523.8 (Stars)

Last class of the Wilton III course is covering a cake with fondant and decorating it. Here's mine!

Fondant balls and star cutouts

I went with a simple yellow base with purple and white fondant cutouts and rolled balls. The technique is fairly simple - cover the cake with buttercream (enough to have a fairly smooth surface), roll enough 1/8" fondant to completely cover the cake plus an inch or two on each side. I played with the pearl powder to make the cake very shiny. You can see the effects of pearl power in the photo below.

Fondant ball border with pearl powder

Gum paste glue holds the stars on the cake and the balls on the base. It's a fantastic technique, but I HATE the taste of fondant. Blech. I'd prefer buttercream alone anyday.

745.92 (Floral Arts)

The photo above represents what we learned in Wilton III this week - how to make gum paste carnations, roses, and calla lilies.  By far my favorite are carnations, although they're the most tedious to make. I'm not fond of the calla lily, so I didn't make more than one. I think that each of the flowers has a charm to them and that they make ordinary cupcakes something fantastic.

I've also been practicing with my camera and photo light box recently and I'm getting better at the photo taking. I really do love the way the gum paste carnations look - they seem so life like! I broke my veining tool making them, though. I'll need to buy a new one before class on Friday.

The cupcakes pictured are lemon cake with raspberry filling and a raspberry buttercream. I'm sure they'll be much appreciated at work tomorrow morning.

641.86539071 (Cake Decoration, Education)

I started the Wilton III course this Friday. While most of class was pretty boring (rehashing gum paste and fondant use and doing a LOT of prep work for gum paste flowers), I did learn one useful skill that I immediately put to use: bow making.

50/50 Fondant and Gum Paste Bow on Buttercream Ruffle Cake

This was also my first attempt at the ruffle technique for frosting a cake and I have to say that I'm pretty happy. Much like the rosette technique though, it takes about 1-1/2 recipes of butter cream to complete it. This cake is HEAVY. The bow I made isn't the typical bow for a Wilton class, either. It's thinner, one less layer of loops, and is wavy edged. I hated the bow I made in class, so I decided that I'd try again to make something I liked. I'm happy with this one.