This is going to be a quickie!
Thursday night I started a Wilton cake decorating class. Rather than taking the class at Michaels, I decided to take it at a local bake shop since I thought I'd learn more from the pros.
In our first class we watched the instructor make Wilton buttercream, which contains NO butter, in case you're wondering. I've gotta find something different cause it's sickeningly sweet and full of Crisco--eeeew! Oh and it has meringue powder in it, which I've come to realize makes me break out in hives! Long story that involves many welts, raised red bumps and lots of itching. One ER visit at 2am and a prescription for Prednizone later, all is well.
We learned how to frost a cake (this was very boring for me and it took people forever!), how to use a pastry bag and load the tips, how to pipe stars, zig zags, how to write on cakes, how to smooth out a cake using a paper towel (in this cake a patterened one) and then we decorated the cake using these techiniques. It was required that we have two flowers the rest we could get creative with.
Here's my cake! It got smashed by the lid of the cake box on the way home :-( But I'm pleased with the results being my first time ever to pipe icing not using a Ziploc bag :-)
If anyone has any tips, suggestions, advice or you want to share your experience regarding Wilton Class 1 please email me or leave them in the comment section. I'd love to hear what you have to say!
Next week we're making a clown cake (I'll try to make it as unscary as possible!) and learning how to do drop flowers as well as the Wilton rose. How does one incorporate clowns and flowers on one cake? I don't know, but wish me luck!
This is weird.. I have actually been wanting to take a class. This is awesome. I love the Bounty papertowel texture on the cake..would have never thunk it.. Keep up posted.
ReplyDeleteIt looks beautiful, Monica. I am also not a fan of shortening in my frostings.
ReplyDeleteYou did a fantastic job!! It looks gorgeous. I took a class maybe 10 years ago, and found it not to be my cup of tea, I am so not talented when it comes to decorating cakes. I also took it at a small bake shop. It was fun though. Looking forward to seeing your progress.You will be stellar at it, I already know:)
ReplyDeleteI would probably have been one of those in the class that would have taken forever to learn how to frost.
ReplyDeleteI love seeing your beautiful food.
Good luck with the cakes! Clowns and Flowers! Oh my!
I'm SO jealous! I've always wanted to take one of those classes. Thank you for sharing your experience. Beautiful cake.
ReplyDeleteI love it!!! This is so pretty!! You did a wonderful job decorating!
ReplyDeleteNice job, Monica! I can't imagine how good you'll be with some training since this cake already looks great! I agree with you on the shortening. Bleh!
ReplyDeleteWow! So pretty! Good job, Monica! I wish I could also join Wilton cake decorating class.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward the the other decorating cakes :)
Oh man I would be one of those 'sloooooow' people in the frosting class. You would hate me! LOL
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to take a frosting class, but I have to drive all the way into Boston for it.
I know you'll only excel at all this as time and class goes on.
i also took a wilton cake class in july and did not like the "buttercream" at all! we had to do rainbows for our first cake, and i missed the last class! your cake looks great though! much better than my first one!
ReplyDeleteThe cake looks great! I've taken 2 of the wilton classes and found them pretty fun. I actually did a post with some of the pictures recently!
ReplyDeletehttp://mixingbowlsandspatulas.blogspot.com/2009/07/my-cakes.html
I didn't take many pictures and they aren't good ones. Good luck with the class!
wow..this was all in your first class???? amazing..
ReplyDeleteYour cakes are already so gorgeous, I can't wait to see what you can do after your classes! The flowers are so cute. I need to look for a class by us!
ReplyDeleteI make mine with gasp butter! I refuse to use crisco and egg white powder junk play with it and trust your self! You are an amazing food blogger and you'll find that works for you.
ReplyDeleteYes, I used the Wilton buttercream recipe once for a cake and I did not like it at all - the Crisco made it kind of greasy =P eww.
ReplyDeleteYour cake is beautiful. Can I ask you how much the Wilton courses cost? I'm interested in taking them too.
Well, my dear, you had a much better class/teacher than I did! Remember my cheesy rainbow cake I made at Michael's? I hated the Wilton buttercream, so I used a combo of butter and Whole Foods Shortening, which was much better. Still, I'm glad that I learned how to work with a piping bag and a few cute tricks. I'll leave the clown cakes and teddy bears for someone who likes that stuff. Your cake is quite lovely, and simply. Personally, I care more about taste anyway. Gimme a slice of that!!!
ReplyDeleteYour cake looks lovely!
ReplyDeleteI took all 3 Wilton cake classes when I was a Sophmore in High School. I adored them! I had a great instructor who really let us have a lot of freedom since for example, many of us did not want to have clown cakes coming home with us. So she showed us different ways of using the same techniques. It was such a great time!
Beautiful cake. It looks better then my first cake in the class. Wilton's second cake decorating class is a lot more fun. Keep up the good work. I do not know if you will be doing the entire rose next week. When I took the class, I learned part of the rose each week. The last week you put everything you learned on one cake.
ReplyDeleteIt's really cute!
ReplyDeleteThe Wilton buttercream is called "class buttercream" because it is only used for class. Even on Wilton's website you will find different versions. Just use an icing you like.
Wowow you did a great job with the decoration of your cake!
ReplyDeleteBentoforKidlet- If you didn't do clowns what did you make?
ReplyDeleteStefanie- You might be right about the rose but the course I'm taking is only 3 classes long (3 hours each) instead of 4 classes (2 hours). So we have to cram more stuff into our classes. I think we're going to learn the first part of it then she's going to demonstrate the whole rose so we can practice for our final cake on the 3rd week.
Rachel- thanks for the tip on checkingout their other buttercream recipes.
LOL - I took the same class a couple years back. I was in the class with two of my girlfriends and it was fun. You did a great job on your cake, sorry to hear about the hives...that is never any fun at all. I hope you enjoy the rest of your Wilton classes.
ReplyDeleteWhat an awesome cake. I've been "meaning" to take a Wilton class for years now, but never actually done it. I can't wait to see what you do...I'm sure I'll be inspired to do it myself :D Good luck!
ReplyDeleteOh I can't wait to hear all about your classes. I have been toying with the idea of taking them, but didn't want to take the first ones, icing and making icing etc....I have seen some of the fondant cakes that they have made in those classes and they are really great! Good luck!!! keep posting!
ReplyDeleteHow cute! I think it turned out great! I have been wanting to sign up for the classes for some time now, I just need to do it already.
ReplyDeleteYou silly what are you doing in Wilton 1??? Isn't there like a 4 or 5 one? The cake is very pretty I like the colors :)
ReplyDeleteAll your piping before now has been with baggies?! WOW, that's realy impressive. Anytime I've tried that the baggies exploded. :(
ReplyDeleteYour cake looks terrific! I was wondering about the frosting "pattern". That's pretty cool.
~ingrid
You go girl! The flowers are pretty. You're a pro. The Wilton icing just holds up better such as it crusts better. Sorry about the meringue powder. Hope you are feeling better.
ReplyDeleteJust wait till you take course 2. Your absolutely going to love learning how to make those flowers!Your cake turned out great I can tell your a natural!I'm looking forward to seeing more of your work.
ReplyDeleteThat cake is just so pretty and cute and wonderful! I hope you enjoy the classes!
ReplyDeleteMonica, you're so talented! Your cake looks gorgeous indeed!
ReplyDeleteThat looks great!!! I have been dying to take this class!
ReplyDeleteYour cake is beautiful! I took the class last month at Michael's. I wasn't a fan of the Crisco either so I brought my regular frosting in to class and got a mild scolding from the instructor saying it was not safe to use because it would be sitting out for a few hours during class and they don't have a food license there. Oh well. I liked the instructor but she was a lil' kooky & skipped out on lots of things in the book. Still...I cant wait to sign up for the next course! <3 your blog!
ReplyDeleteOoh, I'm so excited for you! It's great that you're taking a class. Haven't taken one myself, but the cake is beautiful :).
ReplyDeleteYour cake looks great! I know this post old-ish, but I'm currently taking Wilton Course 2. I also love to bake, but my cake decorating skills need a TON of work so I decided to sign up for these Wilton courses. I also don't like Crisco, but I think the reason we had to use Crisco instead of butter is so the icing wouldn't go bad. But yeah, Crisco is gross. ;)
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