Another duck cake

Tomorrow Ashton and I will get to go to a birthday party for a friends 2 year old little girl.  She asked me to make the cake since she was going to do a rubber ducky theme and have a wading pool party.    I am so pleased with how this cake turned out.  Finally my frosting wasn't too stiff so the edges didn't fall off this time.  I used fondant for the beak and chocolate wafers for the eyes and for the circles along the outside.  I made the balloons out of card stock and used bamboo skewers to hold them up and poke into the cake.  The party hat was made with scrapbook paper.  I think this is my best cake yet and I think my technique is getting better.  It has been a lot of fun decorating cakes, now I need to find tried and true cake recipes that I know aren't going to spill over in the oven.

More fondant

Last Tuesday I started a fondant class.  This is what the cake looked like after learning how to put fondant on properly.  I made a home made butter cake, frosted it with real butter cream icing, then laid the fondant on top.  I had some extra royal icing flowers and attached them to the top of the cake with butter cream.

Later this week I will be working on a baby shower cake.  I can't wait to get started on it.

Cake Creation: First time with fondant

So, I was supposed to start the 3rd Wilton class a week ago Saturday, but due to lack of  sleep,  didn't make it.  I did however show up at Robert's for class yesterday morning only to find out that no one showed up at all last week so the teacher postponed the class for a date to be decided upon.  So, I decided to give working with fondant a try on my own since I already had a cake baked and frosted with butter cream icing. The above cake is what I created.  It is a white cake with apricot filling and glaze surrounding the whole cake.  The then frosted it with butter cream followed by store bought fondant.  It's not too bad for my first attempt, however, I need to learn how to make the edges look seamless and how to deal with cracked fondant.  The ribbon of fondant that goes completely around the cake was put there to cover some of the seams,  The "scrolls" on each corner were there to help mask imperfections as well.  All in all, using fondant was kind of like working with sugar cookie dough.  Adding color was kind of fun too but I can see how it could stain your hands...... fortunately I had some latex gloves hanging around my house.  I haven't eaten much fondant icing and I've had quite a few people tell me how terrible it tastes, however, the little bit I tried wasn't as terrible as everyone said.  It tastes quite a bit like marshmallow.  Anyway, this cake is going to my parents' house for dinner tonight so the whole family can try it.  Later this week I am going to attempt to work with fondant again and take a cake to work.  I can use all the practice I can get.

Putting the cake together

Last night was my last class for my Wilton 2 cake decorating class.  I learned how to do the basket weave technique and how to do a rope border and got to use the flowers I made on the cake.  The bird and the birdhouse were made a few weeks ago and were very fragile.  Both of the birds I made broke on the way to class so I was only able to use half a bird in the middle of the flowers on top of the cake.  All in all I am very happy with this cake, the only thing I would do differently is fewer leaves just below the flowers around the house.  My next class will be dealing with fondant and I am so excited about it.
For Mother's day, Alan bought me a 101 piece cake decorating kit.  I know it isn't mother's day yet, but he couldn't wait to get it and give it to me.  I am absolutely thrilled and can't wait to use it.  Cake decorating has been a blast and I can't wait to post more pictures.

Cake decorating, my latest craft fetish

So I must admit, I am kind of a fickle craft junkie.  I love to do crafts of all kinds, but after a while I get bored and move on to a new craft.  I have tried knitting, crocheting (not my favorite things to do), scrap booking, card making, sewing, toll painting, jewelry making, and a few I am sure I have forgotten about.  My latest "craft adventure" is cake decorating.  My niece Sydney and I started taking Wilton cake decorating classes about 2 months ago at the Robert's craft in South Jordan.  Sydney and I love the cake decorating shows on TLC like Cake Boss and the Ultimate Cake Off.  It amazes me how people can make these enormous and beautiful cakes.  So, Syd and I decided that we should give it a try.  We are finishing up the second Wilton course on Tuesday which has been all about making flowers with royal icing.  It was kind of difficult at first to get the techniques down for each flower (especially the rose,) but after last Tuesday, I think I have it down now.  I sat down at my kitchen table for a couple of hours on Wednesday and made about 80 flowers.  I love making pansies and daffodils and I think my roses are starting to look pretty good.  Daisies are incredibly easy to make as are primroses (the pink flowers in my pictures.)  It has been so much fun making cakes and decorating them.  I still need to practice some of my other techniques, but I am making progress.
Other flowers we learned to make included violets, apple blossoms, chrysanthemums, as well as violet leaves.  I don't have pictures of those yet but will be able to post those later.
I have found cake decorating pretty relaxing, especially making flowers.  I am amazed that I can actually make frosting look like something alive and growing like a flower.  I find myself studying real flowers so I can make my sugary little petals look more life like.

This is the first cake I made in my Wilton class.  We learned how to do drop stars, write on a cake, and do zigzags.  Not bad for a very first cake, but a far cry from where I want to be.

For my second cake, we learned how to do drop flowers, shell borders, and how to make creepy clowns.  I think this cake turned out pretty well.

I learned how to do roses, sweet peas, and leaves on my third cake.  It turned out good but I still needed some work on making roses.

I made this cake for a friend's baby shower.  You can see my technique is getting better, but I am definitely no Cake Boss.

I love the rosettes on this cake (the swirly things all over the cake).  They were easy to make and I think they look pretty cool.

I made this cake for a patient of mine.  She celebrated her birthday in the hospital so I thought I would cheer her up by practicing my cake decorating skills on a cake for her.  It was fun to do that for her.

My next cake will be my final project this next Tuesday.  We are learning how to do a basket weave and then will put all the flowers we made on top.  I am excited to post pics when I am done with the final project cake.  After that, we will be learning fondant and gum paste and will learn to make a wedding cake.

Learning cake decorating has been a blast and is something I would love to keep doing.  I remember my mom made some really cool cakes for my brother and sister and me when we were little.  It was always cool to have a home made cake that looked and tasted great.  I want to be able to do that for Ashton so he will have fond memories of his birthdays and how his mom took the time to make it extra special.