Pretty in Pink: the art of a perfectly iced cake or almost....

What a week for food!

On Wednesday I was at an olive oil tasting in the 6th, it was organised by the Slow Food Convivium and was hosted by Simé and Dominique Masstot of "Olivari", 8 rue Littré. We tried 5 different oils from Greece, France, Spain and two from Italy ranging from ripe fruity and light to more intense oils. The suprise for me was the desert of mango, basil & olive oil, you need a fruity olive oil to pull it off (2 medium ripe mangos cubed, 3 tablespoons of olive oil and some thorn basil to taste!).

Saturday I headed off to "Spring" in the first arrondisement where they were selling fresh white asparagus with purple tips by the kilo. I bought two kilos! Yesterday I ate it raw simply dressed with lemon juice but tonight Iwill be steaming it and serving it with a light vinigerette.

Fed up of making delicious tasting cakes which are then let down by decoration that even kindgarten child would embarrassed by and finding myself alone for the weekend, I was up bright and early on Sunday morning to attend the cake decorating class in english at "cooking with class" near the Sacre Coeur.

The class was run by Briony, who taught us passed on as much of her know how as she could in three and a half hours from putting the ganache on the cake, to making sugar craft flowers and applying the sugar icing to the cake and getting that all important smooth finish. She also passed on lots of really good tips, including filling in gaps ad getting rid of air bubbles. The class was a really good mix of hands on work and enough help & encouragement from Briony to help ensure we all had a good result at the end of the class.

I would highly recommend this class anyone and am planning to sign up for more of the courses at the school, especially if as rumoured they start a regular cake decorating class, apparently just learning to roll out the sugar craft merits whole class itself! (mind you after my experience today I would believe it!)

The only downside is that your cake will look so good you won't want to eat it!