Tuesday, August 26, 2008

MY FIRST OFFICIAL DECORATED CAKE!

Well here it is finally! My first official decorated cake. I took my last cake decorating class tonight, and this was my test run (by myself). HEY! Stop looking so closely at my mistakes!
Trust me, I've already critiqued my finished cake a dozen and one times, about what I should and shouldn't have done. I should have only done the yellow dots on every other pink shell on the bottom border.... I should have only done 1 color (orange) of polka dots on the side... My writing is not straight... and I should have iced the cake on a flat board before I put it on the tray with an edge! etc.. etc.. I still had a lot of fun. I'll get there eventually.

She wanted to see how we did at using what we've learned. Mixing and matching colors, borders, making flowers, writing, etc... I REALLY enjoyed this class.

And the best part is, it was taught by my sweet daughter, Sarah. She makes EVERYTHING more fun! She is a good teacher. She LOVES to decorate cakes and is so stinking good at it. I can only hope to be half as good as her, one day.

This is where I was a couple weeks ago. Learning to write w/ icing is no small task!

The borders were pretty easy to learn. These are a few that I was working on that night, and need to perfect.

But the roses!!! OI VEY!!! If your icing is too warm, they do NOT turn out very nice. They end up looking more like a cabbage! LOL It was painstaking!

But these were my roses tonight. They turned out a little better. It really helps when the icing is good and stiff.

This was our class. Amanda, Amy, Me, and my daughter-in-law Monica. I'll show you close up pics of their cakes too. They all turned out so cute.

First there is Amanda. The class was actually her idea. She came to Sarah and inquired about it. Amanda got all mushy gushy with her cake and decorated it for her hubby. LOL
The class was so much fun, that Sarah plans to repeat it next Summer when she is home on break again.

Then there was Amy. Amy also wrote her hubby's name on it. I tried to get her to write "Hubba Hubba Mike!" But she said with the pastel colors and flowers, he probably wouldn't feel it! LOL I tried! LOL She did a cute job w/ her flowers - hyacinths, daisies and tulips.

(Please ignore the mess in the background. Our poor church kitchen has been used and abused this Summer. It is slated for a deep cleaning this week before our Christian school begins on Sept. 2)

And last, but definitely not least, is my daughter-in-law Monica. Her cake turned out so cotton pickin' cute! My grandson's 3rd BD is coming up in a couple weeks and she wanted Sarah to make him a baseball cake. He recently went to his first baseball game and fell in love with it! Sarah said, "You just took a cake decorating class, YOU make it!" LOL So tonight was a practice run for it. He will be sooooo excited over it! I think she plans to do a baseball themed BD party for him. I don't know if you can see it or not, but the border for her cake, is grass. It's made with a "grass tip." So cool!


Here are a few pics of some of the cakes Sarah has done. This was her very first wedding cake. She and Hannah worked on it together. It turned out so pretty, but it was their first experience at the "leaning" cake. It was nerve racking, until the couple finally cut it and we could serve it! She since has learned how to correct that problem.

This is the cake she made for our 25th wedding anniversary celebration. So pretty!

I am so partial to her baby shower cakes. They are the cutest!

This was the BD cake she made for her Dad this past year. The sand trap was cinnamon/sugar. The only thing is, she made it at work, so the dark "green" is air brushed.
It's still an awesome cake though.

She's made 2 cakes with sugared fruit and I loved both of them. The first one was for a ladies meeting (wedding theme) that we did, and the 2nd one was for a wedding reception we did for a couple that got married out of state.

Some cakes she's done just for fun. The purse cakes were for a ladies meeting (Purse theme).

6 comments:

Susan said...

Starr, I enjoyed this SO much!!! All of you ladies did a super job on your cakes. Thanks for sharing all the pics.

Beth and I took classes a couple of years ago, but I haven't done anything with cakes in a while. We were in Michael's this evening, though, and I was looking at the cake decorating stuff and thinking I should try again - then I saw your post. Inspiration?!

Sarah does an excellent job, and I think she should pursue this teaching thing!

Jessica said...

This was a great post! Your 'first' cake came out beautiful and it's clear from the rest of the photos that your daughter is quite talented. I know from personal experience that decorating with frosting takes lots of practice and patience!

I'd really like to learn how to work with the smooth fondant icing.

Oh and by the way, I'm having a little giveaway so I hope you'll stop by and enter.

Arlene said...

Your cakes are beautiful! Y'all really did a great job! How fun that your daughter was your teacher! I have been wanting to take a cake decorating class for a while now -- your post really made me want to take it even more! :o)

Starr said...

Thanks Susan! It's so nice to hear from you. And thanks for the invite Jessica - I stopped over and threw my hat in the ring. LOL I'm excited!
And Arlene - you really should. It was a blast. It was so much fun to learn something new. It makes me wonder what else I would enjoy learning for the first time. You know?
If we only had a culinary school nearby (well, that I could afford! LOL)

Marilyn in Mississippi said...

I really did enjoy seeing all the cakes! I used to love to decorate cakes.....mostly 20 or so years ago when my kids were small. I always did their birthday cakes for them. Thank you for taking time to take and post the pictures!

Marilyn in MS

Glenna said...

I love your cake just the way it is. It's very cheery with all the colors on it. Very nice.