Wilton Cake Decorating Class #2

Tonight was my second cake decorating class. Last week was more of an introduction to how to make frosting and a discussion of what the class would cover. Tonight was all hands-on, and we covered stars, leaves, writing and a few simple borders.

We had to bring an iced cake with us, and already I see big improvements from my previous attempts. There's still a weird lump on the side, but I'm much happier so far. This is a French Vanilla two layer cake that I sliced in half and filled with chocolate buttercream icing.







A few tips I learned from class 1:
-I always struggled with making cakes that cooked evenly and had a flat top. I got these baking strips that were recommended in class, and they made a HUGE difference.
-When splitting a cake in two in order to make it multiple layers, skip the knife and use one of these levelers.
-As you assemble the layers, make sure to press each layer down to keep it from settling and causing the filling to spread out the sides of the cake.
-One benefit of using a shortening-based buttercream is that it crusts over a little. Once the cake is iced, use a piece of parchment paper to smooth it out. Simply place the paper over the cake, and then lightly smooth the cake through the paper.

And now on to tonight's class. We started with stars:



Then we moved on to writing:


Then we moved on to leaves. These were the hardest to me, and I am going to try and envision many more cakes that don't require leaves.


And here's the finished product. I don't think it's too bad for a first attempt. It's going to work with Brian tomorrow for his team.





Postscript - The cake was a success! Brian even told me it was just as good as the costco sheet cakes we get (which is a huge compliment since those are quite yummy).