• Marie and I finished our last Wilton Method Cake Decorating Class yesterday (no worries, that was just Course 1; we plan to move on through the next three courses). We each have a BA and a MA, and now we have a…PCD (Professional Cake Decorator)? I cannot say which degree we are most proud of, but earning the certficate of completion for Cake Decorating 101 was by far…sweeter

  In true fashion, Marie made chocolate cake. I made Old Fashioned Cupcakes courtesy the Food Network; I was super excited because I got to use my Cupcake Carrier.

  In our last lesson, we worked on perfecting the Wilton Rose. This is much harder than it looks. Marie said her first few attempts looked like a rose that had gone through a weed whacker. My initially roses did not fare much better; they did not look like roses but rather fat spiral blobs. However, I think our final attempts showed significant improvement.

  Overall, I highly recommend taking Wilton classes. They are reasonably priced, and our patient instructor, Raquel, was a good teacher (we plan to take the second course with her). And, it is a lot of fun to take with your girlfriend so you can laugh at each other while eating butter cream.
  We even got certificates
  I would say I learned a lot, mainly:

• Powdered sugar makes a big mess. Mix at your own risk. It is definitely not a good idea to put the stand mixer on “high” when the bowl contains four cups of the sugary stuff.
• Practice makes perfect – and those photos in our Course Book are airbrushed. Raquel, not wanting Marie and me to get discouraged over our sloppy shells, told us the pictures in our book are somewhat doctored up. So, we will forge on because we know a lot of twenty-something boys who will eat our creations, perfectly crafted or not.

Watch out when making colors with the dye. One of my thumbs is currently violet.

If you start to tear off layers of your cake on your first frosting attempt leaving crummy residue, stop, put down the spatula, and let this first “crumb layer” dry. Then, put on another layer of frosting once the first layer hardens. This method will camouflage that “speckled” look.

If your shells, stars, flowers, etc… start to crack as you pipe, your frosting is too hard.

Too much butter cream results in a diabetic sugar coma and makes you feel like you ate cement for lunch. But, it sure is delicious.

I never thought I would take an interest in anything culinary, much less baking. But, I am finding that creating treats for family and friends most enjoyable and comforting ? except, of course, when I create the “powdered sugar explosion.” Now, I routinely cruise the Baking Aisle a the grocery, picking up the necessities – Crisco, baking chocolate, cake flour, for my next treat

I suffered a baking defeat. In an attempt to wow my family with magnificent Bon Appetite recipe sent to me from my gal pal, Laura, I ended up with a Leaning Tower of Chocolate Cake. It was a hot mess…to say the least.

The day before, I made the chocolate cakes out of two nine-inch cake rounds, the chocolate ganache, and the white chocolate cream. I figured that I could easily make the peppermint frosting and assemble the cake Christmas Day, no problem.

Well, I started out successfully, cutting my cakes each in half with my handy dandy Wilton Cake leveler. Then, I needed to put a layer of chocolate ganache and white chocolate cream between the cakes, layering the sides as I went. The chocolate ganache was as hard as a rock, so I softened it a bit in the microwave. As I started layering, it looked okay, but I had concerns that I had too much filling. When I finished, I noticed my layers beginning to ooze white chocolate cream, but I figured it would harden up the in fridge, so I put it in the fridge to harden and got started on the peppermint frosting,

I had to make the frosting over a double boiler, as it contained egg whites, light corn syrup, sugar, and peppermint extract. As I swirled with a whisk, it finally came together in about ten minutes and took on a marshmellow fluff appearance, just as my directions said it would.

Then, it was time to frost. When I took the cake out of the fridge, I sadly realized that rather than harden, my white chocolate cream just continued to spring forth from between the cake layers and goop down the side of the cake.
No matter, I reasoned. Through my Wilton Cake Decorating class, I learned I can hide anything under frosting! It would not be an issue — I could mask anything under this marshmellow-peppermint cream stuff!

Yet, as I began to ice with the fluff, it quickly became clear I was in a loosing battle with this cake monstrosity.
Dan came past the kitchen table, and witnessing this unfortunate event, offered to provide my deteriorating cake with structural supports. I originally declined his offer but thought better of it half way through the icing stage as I could see my cake layers teetering precariously.

Fingers covered with sticky white marshmellow glob, I admitted defeat, and Dan sprang into action, using four BBQ skewers (Ironically a Grandma Rosemary Christmas gift from last year. And, no, we do not own a grill…), which he punctured into my cake for vertical structural support.

To fit this oozing mess into the fridge, Dan rearranged the drawer and shelves in the fridge to accommodate antennas popping out the top of the cake. And there my sad cake sat, awaiting its eight-minute pilgrimage to my parent’s house where I would make everyone eat it no matter its appearance.

Quite distraught after this incident, Dan, ever my champion, tried to cheer me up, noting that my teenage cousins will eat anything no matter what, so surely they would eat my marshmellow mess of a cake.

And eat they did, even though my Leaning Tower of Hot Mess left much Bon Appetite to be desired

Now that Marie and I are in our third week of our Wilton Cake Decorating class at Michael’s, we are finally showing results!
Last week, we both failed miserably. Our patient instructor, Racquel, has us each bring in something to decorate, i.e. cakes or cupcakes, and plently of buttercream frosting to practice. Seems like this would be the easiest part of the class, but we faced some trial and error…

When I went to pick up Marie before class last week, she greated me with, “I am so glad we are the only people in this class!” I seconded her sentiment as our cakes were a source of great embarrasement for two girls who fancy themselves better than average bakers.

Marie’s round chocolate cake came apart while she iced it with her white buttercream, making it a “speckled” chocolate cake. It took on the look of cookies n’ cream ice cream.

I decided on a chocolate sheet cake, which fell apart when I flipped it out of the pan. In a pinch, I had to buy two bundt cake halves from Giant and ice them together. Bundt cake, not meant to be iced in with a Crisco-based thick buttercream, weighed probably a good 8 pounds

But, this week, we not only managed to bake cakes that came out right, but we iced them smooth and made flowers and shells that we used to decorate the cakes. Check out our techno-pink frosting!
We are proud of our finished products!
Here are some more pictures.