Making Frosting

Yesterday afternoon i did part of my homework for my cake decorating class. I made my 3 batches of frosting that are all varying consistency's. One stiff for roses and such, one medium for boarders and one thin for frosting the cake and for writing on the cake.

I only made a slight mess in the process.....

giving my mixer a work-out

Ooops!

Homework done!

Now for a extra special treat for you all........A super special secrete(OK not really secret) recipe....

Buttercream Frosting Recipe

1c. solid white vegetable shortening (packed)
1/2 tsp. vanilla Wilton flavoring
1/4 tsp. butter Wilton flavoring
1/4 tsp. almond Wilton flavoring
2 Tbs. Water
1 lb. powered sugar (app. 4 cups)
1 Tbs. Wilton meringue powder
A pinch of salt
Cream shortening, flavoring and water. Add dry ingredients and mix on medium speed until all ingredients have been thoroughly mixed. Blend an additional minute or so, until creamy.
Add water by the Tbs. to achieve desired consistency.

I got most of this information from the Wilton Course 1 student manual. I hope it's not illegal to post it on the Internet but it's a yummy recipe so i wanted to share....


-Jaime

Wilton Course 1

I started my Wilton cake decorating course 1 class on Tuesday night. I am super excited about this class. I have already learned some great tips, got a great butter cream frosting recipe and been given my first homework assignment. Next week i have to bring a frosted cake to class to decorate. Hopefully i will learn tons of stuff and be able to pass on a few tips to you all. I will keep updating you on my progress, and you will all pretend to care.

Here is all the fun stuff i bought after my first class, like i need one more thing to shop obsessively for:) I did use some 50% off coupons of course.

-Jaime

Creative Cakes

It is no secret that i love planning parties. I honestly start planning my kids birthday parties months and months in advance. I have already started thinking about boy #1's next party theme and he just had his party in November. I am a bit OCD when it comes to party planning.
Boy #2's birthday is in April, so really not too far away. I have decided on a Elmo theme, he is OCD when it comes to Elmo. I have been deep into looking at pictures of Elmo cakes. I think i will just try the basic Elmo head shape. I'm sure it won't turn out as cute as the picture below but I'll try.....

These cake pops from Bakerella are so cute, if we were having a huge party i might consider putting forth the effort to make these but it will probably just be our little family.

These next cakes are off of the Family Fun website. They have so many cute cake ideas. This first one is so cute, it would be really cute to make for a baby shower with a old McDonald theme.

This would be so cute for a pre-teen or teenager's birthday.

I definitely see this cake being made in my future. Boy #1 is all boy and would love this motorcycle cake and the skateboard cake below.

This one would be cute if you were having a bowling party. I love those bowling pin candles.

This one is cute for a camp out party in the summer. It would also be a fun cake to make for Fathers day if you married a outdoors man like i did. It would be great after a tin foil dinner and a visit around the backyard fire pit.

This is the cup cake cake that i made for boy #1's birthday in November. He had a G.I. Joe theme. I think the cake turned out pretty good. I got a lot of compliments on it which made my day of course. But what really mattered was that the new 5 year old loved it!

And now were back to thinking about boy#1's birthday next November. Not sure if Batman will still be his favorite 9 months from now but if he is then here are a couple of my inspiration cakes. The first one is simple yet really cute, i know i could pull it off.

This one would rock his world but i know i am not advanced enough to even try it. It's fun to dream though.

Hopefully i inspired you to think long and hard the next time you order a cake from your local grocery store. Michael's craft stores offer cake decorating classes. I am planning on enrolling next month. Hopefully my cakes benefit from the added skills i will learn. It will be nice when the end result looks as good in real life as it does in my head. I only got into cake decorating about a year ago but i have learned that even if it isn't picture perfect it feels so good to know you made it yourself, and your family knows it was baked with love, and maybe a little blood, sweat and tears.

-Jaime