Still more cake decorating!

Tonight is the last night of Course I for cake decorating.

We finished our three-step lesson on how to make a rose (really, was it necessary to drag it out three classes?).





We learned how to make various leaves and vines. A few of us also learned a smaller flower, the sweet pea.

How did I do?

More cake decorating!

For tonight's class, we made the EXACT same cake that my mother made for me as a child. Goes to show you that if something isn't broken, don't change it!

Voila, my clown cake. Yes, I named him Tom. I was practicing my letters, but didn't have room for something longer!



I looked through my photos to see if I had that photo from when I was a kid, sticking my finger into the frosting while wearing yellow feetsie pajamas (not unlike my friend, the clown), but no luck. My sister will have to do some spelunking in the family archives for that...

Cake Decorating, take 2!

Alas, i didn't take a picture, but made a sweet little Valentine's Day cake. We learned how to make hearts, dots, and shells.

I'm kicking myself for not taking a photo. Seriously...

Cake Decorating 101

In my never-ending quest to limit whatever freetime I may have, I signed up recently for a cake decorating class. Wilton, the ubiquitous supplier of professional cake decorating products, offers small classes at both Michael's and AC Moore. My mother took a class when I was a child and I remember her bringing home amazing cakes. I've been dying to take a class for years, so when I ran across a class at AC Moore, I jumped on it. $22 for the class, plus supplies.

Well, the supplies could run you considerably more, if you don't watch out! At first I thought I could borrow most things from my mother -- at least the frosting tips. Most of the other supplies don't age well, so it was off to the races to buy pastry bags, couplers, icing colors, etc. Tom accomplanied me on one trip and quickly calculated that it's cheaper in the long run for me to buy an entire kit, using those wonderful 40-50% off coupons that are in the paper, than it is to purchase items individually.

Tonight was the first class -- an introduction to making the frosting, how to level a cake, how to put together a pastry bag with the frosting tip. Good thing I watched my mother as a child do all these things!

For each of the next three classes, we bring in a plain, small frosted cake to decorate with whatever skills we've learned from that class. Stay tuned!