Wilton Course #1

I had been decorating cakes for a few months and had been eying the Wilton courses every time I went to Michael's to get some supplies.  I saw an advertisement that classes were half off and had been given a gift card.  My husband finally convinced me to call and sign up.  I didn't learn a whole lot, but it was fun to get some new supplies (the classes cost a lot more than they lead on when you consider all of the supplies you need to buy).  I really LOVE to learn new things, so it was fun to take a class to help me in my newest hobby.  For the first course I had to make 3 cakes.

Cake #1
I learned about baking a cake, leveling and splitting it to fill.  I also learned how to transfer a template onto a cake and some piping skills.  Pretty boring in comparison to what I had been doing.  But, skills that I needed none-the-less.  I was able to purchase many new tools...I mean I had to :).

  Cake #2
This was actually supposed to be a clown cake.  The ones where you make a 3-D clown out of frosting, and place a plastic clown head on top.  I, however, refused to buy the silly clown heads as I argued I would never use them again.  I'm pretty sure the instructor was a little annoyed, and now that I've got it down in print, I'll probably end up doing a clown cake.

Cake #3
The Wilton rose!  We worked on these bad boys every week of the 4 week course.  I haven't really done any since, so I can't say that I would be very good at it.  I learned that consistency of the frosting is very important.  This is not only the case with roses, but also frosting a cake.  Each task in piping may take a different consistency, and knowing this as well as practicing it comes with experience.

 Notice that my frosting job is not very smooth.  This is extremely frustrating to me.  I'm still not very good at it.  This is probably my reasoning for my fondant preference.