Buttercream Bootcamp: Over the Top Cake Supplies
- Kimi's Travel Thoughts
- Aug 19
- 5 min read
August 2025 Monthly Adventure
The overwhelming majority of my blog posts are about things I do to get outside of my apartment to experience more of Austin, TX and the world. This post is not really any different, but the reason behind the location and activity is rooted in what I like to do at home. I'm very comfortable in the kitchen and enjoy cooking and baking. While I am not in need of classes (except for cake decorating), I have always wanted to attend a cooking or baking class. So, I decided to sign up for a class at Over the Top Cake Supplies in Austin for this Monthly Adventure!
Background
I have known about Over the Top Cake Supplies for years and even shopped there before. My eye was always drawn to their classes. They have some baking classes along with a nice variety of decorating classes. In my case, I am good at baking but have a lot of room to grow on the decorating side of things. Before getting into true decorating classes, I decided to start with the basics and focus on learning how to make buttercream at the Buttercream Bootcamp that Over the Top Cake Supplies was offering this month. I'm great at making cream cheese frosting, but buttercream is something that I have only made maybe once when I was a teenager. I purchased my ticket for the class on the store's website for $50 a few days before the event was scheduled to begin. Looking to have my Great British Baking Show moment, it was time to "ready, set, bake" (or in this situation, decorate)!
Over the Top Cake Supplies: Buttercream Bootcamp
I arrived at Over the Top Cake Supplies for Buttercream Bootcamp about 5 minutes before the class was set to begin. This bootcamp was scheduled from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM on a Saturday. The classroom was already set with bowls, mixers, spatulas, recipe pages, and some ingredients that we would eventually use. Everyone first washed their hands and grabbed clean towels to take to their work bench along with aprons to put on before things got messy.
Our instructor was Daquan, a team member at Over the Top Cake Supplies who is also a baking professional. He started class by giving us some background on what types of buttercream we would be making and how the flow of the Buttercream Bootcamp would go. That afternoon, we were making American buttercream with high ratio shortening and easy Swiss meringue buttercream. Daquan first demonstrated how to make the American buttercream (there is a camera above his work bench so we could see what was happening on the tv screens on the wall behind him) before the students in the class began making our own buttercream. We were free and very much encouraged to ask questions as we were making the buttercream. What I discovered upon tasting the American buttercream is that it was super sweet and tasted exactly like the icing on a cake from a grocery store. Personally, it's not my favorite because I like something less sugary, but we got to take home the frosting we made which means I now have enough to frost a cake whenever I get ready to do that. It's a good thing this buttercream freezes well!
Additional team members from Over the Top Cake Supplies were busy in the background preparing ingredients and other supplies for the next round of buttercream. One thing that I really appreciated about this class was the additional knowledge I gained about things like substitutes for other ingredients, food coloring, and the different methods that can be used to achieve similar outcomes to something that we were doing. Daquan also highlighted what they sell in the retail store at Over the Top Cake Supplies and discussed how similar products that we know in a regular grocery store will differ in quantity and even quality compared to what they have in their store.
The same process was followed for making the easy Swiss meringue buttercream. Daquan did a demo and then we began to follow the recipe. However, the process was a bit more involved because a microwave was needed for making the easy Swiss meringue. We were using hand mixers in the class due to the higher number of students in the Buttercream Bootcamp that day. All of the buttercream mixing would have been easier and faster with a stand mixer. I hadn't even used a hand mixer in years because I have a stand mixer at home. I do think it was good to use a hand mixer because I was able to feel the difference in the buttercream formation as it was mixing. When I tasted this buttercream, I instantly recognized it to be the "whipped buttercream" on grocery store cakes. It's, light, not as sweet, has an off-white color, and produces a satin finish. I really liked this buttercream!
To conclude our class, we were given a 6-pack of unfrosted cupcakes. Half the cupcakes were chocolate and the remaining three were vanilla. Daquan prepared piping bags and gave each of us two to use. He taught us how to properly fill our piping bags and and explained the differences between the types of tips that can be used and the designs they can be used for. Then, he taught us how to make the classic frosting rosette for the cupcakes before we attempted to do the same. I used the American buttercream on the chocolate cupcakes because I don't like chocolate and the sweetness would help mask the flavor. I piped the Swiss meringue on the vanilla cupcakes and those looked exactly like what I see in the grocery store. I was super proud of myself for finally doing some super basic cake decorating well enough to make it presentable!
Shopping in the Over the Top Cake Supplies Retail Store
After Buttercream Bootcamp concluded, we received punch cards which can be used for future classes and eventually redeemed for a free class. We also had the option to receive a 10% off coupon to use anytime in the future in their retail store or immediately shop in the retail store for 10% off our purchase that day. I opted to get something from the store that day and walked through the doorway back into the retail store to shop. With no desire to turn my oven on and make my apartment any warmer than it already would be when returning home, I decided to get some of the frozen cakes that Daquan mentioned were in the freezer, some sugar flowers in teal to match the Kimi's Travel Thoughts theme, a flat spatula, and a plastic storage container for the cake. I enjoyed the Swiss meringue so much that I was determined to do something with it as soon as I got back home that afternoon!
Wrap-Up
Using my newly purchased supplies and and freshly made Swiss meringue, I got to work on decorating a 3-layer, 8-inch vanilla cake and included some of the gold sprinkles I already had in my baking cabinet. Yes, I have a cabinet in my kitchen dedicated to only house baking supplies -- I meant it when I said I'm very comfortable with cooking and baking. I'm still not great at decorating, but I feel like this layer cake turned out much better than I imagined. It's clearly the decorating quality of an amateur, but that's exactly what I am. Maybe one day I'll have decorating skills that are worthy of the infamous 'Hollywood Handshake' (if you know, you know). I would have to attend some additional classes to get to that level. For now, I'm going to try not to get a sugar rush from all this icing!
On to the next adventure!
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