The Wilting Rose

This time around we learned how to make a carnation, a calla lily, and a rose. They all turned out very pretty and were fairly easy to do - just a bit time consuming. However, for some odd reason Leah's rose was not working out that night and completely fell apart. She made a Wilting Rose. Of course the ever upbeat and positive Marie could never say anything negative. When she saw that Leah's rose was just not going to happen she commented on what a lovely shade of pink Leah had dyed her gum paste. Forgot to get a picture of our actual creations (we promise to take better pictures from now on!) but without further ado we present to you... the Wilting Rose.

Class #2 Begins With a Bow

We signed up for a second class... Gum Paste & Fondant. Sounds yummy doesn't it? Don't eat it - we thought the lardy frosting was bad... it is nothing compared to this. Do not eat gum paste or fondant - they both taste like play dough. Despite this fact, so far we have loved this class much more than class #1. It is so much easier to work with gum paste than messy frosting and you are able to make more intricate flowers. Oh, and a bow. This class is a bit slow going... we only make a couple of items during each class. The good news is we only have to make one cake for the final class instead of making a cake each week!! Also - best news ever - Jeanette IS in our class again so class is always amusing. She even shared a bit of a Jazzercise routine with us during our first class back together.

Our week 1 creation...

A bow... and two ruffley items

So What If Our Cakes Are Granny

Woops we forgot to keep up on our blog. Let's back track a little! We finished Class #1 - made our final cakes and FINALLY completed learning how to do the precious Wilton Rose. Leah's cake turned out gloriously. Brittney's... not so much. Luckily it was Cinco de Mayo that day so Brittney just covered up her cake's flaws with some creative lettering (borrowed from our pal Jeanette). Also, please enjoy our class picture!!!! Had to snap one of the whole crew to treasure forever.

left to right: Excited Instructor Marie, Brittney, Tye Dye Star Jeanette, Dinosaur t-shirt wearing Kate, Leah

Brittney's Cinco de Mayo themed cake

Leah's Final Cake

Who Sings This Song?

This week we decorated cupcakes! Class did not disappoint this week. First, preparing the cupcakes for class was much easier than preparing an entire cake. Secondly, our class lost 2 more members and it was quite enjoyable having only our favorite person, Jeanette, and one other class member. Marie was as uplifting and positive as usual. Jeanette sang along to most songs and was always interested in finding out who the artist was for each song. It is apparent she has watched many seasons of American Idol but is foggy on the winners of each season. We are really going to miss Jeanette in course 2. She is taking Course 2 immediately following this class... while we're going to wait and take it during the summer!

Anywho - we love Marie because she is great at teaching the techniques and then lets us decorate our cupcakes (or cake) however we want and we don't have to make some of the ridiculous Wilton suggestions (ie the clown cake. yes, we still hate that thing). Thanks to Leah for making the yellow & purple dyes... the colors turned out great!

Well, without further ado.... our cupcakes!

We were very proud of our cupcakes... aka Leah was able to get a picture of Jeanette!!

Although we were wearing the same outfit all night -Brittney luckily took off her hoodie in time for the picture! So proud of our creation...

Where's Cynthia?

Class 2 is officially complete and we managed to make our first round of cakes. If we say so ourselves the actual cake part turned out pretty good. The real issue came when it was time to frost them with the lardy frosting. Not only were we forced to use 2 tons of icing it made a huge mess. However, the cakes did not end up completely tragic. As for the actual class we found out the resident glarer (i.e. Cynthia) dropped out so the vibe was a bit more lighthearted. Also, Jeanette (the ha-larious old lady) was wearing an American flag tee which made us love her even more. The only disappointing thing about the class was literally having 10 minutes to frost our cakes. Seeing as how it took hours to make the cake, frosting, and actually frosting and packaging the things it it's a bit anticlimactic to only get to decorate for 10 minutes. Thus, we decided not to do the assigned rainbows and did whatever we wanted. Don't worry Marie approved us deviating from the lesson plan (we didn't want one line of a rainbow only on our cakes!) We could have taken them home and worked on them, but by that point we were over it, so circles and flowers it is. Overall, it was fun and as a bonus we learned how to make little stars.

Finally Done Frosting! We were stuck in traffic forever on the way to class, but at least we saw this horse mailbox

The finished products

We of course had to strike an ANTM pose

My Hands Are So Lardy!!

We thought a Wilton Cake Decorating class would be a fun activity for two huckleberry friends. It turns out this class is not a piece of cake!

First of all, the first class was HI-larious. We were lectured on the intricacies of cake making and frosting. We weren't aware we couldn't use Duncan Hines tub of frosting from the grocery store. Also, we were subjected to the glares of a lovely classmate. Sheesh. Not everyone can be so serious about cake decorating.

Anywho, after being slightly traumatized in the first class, we pulled ourselves up by our bootstraps and began the cake decorating adventure!

Step 1: Make a cake. HINT: do not make one cake in two 9 inch pans. They are TOO skinny. You have to use two cake layers. Our anorexic cakes STILL had a dome that we had to slice off, sorry Marie (Cake Instructor, we love her).

Step 2: Make frosting. AKA Lard + Sugar. All those who currently eat cake frosting: be forewarned. It is repulsive and is made out of vegetable shortening and pounds of sugar. Also you will never be able to remove all the lard from your hands. When making frosting, it's necessary to exclaim, "My hands are SO lardy!" at least 400 times.

Do note: we are certain we will find this class highly amusing and become cake divas. Welp, that's all for now. Update coming Wednesday when we attempt to make rainbow cakes!

Loves it,

Leah & Brittney

Pics from our Frosting Foray

The Anorexic Cakes

Sifting Accident

Sifting. Ting. Ting. Ting.

Lard Filled Sink.

The Almost Finished Icing