October 24, 2009

Course IV - Grand Finale Cake

I am a little sad.
This is my last Cake for my courses. No more night out a week to decorate a cake, and get out of my house..
I know all I can know from the Wilton books right now, although I have been told to "keep my eyes open for June for something new and exciting!"
Yeah yeah... June is too far away!!

Anyways, our final cake..This one had to show off our gum paste work and fondant covering. I must say I was very pleased with my final result.
But first, some of my flower work.

We had to learn gum paste Carnations and Daisies as part of this course. As a Daisy lover, of course my final cake had those all over it. And even though I am not a fan of carnations, I was quite happy with how these turned out. Its amazing just how lifelike they are!

Kind of neat eh? Don't they look real?


I am actually liking the way the carnation looks. I do hope to be able to use it in another cake design to see what I really feel about it.

And of course, my final Cake..

So there you have it.
4 courses over 5 months. 10 Cakes that had to be created for the classes, and numerous attempts on my own time. About a dozen different kinds of ways to do flowers, the basket technique, fondant work, gum paste, creating from my head, coloring, buttercream recipes and countless boxes of cake mix.

Now what???

I have actually applied to become a Wilton Method Instructor and am awaiting news on whether my local Michaels store will take me on or not. I am not getting my hopes up as it seems to be a bit hard to get into, but I think it would be a lot of fun to do.
So who knows!
For now, I will continue to create cakes for the heck of it. Birthdays, Special events, just because it is Thursday and we'll see what comes out.


October 17, 2009

Gum Paste Drapes - Fancy Schmancy

We finally got to have our second class for this course. Thankfully the weather cooperated this time and we successfully learned how to do the draping effect for our cakes. What I didn't know what just how much fondant and gum paste you require to make these things! I think I might go broke doing these!!
Anyway, we learned how to mix fondant and gum paste together, how to make gum paste glue and how to finish off these cakes.

Exciting I know...

So of course, my cake for this week

I'm beginning to realize I need to play more with my colors and try out some new ones. I am finding I am using the same colors over and over again. Guess it doesn't help that I make way too much icing or fondant at a time and am left with the excess to use.
Oh well.. I promise, my final cake will not be blue!

October 8, 2009

Class Cancelled

Crap.

The shitty weather here has managed to cancel our class for tonight. Can't say I'm not surprised as it is quite ugly here. But of course it is cancelled after I iced my cake, colored my fondant and attached the cake to my base. If we don't have a make up class in the next two or three days, this cake is no good.
And of course it is the holiday weekend here. Not exactly easy to reschedule.

So nothing else until my I get my class. Stupid thing is I can probably do the cake from the book on my own.


Bah!

October 4, 2009

Final Course... Finally!

This past week started my final course in the Wilton series. Course IV.. Fondant and Gum Paste. Surprisingly, our class this time around is completely full. Unheard of for a Gum Paste course! So this series is all about learning more about fondant work, and how to use gum paste for decoration. More intricate flowers, different draping ideas, etc. I'm pretty excited to be taking this one. I already have a few ideas for cakes when this is all finished.

Anyways, Class one, of course, nothing too exciting. We learned how to fondant a cake base to add a bit more "oomph" to a cake's decor. Pretty simple. This weeks class we will work on draping fondant and learning the first techniques to the gumpaste carnation. Now carnations are not my favorite flower. But these GM flowers look really cool. I can't wait to see how these work out.

I am excited for when I am done this course. I can apply to be a Wilton instructor, an thankfully my previous instructors have kinds agreed to "vouch" for me. There is no guarantee that I will have a job with Wilton at all, but it is nice to think about it. It wouldn't be anything major, a night a week or something to teach.. Nothing I can make a killing off of, but enough to keep me interested, and earning me a bit of coffee money, since it is coming into winter and well.. Starbucks is expensive! So we'll see how lucky I can be!

Now I must go back my cake for this week..