A basic cake-making course will begin with the steps needed to bake a delicious cake. You will learn the right ingredients to use, tasty recipes and the optimal atmosphere in which to mix and bake your cake. After the cakes are done, you will learn the basic steps to frosting and decorating professional-looking cakes. This includes mixing frosting, icing tips to obtain a smooth finish, coloring and dyeing the icing and simple designs, such as flowers, stars and letters.
A more advanced cake-making course is an extensive focus on icing and design. This type of course assumes that you already have the skills to bake the cake and can frost it. An intensive frosting course will teach intricate flower designs, such as lilies and pansies, basketweave designs and other detailed border treatments, such as ivy.
A fondant cake-making course is a different type of advanced icing and frosting class. Fondant courses also assume that you know how to bake the cake and can perform basic decorating skills.
Fondant is a thick type of sugary frosting that is first rolled on a flat surface and then laid across the cake and pressed into place. Like frosting, fondant can be colored and dyed but it requires expert skill to achieve a uniform color. Once you have achieved the desired color, it also takes great skill to learn how to form it smoothly around the cake base. Fondant can also be made into different decorations and embellishments, such as bows, flowers and other designs.
A wedding cake-making course will focus on extremely fancy designs. This is for the advanced-level cake artist who knows how to work with cakes and different frostings and has shown talent for creating beautiful designs. Wedding cake courses will teach intricate looks such as lace by using pulled sugar and freestanding frosting bridges to create 3-D designs. Because the materials for wedding cakes are usually top quality and they contain more than one layer, these cakes are more expensive to make, so you should only train for it if you are serious about the business.
This kind of course focuses more on the cake itself than the design on top. You will learn different recipes to impress customers in a restaurant and the art of baking them perfectly, using commercial ovens.