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!

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!)

Wilton Cake Course III, Class 4

So last night I finished Wilton 3! I decided I didn't want to do the white "wedding" finale cake as shown in the book. Instead I did a variation of one of the ideas they show you in the back of the book.... I also didn't use fondant to frost it... I figured I'm going to have plenty of practice with fondant in the next class and we like the taste of buttercream icing better. I did make some fondant decorations for it, though!

So here are my pictures! (Side view and top view...)



I made the fondant flower and leave cutouts a couple days ahead and let them dry on flower formers to get the curved edges... for the leaves I used the red tool (from Wilton's 10-piece tool kit) to put the veining on... for the flowers, I made a coordinating buttercream color and did the brush embroidery technique we learned in class... then I put on the finishing touches w/ a green buttercream... I was pretty pleased with how it turned out! (Especially since I didn't really like the pinkish looking flowers when I was making them...) Also, I put 8 large flowers on each layer... I meant to have 10 large flowers on the bottom layer... but I divided it wrong! :-( But, oh well, it still looks pretty nice!

(Oh, and here's a tip for using the dowel rods... for the longer one that has to be "hammered" through the top cake and cake board down to the bottom cake board... the book says to sharpen it with a household knife... I used a manual pencil sharpener at the suggestion of my husband - it worked great!)

Next is the Fondant and Gum Paste Course... but it doesn't start until September 8!

Wilton Cake Course III, Class 3

Last night was my third class of Wilton 3 and WOW! did we learn a lot in a very short amount of time! I REALLY need to practice this week!

We started class a little late and only had time to do a couple of each flower in class... also, we had to go over the fondant rose since we didn't go over last week... (there are only two of us in the class and my classmate wasn't there last week... so the instructor wanted to wait until she was here this week to go over the fondant rose...)

So anyway - first we learned the Easter Lily - it wasn't too hard... but I made my icing a little thin and the petals wouldn't stand up right...


Second we learned the Poinsettia - I think this was the easiest flower of the evening...


Next we learned the Petunia (yellow)... not so easy... I really need to practice these! And finally, the Morning Glory (blue)... even harder than the Petunia! I need TONS of practice on these! My instructors looked a ton nicer than mine... she only made one of each and my classmate took those home, so I'm going to have to rely on the book as a guide for practicing.


Here is a picture of the Easter Lily and Poinsettia my instructor made... She made two of each of these... so we could each take one home....


The last thing we went over was the fondant rose. We flew through this! (Excuse my blue rose... I used leftover blue fondant I had from my bow from last week...) These weren't too hard... but we went through it so fast I missed doing a couple of steps so it doesn't look quite right... but I'm pretty confident I can make them fairly easily by myself when I'm not rushing so much...


So next week in class we make our tiered or stacked cake. I'm planning on doing a stacked cake... I just have to decide on the design. I do know that I don't want to make the "wedding" tiered cake in the book... I won't have time to make all those fondant roses this week...

Wilton Cake Course III, Class 2

Last night I decorated my first fondant cake! I really think it turned out nicely! But WOW! was I tired by the time I was done! I spent the entire 2 hour class covering my cake in fondant and decorating it! And I never expected how much work it would be to knead all that fondant!

My cake has some areas around the bottom that aren't as smooth looking as I would like... but I could have fixed that if I would have made my bead border a little larger... Oh, and I wish I would have put my bow across the package (from corner to corner) as shown in the book... I don't know what I was thinking....



(Oh and in case anyone is wondering how much fondant I used... I took the large box to class... and only opened half... plus I have about 1/4 that I didn't touch and I still have a small about of blue left... so if I would have done the flowers, I probably would have used about 1/2 a large box...)

My instructor gave me a tip for coloring the fondant... By actually poking the toothpick w/ the color into the fondant you don't get it all over your hands (instead of just wiping the color on the fondant)! I had taken gloves, but I probably didn't even need them...

Another tip from my instructor... to keep the fondant longer once it's been opened... wipe shortening on it and wrap in plastic wrap... then double bag it! She's been able to keep it a couple of months this way... She's also had students use those food vacuum sealers and that works well too...

One more tip... don't store the cake in the carrier w/ the lid on! She said it will turn the cake to mush!

Wilton Cake Course III, Class 2 Prep

So I'm starting to get organized for my second class in Wilton's Course 3.... I'm going to make the 8" square package cake.... and I'm starting to have a lot of questions...

I'm trying to figure out how much fondant I'll need and the best way to do it... I have already purchased the 24 oz box of white fondant... which may or may not be enough to cover my cake... Does anyone know? (I think the book says I'll need 30 oz... which includes leftovers from class 1... but we didn't do anything w/ fondant in class 1.... but does the 30 oz include the white flowers they put all over the cake?)

(I had the Wilton Fondant Amounts chart suggested to me... which says I'll need 36 oz for my cake... but that assumes a 4" high cake... so maybe the 30 oz is accurate, since my cake will most likely only be about 3 " high....)

Also, the book says that to do the bow I'll need 12 oz of fondant! Wow! The pre-colored Wilton fondant has 4 colors in a box and only 4.4 oz of each color... so obviously, I don't want to buy 3 boxes of that to get my colored fondant...

Does anyone have experience making this cake? What did you do? Did you color your own fondant? From homemade or store bought? How much store bought did you buy?

BTW... does anyone have any recommendations on removing the folds from the cake dividing wheel? I've tried soaking in hot water... which helped a little... and I've also ironed it in between two towels w/ the iron as hot as I dare... the plastic was pretty hot to the touch! Most of the wrinkles are out... but I can still feel the dents from the main folds... will this effect the fondant on my cake?

I'd appreciate any comments or suggestions you could give to make my life a little easier! Thanks everyone!