Back in time.... Wilton Cake Decorating Classes

Last October I started Wilton's Cake Decorating Course One and continued straight through November with Course 2. Needless to say, that was a lot of butter cream! I started the first course with some basic cake decorating knowledge and by the time I finished course 2 I felt like a pro :) Well, maybe not good enough to compete on the Food Network Challenge, but I was feeling pretty confident. I thought I would post some pictures here of my Course 1 and 2 cakes and re-cap the experience.

Cake One - Over the Rainbow

This is a french vanilla cake, filled with raspberry fruit filling, and decorated with vanilla butter cream! In this class (this was the second night of class) we learned the secret technique of the pros to make your butter cream frosting smooth all over the cake. We then learned how to do a pattern transfer, using piping gel, and then fill in the pattern with the star tip.

Cake Two - Scary Birthday Clowns

This is a red velvet cake, filled with home made cream cheese filling, and decorated with butter cream. In this class we learned more star tip tricks. We made star tip borders around the top and bottom of our cake, and we learned how to make the scary clowns. Yeah, I'm not a big fan of the clowns. We also learned how to make star flowers and drop flowers, not pictured on the cake though. I added the multi color dots on the side of the cake after I got home from class to jazz it up a bit.

Cake Three - The Big Finale, The Wilton Rose

This is a chocolate cake, filled and decorated (except the roses and leaves) with chocolate butter cream. So when I first signed up for cake decorating class, I knew the one thing I had to come away with was how to make a rose. It's not rocket science, but it's also not something that most people you meet can do! So I practiced, and practiced, and then practiced some more. I'm not kidding, my husband wanted nothing to do with the site of frosting by the time I was satisfied with my roses :) Well, it may not be identical to the roses in the book, but I was pretty darn proud of my little Wilton Flowers. Oh, and this was definitely my favorite cake from the entire course!

Cake Four - Course 2 Finale, Basket of Rock Hard Flowers

This is a devils food chocolate cake, filled with cherry fruit filling, and decorated with butter cream and royal icing flowers. This cake is the only cake produced in course 2. Course two is ALL ABOUT FLOWERS! I am not even sure I can name all of the flowers on this cake, but I'll try. Here we go : Rose, Primrose, Daisey, Mum, Pansy, Violet, Apple blossom and Daffodil. Wow, I think I did it. So, the first three nights of class we learned how to make all of these flowers using royal icing. Then on the final night of class we learned the basket weave technique. By the end of the night we had an entire basket of flowers. This cake was hard work, but I loved the way it turned out!