Cake Decorating Class – 4th Week

For the last week of our cake decorating class, the homework was to bring in a frosted cake and lots and lots of different colors of frosting.  We practiced more techniques, but the main focus of class was learning how to make the famous Wilton rose.  Once you practice them, it gets pretty easy to make the roses.  However, mine ended up being more like rose buds instead of a more open flower.  I still liked the buds, though; I think they came out cute.

Once I got home, I finished decorating the rest of the cake as I ran out of time at class.  I was really happy with how this one came out…so happy, I decided it was good enough to bring to work.  The cake itself is lemon flavored (just basic lemon cake mix) with a blueberry filling (I grinded some blueberries so they were a little mushy but not pureed and then boiled them with a little sugar and cornstarch until the mixture became thick).  The frosting is the Wilton buttercream recipe - even though I’m not a fan of the frosting since it’s so sugary, all my co-workers loved it.

Star border on the bottom, of course…I love doing stars!  And much smoother frosting – I’m getting better!

Close-up of the rose buds

I was worried the filling would come out in the middle, so that’s why there’s a lot of white frosting in the middle of the cake on the edges.  We learned that trick in class – you basically just pipe a line of frosting around the edge of the first cake that’s on the bottom and then add the filling in the middle.  The frosting should prevent the filling from coming out the edges once you put the second cake on top.  Next time, I don’t think I need to do quite a thick border!

Since this was a big hit at work, I have now been elected to make birthday cakes for everyone :)  I enjoy it, though, since it’s good to keep practicing and I need to put all my Wilton baking materials to use!  Next up will be a post on some beach-themed cupcakes…