Wilton Cake Decorating Class: Week 1

My mother-in-law and I had our very first Wilton Cake Decorating Class this past Tuesday night at the local Joann Fabric store. We took Course 1: Decorating Basics.

I REALLY wanted to take the Fondant class (or at least the flowers class) because I have never done any of that before, but apparently you have to start with Course 1...so I was a little skeptical going into the class.

I feel that I know "decorating basics", I've made the Duckie cake for Charlotte's 1st birthday (2 of them actually)...

and mom and I made the Minnie Mouse for her 2nd birthday, but I was still excited and off to class I went.

Our instructor started off by making icing (done that), but then she discussed thinning it down and what consistency to use for different decorating... so that was new to me, sweet. She then discussed Royal icing, but I'm a pro (ok not really) at Royal icing.

We used decorating bags and couplers, both of which I'm very familiar with.

But THEN she whipped out this fancy shmancy new (to me) tip for icing the cake...


Tip 789

How awesome is this thing? It will cover a 1-layer cake (sides and all) in like 30 seconds. I am TOTALLY going to go get one of these things (of course it didn't come in the "Course 1 kit" that we had to buy).
Go here to see a video of how to cover a cake using this tip.

We then got out our practice board and started doing stars and dots; this was kind of boring to me because, like I said... I've done it before.

THEN we got to decorate some sugar cookies. This was pretty fun! They had samples in the book, so it was pretty easy. My problem is that I can do the stuff... but coming up with the ideas is where I get stuck. Check them out, not bad for class 1 of Course 1 (other than my star... it looks a little off):

I have decided to do some cookies like this for a baby shower coming up. I'll do the dots in color and add life savers as wheels on the bottom of the baby carriage.

Also, I've already decided to do some like these (using lots of colors) for Jillie's 1st birthday for party favors.

Most of my classmates were definite decorating newbies so I'm sure they got a LOT out of this first class, but personally, I think I would get just as much as if I have just purchased the "Lesson Plan - Decorating Basics" and didn't go to this first class. However, the good thing about class was that you have 2 hours to practice and play around with the stuff because, lets be honest... how often would we be able to sit around your house for 2 hours doing ANYTHING without interruption.

I'm really looking forward to next weeks class; we will be decoratings 8 inch cakes!

Other posts in this series:
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4

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