Wilton Method Cake Decorating

[FrenchHen]

My very favoritest cake recipe ever:

2 box white cake (Dunkin Hines or Betty C)

1 bag chocolate chips, the good kind.

3/4 cup heavy cream

1 recipe chocolate mousse (I use the Good Eats recipe from Food Network)

berries

Bake cakes in 10 inch pans, cool, and split into halves.

melt chocolate with cream in a bowl over saucepan.
cool until it spreads easily but isn't set.

Layer cake, mousse, cake, chocolate and berries.
Cake, mousse, cake and frost the whole thing with the ganache. warm it up just a bit if it won't spread.

Top with berries and serve to a VERY happy husband. Here's a cake with that recipe cut in half.

 

[The Chicken Lady]

FrenchHen, I could just eat up my laptop screen staring at that cake photo. Chocolate and strawberries are two of my loves...

My practice cake turned out pretty cool. At the moment, I'd give my "flat cake surface" a grade of about a C. Probably 75% of it looks flat, but there are some annoying spots here and there that I keep fussing with. I decided to just leave it alone overnight, let it crust up, and play with it more in the morning. I'll take a photo before DH swoops in and annihilates it.

He's looking forward to pancakes and bacon for his breakfast tomorrow.

 

[The Chicken Lady]

Here are the photos!

This is the first Wilton-style cake I have ever made. It was my "practice cake" I did last weekend. Boy, am I glad I did it! I learned a lot about the icing; I think this batch was too stiff which is why the edges didn't come out as well as I would have liked. No decorations yet because I didn't know how to make anything pretty. It tasted awesome, though!

This is the cake I made tonight:

I'm still trying to get that icing smooth. It's better than the one I did over the weekend. Next time, I'm going to use some wax paper to smooth it out even more. The design was transferred onto the cake using piping gel and wax paper, then traced and filled in with more piping gel. I want to make a rooster cake this way; I think it would be awesome! I haven't tasted it yet, but we'll dig in tomorrow after supper.

 

[miss_jayne]

that is great! thank you for sharing your progress! there may be hope for me to frost a cake properly yet!

 

[MissPrissy]

I'd like a glass of milk with my slice, please. Thank you.

 

[The Chicken Lady]

Quote:
The first one is completely gone. DH and I devoured it.

The second one is yellow cake flavored with almond extract with almond-flavored icing. I love almond. Mmmmm...!!

I'd share cake with you anytime, Angie!

 

[Parson's Wife]

Your doing great. Remember to have fun....(and share....

)
Thank you for the pictures...

 

[redhen]

beautiful cakes ladies!

 

[The Chicken Lady]

Quote:
The basic techniques aren't that hard to figure out... It's more the coordination and pressure necessary during decorating that make it a little tricky, which are learned over time with lots of practice, according to our instructor.

I have a feeling you would have no problem learning, Miss_Jayne!

Our instructor is an excellent teacher. If you lived in the West Michigan area I'd totally recommend her to you.

***

Thanks for all the compliments, everyone!

I'm having a lot of fun learning this stuff.

 

[lizardz]

Chicken Lady - Great start! In icing the cake, are you using a long spatula and dipping it in hot water? That's how I was taught many, many moons ago, and they usually come out really well. I took a bunch of classes and even worked at a small bakery for a while, had a nice little word-of-mouth business for a while. My mom and I took classes together when I was a teen, so we had TWO cakes every week. Got soooo sick of cakes and the "white death" frosting. We finally stopped making cakes and used styrofoam forms that we would frost, decorate, then wash off when we got home. After working in the bakery it was years before I could eat that kind of frosting; still scrap most of it off when I have cake. Good luck with your classes - it really is a lot of fun and people will be so impressed with your skill!
Liz