More of the latest cake

Some patience, some fondant, and a little bit of love....



Last night was the completion of Course 3 in the Wilton Cake Decorating Courses. We touched on fondant and learned how to make a rose using it, which is what you see covering my cake. The instruction was to bring two cakes - one 6in and one 10in, along with some roses. I spent an afternoon over the weekend making fondant roses, and here is that final cake.

Wait for it....

So, I began with these...


Which I created into these....

Took this sad looking cake...

Covered it with fondant....

And put it all together - For this!

Be prepared to be amazed.

I would like to share with you all the best $2.99 I have spent in a long time. It is called a cake leveler. I happened upon it in the cake aisle at Michaels Arts and Crafts, and my cake decorating life hasn't been the same since that day.

So, you bake a cake, take it out of the oven and it looks like this:




But you don't want this. You want the cake to be nice and level and smooth so you can layer it and frost it, and make it pretty.

That is where the $2.99 leveler comes in. The leveler is a curved base bar with a piece of wire that runs across. There are little notches on each side of the bar so you raise and lower the wire depending on the desired height of your cake. So, you set the height, gently saw across

And then you have a nice flat stackable, frostable top. (More on the icing dam to follow)

When you bake a layer cake and want to fill it (I like to use pudding). You can create an "icing dam" around the edge. This will keep the filling from oozing out the sides as you frost and layer your cake.

Have fun!

A cake basket

I know - it sounds really odd. Its not really a basket, it just looks a little bit like one.
This is the final cake for Course 2 of Wilton Cake Decorating. I am really looking forward to Course 3 and then the Fondant Course. I have a lot of fun doing this. The flowers are made of Royal Icing, and were made over three classes.
Off to Disney this weekend for our 6th anniversary! I am excited, but it does mean no baking, although I may be able to squeeze in a cookie from the Easy Peasy Cookie Cookbook Sunday night when we get home.



By the way - The crockpot has had quite a bit of use lately. Two new recipes to report this weekend. French Dip Sandwiches and Chicken Paprikash! Yum!

Cake Decorating

Recently I started taking a cake decorating class at the local Michaels. It is offered through Wilton and I have had a lot of fun so far. The only part that hasn't been fun is the discovery of how icing is made (at least for this course). It is shortening and powdered sugar. Plus a few teaspoons of fake clear vanilla. Don't get me wrong, a little bit is great. But Crisco and powdered sugar.....on top of cake. Yikes! Oh well, it still looks pretty.
Here are the results are the first three weeks.
Rainbow - Class 1
We learned how to use piping gel to transfer an image to the cake and then fill it in.
Cupcakes - Class 2
Please note that the clowns were part of the weekly project. I find them odd and a little creepy, and would never present someone I liked even a little with a cupcake with a clown on top of it. The one in the middle is not deformed - he is suppose to be laying down with his head on his hands. You know the typical class of 95 senior picture pose.
Flower Cake - Class 3
This is the grand finale of course 1 (there are three). I think I did pretty well on this one. I made the cake as a layer cake. I made chocolate cake and used Oreo pudding as the center between the two layers. It was very good once you scraped off about 2/3 of the frosting.

I have been thinking of making a "family tree" cake for my family reunion in July. By July, I will have all three course completed. Just Al and Kate and their kids though. The entire family would require more cakes than I care to think about and I think I would clog an artery just buying that amount of Crisco for the frosting. Plus - I would be piping curly hair til then end of time.