Last night was my third Wilton class., which is all about the Wilton rose. The Wilton rose is actually pretty easy…once you get someone to demonstrate it to you. Earlier this year I studied YouTube videos and the Wilton course books to learn the rose to put on my parent’s anniversary cake, and it didn’t turn out as well as I had hoped. Oh, and I’m sorry the rose are in white – I know they’re kind of hard to see! I didn’t even think about it until I started to take photos of them. The yellow frosting is leftover from my sister’s Belle cake.

We also learned how to do the shell border, which is the border used on 99% of the cakes out there. It was also very simple – a lot easier than when I tried to do it for Hubby’s penguin cake in January. We learned figure piping, which I don’t have a picture of, but is what you would use to make the clown cake.

And I can’t forget about the drop flowers. These are SO cute and SO, SO easy! I made these for Stacey’s cow cake I made, and they are too adorable!

Next week is the final course.We’ll be learning leaves, stems, sweet peas, and bows. I’ll actually color my roses for next week’s class so y’all can see the detail in them!

Last night was my second class from Wilton Course 1. This class built on the basics learned in the first class. The “what to bring” section of Class 2 says to bring an “8 in. round cake iced with thin consistency light blue Class Buttercream Icing on a 10 in. Fanci-Foil Wrap-covered cake circle (or on a 10 in. Show ‘N Serve Cake Board). ” Whew!

Remember when I said last week that Sari was laid back? Instead of having to bring an iced cake that meets the specs, she said that we could just frost a cake board, or even the back of the cake pan if we wanted. Thank God. I ended up frosting directly onto a cake board. This made it a LOT easier, especially coming straight from work. It also didn’t help that my cake carrier was out of commission, holding leftover gumpaste swan cake at my parent’s house (more on that cake later!).

In Class 2, we learned how to decorate with the star tip, write with the round tip, and do a piping gel transfer. The piping gel transfer is really easy and I can see it coming in very handy in the future. It really opens up a whole world of cakes that I wouldn’t otherwise even attempt! We turned what we learned into the Rainbow Cake. So cute! Next class we’ll learn flowers and figures, the Wilton rose, shell border, and drop flowers. I can’t wait!

I’ve been interested in taking a formal decorating class for awhile now, but never felt that I had enough time. Now that Hubby is going back to night-school, that leaves me with a couple of free nights every week. After a couple of weeks of watching movies on the couch every Monday and Wednesday evening, I decided to go ahead and dive in head first to the Wilton Method (not that watching movies every Monday and Wednesday is a bad thing, since I get to catch up on all the chick-flicks I’ve been missing out on!).

The Jo-Ann’s near my house was offering the course for only $22.50 (saweeeeet!), so I signed right up and now have plans every Tuesday evening for the month of October. Although, this still doesn’t help with my Monday/Wednesday movie night problem.

Sari with Toba Garrett, Ron Ben-Israel, and Bronwyn Weber

My first class was last night. Our instructor is Sari McIntyre (pictured above) with Sari’s Flair. Sari took up cake decorating and sugarcraft about 6 years ago, and has travelled the country, learning from the likes of Bronwyn Weber (!), Ron Ben-Israel (!!), and even Toba Garrett (!!!!!). I swear, I start drooling every time I open up Toba Garrett’s website. Oh, if only I could afford to take one of her private classes…

Anywho, the first class was interesting. We went over a lot of the basics, although I did learn a few great little tips from Sari (more on those later). I love that Sari isn’t a “Wilton Nazi”, like some other Wilton instructors I’ve read about on other blogs. She’s pretty laid back, encouraging, and is all about having fun and making it your cake. Other Wilton instructors I’ve read about won’t even let you choose different icing colors than what’s in the book! All in all, it should be a great class. Next week we make our first cake – the “Rainbow Cake”. I’ll keep you posted!