More than 14 years later...

My mom has this book in her collection of recipe/kitchen books. It is a wonderful '70's green color (if memory serves correctly), and as a kid, it was the most wonderful book to look at in the entire house. It was her cake decorating idea book, of course! I can't tell you how many times I poured over the pages of that book, wishing those cakes were mine! I have always wanted to learn how to do that...

My second year of college I bought this set of cake decorating tips, tools, and a little booklet with the intention of taking a class and learning how to use it all. Years have passed. Kids birthdays have come and gone. Oh, I have made some cakes. Some have been cute, others not so successful. I have used some of the tips, a few of the tools, and the icing recipe in the booklet many times, but I still have never taken that class!

This is my summer to learn. I have finally decided to take a cake decorating class and learn a bit about how things should be done versus the way I think they should be done! It is a 4 week course over at our local Michael's. Last week was our first week. I was excited because the class is on sale this month, so I thought to myself, "Wow, you are going to get yourself such a great deal!" Ha. Ha.

It turns out that you have to also buy the $25 class kit, plus the cake spinner, plus the boards to set the cake on, the proper cake pan, extra tips, extra bags, and any other thing that while your teacher shows you all the cool tools you feel you must buy in order to make your cakes more divine. It is a bit pricey on the start up, but it will all be so fun in the end!

I was supposed to show up with my beautifully frosted and filled 8" round cake tonight, plus various amounts of frosting in different consistencies. I needed frostings in different colors, in bags, that sort of thing. That would have been the better way to attend my class, prepared and all! This is more how it played out:

We spent the day at Six Flags. We got home around 2:40, Ez had to rush off to work. Alexis and Lily were heading to Grandma's for the weekend, so we had to find clothes, etc. and get them packed and out the door. Then it was time to make the frosting to the right consistency, color it blue (part of the homework), and fill and frost my cake. It is 4:30. Babysitter comes at 5:30. I realize I still have to make the extra frosting for the actual decorating part--oh no! No more shortening.

Hurry and run to Wal-mart for supplies. Forget making any more frosting. I am just planning on buying the Wilton in the tub stuff. I already made frosting once today, good enough! I have no more time! Luckily, Wilton sells a mongo tub of icing--I was pleasantly surprised! Come home, thicken some for making roses, thicken more for the decorating, and bring a bit for the writing portion.

Babysitter comes, throw everything in the bag and head to class. My bags aren't ready. My icing is not separated and colored. I am just so unorganized, oh well! So class went well, but I had to spend so much time prepping things that I didn't have time to finish the cake, so I brought it home and was planning on finishing it. Joe sees it and decides it looks tasty and takes a chunk of icing from the side and right through the pretty pink icing I had already done!

So, I patched it up and finished my decorating. It looks good enough for my first super unorganized attempt. Hopefully the next 2 weeks I will be more prepared and less frazzled! I think I have learned to come with everything really, really ready! No matter what, it is lots of fun!