Wilton Course I, Class 4

I had my final Course I class last night. I got my certificate of completion (woohoo!) and it was a lot of fun. I'm glad I took the course, and actually already signed up for Course II, which begins in September (how could I not--with the deals and the coupon I got for taking Course I, it's only $12.50 for the four classes!).

Last night, we started by practicing sweet peas, ribbons, leaves, and vines. Then it was on to making roses and decorating our final cakes.

My stiff consistency icing wasn't cooperating with me last night. It was extremely hot in our classroom for some reason, and although the consistency was technically correct, my instructor said I would have benefited from putting a little extra shortening in my frosting--it would have made it just a little bit creamier. So unfortunately, my roses aren't as nice as they should have been. I was having a hell of a time getting it to pipe out correctly. And then it wasn't sticking to itself properly--ugh! Frustration. In reality, my practice roses that we made last week looked better than these final roses... but oh well.

I am extremely happy with my final cake. I used the "running the spatula under hot water" trick, which definitely helped me get the base layer of icing much, MUCH more smooth than the last couple of times. No cracking!

The colors aren't exactly what I was imagining. The orange is nice. I was hoping that the pink (technically Wilton's "Rose" color) was going to be a little deeper pink, but it's still pretty. I am going to completely call foul on Wilton's "Leaf Green," however. That shit looks nothing like leaf green. That is NEON. Leaves? Not quite... I'd say it's more appropriate for making SLIME. But I digress. I still used it on my cake since I didn't have any other green option at that moment.

I'm taking the cake to my mom's tonight for a BBQ with a bunch of my family members. Tomorrow is my birthday, so I guess it's technically serving as my birthday cake, too. I made my own birthday cake, what the hell?! :)

Here are a few photos:




I just noticed in this final picture that from this angle, my polka dots on the top of the cake look like little hills. Whoops! I didn't even notice it when I was finishing my cake at home last night. Now that the icing has crusted over a little bit, I'll have to "tap them down" before I present the cake as final to my friends and family.

Overall, Course I was a definite success! On to Course II...