Cake #14: More Fun with Fondant...and Gumpaste!

Tonight, in my latest Wilton Course (Fondant and Gumpaste), we learned several new techniques, which we could add to our cakes tonight. Among the techniques were: the draped cloth, handkerchiefs, the zig-zag swags and borders.

I chose not to add all these new elements to my cake, instead going for a more elegant look of the draped cloth and roses. I am extremely pleased with how well this cake turned out; after my last disaster with my co-worker's birthday cake, I was beginning to doubt my abilities. Fortunately, all the gumpaste and fondant things were extremely easy and provided a real boost to my esteem!

A Whole New Rose!

Tonight in my Wilton Decorating Class, we finally began working with fondant. Now, while I had a great deal of difficulty in actually covering the entire cake with the fondant, the fondant rose was remarkable simple - ok, perhaps simple isn't the correct term. With numerous steps the fondant rose making process can definitely be time consuming; however, none of the steps are particularly difficult and the finished result looks pretty darn nice! I've yet to decided what I'm going to do on my final course cake, but the fondant rose is certainly looking like a contender.

Cake #3: Everything's Coming Up Roses

This cake has a mound of seven pink buttercream roses with small (tip #352) green leaves. Although I practiced making the roses for several hours and had the technique fairly well-mastered, the texture of my icing was somehow working against me when I attempted them in class. I made at least two dozen roses in order to get even one or two of the above roses...thank God I had made some in advance! To finish this cake, I simply added the basic shell border (tip #21) along the bottom and completed the look with small white dots (tip #3).