Wilton Decorating Basics, Class 2

Well, tonight was the big night. Time to decorate our first cake!

We started out class by taking the time to level our cake, add the filling, and frost our cakes. This was time consuming, mostly because my chocolate icing was a little too stiff, but I was ready to go with my cake leveler (such a godsend) and my cherry pie filling. I really wanted to take photos as I was performing the various steps but I have weird hang-ups about taking photos in front of people. I don't know why, I just do. So there are no photos of that.

After we had all frosted our cakes, the instructor went over how to do the wavy line border (kind of pointless, especially with the #2 star tip) and the zigzag. We also covered "dots and blobs" (like this) which our class thought was funny.

After we practiced these techniques, we were given time to decorate our cake. Surprisingly, it seemed I was the only one who came prepared with an idea. I had my gel colours ready to go with my pattern cut out. It seemed everybody else sort of hummed-and-hawed over what to do. Not me! I've known for a week what I've wanted to do!

So, the moment you've all been waiting for...

 Autumn themed cake, just in time for the first day of autumn.

 I used a #3 circle tip for the veins and a #18 star tip to fill in the leaves. 

I had a little trouble with the rope border as you can see in this photo. I'd never done it before and we haven't learned it in class yet. I tried it out on a plate and decided, heck, I'm not learning anything by not making an attempt. They say to pipe in a sideways S shape but that seemed to cause me problems. When I didn't think about it too hard, it worked out okay.

Before this class, I always wondered how people were so good at essentially drawing on their cake. This class has opened my eyes. What I did for my leaves was I googled "autumn coloring book" to find basic leaf shapes. I printed off a few I liked, decided on one, then traced it onto parchment paper. Then I took clear piping gel (I bought the little pre-made tube in translucent yellow for this cake) and traced over the pen on the parchment paper. Then I flipped it gel side down, GENTLY laid it on the cake, and used a decorator brush to GENTLY transfer the gel onto the cake. Note the keyword "gently" as you don't want to smudge and smear the gel. Once I'd done that, I piped the veins. I filled in the leaves with the small star tip and then did a second layer of the veins so they'd pop out.

So there you have it.

Next week I start my quilting class and at cake decorating we're filling and decorating cupcakes. 

Wilton Classes Warning

After slaving away for an about an hour tonight in preparation for my second class tomorrow, I decided it would be wise of me to provide a disclaimer to anyone interested in taking the Wilton method of cake decorating classes.

This is neither a cheap nor a small side project. It is actually quite a bit of work preparing everything.

For example, here is everything I have to bring tomorrow, laid out on my carpet:

If it doesn't look like a lot, consider the fact there are a lot of odds and ends in my kit trays. Not only do you have to bring all these things, but you have to buy them, make them, and then remember to bring them!

Making your cakes and frosting is the most time-consuming part, and consider that you spend time going to the store to buy the items as well, plus the clean up afterwards.

Making frosting. 

So to sum up, you shouldn't take these courses unless you have the time and money...specifically:

1. The money to buy all the decorating items you need. Do you need a big kit like mine? No, probably not, but many of the items in there make life a lot easier. Even if you are going to cut corners by using parchment bags and buy items only as you need them, there are still several items you need: cake pans, food colours, spatulas, etc...

2. The money to buy the cake/frosting ingredients you'll need. Eggs, milk, oil, sugar, flour, icing sugar, shortening/butter, vanilla...at the very least.

3. The time to bake cakes and prepare frosting. Cutting corners by buying frosting is not going to help you since icing consistency and icing recipes are a big part of the course. Your projects may not turn out very well if you buy premade frosting, not to mention you are specifically asked in the course to make a specific recipe. And if you want to cut corners, it begs the question as to why you would take up a hobby that requires such painstaking attention to detail?

4. The time to go out and buy groceries, attend every 2-hour class (4/course), and clean up your mess afterwards at home and at the course. Unless you have a personal assistant, there is no getting out of these.

If you've read all these and it doesn't sound like a big deal to you, then have at 'er. But if you are a busy person with precious few hours to spare, you may want to think about it in detail before you decide to commit. That's the thing, learning to decorate cakes (or really anything) is a commitment and you should be fully-invested or else you are not going to receive the full benefit of the instruction.

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If you're curious as to what's in the first photo, here's a list of everything:

Wilton gel colouring pack, 3 Wilton gel colours, J-Cloth, cake pattern, Decorating Basics lesson plan, Wilton no-colour butter flavour, Wilton meringue powder, cherry pie filling, top shelf of Wilton Decorator Preferred Kit (inside top shelf: couplers, silicone tip covers, tips, notepad, pen, piping gel, toothpicks, decorator brushes), 2 chocolate cake layers, Wilton ready-to-use decorator icing, cake leveler, icing sugar, 1 batch medium consistency frosting, 1 batch thin consistency chocolate frosting, Wilton disposable bags package, bottom tray of the WDPK (pictured inside are featherweight decorating bags, disposable bags, flower sticker templates, cake strips, flower lifter), cake carry-and-display case, small angled spatula, large angled spatula, scissors, Wilton show-and-serve cake board, 3 small plastic containers

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In other news, I am having a hard time typing the words came, cane, case, care, cape...my hands automatically type cake!

Bulk Barn Pumpkin Spice Muffins

Alright, here we go. My first recipe post! Keep in mind that I am in no way some kind of creator of recipes, I just post recipes I've found.

I love Bulk Barn. Seriously. I think it's one of the best parts about being Canadian. I have not found a comparable store in the States. Anthony insists I take him to Bulk Barn whenever he comes to Sarnia and I'm always happy to oblige. On Monday I took a trip to Bulk Barn to pick up ingredients for the cake I'm decorating in class on Thursday. Besides bulk food, Bulk Barn also sells a large assortment of Wilton items and British foods. I always leave Bulk Barn with a few extra items that weren't on my list.

On Monday I discovered their pumpkin spice loaf/muffin mix. I've been saying that I want to make as many pumpkin-flavoured items as possible this autumn and a simple muffin mix seemed like a good way to start. So without further ado...

Bulk Barn Pumpkin Spice Muffins

Ingredients:

2 3/4 cups Bulk Barn Pumpkin Spice Loaf Mix

1 cup water

1/3 cup canola oil

2 eggs

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease loaf or muffin pan.

2. Pour mix into a large mixing bowl. Add water, oil, and eggs.

3. Mix for 2 minutes either by hand or with a mixer. If by hand, be sure to get all the lumps out.

4. Pour batter into pan. Bake in centre of oven for 40-45 minutes or for muffins, 20 minutes.

5. Check for doneness by inserting a toothpick in the centre; it will come out clean when done.

6. Wait 10 minutes before removing from pan.

7. Enjoy with a glass of milk or apple cider.

Yield: 1 loaf or 12-15 muffins (depending how high you fill the muffin cups)

They look a little wonky because there was a little too much batter for 12 muffins but I was too lazy to do another batch.

Nesting

Monday again! The weekend went by way too fast. Fortunately my weeks have been going by quickly too, especially since I've been baking so much.

I've noticed that every fall, I go into this nesting phase. I don't know how else to describe it. It's like my normally dormant maternal instincts come out and all I want to do is cook, clean, and make things for people. Now that Pinterest is a part of life, my pinning has gone into high gear this September.

I have another funny story. As you may remember, last Tuesday was my knitting class. My late grandmother used to be quite the crafts lady. It seemed like she knew how to do everything. Knit, quilt, crochet, cross-stitch, latch hook, everything. As a kid I was never into these crafts, despite her trying to teach me. While knitting my blanket for Leah (which is slow going because I've been so busy), I've been wondering to myself what Nana would say if she knew I was learning to knit. 

Anyway, my Nana was a big fan of Mary Maxim, a store here in Ontario that specializes in needlework crafts. I had completely forgotten all about the existence of Mary Maxim until Wednesday, when their Christmas catalogue arrived in my mailbox, addressed to me. I'd never received a Mary Maxim catalogue before and I don't know how they got my name. But seeing the familiar logo, I instantly thought of my Nana. What a coincidence that it arrived the day after my introduction to the needlework world. If I was more religious, I'd have to wonder if it was a message from Nana.

Wilton Decorating Basics, Class 1

Well, today was the big day. First day of Wilton course 1, class 1!

Funny story before I begin, but apparently I have a little obsession with Wilton because as soon as I start typing "www" into my browser, Chrome is all like, OOH OOH! You're going to www.wilton.com again aren't you?! Here's the URL, all ready to go for you! You weren't going to some other website, were you? ...Thaaaat's right. I KNEW you were going to Wilton's website again!

I've been so excited for this class, today I felt like a kid starting the first day of school. I had my Wilton Decorator Preferred Decorating kit and my other necessities for the class all ready to go. I arrived early and laid out my kit, a notepad, pen, my icing, and some sugar cookies I made last night to decorate on. Some other girls came into the class, saw my keener set up and were like, "Whoa." I proudly told them about how I got my kit for $54 whereas no more than 15 feet from our classroom, Michaels was selling it for $129.99.

As the rest of the students came in, I was clearly going to be the keener of the class. I was the only one with a kit and I think probably the only one looking like a child on a sugar high. Hurry up get in here I want to start the class come on! Let's go let's go let's go! Fortunately, two people arrived later on with even bigger Wilton kits so alas, I didn't look so crazy.

Official lesson plan:

• How to Bake a Great Cake
• Buttercream Icing
• Using Decorating Bags and Couplers
• Icing the Cake
• Leveling and Torting the Cake
• Using the Star Tip

It was more or less just how to bake a cake, make the Wilton buttercream icing recipe, how to ice a cake, how to use a coupler and decorating bag, and 500 Wilton accessories you should buy because we say so. Wilton's stuff is a little pricey (more so in Canada and even worse at Michaels) but I will say they have some very innovative products. For example, the lid of my kit fits underneath the kit. The icing bag holder has little holes to hold flower nails. Clever little things where it's obvious they have put time into developing the products.

Our instructor gave us some great tips on how to improve boxed cake mix, how to fill a decorating bag without the icing ever actually touching the bag (seriously, watch the video, it's genius), and some other random tidbits. She did warn us she was teaching some things that weren't Wilton-approved but they were all the best tips!

I will say that after today, my Amazon wish list is going to get even longer. There are so many things I want to buy now, like the Tilt n Turn Ultra Cake Turntable and a bunch of other things.

We don't actually decorate a cake until next week, we just tried on our cookies tonight. Here are mine. I took the photo in my car because I was too embarrassed to photograph my lame cookies in front of everyone else, haha. They're not perfect as you'll see but as we all know, practice makes perfect.

Actual size.

If you're reading this and you want more specific information about what's covered in the class(es), please comment and let me know. This week was just a grab bag of basic information ("this is a decorating bag, this is a spatula") so I didn't want to write it all out.

And in case you want more information about Wilton classes or to find out where in your area they're held, check out Wilton's website. And no, I'm not getting paid to promo the hell out of Wilton, despite how my enthusiasm comes across.

Learning to Knit

Yesterday I went to my first hobby class, learning to knit. The course was from 3-5pm so that meant I got to leave work early, which is always nice.

Over the weekend when I was in Michigan, I picked up what I needed for the course: a ball of yarn, size 9 knitting needles, and a yarn needle. This cost me $8 at Jo Ann Fabrics so I was more than happy about that. Sometimes I feel guilty about buying pretty much everything in the USA but I figure I might as well help the economy of the country I'm planning on moving to in the future.

When I arrived at Michaels, I took a peek around to see what my Jo Ann purchases would have cost me there. I didn't have a lot of time but did see size 9 knitting needles for $12. Yikes! Mine were about $4.50!

As it turned out, I was the only person in the class which was great. I'm glad that Michaels doesn't require a minimum class size. I ended up getting one-on-one help for 2.5 hours (the instructor ran into overtime!). I learned to cast on two different ways, do a garter stitch, cast off, and seam two things together. I like seaming the best, it's easy.

I'm not sure yet how into knitting I'm going to get, but I would really like to knit afghans and mittens. I've already started my first project, a little blanket for my cat. She sleeps on my bed when I'm at work so I'm going to lay this blanket down and hopefully she'll sleep on it instead of getting fur on my nice duvet!

Here are some pictures!

Casting on.

My progress so far. About 5 or 6 rows.

I realized that knitting will be perfect for those long college football Saturdays I endure every weekend in Michigan. Instead of mindlessly browsing Reddit, I can actually make something. I look forward to it!

Tomorrow is my first cake decorating class and I'm so unbelievably excited! I ran into the instructor yesterday at Michaels and apparently it's going to be a full house.

Things I've Made

One of my favourite things to do is to bake goodies! I have a huge sweet tooth which I can never seem to satisfy. I've never been much of a cook (working on it) but I have always loved to make desserts.

I'd like to start sharing some of the things I make, whether it be a dessert or not. For me when it comes to cooking, the work has to be worth the pay off. I am not one for recipes with a million ingredients. I like my recipes simple. I buy cookbooks that promise a single digit number of ingredients "or less." I Google "easy" before the name of the recipe I want. Any recipe I write about will be easy to follow, with easy-to-find, low-cost ingredients. I am also not a photographer and take my food photos with my iPhone camera. This will not be some fancy-dancy cooking blog, there are plenty of those already (and thank god). I'd say this ain't your mother's cooking blog, but yeah, it probably will be. I'm into simple comfort food, not gourmet and exotic dishes. I aim to make things easy enough to be incorporated into a regular rotation.

Now that we have that out of the way, here's a sampling of some of things I've made recently!

Peanut butter rice krispie footballs, chocolate football cake, University of Michigan cookies

Bacon cheddar deviled eggs...they had been sitting out for awhile at this point so they got kind of melty

Bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit muffin things

Peanut butter truffles and Oreo truffles (Anthony's Valentine's gift)

S'mores cookies

Chocolate-covered gingers (my mom's birthday gift, her favourite)

Leah Maria's Tijuana Lager (Vienna lager made with my Mr. Beer kit)

Basic cupcakes (first time doing a swirl top, why didn't I do this earlier?!)

Family tradition, "chocolate log" AKA old school icebox cake.

Peanut butter pretzel sandwiches, dipped in chocolate (a lot of work but so worth it)

I've made lots of other stuff but I don't always take photos. Out of all these things, I get bugged the most to make the pretzels and the Oreo truffles again. Last year I gave out the Oreo truffles as a Christmas present and I plan to do that again. I'm planning to make everyone a goody basket of Christmas treats. I'm looking forward to it!