Monday, September 22, 2008

Wilton Fondant & Gum Paste, Class 4

Tonight was my final and last of the Wilton Cake Decorating Classes! It seems weird that they are all over and that I won't have to go next week! I've been going to class every Monday now for almost 4 months!

So tonight was mostly decorating the final cake. We did go over a couple of new things. First, we learned to make the favor box - very easy and cute... We also looked at how to do inlays and overlays... I decided to use those techniques on my cake... Too bad it's not Valentine's Day! My cake would be perfect if it was... The design is pretty simple, but it was still time consuming! (It took awhile to roll all the little balls for the border!) My red also didn't come out as red as I would have liked... but I got tired of added color... All in all I think the final result was pretty cute...


Now I just have to figure out what to do with all my free time!

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Wilton Fondant & Gum Paste, Class 2&3

For my second and third fondant and gum paste classes we covered a ton of stuff! (It turns out I'm the only one in the class, so the instructor offered for us to do a double class to be able to finish a week earlier...)

We went over techniques like draping fondant and the handkerchief... but I didn't use these on my cake. We also learned to make the carnation (unfortunately I won't have any pictures since my didn't survive the drive home). Carnations are very time consuming, so I'm not sure when I'll use them on the cake.

We also learned the fantasy flower - which is a made up Wilton flower. It's actually not that complicated and looks pretty when it's finished.


I decided to decorate my cake very simply w/ a few daisies and leaves (which were very easy to make) and a ribbon border (also very easy). My cake is a Duncan Hines Chocolate Cake (I think it's actually called double chocolate fudge or something like that...) and I made Peanut Butter Buttercream (YUMMY! Can't wait to try it w/ the cake!)



Sunday, September 14, 2008

Wilton Candy Class

Yesterday I took a Candy Class at Michaels. It was well worth it! The class was mainly supposed to be a demonstration class, but since only two of us showed up, our instructor let us participate and practice making the candy!

It was a two hour class and in that time we learned... cream cheese mints, nut clusters (made using equal parts of chocolate and nuts/pretzels/mini marshmallows/candy, etc. and dropped by clusters onto waxed paper... then drizzled w/ colored chocolate for decoration), maple cremes (first we painted the mold w/ chocolate, next we made a paste from powdered fondant, maple flavoring and black walnuts, the filling was dropped into the molds and then we "sealed" them w/ more chocolate), chocolate covered cherries (made the same as the maple cremes, only the powdered fondant can be flavored w/ almond... you can also add some or no cherry juice depending on how you like them), chocolate lollipops (pouring chocolate into molds and letting it harden), chocolate desert cups (painting chocolate into desert molds and letting it harden, can be filled w/ ice cream, fruit, pudding, mouse or whatever!) and peanut butter cups (these were really yummy! We dropped some chocolate into the mold, then some of the peanut butter filling using creamy peanut butter and then more chocolate!) I didn't have my camera with me to take pictures and the candy we brought home didn't last long enough to be photographed! :-)

I had never heard of powdered fondant before and I'm going to have to go to my local candy store to buy some! It can be mixed w/ whatever flavoring or coloring you want to make the "creme" filling for different kinds of candy! I'm thinking I'd also like to make vanilla cremes!

(We used Wilton's dark cocoa chocolate for making all the candy... it tasted really good!)

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Wilton Fondant & Gum Paste, Class 1

So last night I started my fondant and Gum Paste course. (The other woman who signed up didn't show... so I was the only one there... It was really nice having the one on one class!) Anyway, we really didn't learn anything new. The instructor went over how to cover a cake board and also reviewed covering a cake in fondant.

I have to bring a cake for next week (it's supposed to be covered in fondant, but I think I'm just going to use buttercream - I'm going to be giving the cake to my mom for a dinner she has to go to and they will enjoy the buttercream better...). We're going to decorate the cake in a sample of the new techniques we'll learn in class. The only new thing I need to buy is some gumpaste.

(I'm also taking a Wilton Candy making class on Saturday at Michaels... so hopefully I'll have something to post about that...)