Cake Classes: Wilton Course 1

Another thing I've been doing to help the wait go by quicker (ha! as if!) is taking Wilton cake decorating classes at my local Michael's.

The first night of the first course (I'm taking the second course now) was focused on cupcakes and certain basics of decorating, such as making a rosette, doing the swirl on top of a cupcake, doing a zig zag, and making our own buttercream frosting.

Rosettes are much easier than they look.  :)

I had so many extra cupcakes -- the recipe that normally makes a two layer round cake made almost three dozen cupcakes!  So, I decorated six in class (as instructed), and then decorated the rest as practice at home.

The extras were enjoyed by kind guinea pigs at my Papa Beast's office, Papa Beast's vanpool, and Super Pup's dog park. (The people enjoyed them -- they weren't for the pups! :P)

The second night of class was focused on torting, filling, and icing a cake.  There was also a lesson in doing a pattern transfer with piping gel.  There were patterns included in the course kit, but I decided to design my own by drawing the Kyrgyzstani flag onto a sheet of wax paper.  I think it came out okay, especially for a first attempt!

The cake itself was chocolate, with a raspberry jam filling.  I'm not a fan of chocolate, so this was a special treat for Papa Beast.

Week three was really intensive, with us learning several new techniques like the shell border, leaves, a few different flowers, etc, etc.  We were asked to bring in several small treats, like Rice Krispies, cupcakes, Hostess products, or cookies.  I chose Rice Krispies.  It was really fun to try the different techniques and do various things with them.

The final night of class involved bringing in a cake that was already iced and ready to decorate.  We learned how to make the ribbon rose, as well as how to write (both cursive and printing) on our cakes.

I was having difficulty with icing consistency, as well as being very shaky and dizzy from my bad reaction to typhoid pills.  I'm not thrilled with the job I did (especially on the roses) but I am happy that I stuck with it even when I was really struggling.

You can see here where the blue icing was a little too runny to even be the thin consistency normally used for writing.

It does look really pretty on our berry plates, though.

The cake was lemon with raspberry jam filling.  I'd like to try making lemon cake again during my time in Course Two, because this cake had a bit too much ginger in it and was more spicy than sweet to my taste buds.  Then again, I'm not a big fan of ginger.  I'd like to have something that tastes like sweet lemons, though, so it tastes better with the raspberry.  If only I could make cake that tastes just like my dad's lemoncello.   I'll be hunting online for a lemoncello cake.  :P