the forgotten fish

I was going to post this months ago and totally forgot! I used the Wilton Tropical Fish cake pan and colored it like Nemo. The decorating was hard, and I was so glad when I was done. I had bought tubes of black icing and nearly ran out at the end.

flip-flop birthday cake

My neice picked out this cake from the Betty Crocker Decorating Cakes and Cupcakes book. I went online and found the whole thing on the Betty Crocker website, including the template for the flip flops!
I did a few things differently. I made marsmallow flowers, another idea from the same book, instead of using silk flowers. I used Cadbury mini-eggs for the flower centers. (thank goodness for Easter candy!) I made the template a smaller size and made the cake a 2-layer cake. I found that the Fruit by the Foot didn't sit nicely on top of the cake, I don't know what I'd do differently next time.

Little Fish Cakes

These are the fish cakes I make for a birthday party. I didn't have the time to do the spouts, I used a bigger star tip. I was basically a rush job because I had a bigger fish to make :) Which I will post later.

Class #2

I've been meaning to get this post up for the past few days, but life has gotten in the way around here.

The second class involved us trying to copy decorations. We practised stars, lines and writing. It's not as easy as you think when you're using the right consistency of icing. The icing was a little hard to squeeze out of the bag, but practising more with let me get used to that. My arm was sore from all the squeezing.

We started the Wilton rose and some of the girls in class went all the way with the roses and decorated their cakes. I just practised the first two steps. Making the base for the rose was a little on the tricky side if you wanted it just perfect.

I was a little disappointed because we only had about 10 minutes to actually decorate our cakes at the end of the class. I ended up just doing some simple stars on my cake and tried to do lines, but they didn't turn out right.

Next week we're doing clowns and I'm not baking a cake this time. I'll be bringing cupcakes this time and I'll ice them with Betty Crocker icing because I don't feel like making 3 batches of Buttercream icing.

A little tip we learned this class was to put some non-slip grip material (like the kind you put in your cupboards to keep things from slipping) under your cake board when transporting it in a box so that it doesn't slide around and mess up your decorations.

the first class

I had my first class last night and it was a great class. Our instructor is a professional cake decorator with quite a few years experience. It's a little overwhelming once you find out there are a lot of supplies to buy. This is not a cheap class, it does require supplies. A few of the other women there were a little surprised about how much you have to buy for the class.

After the class I ended up buying meringue powder, piping gel, baking strips, a turn table (which is absolutely necessary if you want the cake decorating experience to go smoothly), and clear vanilla extract. I also bought a triple star tip. I wish I had known about this a few months ago. It would've made the birthday cake decorating go a lot quicker. I learned a few new tricks that I'm going to try.

For class 2, you can make any shaped cake you want, even a character cake, but a round one will work best for the things you are going to learn. An 8x3 pan is the best to get, and a Wilton one is recommended. The ones you can buy at any grocery store are usually only the 8x2 size. It's not the size that's the issue here, it's the sides. A Wilton pan has straight edges, but a Baker's Secret or other type of pan has edges that are not straight up and down so that you can get it out of the pan easier. The straight edges look more professional, especially if you're going to layer a cake.

I am going to make a supply list on the side of this blog to let you know exactly what you need for each class. I will explain the supply list at a later date to let you know why you need these items and in some cases you may be able to buy alternate items.