Course 1 Overview

Ok, so since I had the genius idea of starting a blog the day after my first decorating course ended, I thought I'd do a quick overview of how things went.  A couple of things I learned: 1. ALWAYS wear an apron! Whether it's baking, making the icing, or decorating I always seem to make the biggest messes! My dog ends up with powdered sugar all over her nose EVERY TIME, and I always seem to leave class with pink icing streaks in my hair. How does this happen? I have no idea, but it's guaranteed every time.  2.  In cake decorating (especially with flowers) there are never any mistakes.  Whenever you think you made a mistake, just stick a leaf there and no one will ever know! ;)

The One That Started It All! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was the cake from my very first cake decorating class.  Can you tell we had only learned 4 techniques? There is the star, the dot, the oblong design and the squiggle.  Needless to say, I got a little carried away.  This cake was basic yellow cake with buttercream frosting.  Nothing fancy.  This was also my first attempt at "leveling" and "torting".  I think there was a big chunk missing from the middle.  Oh, and crumbs are everywhere. 

This was only my second cake, and already I feel that I'm getting much better.  The design itself is still pretty busy, but not bad! :) This design was stenciled onto wax paper and then using a "piping gel transfer" was put onto the cake, allowing me to just fill in the lines with icing.  Sort of like coloring.  Basically, it makes me look a lot better than I am! The cake was a white cake this time, with a raspberry filling.  One thing I learned, you can't just put raspberry jam in the middle of a cake.  It did not taste very good. EEK! Oh, and there were crumbs that got into the icing.  I guess you could say, that although this cake looks alright, it was still pretty....crumby! Hahahaha! I'm funny. 

This was my final cake design of course 1! Note how I learned to tone down on the busy-ness of the design! ;) I have to say, this is my absolute favorite! I'm especially proud of my roses.  This cake is made up of 2-8x2 in round cakes, chocolate, with a layer of vanilla buttercream in the middle! I used chocolate frosting this time, so that those darn crumbs that always show up, won't! It even tastes as good as it looks, if I do say so myself...which I will.  It's my blog, so I'll say what I want! ;) Professional cake decorators are somehow able to make the buttercream icing streakless, so it almost looks like the cake is covered in fondant.  I obviously haven't learned how they do that yet, but you can be sure that I'm definitely trying!

Lastly, my project today was cupcakes.  I had all this leftover icing from Monday's class, so I decided to use it up.  I made yellow cupcakes, and using a filling tip, I filled them with vanilla buttercream.  It reminded me a lot of twinkies, which I like.  I then covered them with the same chocolate frosting that I used on the cake above and decorated them with different flower techniques. 

That's all for now.  Course 2 starts on Monday, so stay tuned for adventures in Flowers and Cake Design!