Spent way too much #wiltontentsale2014

I had a ball at the Wilton Tent Sale this morning!  As you can tell by this post title I spent way too much. But...it's in investment for my business (that's in progress), as well as stuff I need for my next course.  So overall my so endings are justifiable...lol. 

I got so much stuff...see the pics, it's way too much stuff to type about :-) 

Sorry...I was too lazy to take the stuff out the bags. 

Practice Makes Perfect...

Since my next Wilton course (course 3 Gumpaste and Fondant) won't start until June 14th, I decided to spend my Friday evening practicing on my dummie cupcakes and cake. It was really fun but my buttercream started to melt so I had to stop. As I stated before, I don't take pretty pics so don't expect the background presentation to be awesome :-)

The purple star with the leaves??? Don't ask, I ran out of purple and didn't know what else to use to fill up the cupcake. 

This blue icing had piping gel so that's why it looks runny. I saved this from my nephew's cake, I used this to pipe "Happy Birthday Hunter". 

I have no idea why I piped leaves. I guess because I used a parchment triangle bag for the green icing and didn't use a coupler.  But I'm documenting EVERYTHING I do...soooooo, you guys will see randomness. Randomness is a word...it's my word, lol. It means multiple random stuff. 

Box Cake Mixes

I was overly shocked to find out that A LOT of people use box cake mixes and add to it. If I had a confused smiley it would go here -->  .  I understand finances and timing is a factor. But I can bakemy own cake if it's coming from a box. Like really, how much stuff can you add to a box mix???  Well to each it's own. I'm a from scratch girl all the way! ;-)

The Wedding Cake

Well definitely not mine!!!  My brother's, congrats Lamar!  Soooo I'm going to make the cake. I'm a little nervous because I'm a home baker who bakes simple stuff for the holidays. The good thing is...drum roll please! The cake will be buttercream!  Thanks to Lynda (my Wilton instructor), I know how to properly spread buttercream now!  And thanks to Gretchen from Woodland Bakery, I know the trick to make the buttercream look smooth and get rid of any air bubbles. Wanna know the secret?  Then you need to go to Woodland Bakery Blog and sign up to be a Woody Insider!  Gretchen (I think her last name is Price) is also on FB and YouTube. So I'm not getting anything to promote anyone or anything I blog about. I just like sharing info I've learned and the talented people I learned it from who also inspires me to become the best baker/decorator ever!  Or in my world a Pastry Chef. Which is what I'll be calling myself when I'm up and running with my business in the future. 

2014 Wilton Tent Sale

I feel like a kid who was just told that they're about to go to the toy and candy store!!! LOL!  OMGosh, So I totally can't wait until May 30th!  I have a list of things I hope they'll have for sale. I need pans, color, tools, a caddy, cake circles/squares, pretty much a whole lot!  Some stuff I just want in my inventory. And some stuff I need because I'm doing my brothers wedding cake in August. Def hope they have square pans, as the wedding cake will be square. Any way...if you're a professional baker or amature like me, and in the Chicagoland area, you have to check out the Wilton Tent Sale in Woodridge!

 

Located At:

2240 W. 75th Street
Woodridge, IL 60517

Hours of Operation:
Doors will open May 30th, 2014 at 1:00 pm

Mon – Fri	9:00 am - 8:00 pm
Sat & Sun	8:00 am - 6:00 pm

Carnival Birthday Cake

In one of my previous post I spoke on making a cake for my nephews first b-day (btw...I did find out that his b-day was on May 20th). There are a few things I would do differently based on this experience. This was also my first time decorating a cake like this...3D I assume.  The good thing is, I know what should be done differently next time, and I was also rushing... a lot, I wasn't as prepared because I was asked to do the cake 6 days before and didn't have all the supplies I needed. Originally I was asked to make a Very Hungry Caterpillar cupcake cake. Then later that day it changed and I had to scramble during the week to get everything I needed, plus start on certain pieces of the cake. Enough with the talking here's the nephews cake. 

Sorry...the lighting was bad, but this was the only place in my kitchen that didn't look like a bakery exploded. 

The writing is so pretty!!!  Obviously I have very nice hand writing, but it NEVER comes out like that on cakes.  I was going really slow and actually had to remove the first 3 letters I piped to start over. This is definitely something I'll have to practice more of.....

Yes my fondant creased...more practicing of course. 

Elephants, popcorn, and fondant creases, oh my!!!  I'm going to purchase dummy cakes. There's no way I'm not going to perfect laying fondant on a cake!

This was suppose to be on the cake but would have been too much for a 9". So I spray painted a piece of styrofoam and placed the remaining of the pieces on there.  By the time we sung Happy Birthday, the cake was still in tip top condition, however I could tell that the popcorn bag was starting to sink into the cake a little. I only used 1 wooden dowel in the center to hold it in place. If I ever make this cake again, I'll have to stick some in the cake to support the bottom of the popcorn bag. 

I must say, what an experience and learning tool.  I'm happy I did it and was able to execute it. 

Basketweave Flop :o

I went to my final Wilton course 2 class this past Saturday. (flowers and cake designs).  I was the only one that showed up!  Talk about a girl feeling special, I had Lynda all to myself.  I was able to ask more questions and just over all have small talk. It's a little hard to do that when you have others in class and I don't want them thinking, here she goes again...lol. But I take my decorating seriously, I want to do this for real for real, not just a hobby.  And who better to get info from???  My instructor! :-). Anyway I had to bring a cake that was already dirty iced or crumb coated (means the same thing but I watched Cake Boss so much in the past, Buddy would say, "Dirty ice" and I've heard others say, Crumb coat. Since it was just lil' ole' me in class I was able to pick out the Basketweave design I wanted to do. Spoiler alert...I'm over my sons Cub Scout pack and went directly from class to the event and left everything in the trunk...enough said. I have an issue staying on a straight line without a guide but wanted to try this without a guide. Epic fail, my basket weave starting to look like a roller coaster. But that's okay, it was my first time, and between grad school and my full time job (and of course family life), I don't have much time as I would like to practice my decorating. So I know for a fact that the more I practice I will get better ;-). The top was my own design, I wanted to pipe reverse shells and my brain did something total different. If you're wondering why my cake has tons of crumbs on top, it's because I ran out of time and needed to get a design on there and didn't have time to add another coating of buttercream.  So here's my lovely cake, flaws and all :-). 

You can see those chocolate crumbs peeking through...lol. Remember those flowers from my previous weeks of class?  Well here they are!!  Well some, definitely not all of them. 

This is what happens when you leave a cake in your trunk on an 80 degrees day in Chicagoland!!!

Now you all know that I can't go down like this, there will definitely be a basketweave part 2 coming soon. In my world that means at least 2 weeks if not 3..lol.

Birthday Cake In Progress...

If you read my previous post you saw that I've been asked to make a cake for my nephews 1st birthday.  This is my process this far (pics below), I've omitted the stars and will replace them with the balloons. I really hope they look like balloons to you all.  I have long nails and it's a little harder for me to work with fondant..dents, dents, and more dents.  I still have to smooth out a few of the designs, but like my title says, cake in progress. Tell me what you think of my pics below.  

P.S. I don't take the best pics. But I promise the final pic will look fancy :-)

The Challenge

I won't get into all of the details publicly, but I was asked (by the parents) to make a cake for my youngest nephews (my brothers youngest) b-day. Oddly enough I can't remember his exactly b-day, but the party is tomorrow. As you've read in my previous posts, I don't have a lot of experience using fondant/gum paste, and I'm just now starting to feel comfortable with buttercream...I think...lol. Anyway, below is the cake that I'm making (minus the bottom white and red striped tier).  It will be a yellow cake with fresh strawberries. The party is carnival themed and the cake was found randomly online so it's def not my photo or theirs. 

Week 3 - Wilton Course 2

Sorry guys and gals, I'm about a week behind posting this. It's been a super busy week for me so it's been a little hard to keep up. This week (which was technically last week), we made the Rose, Daffodil, Lily, and Violet from Royal Icing. As you all know the Rose is my fav.  The others were ok to make, I found them to be a little boring, definitely not a challenge for me so.  Except the Lily, that one will take a little more practice. It's not hard, more so about precision. I had a lazy moment I'm class and only did 2 of each flower. So without further ado here's what I did I'm class. 

I just realized that I made 3 Violets, my Daffodils are multi color, and the Lillies are not 100% complete, more like 99.99%. Anyway, like I said I was having a lazy day I'm class...lol. 

Happy (belated) Mother's Day

A day late isn't too bad I suppose...lol. I wanted to show you all my mom's cake that I made her yesterday.  I know, I know...I need practice applying fondant, but this was my first time and a learning curve.  It was interesting because not only did I cut it to short and leave a fold, I accidentally created a small tear 😡. As I say with everything, practice makes perfect. 

Wilton's Course 2 - Class 2

I'm a little late with this post but I've been a little busy these past few days. But anyway, this past Saturday we worked with royal icing. I loved it!  I was a little intimidated because of the few horror stories I've heard, but fear no more. I'm a royal icing fan!  We learned how to make the Apple Blossom flower, another flower that I can't remember the name of and I'm too sleepy right now to look in my book (which is in a different room), and the rose bud.  My awesome instructor Lynda showed me the rose again, and of course I took a stab at it. I'm determined to make awesome flowers and designs!  Pastries should look just as good as they taste! 

Wilton's Course 2 - Flowers and Cake Designs

Well based on my last post you probably figured out that I would be taking this class...or maybe not. The first class was a little challenging for me thanks to my homemeade fondant. The fondant was perfect...but putting it into a mold to make flowers didn't go so great. I didn't know that homemeade fondant would be too soft and get stuck 😔 (I had to use a lot more powered sugar!). Anyway, as I always do when I get home from class, I play with the product. So I made the flowers from class (the originals tore into pieces when trying to remove them from the mold), and then decided to play with different roses that I found on YouTube. Of course I still have a lot of practicing to do, but I think my goal is to become a Wilton Instructor and freelance baker/decorator (I'd rather work for myself doing weddings, b-days, etc.). The flowers in class had a combination of fondant and gum paste. This was my first time working with either and I must say it was very interesting...I know I'm going to love this! 😃