Taking a class with Allison

Wilton has revamped the courses and I was curious about the changes so I convinced my daughter to take the course 1 class with me.  She's ever my little rebel but I love her to pieces!  Just thought I would share with you the first cake she did for the class using the elongated piping skills we learned.  She didn't like any of the patterns that came with the kit (cupcake, hamburger or fish) so I found her a skull and crossbones clip art piece and she did that instead. She used electric pink and green(duff's new colors that michael's carries now) and black.

I made this hamburger cake for my son, Darren, who would eat burgers every day of his life! 

Wilton Course three: Fondant and Tiered Cakes

This was my project for the final in course three.  Wilton will no longer be teaching this class since they have reformated all their courses.  I've signed up to redo the basics class with my daughter.  I know the techniques but she doesn't and it gets her some time out of the house away from baby and gives me practice. 

The cakes for this project I used this recipe called Ultimate Vanilla Pound Cake from "All You" magazine and filled the bottom layer with lemon curd sauce I found at this website.  Hey, you have to have some flavor with a fondant covered cake!  Winnie the Pooh is totally made out of fondant as are the daisies and ribbon.

Ultimate Vanilla Pound Cake

adapted from All You magazine

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups sugar

5 large egss, at room temperature

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 F. Grease bottom and sides of a 9-inch loaf pan. Line bottom and sides with parchment, leaving about an inch of overhang on both sides. Grease and flour paper and pan, tapping out excess.

Sift flour and salt together into a small bow. Set aside. Put butter, vanilla and sugar in bowl of an electric mixer and beat on medium speed until light and pale, 3-5 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating well and then scraping bowl between each.

With mixer on low, ad flour to mixture gradually until it is fully incorporated; do not overmix. Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth top with spatula. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean, about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Cool cake on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Run a knife along unlined sides of pan and use parchment to carefully lift cake onto wire rack to cool completely. Serve with whipped cream and berries, if desired.

Lemon Curd (makes 1 cup)

Last Crumb

4 large egg yolks

1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar

3 ounces fresh lemon juice

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

2 teaspoons lemon zest

pinch salt

Directions:

Beat the egg yolks and sugar together in a heavy saucepan. Make sure the sugar and yolks are well combined; otherwise the yolks will curdle when the lemon juice is added. Add all other ingredients except the lemon zest and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly. Do lot let the mixture reach a boil. When the curd has thickened and turned an opaque yellow color, remove from heat and pour through a strainer. Stir in the lemon zest and allow to cool. The curd will thicken as it cools. Can be stored for up to three weeks in the refrigerator.

Piece of Cake

I've been enjoying this third course of Wilton's Cake decorating as it uses fondant.  I still don't care for the taste and can't understand why somone would want all that work to go in to something just to have it peeled off and set aside.  Give me a good buttercream frosting any day :-)  I've yet to figure out what my final project will be (some sort of two tiered cake) but I did finish the first project of covering a cake in fondant.  I can't take any credit for the design as it comes straight out of the class booklet.

Completion of the Wilton Cake Decorating class, course 2

Hubby and I just wrapped up our course 2 class last night.  The first course we had to bring in  baked cake, or cupcakes each time.  This time we only had to do a cake for our final night.  The primary method being taught is making flowers from royal icing.  I found it much easier to do the flowers this way rather then the buttercream method taught in the first course.  I still can't get the stinkin' roses correct but I think that has to do with the arthritis I have in my fingers.  I can't sping the nail fast enought... Oh well.  We've signed up for the next course, fondant and tier cakes, which begins next monday.  We will be learning how to make a rose using the fondant and I think I will be more effective in doing them this way.  We still had a bunch of buttercream frosting from the first course so used that up rather than making new colors.  My cake is the one posted above - the basket.  Hubby's is down below.  He was following this design from the book that showed making a woven carriage. 

Cake Decorating the Wilton way... more or less

For my birthday my in-laws gave me and my husband a gift certificate to take lessons in cake decorating. We signed up through a course that our local Michael's gave for course 1. It's an enjoyable class and our teacher is fantastic! I have two complaints; the first one is the frosting we are to use is icky tasting... blech. It leaves a greasy coating in your mouth. The second complaint has to do again with the frosting. It is the recipe that is posted in the Wilton lesson book, but it doesn't take in to consideration that Crisco no longer has transfats in its product. The frosting does not produce smooth edges and easily cracks. Our instructor told us to use milk and not water for the liquid. However, even after trying these, the results are poor. Even she (the instructor) continues to be baffled as to how we can rectify the problem.  Frosting aside, we are having fun and have signed up to take the  level 2 class.  Just for fun, I thought I would share with you some of our projects.