Gum Paste & Fondant Class Complete

I finished my third cake course - Gum Paste & Fondant. This class was more about gum paste flowers than anything else, but we did get to work with fondant a bit the last two classes. We covered a cake board in fondant. Then covered our final cake in fondant and the gum paste flowers of our choice. I went with a spring motif with some cute double layer daisies.

Unfortunately, there are no more Wilton cake classes for me to take. There will be a 3 hour workshop on tall tiered cakes later this month. I will definitely be taking that one. I feel like I will go in withdrawal if I don't. Taking these classes has been an amazing experience. I have learned so much and feel so much more confident baking and decorating. I will be sure to post my creations, as I will be continuing to bake up a storm in the future.

Flowers & Cake Design Class Complete

I know I keep saying it, but I am loving 20II. I completed another cake class this week - Wilton's Flowers & Cake Design. The last class was pretty fun. We brought in an iced 8 inch cake and any royal icing flowers we made. Then we learned a couple border techniques and were told to decorate. My finished cake turned out pretty good.

I was a little disappointed with my final cake though. I made 25 lilies to arrange on the cake. However, since it was very humid and rainy outside, the flowers did not hold up. When you tried to handle the flowers and move them to the cake, they would crack or fall apart. I managed to get five on there; however one or two were a little cracked in the center.

I finish class three on Thursday - Fondant & Gum Paste. I have made a few dozen daisies in different sizes to put on that cake. It should turn out to be a cute celebration of spring. I will be sure to post some photos.

Cake Flowers Class - Week 3

Week 3 in Flowers & Cake Design class was a busy one. I actually had to make this class up at a later date because I skipped it for my birthday. Class three was all royal icing flowers. We learned the daffodil, pansy, violet and lily.

Daffodils

Pansies

Violets

Lilies

The last class is this week. The goal is to bring in an iced cake that we will decorate with the flowers of our choice. I went with the lily. I made 25 of them in two different colors for class. Hopefully that is enough to fill the cake. 

We will also be practicing the basket weave icing technique.I am looking forward to learning that. Can't wait to post photos of the finished cake!

The Year of WINNING Continues...

So as I have referred to several times on this blog, this year is 20II - the year of me. It has been a great year so far filled with amazing friends, gifts, accomplishments and WINNING. Last night, I returned home from cake class to find a huge box at my doorstep. I thought maybe it was birthday care package from my mom, but look what I found inside.

I won a Spanish tapas and Tapena wine party package from one of my favorite food blog, Slashfood. The package included a big ice bucket, Spanish olives, almonds, spice packets, a cookbook, three bottles of Tapena wine, a corkscrew, two pens, some coasters, temporary tattoos and some magnets. I have to say it is pretty awesome. I can't wait to get the girls together and try some of the stuff. Should make for a fun night!

Fondant & Gum Paste Class - Week 3

Fondant and gum paste class was a little lackluster this week. We worked on two more flowers - Daisies and Mums.

We also started preparing for our final class project - a 8 inch double stacked cake. We will be covering this cake in fondant and then covering it in the gum paste flower creations of our choice. So before we left class, we covered our cake board in fondant. I chose a lovely shade of light blue. I actually ended up dying my hands blue while tinting the fondant, but I was able to take some nail polish remover and cure my Smurf problem. I also played around with an imprint mat, which allows you to put designs into the fondant. 

Since I ended up putting a daisy imprint on the cake board, I think I am going to stick with the daisy theme for the cake. Sure the flowers are really simple to make, but I think a cake covered in blue fondant with a nice assortment of daisies could end up looking real nice. Plus, it's just for class and then I will probably give it away. 

Fondant & Gum Paste Class - Week 2

As I mentioned in a previous post, week one of fondant & gum paste class was pretty boring. We just made bases for flowers. And when I say bases, I mean balls of gum paste in various shapes stuck to pieces of spaghetti. Nothing to write home about. But week two, we took those bases and created beautiful flowers. They look so real.

Roses

Calla Lilies and Carnations

The great thing about these flowers are they can last for years. The gum paste dries hard. You just have to worry about dust build-up if you use them for a cake display or something like that.

I am looking forward to my next class. We will be making a couple more flowers and then playing with fondant. More photos and posts to come.

St. Patrick's Day Cake Pops

So I thought I would make something sweet and festive for St. Patrick's Day this year. Thanks to a friend, I was forwarded a blog post about green cake pops. It all starts with Green Velvet cake, yes green. Tastes the same as red velvet, just a different color.

Green Velvet Cake

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 cups sugar

1 Tablespoon cocoa

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 eggs

1 cup oil

1 cup buttermilk

1 Tablespoon vinegar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 oz green food coloring

Combine wet ingredients in a mixer and blend.  Combine all your dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Next, gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet. Once blended, put the mixture in cake or cupcake pans.  I baked two 8 inch cakes at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes. Cupcakes will probably take 22-25 minutes.

After the cakes have baked and cooled, you grind them up in a food processor. You're looking to create a crumb like mixture. Once you have that done, you gradually add frosting to the crumbs and pulse in the food processor.  You can use canned frosting, I just always make my own.  You're looking for the crumbs to form more of a dough; a mixture that can easily be molded in your hands to make balls.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 8oz block of cream cheese (room temperature)

1 stick of butter (softened)

1 cup of powdered sugar

1 teaspoon of vanilla

Once you have the mixture ready, you form the cake crumbs into small balls. Try to shoot for the size of a ping pong ball. I made mine a little bigger than that and it caused a bit of a problem.

Now you are ready to add your lollipop sticks. It is best to dip the sticks in your melted chocolate first. It acts as a glue and helps hold the stick in place. As for the chocolate, I just used the white chocolate melts you can buy in craft stores and followed the instructions on the back. 

Once you have all the sticks in place and have given them some time to dry, you're ready to coat them in chocolate. This process can be a pain. The chocolate melts tend to melt to a thick consistency, so you can't just dip them in and pull them out. I had to use a spoon and coat each cake ball. Then while they were still wet, I sprinkled them with green sugar and placed them on wax paper to harden. You can also use a strainer to hold your cake pops while they dry (so they don't have a flat bottom). Just check to make sure the lollipop sticks fit in the holes before you stick a finish cake pop in there.

Once they are dry, you just peel them off the wax paper and can package them for gifts, bake sales, etc.