Last week I attended my first cake decorating class. I was so excited to go, and I actually learned a few new tricks (ok one is to help you smooth out a cake, and let me tell you, I wish I had known about it like 5 years ago when I was up literally all night making my friends daughters wedding cake, it would have taken me maybe an hour, instead of over 6 to smooth it).
The class was filled with the usual suspects, everyone from housewives, to professionals in the wedding business looking to expand their products. There was even one guy who works in two bakeries, and it was almost as if he was there to try and trip up the teacher. He kept finishing her sentences (incorrectly I might add) and giving us the scientific reasons behind using the cake bands, etc… (ok I will admit, that part was cool). Anyway, I was digging everything until we got to the part about the frosting.
I make buttercream frosting with actual butter (go figure) and it is really, really good (I get asked for the recipe all the time) I use it for everything from frosting brownies to cakes to cookies. So when the Wilton instructor said we would be using shortening instead of butter (gag me with an off set spatula) I tried convincing her that butter was so much better, and that I do NOT eat trans fats in any form, she told me politely that if I wished to continue with the class, I would have to use the wilton method, which includes butter flavoring and merengue powder. So not wanting to waste my long awaited opportunity, I sucked it up and accepted the inevitable, shortening was going to be a part of my life for a few weeks (according to her, real butter frosting is really hard to work with. It is?? Not so much). Which brings me to my next realization; I would certainly not be wasting my home cooking skills by baking a cake from scratch, only to be covered in congealed vegetable oil. SO I am using a cake mix , which after learning how to bake my own scrumptious cakes, taste rather like play dough to me. Which brings me to the actual frosting in class, when she added the merengue powder, I thought it would be a benign little ingredient, but not so much. It made the frosting taste like, well eggs, and the texture was more like a royal icing than a butter cream.
We made a torted cake with our appetizing frosting and chocolate pudding for the filling. We actually got to eat the cake (ok it was sort of tasty), and then this week we will bring our own unfrosted cake and decorate it ourselves. Then she told us what we would need for the next class, and well it is a good thing that the class was around my birthday, because I told my husband to think of it all as a sort of late birthday gift, the supplies were pricey (I think I spent my Christmas money too). I had actually purchased the class kit years ago, so I thought I could use it, but now they teach using different techniques, so my stuff is obsolete (except for my tips) I ended up getting a new kit, plus a lazy Susan, merengue powder, a cake transporter and gobs of other things I will probably never use after the class). But with all of that, I am still excited to learn new things, and hopefully make wicked cool cake designs for my kids.
Now what to do with my cake from this week. Anyone want a play dough flavored cake covered in trans fats and eggs? Anyone? Anyone?
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