually find Italian students slightly more adventurous with style and colour than some of my UK students and today’s class didn’t disappoint. I do however think that maybe some of this experimentation is because certain students only half listen to instructions and others are just too keen to start…..the outcome however is often exquisite.
For colours, quite a few students used the original posy that appears in my ‘contemporary cake bible book’ for inspiration, others used the examples from our previous classes in the UK. One of my students brought her 3 month old daughter with her and we noticed at the end of the class that she had inadvertently used exactly the same colours as the baby’s pram toy!! This proves we all tend to choose familiar colour combinations without thinking about it and certainly for this class I played safe…What did I use? Well I opted for bright spring colours. Our classroom was on the slightly chilly side, so I need colours to make me feel warm!!!
The students were all very exciting about using flower moulds, it was the first time for many of them and the room seem to resemble florists in no time at all!! They enjoyed being shown how to use more than one colour in a mould to create beautiful realistic flowers in next to no time.
The forecasted snow started to fall mid afternoon, so unfortunately a few students decided to leave the class early and missed adding edible dusts to their flowers. However everyone else finished and was thrilled with their creations.
If you’d like to join me on a similar class in the UK, the next date in our class calendar is the 20th April 2012. click here for more information.
Alessandra says
Love the comment “certain students only half listen to instructions and others are just too keen to start”, I feel like that with fondant, although I have never taken a class (but gave a few) but in the end it is difficult to make mistake with flowers, I think; they will always look great. I find smooth icing far more challenging :-)!!
Ciao, and what a beautiful blog!
Alessandra