Another Practice Cake - Mother's Day

My mom has always been super supportive of my hobbies "of the week" as I like to call them.  Mostly, I pick up a hobby, enjoy it for a few months, then get bored, and move onto something else.  That ultimately means I have a lot of "supplies" for hobbies I haven't touched in months!  Maybe even years.  Since I haven't been able to showcase my talents (hahahah!) for my mom or my step-dad yet, I decided I was going to make my mom a Mother's Day cake.  It was a disaster.

I bought this really cool pan where the cake ultimately ends up looking like a checker board.  Cool, right?!  Not! My mom requested a white cake with almond flavoring and a red velvet cake.  Me being the overachiever that I am decided that I was going to make both of these cakes from scratch.  If you know me at all, you know that I have a hard enough time making a grilled cheese sandwich.  Nevertheless, I started my endeavor.  Things proceeded fairly well until I got the the cooking temperature and time.  The red velvet cake was to bake at 350* for like 25 minutes.  The white cake at 325* for 20 minutes.  Um, crap.  I went with it.  LOL.  Needless to say, when I pulled the first take out of the oven, the white cake was starting to burn and the red velvet cake was not fully cooked.  I didn't realize this at first, because my toothpicks (you know the way you are supposed to check if a cake is done or not) were clean.  I left my cakes in the pan for 10 minutes, like I'm supposed to, and went I went to flip them over to the cooling rack, they fell apart.  At this point, the clock had just struck 11 pm!  Oh forget it, I went to bed.  Here's what the cakes looked like BEFORE the oven.  :-)



Oh!  And while I was waiting on the cakes to bake, I cut out 20 daisies from white fondant, and rolled 10 centers for the middle of the daisies.  More on this later...



Moving right along - quite possibly the longest post EVER!  But anyways, so Saturday I was running some errands and one of them included the grocery store.  While I was opposed to doing a boxed cake for my mom, I was running out of options.  So I bought the boxed cakes.  They both baked at roughly the same temperature for the same length of time.  Home I went to bake some more!  Here are the SECOND cakes after being removed from the oven.



Sunday morning, I wake up and decide to go ahead and put a layer of icing on my cake, known as a crumb coating.  Um - the only thing this layer did was BRING OUT MORE CRUMBS!  The harder I tried to prevent crumbs, the more the crumbs the cake had.  After getting the cake iced, it was too freaking humid (or something) but my fondant daisies would not stick to the cake, no matter how hard I tried.  I tried gum paste glue, I tried just pushing them basically all the way into the icing, nothing worked.  I assume it was because I didn't let my flowers dry enough or something, because I tried to finish them Saturday and put them on my cake Sunday.  I don't know what was wrong.  But anyways, so to plan B I went.

I finally just put the words "Happy Mother's Day" and four very basic Wilton Roses on the cake, complete with green leaves.  I have these imprint things that I imprinted to the side of the cake, but I don't feel like they turned out quite how I wanted them to turn out.  In my defense, it was only my first time to use them. Anyways - without further adieu, here is my horrible, no good, very bad Mother's Day cake.  In the end, it turned out okay, and I'm really loving the "checker board" cake.

Cake Decorating - Level 2 - Week 1

I officially made the move from blogger to wordpress.  And holy moly, I love it here!  I wish I had done this a long time ago!  :o)  It's so much more user friendly than blogger - and I love the fact that I can easily post, change, add categories (because they are in a drop down menu!), add pictures.  Yeah, it's pretty much awesome.

Carie, Lindsey, and I started Level 2 of the Wilton Cake course at MIchael's.  In this level, we'll use a lot of fondant, royal icing, and gum paste.  This is definitely more of a challenge for me than the first one seemed to be.  I have a short attention span, at least by 8:30, when our class gets out.  And I feel kind of slow.  LOL.  I'm not - I know I'm not. And I'm hoping it was just this class, since I knew I had so much to do when I got home.

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Here are my lovely creations.  Clearly - making the move to WordPress means that I need to start taking better quality photos, and not use my iPhone anymore.  In both pictures, the one on the left is made using a press, basically like a die cut.  And the one on the right is used by using a cookie cutter to make the overall shape, using a round ball to "flatten and lift."  In my defense (because I really do need it), the one on the right in the right picture feel out of my bag and landed underneath the heater in my car, so it doesn't look so pretty anymore.  I need some work.

Cake Decorating - Week Four

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This week concluded Level 1 of the Wilton Cake Decorating Class at Michael's. I really had a lot of fun in this level, and I'm looking forward to start Level 2 next Monday, May 2nd! :o)

In this class, we learned ribbon roses and petal roses. I didn't love the ribbon roses, they don't look as real to me, so I focused more on petal roses, because that's what I wanted for my cake. Since we spent a great deal of time learning the art of rose making, my cake seems pretty lame this week, compared to the others. I'm hoping I'll have enough time to make a "practice cake" this week using my new rose making skills.

Cake Decorating - Week Four

This week concluded Level 1 of the Wilton Cake Decorating Class at Michael's. I really had a lot of fun in this level, and I'm looking forward to start Level 2 next Monday, May 2nd! :o)

In this class, we learned ribbon roses and petal roses. I didn't love the ribbon roses, they don't look as real to me, so I focused more on petal roses, because that's what I wanted for my cake. Since we spent a great deal of time learning the art of rose making, my cake seems pretty lame this week, compared to the others. I'm hoping I'll have enough time to make a "practice cake" this week using my new rose making skills.

>Practice Cake - Week Three

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After being a little frustrated to say the least, with my class cake from week three, I decided I was going to attempt it again at home. At home, I'm a little less rushed, a little more organized, and I'm able to think through my cake design a little easier. I'm pretty pleased with this one.

Practice Cake - Week Three

After being a little frustrated to say the least, with my class cake from week three, I decided I was going to attempt it again at home. At home, I'm a little less rushed, a little more organized, and I'm able to think through my cake design a little easier. I'm pretty pleased with this one.

>Cake Decorating - Week Three

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This week was another exciting and fun cake decorating class. We learned lots of new techniques to make flowers as well as used techniques we learned from week two. We did an "Easter" inspired cake this week.

To start off, we did a basket weave along the bottom half of the top of the cake. The "handle" of the Easter basket is made using a "S" chain and a 18 star tip.

We then put star flowers using the 1D tip, swirl flowers using the 1D tip, and "grass" using tip 233. My grass started to look more like hair since it was all too uniform, so I added more and then it looked weird.

I really want to go back and practice using tip 233. I hate the way the grass looks. But then part of it has to do with the fact that it doesn't really look like grass, since I colored my cake green to begin with. I definitely want to start over again with this one.

Cake Decorating - Week Three

This week was another exciting and fun cake decorating class. We learned lots of new techniques to make flowers as well as used techniques we learned from week two. We did an "Easter" inspired cake this week.

To start off, we did a basket weave along the bottom half of the top of the cake. The "handle" of the Easter basket is made using a "S" chain and a 18 star tip.

We then put star flowers using the 1D tip, swirl flowers using the 1D tip, and "grass" using tip 233. My grass started to look more like hair since it was all too uniform, so I added more and then it looked weird.

I really want to go back and practice using tip 233. I hate the way the grass looks. But then part of it has to do with the fact that it doesn't really look like grass, since I colored my cake green to begin with. I definitely want to start over again with this one.

>Cake Decorating - Week 2

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Week Two was a lot of fun! We were supposed to bring an un-iced cake to class, so I brought a chocolate cake. YUM.

My first basketweave. :o) I love this technique. Seriously, one of my favorites so far!

We also learned how to use piping gel and transfer a pattern from parchment paper to your cake. I choose to outline a cupcake in piping gel. Basically, you trace a pattern onto parchment paper using a pen. Then you take a disposal decorating bag, put a small amount of piping gel in the bag, and cut a very small hole. Re-trace your pattern using the piping gel. Put your parchment paper down on your cake, and trace again with a small brush (paint brush).

A tip: Make sure that your parchment paper is curling up - not down - if it curls at all. If the parchment paper is curling down, it won't pull off your cake easily and it will ruin the icing.

I really need to spend some time working on crumb coating my cakes BEFORE I do the final icing job, but in a class room without a fridge and a two hour time limit, that just wasn't an option. I also need to spend some time on my borders. These look horrible.

Overall - I'm pretty happy with my cake, since it is my first time to try some new techniques. I like taking pictures and looking back at them over time, because it'll be nice to see where I started from, and where I'm going! :o) Plus... I can really determine what areas I need work in for the next week.

P.S. Look forward to a basketweave cake coming from me hopefully soon! I'm going to attempt to bake the cake tonight after class, and decorate tomorrow after work.

Cake Decorating - Week 2

Week Two was a lot of fun! We were supposed to bring an un-iced cake to class, so I brought a chocolate cake. YUM.

My first basketweave. :o) I love this technique. Seriously, one of my favorites so far!

We also learned how to use piping gel and transfer a pattern from parchment paper to your cake. I choose to outline a cupcake in piping gel. Basically, you trace a pattern onto parchment paper using a pen. Then you take a disposal decorating bag, put a small amount of piping gel in the bag, and cut a very small hole. Re-trace your pattern using the piping gel. Put your parchment paper down on your cake, and trace again with a small brush (paint brush).

A tip: Make sure that your parchment paper is curling up - not down - if it curls at all. If the parchment paper is curling down, it won't pull off your cake easily and it will ruin the icing.

I really need to spend some time working on crumb coating my cakes BEFORE I do the final icing job, but in a class room without a fridge and a two hour time limit, that just wasn't an option. I also need to spend some time on my borders. These look horrible.

Overall - I'm pretty happy with my cake, since it is my first time to try some new techniques. I like taking pictures and looking back at them over time, because it'll be nice to see where I started from, and where I'm going! :o) Plus... I can really determine what areas I need work in for the next week.

P.S. Look forward to a basketweave cake coming from me hopefully soon! I'm going to attempt to bake the cake tonight after class, and decorate tomorrow after work.

>Practice Cake #1

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I haven't been able to spend as much time practicing my "cake decorating" as I'd like, but I did manage to squeeze in one practice cake last week. It turned out pretty good, for my first time, that is. :-) The picture quality definitely leaves something to be desired, but when I'm out and about with my cake, iPhone quality is better than nothing! Right? Right! :-)

Cake Details:

Yellow Cake with Buttercream Icing

Icing Colors: Purple base with pink details

Tips Used: Star Tip (#26) and Round Tip (#12)

Practice Cake #1

I haven't been able to spend as much time practicing my "cake decorating" as I'd like, but I did manage to squeeze in one practice cake last week. It turned out pretty good, for my first time, that is. :-) The picture quality definitely leaves something to be desired, but when I'm out and about with my cake, iPhone quality is better than nothing! Right? Right! :-)

Cake Details:

Yellow Cake with Buttercream Icing

Icing Colors: Purple base with pink details

Tips Used: Star Tip (#26) and Round Tip (#12)