Wilton Course 3: Class Cake 1

This cake is a little bit similar to the last cake I blogged about, in that it is square and has a fondant bow. :)

Wilton Course 3 is 4 weeks long and both the 2nd and 4th sessions involve decorating an actual cake (in the other classes you practice techniques or make royal icing flowers.) 

We brought the iced cake to class.  This time I made a 9" square with chocolate cake on the bottom and vanilla butter cake on the top, with cream cheese filling.  The outside was iced with vanilla buttercream.

In class, we covered the cakes in fondant, and also practiced roses made with stiffened fondant.  Stiffened fondant has a gum added to it (like Tylose or Gum-Tex) to make it more of a fondant/ gum paste hybrid.  This makes it easier to sculpt because it can support its own weight a bit better than regular fondant.

To finish the cake, we cut out ribbons from the stiffened fondant.  Since I didn't have time to do this till I got home, I used my Wilton ribbon cutter and embosser to add the textured stripes to the ribbon and bow.  You can find some really useful fondant video tutorials on the Satin Ice website (including how to make the bow...).   http://www.rolledfondant.com/how.htm 

We made the curlicues by wrapping fondant strips around a dowel rod, sliding them off, and letting them harden.

There was a flower cutter in the course kit, so we could just roll out the fondant and cut those out.  Similarly with the polka dots, only we used the end of tip 12 to cut those out.  I did my cut outs before class, so for some of the white polka dots, I let them dry and painted them with super gold luster dust.  Everything was attached with water or clear vanilla.

Around the bottom of the cake is a tip 5 bead border.

So what's coming up?

Next week in this class we're doing royal icing flowers, specifically throated flowers, including petunias, lilies, and morning glories.  In the final class we'll be making a 2-tiered cake with pillar dividers.

Also, today I started a wedding cake class at the Cake Art store.  Today we did some fancier buttercream techniques, like embellished borders and stringwork.  Next week, we're discussing wedidng cake construction, delivery, pricing, etc.  Then, in the final class we'll be making a 3 tiered wedding cake!

So that's what's coming up... stay tuned! :)

Elegant Square Cake

At Georgia Tech, we're mostly engineers, and there aren't too many women around.  So, in the Mechanical Engineering department, we have a graduate women group to help us meet the other women in the department, and we do a lot of social events and seminars and lunches. :)

Last week, we brought in a female Ph.D. from Sandia to give a talk and meet and mingle with students and faculty at Georgia Tech.  After her talk, we had an informal lunch where the other women grad students could ask questions.  Long intro, but I was asked to bring a cake for the lunch.

To spice things up a bit, I made my first square cake!  The cake was a yellow cake with a ganache filling.  The ganache was garnished with fresh, sugared strawberries.  The outside was covered in standard vanilla buttercream, then I covered the cake in fondant.

I am happy to say that my fondant rolling skills are getting much better-- I actually covered this cake in one shot and in a reasonable amount of time!  No wrist cramps from rolling!  I guess my PVC pipe rolling pin is working out. :)

I cut out a light gold ribbon (Tech's colors are white and gold), and added the gold bow.  I used some tissue to help the bow hold its shape while drying.  Then, I piped a white swirling pattern over the rest of the cake.

The bow, up close, while drying.

The pattern ended up being a little smaller and more intricate than I was planning, so it took a little longer, but overall, this cake went very smoothly.  Oh, and the taste got rave reviews, so that makes me happy.  I'm paranoid about my cakes tasting bad or being dry. 

On an unrelated note, I start Wilton Course 3 this week-- yay!  First class is on Thursday.

Also, for the summer, I'm considering applying to be a home based business, so that I could legitimately take on some cake orders on the side... Still figuring out what all is entailed, though.  Every state/ county is different. 

Have a great week, everyone!