By Jasmine Barber, 23 March 2012 – Sunshine Coast Daily

SUNSHINE Coast cooks are putting their sweet designs on cake decorating.
As one of the few creative arts that can be eaten, cake decorating is drawing people together from all ages and walks of life.
Just about anyone who has ever decorated a cake for a special occasion has memories of flicking through the Australian Women’s Weekly Birthday Cake Book, or still has a dog-eared and chocolate stained copy of a relative’s favourite design in the bottom of the pantry.
While these retro designs will always have a place on the party table, many keen home cooks are taking celebration cakes to a whole new level through cake decorating courses.
Coast chef and owner of Cotton Tree’s How To Cook Iris Windsor said anyone could be a cake decorator.
Iris and her cooking school team have been teaching cake-decorating classes for more than five years and spots always fill up quickly with people eager to learn new designs and techniques.
Beginners to advanced decorators are welcome at the classes.
But students are required to fulfil a certain amount of homework as well as the in-class learning.
Each course is run over four weeks, with two-hour tuition sessions held at How To Cook on Monday nights from 7-9pm.
For the more serious decorator, Iris teaches Wilton Method cake decorating classes, which is a simple approach to intensive and technical methods.
The first class provides students with a visual feast as Iris demonstrates how to “torte” a cake – splitting into layers, filling with a creamy centre and putting the cake back together.
Students arrive at lesson two with an un-iced cake which may be anything from a mud cake to madeira, or plain sponge which they turn into a masterpiece after learning particular icing and piping techniques for dimensional decorating.
Creativity steps up a notch in class three, when students learn how to make cupcake toppers out of icing and decorate a batch of cupcakes that they have bought along to class.
Students will learn that there are three keys to success with icing and these are: pressure control while holding the piping bag; positioning of the piping bag; and the icing consistency.
In the final class, students are shown how to make roses from icing in multiple hues, before being presented with a graduate certificate to show off their newly acquired skills – and so far the graduate success rate is 100%.
Iris sees people come to classes for many different reasons – some wanting to create character cakes that their children and grandchildren request, others to learn the skills needed to supply a wedding cake for their friend or child.
Many mothers are facing the pressure of facing up to their child’s school or kindergarten with a birthday cake that is visually impressive while still being homemade.
Whatever the reason, everyone has an underlying passion for edible art and design and everyone comes away with a sense of pride and accomplishment in their new hobby.
Many graduates of the classes remain in touch with Iris, and have become quite professional with their decorating by keeping up-to-date with the changing trends and techniques.
Those who develop a serious love for the art form can even progress to more advanced courses and fully immerse themselves in a world of fondant, petal paste, hand moulded flowers and the art of dusting
Iris learnt about the Wilton Method – run by a cake-decorating group from the United States – and became an accredited Wilton trainer in 2009.
The Wilton program was developed 80 years ago, aiming at offering a solid foundation in techniques and creative skills for beginners through to advanced.
It has become popular for its dedication to modern skills and products, and its fun and simplistic approach to cake decorating.
Iris fell in love with the cake decorating world when she was 12, after deciding to become a home economics teacher.
Now she enjoys nothing better than to help students of her cooking business make wonderful cakes for family and friends, and put a professional touch on a personal design for any occasion.