The Wilton Class Day 2

So I just completed my second lesson in the Wilton Decorating Class I'm taking and I must say, it's damn hard work baking and making icing. My hands hurt like hell and I smell like butter and sugar all the time.

But I finished my very first cake from the course and I think it turned out pretty good!

My cake writing skills need work, but my handwriting isn't all that great so I don't know if I'll ever be that good at writing on cakes. 

I'm looking forward to the rest of the class and I hope the muscles in my hand realize that I'm in it for the long haul.

Also, here's some Mother's Day cupcakes I made for the heck of it: 

Click on photos for a few more pictures of the cupcakes and the cake for my class.

Wilton Cake Decorating Class!

So I've decided to take a Wilton Cake Decorating Class to hone my skillz. Or learn some skillz.

We've got a fancy new Jo Ann's store near us and they've got a sick cake decorating section. Sorry, Hobby Lobby, I won't be going to YOU anymore! 

I've been wanting to take a class for a while so I decided to hell with my insecurities and worries that I will only screw up and I signed up. In my haste to learn I also signed up for the fondant and gum paste class at the same time. After paying for the classes, my mom was going to meet me at the store before lunch, so I was walking around the cake decorating section and I looked over the class info sheets the nice lady at the counter had provided me.

And the fondant and gum paste class ended up looking WAY too advanced for me. Sure, I made some Flash cupcakes, but I really don't know shit about what I'm doing with fondant at this point. So I sheepishly made my way back to the counter to beg them to let me out of the class, that I was in over my head and I didn't want to look like an asshat. 

The two counter ladies looked at me like I was crazy but they refunded my money with zero guff. I thanked them profusely and took Griffin back over to the cake aisle to hide until my mom showed up.

So the class starts next Thursday and it last for 4 weeks. I'm REALLY excited about it! One, because I've never really decorated a cake in a fancy way before, and Two, I freaking LOVE cake!

I'll post pics and updates as the class goes on. Wish me luck!

Catching Up

So it's March already and not a lot has been going on along the baking front for me. 

After Noodle's birthday I kind of took a break from baking just to save my sanity for a little bit.

We're also in the process of attempting to sell our house, packing and cleaning and getting rid of things that might make a new buyer hesitant to buy our house. Like all my Nightmare Before Christmas collectibles, Ben's Hellboy collection, and other various things that will cause the Bible Belt to wither and die.

It saddens me because I've got a tub and a half of sugar cookie dough in my fridge just aching to be baked! I hope that stuff doesn't go bad, I should probably check for an expiration date.

I'll end this post with a GLOWING review of the Watchmen movie. If you're a comic fan and know the story, then you will NOT be disappointed. The movie makers took great care in staying VERY true to the comic, and it gave me goosebumps to see in live action that which I've only been able to enjoy in comic form thus far.

There's a reason Watchmen is the greatest comic story ever told, so go see this movie. I command it.

More Than I Can Chew

I don't know why, but I always seem to attempt these massive undertakings in baking days before I'm supposed to present them at a big get together or something like that.

Noodle's birthday party is next weekend and I want him to have a cake to tear into, but I didn't want to give him some huge thing to destroy. So I found a cute little cupcake recipe in one of my baking books that seemed easy enough to do.

WRONG!

It seems every recipe I attempt uses something I've never worked with before, and for some reason, I always think in my mind that nothing could possibly go wrong. Today was half me not knowing what the hell I was doing and half the fact that Noodle was on a nap boycott today. So I was particularly harried to say the least.

I needed a King Sized Muffin Pan, which I didn't have, so off to Hobby Lobby I went today. Whenever I go there feel like a total outsider for some reason. Maybe because I am a novice and the ladies there "know" I'm totally bullshitting my way through this baking stuff. Or maybe I'm just nuts.

The king size pan didn't have any directions on it as to how long you're supposed to cook things in it, so I was totally playing it by ear checking on the cupcakes every few minutes. The cupcakes themselves turned out REALLY well and were delicious.

But my decorating left a LOT to be desired. For one, I didn't quite remember all the directions for making poured fondant because I was trying to help Ben get Noodle to sleep and make the fondant at the same time.

So today was a FAIL in baking, but I've got some really ugly, but tasty, desserts to keep me over through the weekend.

Oof. I'm just going to make white squares  of cake for a little while. I really need to not be so ambitious.

High-Five Inauguration

Noodle's Birthday Cake and Goodies

My son's first birthday is coming up hard and fast and I'm just slightly freaking out about it.

Should I make invitations? How many people should I invite? Should it be just family and close friends? Will my kidless friends even give a crap?

I bought this Wilton giant cupcake cake pan several months ago that I keep looking at and looking at, thinking some burst of inspiration is going to hit me if I keep looking at it, and I'm going to come up with this grand idea of how to decorate it. I tried baking one cake in it and it was a disaster. The cake does NOT bake both sides evenly because one side is a solid mass of cake batter and the other side is a smaller amount of cake. So I have to figure out how to bake one side and then the other. And have it not be a complete nightmare.

Noodle's "theme" for his shower, room and what not, has so far been space and robots. So I'd like to maybe make a robot out of marzipan, gum paste, or fondant, but I've never done anything that elaborate before. This also makes me freak out a little bit.

I also want him to have a cake of some sort that he can just tear into, and the Wilton one is WAY too big for that. I'm kind of at a loss, here. 

I'm sure I'll figure something out by next month.

I hope.

The Flash Fondant Carrot Cupcakes!

So today is my husband Ben's birthday! YAY! I'm letting him sleep in at the moment and Noodle is also sleeping, so I'm trying to get this post up before the hounds are released.

In honor of my crazy baking antics and because I've been wanting to start working with fondant I decided to make some cupcakes decorated with The Flash's emblem from DC Comics.

The Flash is Ben's favorite Superhero, and thankfully he has a pretty easy logo to replicate using fondant. 

The cupcakes turned out WAY better than I could have imagined. I bought Wilton's Ready to Use fondant at Hobby Lobby, and it was pretty good to work with. The taste is pretty mellow too, which I like. I'm not a fan of SUPER sweet, and the great thing is, you can add your own flavors to the fondant and it won't lose integrity.

Just in case, I also decorated some of the cupcakes with regular cream cheese frosting. 

I wasn't quite as happy with how these turned out, frosting-wise, but they still tasted really good.

Click on the Photos picture on the right side of the blog to see more pictures of my process.

So Happy Birthday, Ben! I hope you like your cupcakes!