Cake #23: Goodbye, Dan and Jan

Two of my co-workers are being transferred to a different department this week, and I was somehow coerced into baking the cake. I must admit that I had a great deal of difficulty in selecting a design; apparently going away cakes aren't that popular.

My original plan was to frost my cake in this blue icing and then add several expressions of farewell (So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodbye.) My plan was to write the words on wax paper and then freeze them so that they could easily be transferred to the top of my cake; sadly, the frozen buttercream transfer technique did not work with single letters/words - instead the icing merely stuck to the wax paper, refusing to "transfer".

This left me again having to resort to a "plan B" at the last minute. (I mean really, does it seem like I'm getting worse and worst with each cake I make!) My first though to salvage this cake was to merely write free-hand across the top of the cake; however, after make first letter, I quickly decided that wasn't an answer (and I now had a large "G" to cover!) So, I resorted to using the Wilton templates I purchased long ago.

While I did have much better luck with the stencils on this attempt, the letters were many times too small for the size cake I chose. If the letters had been 2-3 times bigger, this design might have worked. I will say that I love the gumpaste daisies; they look so nice and are amazing easy to make!

Cake # 15: Pansies and Daisies for Sale

One of my co-workers is having a special family function, so I agreed to make this cake for her. Since her mother-in-law's favorite flower is the pansy and her mother likes daisies, I combined the two to create a wreath effect around the cake's top.

I iced this cake in a light-yellow buttercream and then covered the sides with the basket weave. I created the pansies from the basic royal icing and the daisies and leaves from fondant. I was really happy with how the daisies and leaves came out...the pansies could have been a little better though. However, once it was all combined together on the cake, the end result was quite pleasant - I hope she likes it too!

Cake #6: Basket o' Flowers

Today was the finale of my Wilton Decorating Course Level II, and we finally combined all our work from the last weeks onto a single cake. This oval cake holds a variety of the royal icing flowers I've made this past month, as well as, the two blue birds I made with color-flow icing.

Tonight, we finished the course with the basket-weave technique along the sides and the rope borders along the top and bottom of the cake. Although the basket-weave technique was slightly more difficult than I had been led to believe, the addition of the borders, flowers, and birds distracts from any flaws which might exist in my weaving.

Overall, I'm quite pleased with the way my cake turned out; I'm definitely looking forward to next week's start of Course III: Fondant & Tiered Cakes.

Icing Like A Flower Pro!

From Left to Right: Daffodils, Primroses, Pansies, Daisies, and Roses

As I mentioned in my last post, I am currently taking the Wilton Cake Decorating Course II. Since we're not actually baking cakes each week, we've had plenty of time to learn new flowers. Last week we learned the basic violets and apple blossoms. Although I had considerable trouble successfully making the flowers in class, with some practice at home I was finally able to master the petal technique, which served as a foundation for this week's lessons.

This week, we learned to make Victorian roses, daises, daffodils, pansies, and primroses. I was completely amazed at how quickly and easily I was able to master each of these flowers! I can't wait until next week when I get to make the grand finale cake with all these flowers...