Last Day of Summer School Cupcakes

Post coming tomorrow... http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Whipped-Cream-Cream-Cheese-Frosting/Detail.aspx

Whipped Frosting Birthday Cake

In celebration of my daughter's 13th birthday, I made her this two-tier chocolate cake. For the filling, I tried something new and used Pastry Pride Whipping Icing with Roundy's Sliced Strawberries with Sugar. Everyone commented on what a great flavor combination that made.

Although I procrastinated and decorated it that same day, I think the result was OK.

Wilton Course 3 Tiered Fondant Cake

So, here is the result of the last four weeks of techniques learned: Fondant rose, ruffled border, covering a cake with fondant, stacking cakes.

Night Before Course 3 Finale

So it's the night before our grand finale in Course 3. It's 12:52am and I just finished covering a 6 inch and 10 inch cake with white fondant for class tomorrow night. I also stayed up last night until 2am making fondant roses in 3 shades of pink (although, if you ask me, one of those shades is too unbelievable to be a real rose but what can I say- it was afterall, 2am!).

Well, I can't wait until tomorrow to post, since I finally got my own domain name linked to this blog (exciting!). Here are the roses I was so diligently working on and the two cakes I just made.

Kraft Super Moist Triple Chocolate Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes at the request of my friend. Her husband's birthday is coming up and she needed a recipe for his cake. I suggested she try it first. So as to not spoil the surprise, I volunteered to make them for her.

All I got was chocolate-covered smiles and thumbs up all around! You can find the recipe here: http://www.kraftfoods.com/kf/recipes/best-ever-chocolate-fudge-layer-91361.aspx?pf=true

I had to give this recipe 5 stars. The same goes for my husband, kids and co-workers!

Wilton Course 3, Class 2

This is the latest cake I've made. It's my first class cake decorated with fondant. It was surprisingly easy to work with fonant. I would describe the experience as playing with play-doh.

The flowers on the white were made with cookie cutters and the bow, I cut "ribbons" with a pizza cutter.

The curliecues were made by wrapping thin strips of fondant onto a pencil then just slipping off and letting dry.

My daughter's friend is having a birthday party today and I gave my project cake to her. I hope they like it.

Wilton Course 1

I love to bake and cook. So, I decided to take a cake decorating class at my local Michael's store. I knew that I wanted to learn the most I could about techniques and methods.

Wilton offers 4 courses. The first was basic techniques. I went the first day and paid my remarkably low (and discounted) fee. I didn't know what to expect on the first day of "class" but it was mostly about what supplies we were going to need for lesson 2. The classes are 2 hours long - taking place once a week for 4 weeks. The instructor was very nice and knowledgeable.

Here are pictures of my first cakes.