Merry Christmas!

I made a Christmas ornament cake for Dusty's mom this week. I wasn't really happy with the way it turned out...I was in too much of a hurry the night I was trying to get it decorated. I didn't think it would be as hard as it was to ice and decorate a spherical cake. I just made it a buttercream cake with almond/vanilla buttercream icing and filling. I did use a little bit of fondant for the hook part on top of the ornament.

I'm also making some red velvet cake balls today and some reindeer cake lollipops. I'll be sure to post pictures of these in the next few days. Hope you have a Very Merry Christmas!

Ladybug Cake

I went home this past weekend to make a cake for a 1st birthday party. The theme was ladybugs and everything turned out really cute! I made the shaped cake and also LOTS of ladybug cupcakes. Luckily, my mom was able to help me out since I also needed to get out of town for a Christmas party the same evening.
The mom posted pictures online, and it was so nice to see how much the birthday girl enjoyed her cake!
I've got at least one more cake planned in the next few days, so there will be more pictures coming soon.

Mom's Birthday Celebration

Mom's birthday was this past weekend so I made her a birthday cake. I wasn't really feeling well on Friday night while I was baking it, or on Saturday when we went out to eat at the Old Spaghetti Factory in Atlanta to celebrate her birthday. It still came out pretty I think. I went to the doctor yesterday, and apparently I have this flu bug going around....by Sunday I could barely get out of bed for more than 5 minutes at a time. I was so upset because we were supposed to enjoy the
Braves game on Sunday and I couldn't go. Anyways...its finally back to classes for me today...hopefully I last all day.
The cake was a chocolate cake like the birthday "girl" wanted with buttercream icing.

Quick Update

I just wanted to post a quick update with few of the cakes I've done lately. The first one was a cake for my Wilton Course 3. It was my first fondant cake and I think it turned out pretty cute. Unfortunately, the bow ended up drooping before I could snap a picture because of the crazy humidity.

That same week I had to make a birthday cake for Dusty. I used my oval pans to help shape a football and then added the UGA symbol in fondant. The outline on the symbol got messed up slightly, but it still turned out pretty good and he was very happy with it.

Last night I finished my Wilton Course 3 and made the final cake...a 2 tier wedding cake. I spent about 8-9 hours making fondant roses in 3 shades of pink to cascade down the side. I also hand-painted the roses to make them look more realistic. I wanted to cover the cake in marshmallow fondant, but it was my first time making it and I didn't like the way it turned out. I ended up just using buttercream icing and making a pearl strand border using the marshmallow fondant. The bottom layer of the cake is a fudge marbled cake and the top layer is a Devil's food cake. Both layers have fudge sauce in the middle. I was very pleased with the way it turned out. I think if I had had a little more time during my class I could have made it looked even better, but I was rushing to get out of there and finished with the cake in time. Hope you enjoy!

Course 2 Final Cake

I have been taking the 2nd Wilton course for the past month, and last night we finished up with our final cake. I spent several hours making daisies and apple blossoms to cover it in, but unfortunately my white royal icing must have been exposed to some moisture because most of the daisies didn't harden enough for me to get them off the wax paper without them breaking. I did have better luck with the pink apple blossoms and I love the way they turned out. The sides of the cake are covered using the basket weave technique we learned in class last night, and I did the rope border around the top of the cake. The blue jay is made using the Colorflow technique and turned out really cute. The cake is a cream cheese pound cake, and it tastes great!


I am starting the Wilton Course 3 next week, and should be learning how to make fondant and tiered cakes. I'm very excited....this is the reason I've been taking all the other courses. I think fondant cakes are so pretty! There is a fourth course...but I've never seen it offered anywhere. I'm hoping I can find somewhere to take it once I move back up to North Georgia in September. The fourth course is fondant and gumpaste. Anyways...enough rambling...have a great week!

Tye-Dye Cake

Finally....A NEW POST AND PICS! I did a cake just for fun for my sister this past weekend. She has been really wanting a cake, and was jealous of my friends at school who were getting to eat all my creations. She's a little bit of a hippie I guess, so she got a tye-dye "peace, love, and music" cake. I didn't spend as much time on this one, so I'm not really pleased with the way it turned out. She loved it though.

The inside is a funfetti boxed cake mix (to match the tye-dye of course). The icing is just a buttercream. I used a large star border around the outside and simply drew on all the symbols. The tye-dye was created using colored piping gels and then dragging them out using a toothpick. Next time I think I will buy more than just one tube of piping gel in each color so that I can make the design larger. It took a lot of gel to make the thick concentric circles.

I was initially going to make something for the 4th of July this weekend (I like the firework cupcakes on Wilton), but I think we decided to just do some homemade icecream instead. I may try the cupcakes later though because they really are adorable.

Hope everyone has a wonderful 4th of July!

Polka Dots and Coconut

I did these cakes after my 3rd cake of Wilton classes. The polka dot cake I did quickly at the end of class. I just wanted to do something fun and whimsical using bright colors. The cake is fudge marble cake with a hot fudge filling....it was so yummy! I did a shell border around the bottom and then piped large polka dots using the figure piping technique we learned in class. Its not the cleanest cake, but I still think it turned out pretty cute.

The second cake I did that week was for fun to give to someone. Its a coconut creme cake with a buttercream frosting, and then covered in coconut flakes. I used the swirl flower technique and once again did the shell border. I think it turned out very pretty. Sorry the contrast isn't great in the pictures between the light pink and the white.

Next week is the final week of class...we are supposed to learn the last part of the rose, stems/leaves, and sweetpeas. Not sure how great my roses will be, I'm having some problems with my icing due to all this humidity and rain. Its also a pretty big week with lots of things going on. I really wish I could sign up to do Course 3 next month, but since I'll be moving mid-month to do my clinical I'm going to have to wait. I think the Hobby Lobby where I'm moving is offering either Course 2 or 3 during July so I'll be able to take one of them then.

My First Cake and Blog

I wanted to start a blog to put pictures of my cakes on. I started taking a Wilton course at Michael's and I'm loving it.

My first week we just got information about the course, got our syllabus, and were told which supplies we would need. At the end of the class, the instructor walked us down the cake decorating aisle and gave us information about several of Wilton's great products.

The next week we had to have a cake prepared with the base layer of icing already on it. I went and bought all my supplies and attempted to bake a strawberry cake with a vanilla creme filling. I then iced it with a sky blue buttercream icing and I was all set for class. In class we learned several techniques including writing, star piping, etc. I just used the cake in the book to decorate this first cake, and my lovely friend Blair has volunteered to help "dispose" all of my cakes so her name was put on it.

I think it turned out pretty well for my very first cake. I need to work on the base layer of icing since there were a few wrinkles and crumbs. I did a star border and filled in the rainbow using the star technique also. It apparently didn't taste too bad either, as it was gone in no time once Blair put it in the break area at school.

I'll try to get the other cakes I've done since starting the course up here in the next few days. Hopefully you will enjoy them because I'm absolutely loving my new hobby!