the cake

Ahhh...the long awaited cake decorating post. Let me first preface this by saying that I was and still am very excited about my cake decorating class. It has been very fun for me to learn new techniques. Afterall, I have never used a cake decorating tool in my life. However, there is one thing that just puts my panties in a twist. Do you remember me saying that I never signed up for a cake decorating class because the prices seemed a bit high? I signed up at my local Hobby Lobby because the price was a lot cheaper and more reasonable than the other classes I had seen. Honestly, I am not sure what you get when you buy a cake decorating class at Michaels or JoAnns, but all I got provided in this class is a book, with a retail value of $4. All other supplies are up to me to purchase. And purchase I have! HOLY CRAP!!! This has turned into quite the

money pit class! Every minute I am buying something new that is needed for my next class. There is a student kit for each cake decorating level, but the kit does not contain everything needed to complete the class. So, me being the brilliant woman that I am, paid a larger chunk of change to get a bigger kit, with more supplies and a cute carrying case. But sadly, that monster kit does not contain everything I need either. ARGH!!! However, everything has come in handy and everything will be used...eventually. I am loving the experience and have had a great time so far. I just wish I had more money to spend on silly little cake decorating things...

So, Tuesday was my first official decorating class. Last week's class was just an intro, telling us what is needed for cake decoration and how to begin. But this week we all brought a frosted cake with us to class. We had to bake two cakes and use some sort of filling to stack them together. That was interesting! I have never claimed to be a baker, but I thought I would have an easier time stacking two cakes than I did. I also thought it would be quite simple to frost the cake. Wrong again! I went out on a limb and decided to make a Red Velvet cake...a flavor I have never made before. Red cakes with white frosting...not so much a good idea! Besides, my cake was extra crumby, so there were all sorts of red speckles in my frosting. Luckily, a crumb coat gets covered up by another coat...so eventually the redness died down.

The actual class was ok. I found myself more intrigued with decorating my cake than actually listening to what the teacher had to say. I think I taught myself better out of the book. The first thing we learned was how to make stars using the star tip. I have to say that I rock at making stars! And, as you will see shortly, my cake was made up of many little stars (and star formations as well). I stopped listening after that and just went to town on my cake. Everyone else who was paying attention learned how to make lines and curved lines with the star tip, how to outline and create handwriting with the round tip and some piping gel, and then learned how to make the base of a rose.

Each week we will be completing more of the rose and learning other fun techniques. I am excited to go forward and can't wait to see what next week holds in store! Oh, by they way, this cute lady is my pal Sarah's mom. We had some good times making messes together. She is so fun! She, like me, thought it was more fun to decorate her cake than to pay attention. Seriously, who wants to pay attention when you are concentrating on your masterpiece??


Speaking of masterpiece, this is mine:

It didn't quite turn out like I thought it would, but I am pretty happy with the end result. It was my first cake, so I will chalk it up to a success. I think the thing that makes me most proud is

that I actually did use every technique learned in class. The stars and the bottom border are filled with mini stars. Each star is also outlined using the round tip and piping gel, and then the top blue border incorporated the curved line technique. Woohoo! Gold star for me! All in all, I really enjoyed my experience.

The day after class I took my cake to my friends house. We chomped on cake while watching So You Think You Can Dance and Glee. Good times! Sad story though, the cake wasn't very good. Not really a red velvet fan. And not really an icing fan. It was pretty much an icing overload. But hey, next time I will do better! That is all we can hope for right?

P.S. I included this picture of the cake innards so you can get the full effect of my masterpiece.

And finally, here are the other cakes that were made in class. Mine was definitely one of the more unique ones. Everyone seemed to use pink frosting and/or make flowers (which is what I originally had in mind). I am glad I decided to do what I did. Looks like we will have some amazing cake decorators coming out of our class!