On to the cakes! I saw the ad in the Manila Bulletin that piqued my interest...something to do with cake decorating at Nego-Skwela in Quezon City. I didn't know the format for their classes nor was it possible to get any good information from them online.
Like my previous class at Heny, I didn't know what to expect and had a fear that I wouldn't have hands-on again. It seemed too cheap at P1685 for two days to include any materials.
First impressions of Nego-Skwela's campus? Yikes! The exterior of the building was drabby to say the least. The classrooms were a bit dirty and equipments old. At Heny Sison, their classrooms were clean and bright with professional tools...you can tell the school had money. It was like night and day or it could just be my OCD issues kicking in. Alas, as long as it had an a/c, I was good!
All in all there were six students in attendance. Our teacher was Allan Nicolas, a cake decorator with several years experience abroad and in the Philippines.
He made royal and boiled icing, gum paste and showed us techniques for piping. He demoed more techniques such as flower molding and ribbon making. And to my surprise, with the time we had leftover, we were able to practice. I practiced my piping and tried to make flowers. The piping is a bit trickier. You have to apply consistent pressure and have steady hands. So much for my steady hands....i'm like a person with turret syndrome...having bursts of erratic hand movements as I do some icing designs.
The following day, in groups of two we were actually able to make our own batch of icings to create our very own faux cake. I say faux because I didn't bring my own cake, which we were advised to do. I used styrofoam as my base. Some students brought there own cakes or cupcakes to decorate on.
Like my previous class at Heny, I didn't know what to expect and had a fear that I wouldn't have hands-on again. It seemed too cheap at P1685 for two days to include any materials.
First impressions of Nego-Skwela's campus? Yikes! The exterior of the building was drabby to say the least. The classrooms were a bit dirty and equipments old. At Heny Sison, their classrooms were clean and bright with professional tools...you can tell the school had money. It was like night and day or it could just be my OCD issues kicking in. Alas, as long as it had an a/c, I was good!
All in all there were six students in attendance. Our teacher was Allan Nicolas, a cake decorator with several years experience abroad and in the Philippines.
He made royal and boiled icing, gum paste and showed us techniques for piping. He demoed more techniques such as flower molding and ribbon making. And to my surprise, with the time we had leftover, we were able to practice. I practiced my piping and tried to make flowers. The piping is a bit trickier. You have to apply consistent pressure and have steady hands. So much for my steady hands....i'm like a person with turret syndrome...having bursts of erratic hand movements as I do some icing designs.
The following day, in groups of two we were actually able to make our own batch of icings to create our very own faux cake. I say faux because I didn't bring my own cake, which we were advised to do. I used styrofoam as my base. Some students brought there own cakes or cupcakes to decorate on.
Boiled Icing ready for piping
My cake before
My cake after with ribbons
Viola, all our finished cakes!All in all, I highly recommend it. If you want hands on, then this is as good as it gets. It was such a great experience, I decided to enroll in the Masteral Cake Decorating class Allan is teaching next week.
By the way, Nego-skwela offers a lot more courses than what they post on the newspapers. Some of the classes that were recommended by other students I met included bead work and balloon decor, so either go over there or give them a ring at 433-0637. They are located in North Ave, across Diliman Quezon City.
