Wilton Class, Course 1, Week 2

This is probably the most I'll be writing in this blog... so if you want to skip all the blah blah blahs you can scroll down to the pictures below. :) I would.

So I decided to take the plunge and take a cake decorating class to learn and practice buttercream skills. Week 1 was just an intro to the class, then a demonstration of how to frost a layered cake, and talk about buttercream and different consistencies. I've heard that the first week is like an informercial for Wilton products, but our instructor, Joann, wasn't pushy at all. She went over what tools are helpful to her, what we needed in class, what we won't use, etc. I learned a couple new things, like cake boards are food safe and do not need to be covered in between tiered cakes but covered for finished cakes. I also learned how to make buttercream,up to now, I've always bought BC (buttercream--remember that, I'll be using that abbreviation from now on!) since I'm lazy and I want to get to decorating right away.

Last night, Patrick helped me bake my cake since I worked late then had to jet over Angi's house for a Senscy open house. This "homework" cake was supposed to be baked and frosted before class. We also had to make BC in 3 different consistencies. I'm so sooooo thankful that I received my KA (KitchenAid) mixer for my birthday from my mom or else I'd probably just have thrown the whole BC thing out the window. I've done it before. Attempted to make frosting and failed and it went into the trash. Not out the window. But I was tempted. Anyway, back to my homework... Then I took an hour getting my supplies ready in my nifty Cubs reusable bag (Go Cubs!). It felt like getting ready for the first day of school. Tomi and I were texting each other asking how each other's BC went and what to bring and so on.

So, on to Class time...

This was my frosted cake. Since I am doing a cake every class, I just planned on giving them away. This week was for my coworker, Janet. She had a recipe for a quick chocolate orange rum cake using orange cake mix, chocolate pudding and rum. It is yummy. I used a chocolate filling and covered it in BC. And I used the super duper Viva trick to make it smooth. (Questions about it? Google it, its 12:04am and I don't have time to write about it... Maybe later... or next month.)

This is our handy dandy practice board. Its got a plastic cover... we practiced star tipping (yay!--yeah, that's sarcasm), dots (harder than it seems!) and handwriting (need more practice! I stink! I love my architecture handwriting, but hate writing on cakes) The nifty thing about this board was that when you were done, we scraped off the BC and did it all over again! and again! and again!
I'm practicing Teddy Bears there... supposedly, when you do the dots/circles, the upward pointy thing should not be there. You know what they say... practice makes perfect...

So I need more practice.... see my dots? pointy pointy pointy! The picture doesn't do it justice, but its actually teal and pink. I love teal. Chamryn's birthday party will be teal and pink...

Can you tell that I don't proofread/revise my blogs? I go off in tangents--I must focus!

Focus on this: star tips...

star. star. star. star.. star.. star.. star... star... star...

It was so much fun though. I can't wait for next week. We have a choice of doing cakes or cupcakes.

Oh, and Ruth's Castle cake is on its way! I started the towers tonight... Will finish it tomorrow night... probably will be a late night since I want to take Chamryn to play at the playground while the weather is still nice... I'm hearing a bad 4 letter word is coming back... (snow) so I wan to at least play once this week!

Stay tuned!

Did you really read all that? Wow! You deserve a cookie. Or a cupcake. or cakeballs! :)