I just finished the Wilton Cake Decorating Course 1. The picture is my 'final project' cake which also doubled as my youngest daughter's birthday cake (good timing!). I think I flunked the Wilton Rose (if you can actually flunk anything in these classes). They teach the WR by breaking it down into 3 different classes. I'm not sure why they do this but that is how it is.
The first problem I ran into was getting the icing consistency correct. It's supposed to be 'stiff' consistency. I guess I don't understand this concept because mine always ends up either so stiff that you can't squeeze it out of the bag or so thin that it just falls apart. I blame the humidity...that's my excuse and I'm sticking with it.
In your first WR class you learn how to make the center. We're told to put on the correct tip (#12) and make a 'Hershey's kiss' that is 1 1/2 times the height of the #104 tip you're going use for the next step. Not one of my 'Hershey's kiss' looked anything like a 'Hershey's kiss' but instead resembled little witches hats. I never did resolve this by the time the 3rd class came around I just went with this witch's hat base and it didn't seem to change my end results too much.
Your second WR class involves making a base and then switching tips (word to the wise, use a coupler on your bag of stiff) to the 104. So I make my little witch's hat and switch to the 104. You then start the center petal of the rose. I'd give you awesome detailed instructions on this but I never did get the hang of it. Somehow, mine always looked a little...um...phallic.
In your final class you are supposed to put the rest of the petals on. My rose didn't look horrible but it didn't look like a rose. I should have taken pictures but I was so embarassed by the little things. Our final cake was supposed to include roses. As you can see, roses were clearly absent on my final cake. It's a good thing I don't really care for roses on cakes isn't it?
For what it's worth, I thought that the Wilton classes are worth every penny. My cakes used to look like a 3rd grade art project gone wrong. Have you ever seen the episode of Food Network's Challenge where the cake decorator sets the cake on fire and everyone comments how the fire extinguisher foam improves the look of the cake? That's how my cakes used to look. Now I know how to frost a cake without crumbs and smooth as glass. I can star tip with the best of them now and I learned the secret to transferring images. And most importantly, my little girl's 4th birthday cake was very special.
Now...what to do with all that cake sitting in my freezer waiting to be frosted?
And if you haven't seen the Food Network Challenge fire cake, here you go:
Now if I could just clean up my sewing studio I'd be able to get out of the kitchen and stop eating.
