Cupcake class

For a Church activity this week for the women I was asked to demonstrate and teach different way's to frost cupcakes. I pre-made 40 cupcakes and decorated each of them a bit differently showing different options you could have.

The only one I ran out of time for (and wouldn't have had time to teach anyway) was dipping the cupcake in poured fondant. But overall I was pleased. Then during the class I showed them how to used 4 different tips, 2 ways each, to create different looks, like this closed star tip:

Versus this one made with the same tip! I was trying to teach easy things to recreate, so I didn't teach making a rose, but this rosette is an easy to make great looking alternative! It was my husbands favorite.

I also showed them how to cover a cake with frosting and fondant. And I got to use my new toys, my impression mats! I made all of these in one night, and while I'm happy with most of them, there are some that I would have redone if I hadn't just been demonstrating and teaching. Doing 40 different cupcakes in 40 different ways was very time consuming!

Luckily I had a bunch of my extra royal icing flowers left that I was able to use! They really add a nice touch to cakes and cupcakes sometimes! I was just relieved not to also have to make 40 different toppers for the cupcakes! If I had more time to teach there are some other things I would have liked to demonstrate, like creating your own fondant topper, but keeping things simple and down to 45 mins with a Q&A was hard. I was really pleased with how well the class went. I was surprised how nervous I was, but it went well.

Demo cakes

Aug 06

These three cakes were for the Demonstration day at the store where I worked. They are all just 6 inch cakes, and I frosted and decorated them all in just 3 hours. My technique is getting better and so is my speed! It was lots of fun to sit down and demo, while people shopped. Some stopped and talked, some just muttered as they walked past and some even asked for samples!

Wacky

July 06
This was for a Cake teachers annual meeting. We were all supposed to bring decorated cake dummies. I actually forgot about it and didn't start work on my dummies until 11 pm the night before. I , thankfully, had it all planned out though. The finished product looked a little messier than I origianlly invisioned, but mostly followed the plan well. And still lots of fun! Next time I'll start much sooner! It was my first time using a dummy and it was interesting. *trick alert* to soften the corner on a cake dummy cover it with a sheet of parchement paper and softly iron over the corner. The parchement paper won't stick but the hot iron with melt the styrofom dummy and voila, a softer edge.

Final month of Cake Class

December 05
I loved working with Fondant, Yes, it's a little more expensive and definitely more time consuming, but it looks so nice and you can create so much more! The fondant roses were my favorite and I got the hang of it quickly. At this point my husband was getting sick of eating so much cake so we took these to parties we were attending, it worked out well!

This one I did in Blue for a party at our house after the Homecoming game. We lost, but had good cake! The gold, we'll I needed another color, and it looks good with Blue

This one was the final cake, and for me it was practise for the wedding cake I'd be doing the next month. I still just love those roses. And we took this to a church Christmas party, that was extremely early in the year! I actually finished the cake at a Saturday morning make up class and went right to the church, so I didn't get to go home and take nice pictures. I still regret not just wiping off the crumbs from the table for this picture!

2nd Month of Cake Classes

October 05
In this month we only officialy did one cake, but I also did a Halloween cake. This month was all about royal icing and making flowers. I think I caught on quickly and had a lot of fun. I enjoyed the color flow, and used it in a later bridemaid cake. I can see alot of possibilities, but don't know how often I'll really use it. I do enjoy having left over royal icing flowers though. They come in handy when you decide at the last min to make a cake. And although I do'nt know if I'll ever use basket weave (it uses a TON of icing) I did enjoy doing it.

And this was the Halloween cake I did, to this day I'm still upset that I forgot to take a picture of a slice of the cake. The batter was also tri-colored, so in theory when you cut a slice it looks a piece of candy corn.

First month of Cake Classes

September 05
The first week I was suprised how much I learned about basic technique. Such as the right way to frost a cake to keep it flat, straight, without crumbs etc... Of course I adored my teacher, and when I went on to teach I employed all her stories, hints and clues.

This was the first night decorating, learning a star tip. I also learned that it's hard to achieve a nice bright red!

And the second night of decorating we learned flowers. And coloring techniques.