Icing, Stars & Cakes, Oh My!

I was like a kid on Christmas morning during and after my first cake class last night. I was so giddy and felt like I was a part of my own special world, gaining insider knowledge - and didn't want to leave.

May sound a little extreme, but I just loved every minute of it. My friend Michelle and I have been saying, for over a year now, that we wanted to take a cake decorating class together. We finally signed up for the Wilton Decorating Basics class at JoAnn Fabrics. This is also on my 25 Before 25 List, meaning it is one thing I want to accomplish before I turn 25 years old.

It is a 4 week long course, one 2 hour class each week. In the first 2 hours I learned so much that makes everything I knew (or thought I knew) about cake baking and decorating way easier. One of these things that I've realized I never had when making frosting was patience. It was like magic watching our awesome instructor make buttercream frosting. And a lot of it had to do with patience. Another thing was, as much as I hate to admit it, the tools she had. Obviously, being a Wilton class, they're going to push their plethora of decorating tools on you, but man are they handy and make everything so much easier. I'll share more on this topic next week I bet after I give some of them a shot.

The lesson plan books (available at JoAnns, Michaels, etc.) have so much useful information in them and preach Wilton's 3 Keys to Success in cake decorating: icing consistency, bag position and pressure control. Even if you aren't quite ready to dive into a class, just picking up one of these books on sale for just a couple bucks could teach you a lot. But the classes themselves (so far) are quite worth having a demonstration and help from the experienced instructor.

Last night, one of the many things we learned was thinning icing to the best consistency to make stars. We practiced on our plastic practice boards and then on cookies.

Since our homework is to practice stars, bake a cake using the recommended techniques and make our own homemade frosting, I will hopefully accomplish all that Friday when I make my niece's Dora the Explorer birthday cake! I'll share what happens.