Cake Decorating: Class One, Day One

Many years ago, my mom and I took a cake decorating class at a local community school.  It was hosted by Wilton and focused on buttercream.  I was a mad decorator for a while, doing cakes every chance I got... my office got cakes, my family got cakes, even my mom's friend got a cake for her birthday.

It's been a while, though I could still probably dish out a competent rose or two.

But that's buttercream.  And while I love buttercream, there's no denying that fondant is just so appealing.

I actually own a package of Wilton fondant.  But I've been scared to even open it.  I watch those shows... Amazing Cakes, Cake Boss, Cake this, Cake that.  And I read cakewrecks.com every day (if you're on the ReefBotanicals twitter feed, you've gotten my messages about the really funny ones.

Well, mom called me a while back and told me that she saw two cake decorating classes at the Glen Rock Community School.  They run for three sessions each, technically*.  The Tuesday class is on "gift box cake decorating" and the Thursday class is on "topsy turvy cake decorating."  Yay!  Both fondant.  Yay!  So I signed up for both.  Yay!

Last night was the first night of the first class, wherein we started learning elements and techniques to make a cool gift box cake.  I'll start with the last first, since it's my favorite, this pretty bow.

Ooooooooooh.  Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

No, really, you should be oooh-ing and aaah-ing, because, Dude, I made that.  With my own two little hands.  Kickin', right?

And there was this cute "whimsical flower."

My slightly heavy handed attempt at a peony.  Now I know not to squish so hard, I'll get it better next time.

And how cute is this little orange?  Yes, I know it's pink, but that's the color fondant with which I was working.  And "pinkange" just doesn't work.

Know what the stem is?  Clove!  How nifty is that?

And last but not least, this awesome technique with stencils and edible color powder...

I also learned something called "flooding," but didn't get good shots of it, so you don't get to see.  Now I just can't wait for Thursday's class, where it's not just fondant but also how to structure the uneven tiers.  Woohoo!

*Turns out our teacher will be competing on the Food Network and has to fly out to Colorado for the middle Tuesday class, so she just extended the first and third classes from two hours to three.