My First Class

So last night was my first session in the Wilton's Cake Decorating 1 class. I suppose that I should start by saying that I have been doing a lot of studying and research prior to signing up. Its amazing to think how much you can learn about the whole process just by looking online. You know the internet is a wonderful thing! :) Over the course of the weekend, I spent plenty of time at Michael's trying to decide what materials I absolutely needed in order to get through my first class. I ended up getting what appears to be a tackle box....only it is filled with caking goodies! As well as a set of Wilton's round cake pans. I might have been getting a little ahead of myself though. I keep thinking of tiered cakes! Mmm!

So on to the class. I was amazed that there was a variety of ages in my course. In fact there is a young girl that is taking the course with her Grandma. (I can't help but think of how much my Grandmother would have loved to take this class with me.) I have a teacher and an assistant. My teacher reminds me of Madea...just by listening to her say the word "spatchula". In fact, it sounds a lot like spatchuler. :) It makes me laugh just thinking about it. The teacher's assistant is actually a lady that reminds me of my Grandmother. She has been caking for longer than Wilton's has been offering the classes.

We went over a lot of basic information. Things like tools, pans and all of the other accessories that Wilton's offers. I must say though that I feel like I need to buy the Bake Even Cake Strips. After seeing a cake made with them and one without.....I'm completely sold. We did get the opportunity to play with some different consistency frostings. I found that I was taking notes as to what the icing looked like. We went over the recipe for the Buttercream Icing and I believe that I have already decided to make my own recipe. I just can't seem to wrap my head around the fact that they would add water to icing. It seems like it should be half and half....or maybe even heavy cream. So I will be working on a new recipe for Buttercream this weekend.

It was interesting to see someone level a cake with an actual leveler. I always cheat and use dental floss. So I am curious to see what happens differently when using the leveler instead. Not too long before the class was over, we moved on to actually icing the cake. They make it look so easy. That being said, I haven't tried it yet...so it could very well be simple. We also went over some basic decorating tips and proper bag positioning.

My homework for the week is to bring in an 8" completely iced cake. I believe that my sister has already put a bid in for what kind of cake she wants. So I'm guessing that it is going to be a Red Velvet cake. For the classes, I will be cheating and using a box cake mix. (I'm thinking that once I get my KitchenAid that I will be making them all from scratch.) The funny thing is that people are already texting me asking if they can eat my homework. I made the comment to one of my 'awesome' cousins that she was requesting to be the "dog that ate my homework". I'm beginning to think that I should make people bark before they eat my cakes. :) haha Then again, that is probably pretty mean.

I will post pictures as I work on my first assignment! Happy caking!