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!