Ombre 2D & 3D roses flower cake

Baking class @ mysistersbake the other time was so fun and tiring! So much work on the piping and scraping and wiping and swirling. Lots of techniques learnt from them! From baking the cake from scratch, to beating the egg to swiss meringue butter cream, to assembling the cake, crumb coating, and piping them into 2D and 3D roses!
So we get to practice for a few times, making 2D rosettes and 3D flowers. There's a practice board for us to pipe onto it. Whenever we're not happy with it, scrap it and re-do again. We just gotta practice practice and practice a few more times to get a "better looking" rosettes. Then we were asked to choose the colors that we wanted for our cakes. It was very stressful when it comes to the real thing. The real roses that you make will be topped onto your cake. Its real business now. Haha! Just use a parchment paper, and gotta freeze that little cream roses till it hardens and transferable onto the cake itself. *STRESS*

She told us that swiss meringue butter cream its more challenging in making the roses because it is so so soft. If we were to master this, we will be able to make roses with other different types of cream, i.e. american buttercream and icings? Hah, we did it!


So the cakes were ready-made (frozen cake). We just have to assemble the cakes one by one. Spreading the vanilla buttercream onto each layers without touching the crumbs. (this is so that the whole cake will not be filled with crumbs). Lastly we then did the "crumb coating" thingy by spreading a thin layer of frosting all over the cake before putting on the "final" cream layer. This will prevent any crumbs from ending up on the surface of your finished cake. (perfecto!) Just do it by holding the offset spatula at 45degree angle and turning the turntables to smoothen the cake.
After crumb coating and settling everything, we gotta make that classic ombre effect for the cake. Who knows it was this easy? *flipshair* Just gotta make sure that every single inch of the cake is covered with cream before sweeping it smooth. This is ensure that the finishing cake is well covered and pretty with zero holes. Things to note: do piped more colored cream than plain white for prettier effect.
So that's the end product! Its fugly as compared to the rest. )': I need more practice! Practice practice practice! Oh, here's the recipe for swiss meringue butter cream in case I lost the recipe again! Hah! With additional notes taken during the class!

Swiss meringue butter cream 

INGREDIENTS
9-10 egg whites (approx. 300ml)
300g caster sugar (super fine sugar so it is easier to melt)
454g butter (soft but still cold)
flavouring to taste (1 tbsp extract/juice*)

*i.e. vanilla, peppermint, strawberry. Juice are more common for citric flavours like lemon or oranges. Just add bit by bit to taste.

DIRECTIONS
1. Wipe the bowl of an electric mixer clean and leave no residue. Combine egg white and sugar in a bowl (using hand whisk).
2. Over a simmering pot of water, NOT BOILING, make sure that the bottom of the bowl does not touch the hot water. Whisk the egg white mixture constantly until temperature reaches 60-70 degree.
3. With whisk attachment of standing mixer, whisk the egg white mixture till think and glossy. *Cool to touch- approx 10-15min*
4. When mixture is cooled, add softened butter in chunks, bit by bit, to the meringue until incorporated. It should reach a smooth a silky texture rather than eggy omelette texture.
5. Add the flavouring & coloring in.

TIPS
Why do we need to put it over a simmer of hot water? 
1. This is so that sugar is melted.
2. The meringue would not be grainy
and 3. To kill all the bacteria in the egg white (for safe consumption).

Use what type of bowl? 
Use a deeper bowl instead of wider bowl, as it has lesser chance of getting cooked egg white

How do we know when to stop hand whisking?
1. Touch & feel till there's no more grainy sugar
2. Use a food thermometer showing 60 degree.
3. Or sometime you can smell cooked egg white, its time to stop!

Storage?
1. Freezer: last for about 2 months
2. Fridge: last for about 1 week
Just leave out at room temperature when needed and re-whip in mixer for 5 minutes.