Weavin’ my Worries Behind

Posted On May 31, 2022

The Inspiration

When I told my mom that I was going to be learning how to decorate cakes for a class project, she would NOT stop asking if I was planning on trying out the basketweave design. I wasn’t originally planning on trying it out, but she insisted, so here I am, hoping I can successfully create a basket weave cake! I actually didn’t have the supplies I needed to do this cake because there is a specific piping tip that you need to use. Luckily, my amazing mom sponsored this cake creation and bought me this kit off of Amazon. I was extra excited for these to come in because the supplies are pink (my absolute favourite colour)! 

@danicakesbakes

#learntodecoratecakes#basketweaving#cakediy#cakehacks#cakedecorator#helpcake#cakehelpline#bakerylife#bakery#caketutorial#caketoker

♬ original sound – Danielle Kimberly

My Cake Learning

Instead of using Youtube or a site off of a google search, this week I used Tiktok to figure out how the heck to do this cake design! I used the handy search bar and typed in “Basketweave cake” and I clicked on the first video I saw! This ended up being @danicakesbakes video. I really enjoyed the short and simple explanation that a Tiktok video can provide! I really enjoyed that with her video she provided closed captioning which makes the video accessible for everyone! The audio, visual, and captioning really broke down what seems like a complex skill into something quite simple. One thing that I wish she had included was what type of icing she used! It looks like a simple buttercream, but the texture seems different than what I have been using to decorate my cakes!

What I learned:

• You need a #48 Basketweave tip
• You start with the vertical line, then place the horizontal lines.
• On the next line, you start the horizontal line right next to the last vertical line.
• This is very repetitive!

(This sounds SO confusing when I type it out, I recommend watching the video if you would like to learn!)

Documenting my Learning

This week our instructor challenged us to use a tool we have never used before! Luckily, she supplied us with a list of different tools to explore. I knew that I wanted to create a video documenting my process, like in my previous blogs (check out my last blog), so I ended up choosing Screencast O’Matic! The site itself is super easy to navigate and you can create screen recordings along with editing other videos. For this post, I am going to be editing on my usual editing program – iMovie, but I am going to try out a screen recording as I go through the process! I have never done a screen recording before, so I thought that it would be a cool process to try out. I was going to originally try out editing on this site, but unfortunately, the video files that I had were not compatible with the site. This was because my videos were recorded in high quality rather than compatible mode! 

Getting Started:

1. Make an account: this was super simple (I signed in using my google account!)
2. Click “My Content”
3. Choose what you want to do! You can choose from a screenshot, screen recording, or video editor. I ended up trying out both the video editor and screen recording.

Screen Recording:

1. Click “Make a Recording”
2. Install the Recorder App
3. Go back to the website and click “Make a Recording” then “open” for the pop-up!
4. Allows access for screen recording
5. Start recording! 
   • You will get the option to record the screen, webcam, or both! For my example below, I chose to do just the screen.

Some More Info:

• You can change the size of the screen recording.
• You can draw, erase, and highlight different things onto the screen.
• You get 15 minutes of recording time with the Free Version.
• If you want, you can narrate the recording!

After the screen recording, I uploaded and saved it to Screencast O’Matic where I thought I would be able to add some narration or music. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case and I was left with a simple screen recording that I couldn’t add anything else. 

With some additional practice, I do believe that this tool will be valuable! I just need to take some time to figure out the kinks in the way I am using the system.

Use in the Classroom

This tool definitely can be used to enhance and improve student learning in the classroom! On their website, they actually have a page dedicated to different ways that you can use this tool to help the classroom. One way that I had immediately thought of would be providing feedback on assignments. There are some students who like to see a visual and also hear auditory feedback, so you could screen record as you give feedback about their assignment in different sections. It could also be used as a way to share instruction for assignments or share a full lesson with students who have possibly missed a day. This could also be useful for students who just need a reminder of what happened in a lesson or what the expectations are for an assignment! I also think that students could use this for presentations. For example, if a student doesn’t like having to present information in front of the class, they could do a screen recording of their presentation and submit it that way!

I found that fitting this into the SARM model was kind of tricky! At first, I figured that it was simply augmentation (acting as a substitute, with functional improvement), but I think that it depends on how you choose to use it in the classroom! It could be considered a modification if you use this tool to give feedback on assignments, but if you are having a student do a presentation this way it is just augmenting the task. 

Now… Onto the Cake!

The Cake

This week, I ended up going with another box cake, but this time it was Cherry Chip from Betty Crocker! I love the simplicity that comes with using a box cake, but one of my goals for next week is to make a cake from scratch again. I absolutely love the process of putting together all of the ingredients, and that is something that I miss out on when using the box cakes. 

The Crumb Coat

Thanks to some tips from @Dayle Deck (freezing cake before crumb coat and after) from my last blog, the crumb coating went so much better this time, I actually didn’t leave any crumbs behind. There were still a lot of crumbs in the actual crumb coating, but this was okay! It did its job and kept any crumbs in this layer, and they didn’t transfer over to my actual layer of buttercream.

After the crumb coat, I threw my cake back into the freezer to help speed up the decorating process!

The Practice

As I was waiting for the crumb coat to harden up, I decided to go ahead and do some practice for the basketweave design! I watched Dani’s Tiktok about a billion times before getting started! 

The Decorating

The decorating process was actually WAY harder than I originally imagined it would be. Figuring out how to transfer my horizontal practice runs onto a vertical surface was extremely difficult. It resulted in some pretty uneven vertical and horizontal lines. This design is not very forgiving when it comes to inconsistencies in size and length. In the picture below you will be able to see each of the inconsistencies that occurred throughout the cake, and you will also be able to see them in the video I made documenting the process. If I were to do this again, I think that I would try out a bigger tip – this smaller tip that I had made this extremely difficult. I also would practice doing the design on a vertical surface a few times, instead of using a horizontal surface.

*Drumroll* The Final Result

The editing process led me to this amazing video of my cake decorating! I hope you enjoy watching the process because I had so much fun making this cake (even if it didn’t turn out as great as I imagined).

#Tech Resources I Used:

• Tiktok
• Screencast O’Matic
• iMovie
• Youtube

What did I Learn?:

• Using new tech resources can be REALLY hard!
• The compatibility of videos is extremely important – if it isn’t in compatible mode, it probably won’t work with editing services.
• I need to find a way to practice icing vertically (to simulate actually icing a cake).
• More practice WILL make perfect (maybe I’ll try this design again in the future).
• Screen recordings are really cool and can be useful in the classroom!

Now… What are Next Weeks Plans?:

• Learn from another new source! Maybe Instagram.
• Try out using fondant (as a replacement for buttercream).
• Try using out Screencasting O’Matic again, but with videos that are compatible so I can actually edit them!