Lesson 4 - the Final Cake

Last Tuesday was the last session of the Decorating Basics class.  And it started out, well, disastrous.  I received a lot of cake stuff for Christmas (not the disastrous part).  My brother and sister-in-law gave me this cleverly wrapped present:

It was the round pan set, which contains 6", 8", 10" and 12" round pans.  I was very excited to use the 8" pan for my final cake.  Unfortunately, the cake batter got a little too excited also and bubbled over the side.  I made a fudge marble cake, which was probably my first mistake.  And then I put too much batter into the pan - hence the spillage.

I didn't lose it though. (And by it, I mean my mind/temper/sanity)

I calmly cut away the excess cake that looked like a volcano had erupted over the side of the pan.  But the problems didn't stop there.  When I took the cake out of the pan, only half of it wanted to come out.  The other half wanted to stay warm and cozy in the pan.  And yet, I still didn't panic.  I had class in a few hours so I didn't have time to make a new cake.  I sort of patched it all up and told myself - the frosting will hold it all together (cross fingers).  (I did get a frown from Mary when I confessed that I hadn't torted the cake.  Whoops.)

I knew we were learning flowers in class and the cake I had chosen had a lot of them.  So I iced my cake and started the piping before hand.  That way, I could use the entire class to perfect my flowers.

We learned the ribbon rose, which my teacher is really not fond of at all.  She thinks it looks unnatural.  This is the example Wilton Ribbon Rose:

Mary showed us how to make the ribbon rose look a little more realistic by ruffling it.  I preferred her method (because it hides imperfections and looks cooler).  Here are my roses:

I used a flower nail for the first time.  It was a little difficult to get used to turning the nail instead of moving your piping hand.  But I got the hang of it pretty quickly.  And so I started cranking out ruffled roses.


 Then I got to use a flower lifter for the first time.  Now this may seem like a completely useless tool.  I assure you, it is not.  Buttercream sticks to everything - which makes it difficult to remove it from the parchment paper you made it on.  This little scissor like tool is quite fun actually.  As long as you manage to balance your flower on it after removing it from the paper until it lands on your cake.  I am definitely going to be adding this to my cake supplies.



I never would have been able to fit all 12 roses on my cake without it.

(I told you there would be more leaves in my future)

And here is the finished cake, complete with border:

 The border is made of drop flowers.  I tried to twist them because they look better that way, but the angle was really bad and I was already running over class time, so I just did the basic drop flower.  You may also notice the white piping with little white balls on the top and sides.  Definitely getting better at that.

As previously mentioned, my family is a bit tired of eating all this cake.  So the Swabs generously offered to take it off my hands and serve it to their company.  Word is it tasted good.

So my first ever Wilton class is over.  I even have the official certificate!

Up next, I start Course 2: Flowers and Cake Design.