week 3

I know, I am a little behind on my cake decorating update. But give me a break...it has been a busy week (and I wanted to blog about other things that weren't exactly related to cake decorating). Week 3 {and the last class of Cake Decorating Course 1} was crazy! It was our last opportunity to show off what we had learned, so I had this brilliant idea to do tons of cute flowers on my cake. My preparations actually started over the weekend. I discovered this amazing teal dye color that I knew I HAD to use on my cake, so I made hundreds (and that is not an exaggeration) of tiny little flowers in teal, pink and purple. My mom thought they didn't match well together...but really they did. She just didn't have the vision...

Below are several pictures of my tiny flowers. It was quite the process as I had to make the flowers, and then a day or two later realized that I forgot to add the white centers. Each time I moved the flowers, approximately 100 of them fell apart. By the end I was left with about 1/2 the flowers, and the rest made the lovely pile of crap pictured below.

I am happy to report that I used my extra frosting to work on some roses, and I think I finally discovered what I was doing wrong. Number one, my icing was probably too thick. And secondly, I was in the habit of refrigerating my icing all day, everyday, which is a bad idea. Room temperature icing flows much better...trust me! I still can't say that I rock at making roses, but I am getting better. Check them out:

And finally, I made a triple layer cake, covered in a butter yellow icing color.

I thought I would go against the rules and purchase a Betty Crocker cake mix (Wilton suggests you use Duncan Hines) and I really wish I wouldn't have. The cake didn't rise at all, so in order to get a cake that was higher than 2 inches tall, I had to use 2 cake mixes and combine three layers together. I did, however, try something different to lessen the overwhelming icing amounts. I filled the layers with chocolate pudding. YUM! Honestly though, it didn't taste as great as I hoped it would have...

Anyway, the cake turned out to be a ball of frustration for me. The flowers were fragile, but the leaf icing I made was the wrong color and looked strange on the cake. Because I made millions of flowers, I felt obligated to use millions of flowers on my cake. I think it's a bit over-the-top, but here is the final result:And a couple of side shots:

I apparently have an issue making my leaves look normal and consistent. But it is what it is. I can't change it now. Oh crap! I just realized that I forgot to add a picture of my cake innards so you could see my chocolately layers. And sadly, the pics are on my parent's computer and I am somewhere else. Oh well. I will just post it later. Anyway, that is my cake decorating course 1 final cake. I hope you have enjoyed taking this journey with me. I am officially finished with the class now, and I even got this amazing certificate to prove it:

Not to worry though...I signed up for Course 2 {and may simultaneously take Course 3}. Sorry folks, I am not done blogging about cake! Okidoke, have a great weekend friends!