Course 3 Graduation!

For the last class of course 3, we were to make a two-tiered wedding cake with 38 fondant roses, and 40 fondant leaves. While the roses are beautiful and not too difficult to make, they are VERY tedious and took Mom and I a total of 9 hours for us to each make our designated number of roses. While icing my cakes, I noticed that there was something wrong with the consistency of the buttercream icing. It wouldn't smooth over and it never hardened any like it's supposed to. Thirty minutes before time for me to leave for class, Mom suggested covering my cake in fondant when we got to class to make it look smooth. It worked! It really did end up looking like a wonderful wedding cake.

13th Birthday Cake for Lexi!

This past weekend was a tough one. I spent the weekend at Mom's and we made 14 layers of cake, 76 fondant roses, and 80 fondant leaves. For my niece Alexis' birthday, Mom and I decided we'd try something new and also use what we've learned in our past courses. We decided to make a two-tiered stacked cake. Hot pink and neon green were the birthday girl's choice of colors and it turned out adorable! Each tier is two layers and in total it stood about 10 in. high. We had a blast, but it was a challenge and we learned new things as we went. My favorite part was getting to take a hammer to the cake ;-) In order for the cake to be stable, we had to drive 5 wooden dowels through the cake.

Course 3 Lesson 3

For this lesson, we made royal icing flowers on a lily nail. They're beautiful when done correctly, but they're tough. Royal icing is not my forte...

I LOVE FONDANT!!!

Fondant may taste like crap, but it's beautiful on cakes and TONS of fun to work with!! Tonight in our cake class we learned how to work with and cover a cake with fondant. The first thing we did in class was cover our cake. While the fondant sat on the cake, we learned how to make a rose out of fondant. These roses are beautiful and WAY better than doing roses with buttercream frosting. After the rose we learned how to make the bow for our cake and then got to decorate. I love this cake and have always admired the way that fondant looks on cakes. However, it may be better to remove the fondant before eating the cake....there is buttercream frosting underneath it ;-)

Here is my rose



And, the final cake...

Wilton Cakes Course 3 Lesson 1

Today I got to start Course 3 of the Wilton cake classes. This is the course I have been waiting for because it focuses on fondant and tiered cakes. In Lesson 1 we basically just practiced more borders, garlands, and various other techniques with buttercream icing. The only one I got a picture of those was the ruffle garland. Next week we will be making a cake that looks like a present!



**P.S. - Mom and I have started a cake decorating business!!! (name of it to be revealed later) Right now we are taking orders for cakes for birthdays, showers, etc! (you name it, we can probably do it, lol) Let us know if you'd like to order a cake :-)

Pumpkin Roll!

This is my last week at my current job, and lots of people asked me to make one last treat before I left. I saw this pumpkin roll on another blog (don't remember which one) and thought I would give it a try. It can actually be found on the back of the Libby's Pumpkin Puree can. This was a lot easier to make than it looks, and it turned out SO GOOD!!



CAKE
1/4 cup powdered sugar (to sprinkle on towel)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup LIBBY'S® 100% Pure Pumpkin
1 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)
FILLING
1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
6 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Powdered sugar (optional for decoration)


Directions:
FOR CAKE:
PREHEAT oven to 375° F. Grease 15 x 10-inch jelly-roll pan; line with wax paper. Grease and flour paper. Sprinkle a thin, cotton kitchen towel with powdered sugar.

COMBINE flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt in small bowl. Beat eggs and granulated sugar in large mixer bowl until thick. Beat in pumpkin. Stir in flour mixture. Spread evenly into prepared pan. Sprinkle with nuts.

BAKE for 13 to 15 minutes or until top of cake springs back when touched. (If using a dark-colored pan, begin checking for doneness at 11 minutes. Immediately loosen and turn cake onto prepared towel. Carefully peel off paper. Roll up cake and towel together, starting with narrow end. Cool on wire rack.

FOR FILLING:
BEAT cream cheese, 1 cup powdered sugar, butter and vanilla extract in small mixer bowl until smooth. Carefully unroll cake. Spread cream cheese mixture over cake. Reroll cake. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving, if desired.

COOKING TIP:
Be sure to put enough powdered sugar on the towel when rolling up the cake so it will not stick.