Wilton Course 1: Decorating Basics (May/June 2011)

 Class 1: Sugar cookies decorated with buttercream

 Class 2: Yellow cake filled with apricot jam and iced & decorated with buttercream

Class 3: Yellow cake cupcakes filled with apricot jam and iced & decorated with buttercream

Class 4: Yellow cake filled with apricot jam, iced with buttercream and decorated with buttercream roses and drop flowers

Lessons learned:

• The Wilton Decorating Basics course did not disappoint and taught me everything I wish I knew when making all my previous cakes and cupcakes!

Million Dollar Championship Belt (May 2011)

This cake was supposed to be the Million Dollar Championship Belt: yellow cake carved to look like the belt buckle, filled with Nutella, iced with poured buttercream, and decorated with sugar pearls for the diamonds.

Lessons learned:

• Poured buttercream does not work well on a carved cake that has small, fragile pieces on it, like the points of the dollar signs. The poured buttercream tore off all the small pieces and made a big mess. If I had to do this cake again, I would probably try fondant.
• Placing all those sugar pearls was quite tedious. I lost my patience half way through so that's why they don't look quite right. However, the cake recipient is a huge DiBiase fan so he figured out what it was supposed to be right away! Once again, fondant would have probably made life a lot easier here.

Cruise Ship Cake (April 2011)

First stacked cake: lemon cake filled with lemon curd and iced with buttercream, decorated with chocolate chips, licorice strings, orange gumdrops, dried strawberries, and gummy sharks.

Lessons learned:

• Leveling the cake is very important, especially when stacking multiple layers. Oops, shouldn't have skipped that step!
• Icing dams are crucial, especially when using a soft filling like lemon curd. Oops, shouldn't have skipped that step either!
• Dollar store bamboo skewers work great for stacking cakes and they're much cheaper than Wilton's dowel rods.

Christmas Cupcakes (December 2010)

Chocolate cake cupcakes filled and iced with buttercream, with multi-coloured sprinkles on top.

Lesson learned:

• If you overestimate the amount of icing you need, icing freezes very well!

Christmas Tree Cake (December 2010)

Yellow cake filled and iced with buttercream, with sugar pearls and mini M&Ms. The cake was carved out of a 9x13 cake, and the leftover pieces were used for the Christmas gifts.

Lesson learned:

• Placing each sugar pearl individually is very time consuming. There has to be a better way ...