First Order!

Tuesday I got my first order for a cake. I think this is a big moment for me so that maybe someday I will be able to have a side job decorating cakes. So for the few of you that read this, yes I am selling cakes and taking more orders.

Here is the first cake. And yes it's similar to the other basket one, but thats what they saw and wanted another one like it.

I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out and really proud of it since it is the first one I did completely on my own away from my instructor. 

Happy Cooking!

Flowers Galore!

The month of July was all about flowers. Over the month hopefully I have learned new skills and mastered some technique. I'll let you be the judge of that. We started off our first night with the flowers from fondant and from royal icing. Here's the picture from last week that wouldn't load.

And before anyone starts, yes that is a shirt box that the flowers are in. It has been making a few appearances lately. Anyways, the small purple flowers are violets, the yellow are daffodil, and then there are daisies in the upper left corner. I love the look of these so much more than the fondant in the upper right corner. But next month we are working on flowers that will be out of fondant and gum paste which look more realistic. 

After our task the first night, we made a cake with the purple violets. Here is the cake we made during the second week.

 

There is piping work on the side of cake that I was hoping would look more like a vine, but it turned out good. I'm really looking forward to someday making a cake that I can do lace detail work on. Piping is a tough workout on your hand though. The side of my hand was cramping so bad by the end, and it was a small cake! This on I think was my second favorite to date.

I'm not sure if my finale cake tops this one or not. I'll let you decide that. My last cake is more bold I think and the flowers are more extravagant. I mean nothing like Ace of Cakes extravagant but for me, the beginner! Here is my Grande Finale piece for the second class.

This cake in a basket weave with rope borders, topped with roses, primroses, and a flower that I forget the name. Really I was just trying to get rid of the last bit of icing :) Notice the little violets from the last cake. I had a few left over and they were the perfect final touch my cake needed.

And I'm so excited, I got my first order for a birthday cake this week. I'm finishing that up tomorrow, so I'll be posting tomorrow night with the finished product. A dozen reddish, pinkish roses :) And I'm proud of those roses! Can't wait to see how it turns out!

Happy Cooking! 

Royal Icing, Friend or Foe?

Well I always thought that royal icing would be hard to work with, hard to make, and well an all around pain in the butt. I was proved wrong last week when I started working with royal icing flowers.

This week we started working on royal icing and fondant flowers. The fondant flowers, ehh... They were cute in that cartoon style way. Maybe when I learn a little more about it and try some new flowers I'll feel differently.

So here is the recipe for royal icing. Now get ready, it's a doozy. Have pen and paper? Ok.

3 c. powdered sugar

3 tsp meringue powder

2 Tbsp os water

Ok, just kidding, not so hard. The next part is actually tough unless you are lucky enough to own a stand mixer. For those less fortunate like myself, we're set for 7-10 minutes with the hand mixer. I guess there is one advantage. Pretty sweet bi-tricep muscles at the end of this.

On to the fun stuff, flowers! We worked on violets and daffodils this week. The picture failed to upload so you'll have to check back later for the finished cake that used the flowers.

Happy Cooking!

Roses all Around

This week was the time to tackle roses. Ha! This week was more like the week that we barely finished our cakes because we trashed the first fifty flowers. I figured roses would be hard, but not as hard as they actually were. Oh and the way they teach now....NOT easier. Well before I go on, here is the final picture of Wilton Level 1.

Ok, now I'm not sure what you think about the photo, the detail didn't come out all that well. But I learned something else this week; lack of AC is not conducive to beautiful roses. I did have some nice looking roses, but they sat too long off the cake and when I attempted to move them on to the cake they ended up looking like, well a deformed eye with many many layers. I'll attempt pictures throughout the classes in the future for further enjoyment.

So next week we have a break, but then comes the flowers, lots and lots of flowers! I'll be sure to post a bunch of pictures of the different types of flowers.

So until then, Happy Cooking!

Orders will be taken on a first come, first serve basis :) Haha!

Thank You Nursing Assistants

So this past week was National CNA Appreciation Week and to end off the very rough week at work we decided that a Pig Pickin' may brighten some spirits, if today didn't help with that at all :)

Well I decided I wanted a little more practice with my newly learned skills and bought an iced sheet cake to decorate. I've decided that I don't particularly like sheet cakes. Too much white space to cover. So it's not as bold as some of the others, and is by no means my favorite cake, but here it is. My small thank you to all the CNAs out there who do the job I would hate to do everyday.

Half Way There!

Well this week cake decorating had its ups and downs. 1. The icing was so much easier to do this time 2. The cake looked so much better when I iced it this time. No help needed from the instructor. Downside, I had two 11 days before the class. I was running late and a little too stressed out for it to be as fun. You be the judge though on the cake. I think it turned out great for the week I've been having, but it's not my favorite. Not my first. Well next week is the grand finale cake and I'm really excited about that and roses. Hopefully next week I won't work a full 11 hours before class and have to run to car :)

Well here ya go,

This week was a fish cake. We were learning how to do puffy style designs. Last week it was dainty and exact and this week it  was all about big puffy forms. Still need some work though. My perfectionism is popping out at all the wrong times. :)

Happy Cooking! Check back next Wednesday to see the final installment of Buttercream Frosting.

The First One!

You know the first one might always be my favorite, but we'll see next week when I get to decorate the second one. All I know now is that I am addicted and I want to decorate everything in sight! My whoops from the other day with the butter flavored Crisco, turned out to be a very good thing! My pale yellow cake was topped with light purple drop flowers and pale green leaves of two varieties.

And no, the spoon is not what I promptly ate the cake with. The one bad thing about cake decorating, what am I going to do with all the cake???

Happy Cooking! Check back next week for more photos :)