Final project for Wilton Cake 1 class
The cake above was used to celebrate Tony's birthday since Tony didn't get to have any of the cake I originally made for him. (see week 3 below)
This is a 10" chocolate cake (Mom's recipe), torted and filled with 3 cups of Beranbaum's chocolate ganache and frosted with 7 cups of Wilton's buttercream. I didn't keep track of how many cups of icing the roses used, so I'm guesstimating 1 cup. That's 11 cups of frosting to complete the entire cake. (yikes!)
The final cake weighed 12 pounds! (technically, 11 lbs 12 oz)
Lesson learned: I used two cake rounds to support the cake but I should have used 3 or 4 because the base flexed a bit as the cake was moved from class to home, then from home to the workplace, causing the crusted buttercream to crack.
I can make roses! Finally!
Wilton's method teaches you how to make the rose in three steps over three weeks. In week two, we learned how to make the center cone (what the pedals attached to), In week 3, we learned how to make the center and three pedals around it, the last week we learned how to do the other two layers of pedals. The only thing that kept me from hating roses, was the fact they were my mom's favorite flower. It took me 60 to 80 tries before I had something that looked close to a rose.
Week 3: Send in the clowns.
This is the second cake I made. My frosting to ice the cake with was too stiff and the frosting to make the clowns wasn't stiff enough. Oh well, it's a learning experience.
And as my instructor, Karen Houdek, says "it's just cake" Does she know how many hours of my life I spent on this? :-D LOL
The clowns started out with great posture but they kicked back and relaxed on the drive home. When I open the box to show them to my husband, Rick, they were lounged back on their elbows looking up at us. I'm just glad they didn't lie down and take a nap! That would have looked too weird...Lesson learned: Use a stiffer butter cream and let it set up before putting their heads on. Perhaps taking their heads off for the bumpy car ride home would help also. (I don't know if I can do this... clowns are scary enough with their heads on...) :-)
I made the cake by doctoring up a cake mix with sour cream, sugar, flour, vanilla and coffee. It came out really light and fluffy. It was very tasty but I was hoping for a dense cake.
My husband took this cake to work to celebrate his buddy's birthday... the problem was, his buddy (Tony) was on vacation. Rick (husband) took a lot of pictures of his co-workers eating the cake and celebrating Tony's birthday, then emailed the pictures to Tony. Guys are too funny!
Week 2: Our first Cake.
Our class used piping gel and wax paper to trace a rainbow pattern. We flipped the wax paper/gel on top of our cake and lightly pressed over the gel then removed the wax paper. We filled in the pattern using the star tip. I was surprised how much coloring gel you had to use to get a true color. The teens at our church ate this cake.
Week 1:Demo only
We met our teacher tonight. She wheeled a buggy full of items into the class to give us a demo. (little did I know that I'd be balancing a buggy full of my kitchen items with one hand and a cake to decorate in the other for the next 3 weeks. Ahhh. Ignorance is bliss.)
Karen, our teacher, explained how to make buttercream icing and frost a cake. Then she demonstrated both to us (making it look so easy) We were instructed to show up next week with a frosted 8" round cake that was 4 inches high, a cup of firm, medium and thin frosting for practice, plus enough frosting to decorate our cakes. How hard can that be? i-yi-i
Week 0:
Wilton had their classes on sale for half price ($17.50) last month, so I signed up for cake 1.
I had a 50% off coupon that I used on the required kit ($13) and thought all my spending was over. Ha! Not quite. I didn't keep track of how much I spent on powdered sugar, Crisco, and cake mixes every week. (denial is a good thing) ;-)
Posts
Wow, great results Tammy!!! Your're piped "handwriting" looks fantastic (something I simply can NOT do). Oh, your roses are amazing too!!! I can't wait to see your next yummy non-wilton frosted cake :).
ReplyDeleteThanks ButterYum! My husband and I can't wait for the non-wilton frosted cake too! We've been spoiled. :-)
ReplyDeleteTammy,
ReplyDeleteI just finished Course 1 myself! Your cakes look beautiful. Just out of curiosity, did your instructor give you time in class to decorate the cakes? We weren't instructed to make the cakes pictured in the book, and I was a little disappointed! I'm a fellow Rose poster.
Thanks Anne.
ReplyDeleteWilton has a strict method of teaching so I am surprised you didn't decorate in class. I am sure that is part of their method.
My instructor told us which cake we would decorate each week and we would come to class with a frosted cake ready to decorate. (for the last class, we had a choice between two of the cakes in the book) Our teacher taught us new techniques the first hour and a half of class, then we would decorate our cakes the last half hour. (I had to finish most of my cakes at home because I would run out of time) This cake was the only one I completed in class. (she gave us an hour to decorate it)
My sister-in-law took cake 1 in TX and they decorated in class also. Since I am the type that needs "hands on" to learn, I would have to find a new teacher and take the class over again.