Yesterday was my final Cake Decorating Basics class and I can’t believe how much we’ve covered. More importantly, I can’t believe I can decorate a cake. It’s decorated crudely, but I’ve been told with practice, I’ll get better. Still I’m really proud of what I’ve accomplished.
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| My final project... YEAH RIGHT!!! |
Our homework from this week:
- Bring in a 8” cake frosted and filled – I used a box cake (shame on me) and filled it with cherry puree.
- Make a couple batches of Wilton’s Buttercream Icing and make several colors.
I was quite proud of my cake and the fact that it was smooth for the most part. Of course, a professional would probably laugh at it, but I couldn't believe that I got it as even as I did. I kept it safe in my fridge in a ginormous cake carrier so that it wouldn't get dented.
The day of the class, my cake had to do a little traveling. I have a standing appointment just before class time, so it has to come with me to my appointment since I don't have enough time to go home to get it. All in all, the cake traveled about 50 miles. It made the journey without a scratch... until I went to turn into the mini-mall in which Michael's is located. The car in front of me decided to stop short. My cake tipped and squished against the side of the carrier.
This made me sad. Oh well, no time to dwell, it was time for class!
This week was all about our final
cake but we also covered:
- Lettering – print and script
- Roses
It became VERY obvious to me in
this class, that one of the things I need to practice most is making
icing. Tonight’s icing was too dry, so
even though I was using the right technique, the icing was breaking and
cracked.
I made it work though.
First we worked on lettering and
I was pleasantly surprised with my ability to make straight lines, but then we
moved on to ROSES.
That didn’t go as well.
My dry frosting didn’t allow me
to make the effortless circles, but I could at least tell what they were supposed
to be.
Then it was time to decorate our
cake. I decided to go with a hybrid of
the VIVID VIOLET ROSES CAKE. I wanted to show
off my printing skills and use my roses, but I wasn’t crazy about the
border. So I found another cake that
used the SWIRLED FLOWERS (and for the life of me, I can’t find the example on Wilton’s
website) .
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Not bad,
although I could have done without the picture of my foot.
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Turns out, that was a mistake.
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Some pretty... some not... none perfect
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Okay, that’s not totally true,
but I couldn’t pipe them directly on to the cake. I should have made them before the class, let
them dry and then brought them with me.
Of course, I figured this out while I was trying to pipe them directly on
to the cake and couldn’t make them look like decent flowers. My instructor confirmed that for me. Still, it didn’t look all that bad.
I decided that my cake had too
much white space between the border and the top of the cake. Since I was running out of time, I decided to
pipe some simple dots around the top of the cake.
Overall, I was really proud of
what I accomplished. Would I be willing
to make a cake for a holiday to present my work? Probably not, but with a little more
practice, I think I could do it.
The rest of my classmates
graciously allowed me to take pictures of their cakes so you could see a lot of
the different techniques we learned.
Prepare to be dazzled because I certainly was…
I suddenly feel a bit of
inadequacy looking at my classmate’s pictures.
No matter, I graduated and as a present, Loretta, my instructor, allowed
her picture to be taken with me and my certificate.
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| I knew I would finally get a picture of her! |
Starting next week, I’m tackling
two classes. They are Class #2 – Flowers
and Cake design and Class #3 – Gum Paste and Fondant. I am more than excited! Since I don’t have as much baking to do, I
should be able to get my posts up in a more, ahem… timely manner.
I’ll let you know how they go,
but until then… Happy Baking!
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