Using Up the Frosting...

I had quite a bit of frosting left over from my sunflower cake, so I decided to try creating the same basic cake using different tips. I used the large leaf tip to create the petals, which I think makes this cake a little less abstract. I also had time to finish this cake, so it has a base line and is a bit more balanced.

I have learned a LOT in this class. Can't wait till Monday when we start learning flowers. I just hope my kit arrives by then. With the cheaper price on the ultimate kit, plus my points from Amazon, I got the kit for $63 - it sells for $199 at Hobby Lobby! When I complete my classes I'm going to start selling my cakes - I just need a good name for a cake business...

Sunflower Cake

My last class for Level 1 was tonight. We learned how to make roses, which was fun. The instructor turned us loose to decorate our cakes. Everyone else created a rose cake, very formal & elegant. I just wasn't feeling it, so I made sunflowers on mine. Completely different from anyone else in the class, but very fun to create! I ran out of time to add any borders, but I'll try again a different day. I signed up for Level 2 - I can't wait! Who knew I'd like this so much - and as much as it all costs I better like it a LOT! :)

Creating Flowers on Cupcakes

So this class we are to bring in 6 cupcakes and pre-colored frosting (Dk.Blue, Lt.Blue, Pink, Green, White), all in specified amounts. I'm not sure our instructor had a clear view on where we were going with this project. She had us frost all our cupcakes and then had us practice the flowers we had just learned to create. Talk about some UGLY cupcakes! *L* The best part about this lesson was learning how to stuff them. Yummy!

I had tons of extra pink & blue frostings left when I got home so I practiced my two favorite flower cupcakes, just to prove it wasn't all me! They turned out really pretty, but if I'm going to be making cupcakes with this much frosting I will HAVE to find a lighter frosting. The recipe I use is yummy, and not super rich, but still....

My First Cake Decorating Class

So tonight I took my first cake decorating class. THIS cake was a comedy of errors! First I had to take in an 8" cake. Well, normally this is not a big deal, but my oven is not working. So I mix my batter, throw it in a pan, & head to my mom's to bake my cake while we watched Big Brother (it's a guilty pleasure of mine, I admit!). I get home & discover I'm supposed to have an 8" cake and I used my 9" pan. Oh well, it'll have to do. I'm supposed to torte it (one of my fancy new words! *L*) so I cut it in 1/2 and go to put the parchment paper in the center and the stupid cake falls apart. I decide my cake is just going to have to work. I freeze my cake per instructions, make my frosting & head to class. It was SO much fun! I learned how to properly use some of my tips, how to smooth my frosting with parchment paper. I also learned how to transfer designs onto my cake. For those of you who decorate cakes often these are probably simple tips, but for someone who's always just figured things out on my own these tips were huge!

So I finish decorating my cake (yeah, it's not exactly round anymore - I need to work on the whole transportation thing) & decided I'd drop it off at my kids house. Umm, didn't think about transporting a decorated cake after class.... So I bought a box to take it in. 9" cake, 10 " box. The math works, right? I thought so too, but then I went to put the cake in the box & realized I'd used a 12" cake circle. DUH! So I cut off the edges to make it "fit". I learned a lot tonight...

Mom's Birthday

So I found these cute cupcake papers & butterfly cake toppers and knew they'd be perfect for my mom's birthday. I have a cupcake tree already, so I baked the cupcakes, frosted them, & tried the hot knife method of smoothing them out. Pretty cool! Then I did some experimenting with frosting to make the flowers. There is a LOT of frosting on these!

Fourth of July

For our celebration I wanted to try out my new checkerboard cake pan. I didn't cut the cake from the center so it doesn't look exactly right, but close enough...I'd been wanting to try this idea & I liked the way it looked overall. My fondant still isn't quite right - I'll have to look into taking a class on fondant when I'm finished with my current class. My 4 week class is now up to 6 weeks - they postponed the first class due to weather, and didn't have class on the 4th, so at this rate I may not get to take another class until next summer. :( Good thing there's YouTube for when I can't figure stuff out!

Baby Cakes

I don't think I really had the time to explore these as much as I had planned. I wanted to create personalized cupcakes for all my family members, but ran out of time. Soooo, I ended up just playing around with the idea of baby boy cupcakes. I'll try again later....