Wilton Cake Course I, Class 3

My third class of Course 1 was a couple of days ago.

In this class we reviewed the rose base and not only learned the rose center but how to complete the rose w/ petals! (I wish I would have had my camera w/ me to take pictures of my roses!) It's really neat how simple it is to make something that looks so complicated! We also learned the shell, figure piping and drop flowers.

Once again we were to bring an iced cake to class (or cupcakes) to decorate w/ clowns to practice figure piping. My clowns came out better when I was practicing than on my actual cake, but I'm not sure that I'll be making a ton of cakes w/ clowns on them anyway! (The clown heads scare me a little! :-) )

For this cake I used the Wilton Icing tip... it definitely helped me to get more icing on the cake (for my first cake, I kept having to lift the spatula to add more icing and as a result I got a few crumbs...). The only problem I had was that I think I made my icing too thin... it seemed to come out of the bag a little too quickly.... and it took a lot longer for it to develop the "crust" so I could smooth it w/ parchment paper... (I still need some practice icing my cakes... they look ok but up close you can see the imperfections... and in the enlarged pictures! YIKES!)

I also used another Duncan Hines cake mix... Classic Yellow this time and I used a Jam filling... I found the idea online... You take a jar of seedless preserves, jam, etc... heat it for about 30 seconds... and stir in a small box of the same flavored jello... let it cool a little and then after you've made your frosting dam... you can spread the filling. Make sure to let it set a little before you put your top layer back on. It's a little sweet, but it's definitely tasty for such an easy filling. (I used a black raspberry jam w/ blackberry fusion jello...)

I decorated the edges w/ the shell border (I needed the practice!). I did a large shell on the bottom and a small shell on top (mainly because I was running out of blue icing and was afraid I wouldn't have enough to do the large shell on top...) I also wasn't quite sure how to finish the shell border so I added a star... (I need to ask my instructor next week.... so I don't always have to use a star to finish the border... I also didn't think of that when I started... My star finish is slightly off center... Next time I'll start and end my border at the back of the cake!) I also thought the sides and top looked a little bare so I added some little yellow dots!



Next week I "graduate" and get to decorate a cake w/ roses! I've also already signed up for Wilton Course 2 "Flowers and Borders" which starts the week after Course 1... I already know I don't have to make a cake for the first class of Course 2 (which is good - my family will get a break from cake! )