I'm An Official Cake Decorator!

I attended my fourth and final class of Wilton Course 1 Cake Decorating. There seemed to be a buzz of excitement among the students, including myself. It was our final class and we would test what we have learned. We ended up doing a rose cake which is a very good choice for a number of occasions, and I love it!

Cake Info:
    Duncan Hines Double Fudge Cake (would've done from scratch but this was so much easier)
    Chocolate Pudding for filling
    Duncan Hines Cream Cheese Frosting (again, time saver. would've loved homemade...yum)

The cake was sort of falling apart....whoops.

At first I wasn't quite sure what we were going to do, she just told us to start with making 7 roses. We did as we were told. Next, we had to draw two lines on each side of the cake in a certain way, with a few twigs coming off on either side. Then we learned how to make our roses 'pop' and then placed them on the cake. Then we added the extra leaves that were needed.

I couldn't figure out which picture looked better....so you decide and let me know what you think.

Top picture or bottom?

Cake Detail:
     Close-up of what I thought was my best rose
     Side decorations with the rose buds in between

This has to be one of the coolest things I have ever done. I am so proud of what I have done and can't wait to see what I can accomplish. I would like to take the Wilton Fondant classes, that is what got me interested in cake decorating. Whenever I am at Michaels for class I always browse and there are so many cool things to use with fondant!!!

I know.....not this many people get that excited about decorating with fondant. I can't wait to try it out!

So, I took my cake to my moms house along with my fiancee and my sister. This was sort of a late birthday cake....I promised to make her a cake for her birthday on Friday and ran out of time, so I bought one. That definitely wasn't the same. I decided that this cake would be for her since it would be decorated by a true 'professional' and to make up for the lack of time-management on my part.

We were given official certificates at the end of the class proving that we are true Wilton cake decorators! It was so amazing, and I would HIGHLY recommend this program to anyone who has an interest in cake decorating. I will also let you know that if you are on a tight budget, it can be really costly. You have to buy the first Course Kit (not sure what it costs in stores but it ranges from $26 to $28 online. I was given a box set as a gift for Christmas if you were wondering....), all the ingredients for cake, icing (to actually cover the cake), and Wilton Icing (for decorating). Along with that, we had to buy a large coupler, a 6 inch spatula, an 8 inch tapered spatula, some decorators gel, and some extra tips. It was rather costly, but its an investment into something that could become a career for me so I feel it's worth it.

Anyway, I need to go to bed.....goodnight for now internetland.

♥

Wilton Cake Decorating Course 1 Class 2

Today's class was the second class in course one, and it was completely different than what I thought it would be. We were asked to bring in a cake that was already frosted, and I assumed that we were going to make our own design. When we got there we were told that it was going to be a 'practice cake', and that we would be making a cake with a hot-air balloon on it in the next class. They will show us how to transfer a picture onto a cake and then we are going to fill it in.....cool, but I was hoping for the rainbow. I can do that on my own though once I learn how to do it!

Double Fudge Cake with Chocolate Pudding Filling and Cream Cheese Icing

Wilton Class Buttercream Icing, slightly tweaked. This is stiff stuff!

This is my practice cake, 3 roses, a heart made of stars, a large shell border, and on the side there are zig zags and ropes.

This shows the side detail a little better. First there is a zig zag pattern all the way up and down the sides and then the ropes are hung over them.

I'm rather proud of what I've done for my first cake decorating venture. Our teacher is terrific and I found out today that she helped write the class cake decorating books! I just thought that was awesome! She also told us that she used to make cakes for hire and had done it for 50 years and would be willing to tell us any tricks of the trade.....sounds like shortcuts and timesavers! Something that she told us that would save a huge mess was about the colors for our icing. She said rather than pull the entire protective aluminum top off, just poke a hole that you can put a toothpick through! Amazing!

I've learned so much in the past two weeks that I would like to continue going, however, money issues hold me back. I also learned today that they are going to be discontinuing the third cake decorating class after May's class because of lack of interest. Boooooo. That's the class where you learn the proper way to stack teired cakes, which would be handy to know if I were to become a decent enough cake decorator to make wedding cakes.

Anyway, thought I would share this with you! Haven't been on in a while because I've been busy with cakes since Sunday!! Still have some pictures to post from around the house.....need to do.....where are my post its?!?!

♥

Wilton Cake Decorating Course 1 Class 1

First of all I want to show you this picture. It is of three roses, two of them the instructor made and the other one I made. Can you guess which one it is?????? (The answer is at the bottom of this post)

Also, if you searched for Wilton classes and have happened to stumble upon my blog, please read more of my April 2010 posts, as I did a post for every class that I attended! It truly is a wonderful class! (Class 4 is NOT listed as Class 4, the post is titled "I'm An Official Cake Decorator!" if you want to check it out)

When I signed up for the course the cashier told me that for the first class I didn't need to bring anything, so I assumed we were just going to make a list of what we needed to make and bring next time. I was SO wrong......to an extent. One of the first things the instructor asked was "Did you bring your Course 1 set??" to which I, of course, replied "No, the cashier told me I wouldn't need it". She then told me that it was too bad because we were going to go through our kits and make sure we had all the right tips and if we were missing any she would give us what we were missing. But, I've taken the first two classes for this before, so I actually had triple the tips for the first course....quick explanation....

So, my sister and I both took Cake Decorating Course 1 in 4H while I was a Freshman and she was in seventh grade. We ended up taking only two classes and didn't go again, seems kinda silly now huh? There's two sets of tips there. This past Christmas, my Aunt Betty was so generous to buy me a 'tackle box' of cake decorating supplies from Wilton! That present was pretty sweet! That's the set of tips plus some extra, like the rose pin!!

This first class taught me a lot more than I thought it would in the first class! We automatically went through the kits - mine at home - and went through this booklet that she gave to us all, scribbling notes all the while. She showed us the proper way to fold and hold a bag, how to torte a cake using a leveler, showed us the proper way to fill a cake with things like pudding (yum!), and the finale was showing us how to make roses. That was so exciting for me because the icing rose has always mystified me and now I know its secret! He he....no, really it was SO cool to learn that and it makes me super excited for next weeks class......now I'm wondering what I should do with my cake I've got to take to class since I know people at work might try to eat it.....hmmm.......

Kayla ♥

So, the rose that I made is the one on the bottom! If you guessed correctly, then good for you! If not, better luck next time!