Harrods famously offers the very best that money can buy - and when someone asks Harrods for a wedding cake, they ask Rosalind Miller to create it. Celebrated for her exceptional design and incredible craftsmanship, the award-winning master-baker has for years struggled to meet demand for classes from her London cake studio - where students learn to design, bake and decorate delicious cakes. She now opens this opportunity to the whole world, in an online collaborative learning environment. Become part of a close-knit community of passionate bakers and inspire each other, discuss ideas and work together to design mind-blowing modern cakes which taste as good as they look.
It's Rosalind's design background that really sets her apart from other bakers and in this online course she will take you behind the scenes of Rosalind Miller Cakes where you will learn how to create elegant, contemporary, design-led cakes. With head-baker Becky on hand to demonstrate, Rosalind will take you through the basics of baking - flavours, colours, troubleshooting and more. Furthermore, she will let you in on one of her big trade secrets – her signature sponge recipe, as used in her kitchen for all her clients. You will learn how you can adapt this recipe to incorporate your own artistic flair, and by the end of the course you will have created a six-inch, layered, lemon sponge with a watercolour marbling effect.
Throughout the course, Rosalind will give you detailed feedback on your work, design ideas and tips for the times it doesn't quite go to plan... Together with a group of creative and like-minded bakers, you will finish the course armed with all the tools you need to create stunning cakes, for any celebration!
Introduction and getting started!
Meet your tutor, Rosalind Miller. Find out how she turned her passion into the renowned business it is today, telling you about her journey from cupcakes to wedding cakes.
Meet Becky the head baker, who demonstrates the recipe and method for making Rosalind’s signature sponge recipe – the exact recipe used in her kitchen for all her clients.
You will learn the basics of cake baking, starting with ingredients before dealing with equipment - and then having a go yourself.
Flavour variations
In this lesson you will learn how to adapt the basic recipe to make different flavours. Moving beyond vanilla, you will learn how to make a raspberry cake where the raspberries don’t sink. And then how to make a lemon cake with a delicious lemon syrup.
You will also start to get to grips with oven temperatures, timings and lining cake tins.
Swiss Meringue Buttercream filling and layering
Learn why and how Swiss meringue buttercream is used, and create exciting and unusual flavours to make your cake stand out from the rest.
You will also learn how to cut the cake into professional layers for filling and finalising.
Finishing touches
Get creative with your finishing touches! First you will create a ‘crumb coating’ – a thin layer of buttercream to seal in the crumbs.
You will then learn how to create a final coating, before you are shown how to create an abstract ‘watercolour’ marbling effect, working with colours which complement each other.