Thursday, March 26, 2009

Cake Graduate

As some of my readers are painfully aware, I've been taking a cake decorating class at night for the last several weeks. It was only a four-week course and if you've been following my cake-decorating career, you may wonder why I'd want to bother with a class, especially a beginning class. But I learned a ton of things I've always wanted to know and had a lot of fun, even with a nasty commute-time drive once a week.

I learned how to make a cake that's a nice shape. Theoretically, I learned how to frost it completely smooth. I learmed about different frostings and decorating tips and what to do with them. I knew a lot of that stuff, but there's always more to learn. And first and foremost, I learned to make ROSES...which are really a lot of fun once you've got a clue how to do it. For our "final project" we had to make a 3-layer cake, fill it and frost it, then bring it to class for decorating. I made a chocolate cake with a killer whipped chocolate ganache filling and frosted it with a basic white frosting. I'd made my roses ahead of time and I also made a bunch of these cute little "drop flowers".I didn't really have a clue what I was going to do with all these things. I just had fun making random stuff. I didn't use it all either. I was trying to use some of the techniques we'd learned without going overboard. I got this whole thing put together pretty quickly and decided to take a picture before I went and ruined the whole thing with some crooked, weird-looking writing. Good choice!It was a pretty little cake. As a devotee of Cake Wrecks, I can say for certain that this doesn't qualify as a "wreck"...although the garland around the sides was questionable. Once I wrote on it, I wasn't so certain.At least I spelled everything correctly. Still, Cake Wrecks doesn't take kindly to crooked, ill-spaced writing. I'll have to be more careful about that next time! I was still pretty proud of my first cake class cake. There were lots of other cool cakes there too...and some that were really too bad to even make Cake Wrecks. I didn't take pictures of the wrecky ones, but here are some of the other cool ones.

4 comments:

they call me mama said...

I'm terribly sorry to report that I'm going to have to stop visiting your blog now. I've always felt inadequate in the cake-making arena, but of particular concern is that my mental health and axiety level while baking is inversely proportional to the number of your baking posts I read and the number of your cake photos I view.

I will miss you, but for my own well-being, I'm going to have to retreat back into my world of denial.

MommaWriter said...

No more cakes for a while...wait, I'm making one for a dinner party tomorrow. I figure I ought to *use* some of my new mad skillz before I lose them entirely. But still, no more cause to bake cakes for a while after that one. Maybe it'll turn out all funny looking and then I'll be sure to take a picture just for you, "mama"...

Anonymous said...

Wow. Nice cake! I'd really like to see a side shot. The garland looks especially impressive. Wonderful color choices... very "spring-y." I've not mastered writing on cakes, either. It never turns out quite right. Ready for a much needed cake-break, I, too, still have another cake to make for a dinner party this evening. Oh. And one more for church on Wednesday. Good news is that I'm not craving sugar nearly as much as I was a month ago!!! Bad news is that my rear end tells no lies. Yes. I've been licking the beaters...and the bowl...and my fingers. :>)

nb said...

It's totally worth it for the lifetime of aghast "you MADE that?!" reactions from other grownups. Maybe even an occasional "your MOM made that?!" from another kid, one exceptionally aware of maternal cake-decorating skills -- or lack of them. Like, say, mine.

Decorating aside, I like your architectural challenges even more!