Course 3 - Mission Accomplished

Taking two Wilton classes especially on days back to back is quite tiring. I threw this cake together and unfortunately didn't smooth it as i just wasn't in the mood. This is a hummingbird cake (which i had never made or tasted before) with cream cheese filling and i decided i didn't really like this kind of cake. Maybe because it tastes too banana-y. Who knows. Anyway, i brought it to work and they devoured it as always. Thank heavens for them because i hate to waste!

70 Years Young

We had a family get together this weekend and i made a chocolate chip cake with buttercream icing. I also put cupcakes around the cake but didn't take a picture. Happy Birthday Don!

Shake, Rattle, and Roll!

This is a rattle cake i made for my employee who is about to go on maternity leave with her second child. It is a chocolate chip cake with pink and brown fondant and buttercream trim/writing. It was the perfect amount of cake for the 5 of us going to dinner for her tomorrow night. The fondant got so soft while i was working with it. I'm not sure if it was because my house wasn't as cool as it should have been or if my hands were warm. Anyway, i'm new to fondant but really love what fondant cakes look like so i just need to keep practicing!

Happy Cheaper Insurance Day

My husband's birthday was today and all the family went to dinner. I made him his favorite cake, funfetti. This is also my first fondant covered cake and i was really nervous because i froze it but it turned out perfect! I obviously need to practice covering the cakes with fondant but for my first, it turned out okay but it was delicious! I forgot to push down the edges of the dots on the sides before i took this picture. The words were free hand, not too bad if i say so myself! Happy Birthday Love, you old fart!

A Present for Hope

Today was the second day in our Course 3 class and we had to bring an iced square cake to class to cover in fondant. I decided to bake a chocolate cake with peanut butter chips and peanut butter filling. Instead of bringing this cake to work and then making another one for Hope's birthday next weekend, i decided to do as good a job as i could and keep it for her on her birthday. I only had one gaping hole so i guess that means i was successful. I put entirely too much icing on the cake before i covered it in fondant so it oozed out while i was covering it. You can kind of see it in the front shot below (it is in the bottom right corner of the cake). I also had to squish my 3D bow down because the carrying case wasn't tall enough. Anyway, i can't wait to taste it! I think this is going to be one of the best tasting cakes i have done so far, but i'll have to wait and see until next weekend!

Birthday Disaster

My Father in law's birthday was the 7th but we celebrated today because my husband was out of town. Well, my FIL wanted an ice cream cake and when i tried to make it the ice cream must have been too soft or not in the freezer long enough after i filled it because when i put it together the ice cream came gushing out all over the floor! Well, i threw that one away and just decided to hurry and make him a yellow cake. I was experimenting with fondant so the big balloons on the side are too big. I just tried to make due with what i had available but it turned out ok. It was really good though!

Intermediate Class.... Mission Accomplished!

Today was our last day in the intermediate decorating class. This class was only three classes long because the teacher couldn't do the fourth class so we came early on a few days. Hope was on a teaching conference in Boston (jealous) for the week to come back today so i baked and dirty iced both of our cakes and this was the best cake i have ever made!! It was oh sweet and moist.... YUM! We learned basketweaving today and covered our cakes in it. We had to put the flowers we made on our cakes along with the dreaded birds but i'm still proud nonetheless. We also learned the rope technique which was pretty easy and i loved it. Unfortunately these classes don't give us a lot of room for creativity because we follow along through the book to create the cakes using what we have learned. I absolutely CANNOT wait for the advanced decorating class so we can touch on fondant and i am further taking the fondant and gumpaste class. I may just fall over from excitement, but i must wait for those until September. I am so glad i started doing this!

The Red, White, and Blue

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend, i know i did. I just got back from a weekend at the beach and wanted to post Thursday's cake for you. It was our last class of our beginner's class. We even got a certificate!!! So cute..

Hope and I of course made our cakes festive so we could enjoy them along with all the great food we ate. I left my cake at work for them to enjoy and we brought Hope's to Florida. We decided to make some stars on top of our cakes and insert a few scattered jumbo start sprinkles i bought a little while back. We also sprinkled the top with red, white, and blue non-pareils. The cake was red velvet. We didn't have enough food coloring so we used half of what the recipe called for. The cakes were okay but there is another recipe i want to try for a better outcome. The icing started to melt off the sides but it was delicious!

My Cake

Hope's Cake

The Inside

One down, a bunch to go!

I also decided to make some cheesecake balls to bring to work for Monday. They were so good and fun to make!

Father's Day Sweets

Today we had a family get together for father's day and i was designated the dessert lady. Because not everyone loves chocolate, i decided to make a berry trifle (strawberry, blueberry, and blackberry) with cream cheese whip cream filling and a chocolate truffle cake. The chocolate truffle cake was my first ever made from scratch cake and it wasn't hard to do at all. I thought both desserts came out gorgeous! It took forever but i loved the end result. I was going to make cheesecake balls too but i figured that was overkill for only 14 people. The chocolate truffle alone serves 16.

The desserts were a hit. The truffle cake was so rich so we could only eat a small piece but the trifle was so delicious. I can't wait for the next event so i can experiment more!

And so it begins...

I have decided that i want to learn how to decorate cakes. I am taking every class that Wilton offers at my local party store. My first class, the cupcake class, was last Tuesday. The class opened my eyes to so much! Really, i didn't even know that confectioner's sugar was powdered sugar. Yes, dumb i know! Anyway, the class was awesome. We learned how to fill and decorate cupcakes. My next class, the beginner's course started that Thursday and my friend Hope took it with me. It's a four day class that is every Thursday for a month. We had so much fun. We learned about each of the tools in our kits we bought that were so expensive. We had to bring a baked and iced cake to class the following Thursday. I also took a cookie bouquet class that next Tuesday.

Well, Hope and i got together at my house because i bought a new Kitchenaid artisan mixer so we mixed and baked and iced at my house. Our cakes came out okay but nothing like the book looked! I couldn't get the icing to spread right because it was too stiff but i wasn't sure what to do. Well, now i know that i should have added a little more milk so it would thin up and be easier to spread. Practice makes perfect so i will do that next time. We transferred a pattern onto our cake so that we could practice decorating the cake with different tips. Well, of course we ran out of time and had to finish at home where i ran out of my colors and really did not feel like making more so i just used what i had made.

Without further ado, here is my very first baked, torted, filled, iced, and now decorated cake! The beginning of my new path into baked yummy goodness.






Ta-da! Not too bad for a first cake i guess. I brought it to work and everyone acted like they liked it. The filling was way to gel-ly for my taste so i will try something different next time. Well, just from this cake and everyone knowing that this was my first time, i had three events booked for parties. CRAZY! It will be fun though because i will get to practice. I am so excited to see what my next creations will be. Hmm, HodgePodge Creations... What a great name that just popped into my head!

Well, off to celebrate my Mom's birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!