Our 19th Wedding Anniversary

"...what thwarts us and demands of us the greatest effort is also what can teach us most." --- Matthew Arnold

Yesterday, November 11th, was our 19th wedding anniversary. I have to admit that it hasn't always been easy, but I have learned a lot along the way. On this year's anniversary I learned that my husband can still surprise me because I did not expect to receive flowers on my anniversary, yet I did. I received the most beautiful bouquet of 19 perfect red roses. Roses that were so perfect they didn't look real. The card read, "So far, so good. Love, Me".

Purple Roses & Pink Fondant Cake

This is my second attempt at covering a cake in fondant. My first attempt at making gumpaste roses. This is definitely going to take some practice!

Thanks to my Wilton instructor, Geneva Breaux, for being such a patient and knowledgeable teacher.

Golden Anniversary German Chocolate Cake

Our friends were celebrating their parents' 50th wedding anniversary. They had already ordered a small scale replica of the original wedding cake, but when additional guests were added to the party at the last minute, they felt more cake was needed. So they asked me to bake a German chocolate "groom's cake". They provided me with an edible image and left the design up to me.

I had a general idea of what I wanted to do and I knew that the top would have to be iced with buttercream in order to apply the image. I baked two 9" x 13" German chocolate cakes and torted into four layers. I actually only used three layers, and it's a good thing because I cooked a single batch of coconut and pecan filling and had to scrape the bowl. Anyway, I layered the cakes and filling then iced the top of the cake with a vanilla/coconut buttercream, smoothed the top with a Viva paper towel and applied the image before it crusted. Then I applied the filling to the sides of the cake. It wasn't a thick filling so I had to add additional coconut flakes to get it to stick and not slide down.

Then, I mixed a batch of regular Hershey's Unsweetened cocoa frosting and used it to pipe the border around the image and the trim around the top and bottom of the cake. Then I piped their names and wedding date, but the cake was still too plain. So I decided to try my hand at roses. I don't think I've made roses since taking a Wilton class months ago. So I added more powdered sugar and some meringue powder to the frosting to stiffen it up and used a flower nail to make some roses. The frosting was still kind of soft so the petals kind of melted into each other, but they dried rather quickly, which minimized the problem. My friends had provided the gold 50 Years plaque, which I mounted in a rose cluster.

Once the chocolate frosting had crusted somewhat, I used a dry brush to apply gold luster dust to the rose petals and the piping that framed the image.

Although I'm never truly satisfied with anything I create, I thought it turned out quite nice. And they were pleased, so I guess it was a Mission Accomplished!

Wilton Cake Decorating: Course 1

I recently took Wilton courses 1 & 2 in cake decorating. We learned to decorate cakes using buttercream icing, royal icing, and colorflow.

Our first assignment was to bake a cake using a character pan and a star tip. I chose a purse because I wanted something with as few colors possible. This technique is easy, but it causes my hand to cramp.

Our second assignment was to learn how to make a shell border, write freehand, and pipe characters from icing. We had to make clowns. I'm not a fan of clowns so I wasn't thrilled about the assignment. Basically, the trunks, arms, and legs of the clowns were thickly piped frosting with no structural support. The heads were plastic picks.

The frosting was still wet when we left class and I had a pretty long drive home. I think I hit every pothole along the way and knew there was no way the two sitting clowns would still be upright.
When I got home we all had a good laugh because the sitting clowns had fallen down. They looked drunk. The third clown looked like he just didn't have the strength to climb to the top of the cake! I dubbed it my "Drunk Ass Clowns Cake" and everyone who sees it, loves it.

Our final class had us decorate a cake with basic buttercream roses. Making a good rose is quite a challenge, but I think I did OK.