Cooked Candy and Heavenly Cookies

I attended a cookie swap/cooked candy class this morning and our pass to get in is a batch of baked cookies and a few supplies for cooked candy we will make in class. I chose Pumpkin Pecan Chocolate Chunk Cookies to bring and they were heavenly! Pumpkin is my new favorite flavor to bake with. The pumpkin spice cupcakes i made for Halloween were so good that i decided a cookie recipe must be just as good. Since i can't do anything half way, i wrapped these as i do the favors i make for baking jobs but with pink ribbon. I might be a slight overachiever.

Anyway, the class was awesome. We received a cookie and candy cookbook as well as a goodies bag for us to go home. It was a lot of fun and something Hope and I are thinking about doing on our own!

 

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!

Chrisanthemum Love

Today was the third day of my fondant and gumpaste class and we learned flowers. I had to leave early to go eat dinner for my husband's birthday but at least i was able to stay long enough to make the most beautiful gumpaste flower i have ever seen. *Honest tidbit: this is the first gumpaste flower i have ever seen.* Nonetheless, it was absolutely gorgeous!! I saw them make daisies too but I was already packed up and walking out the door so I'll have to make one and post it here later.

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!

Figure Piping

My figure piping class was tonight and it was a lot of fun! We learned various things. I made a little chick, an elephant, a ghost, wreaths and other things.

Brownie Fun

Hope and I attended the brownie class tonight and had a lot of fun! We were able to open all the flavors and other treats that Wilton offers for brownie making. While chocolate buttercream is good on the brownie, Wilton makes a brownie fudge icing that is F.A.B.U.L.O.U.S. Here are my brownies. We had two circles, one heart, a mini, a pop, an oblong, and one that looks like a set of stairs. Still not sure what that one is supposed to be!

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!

Flower Garden

Yesterday we made daisies, violets, pansies, daffodils, and apple blossoms. It was so much fun! The daffodil to the right looks funny because we made it out of the wrong colors because half of our class didn't show up for some reason. We also made color flow birds. My bottom one got a little crushed while i was packing it up. We will finish these by adding the beaks next week too. The best thing about these is that they last forever. I can make a ton ahead of time and use them for a project next month if i want. This is getting easier and easier, i guess i'm getting the hang of it!

Candy Making

Yesterday was chocolate making class and it was so fun! We made peanut butter cups, cordial cherries, turtles, chocolate rice crunch, and yummy tiger butter. We had a ton of candy all over our tables and we came home with a box full. I of course brought it to work and only ate one piece, the tiger butter. I made the chocolate rice crunch and Hope made the turtles. Yum! The cutest part was this little mouse that we made. Justin posed him by the cheese for extra affect! Is it just me or does his butt look huge!?!? :-) You can't see real good but his ears are slivers of almond. Too cute...

Intermediate, Schmitermediate

Last night was the first class of the intermediate cake decorating class and it was fabulous! We touched back on shells but learned rosettes, reverse shells, rosebuds, and made chrysanthemums. I can't wait to make all the beautiful flowers. The only thing about the class was that there were numerous people that had not taken the first set of classes so instead of moving right along, our teacher had to reteach many things. Why would you not take the beginner's class before taking the intermediate class? Anyway, i finally got the buttercream thing down! This class will only be three classes because our teacher has to go out of town for a teaching conference but it looks like it is going to be a busy three weeks! On a separate note, i got my ice cream maker attachment for my kitchenaid mixer! I was so surprised when it came in as a wedding present. Nothing better than free gifts, right? I can't wait to make the ice cream!

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!

Flowers, shells and figure piping oh my!

Today was the third class of the Wilton beginners basic course. We had to bring 8 iced cupcakes to class to practice decorating on. Hope and I made the cupcakes last night and couldn't stop talking about how good they were. Seriously, these were the best cupcakes i have ever tasted in my life. They are white chocolate cupcakes with white chocolate buttercream icing and Bavarian cream filling. Yum! The icing was a little different from the classic icing we have been making but much better tasting. Not good to decorate with, but great to just ice and eat!

I have bought a ton of books with various cake recipes so i want to experiment on the flavors of each one to add to our offering. This is where i got the white chocolate cupcake and icing recipe. One book i bought has a ton of cupcake recipes and another section with a ton of icing recipes and even a chart for which icing tastes good with what flavor cupcakes. The options are endless!

Well, i got my wedding dress cleaned and had to go pick it up so i put the cupcakes in my trunk for just about 15 minutes. That was too long and the icing started to melt, not to mention to carrier I used didn't exactly hold onto them tight so the cupcakes toppled over and smudged on the side of the carrier. Oh well, i know now to use my other carrier with deep cups so they can't move next time.

In class we learned the beginnings of the rose, some drop flowers, shells, and the startings of figure piping. I am not good at shells or figure piping but will practice because the results are so cute. I have included pictures below but only if you promise not to laugh. They are horrible! The icing was way too runny and was not cooperating. The classroom is so hot that the icing starts to melt. I included a separate of my favorite: the caterpillar. I was using the grass tip and figured a caterpillar would be so easy! You can't go wrong with the dot tips.

Decorators-in-training and our polka dot aprons


Hope's Cupcakes - look at the baby carriage!

My group - the flowers kept sticking the people look spooky! (we had limited colors to use)

The cutest one i had - the caterpillar

Ok, now you can stop laughing!

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!