I don’t know how all these bakers and cake decorators cope being surrounded with all that cake and sugary icing. I just finished my 4-day, intensive Wilton Cake Decorating class at my local Michael’s store. Although I had a blast learning all these cool decorating techniques, bringing home cakes and cupcakes for the past few days sucks when you’re struggling to stick to a new diet.

My level 1 decorating basics course only cost me $22.50 (Michael’s has a promo going on this summer for their classes). But what I saved in course fees I made up for with decorating supplies. Who knew there were so many gadgets and gizmos when it came to making a cake look all fancy? I splurged on the Wilton Ultimate Decorating Set (thank goodness I had one of those 50% off coupons), and it includes all the basics I need for each of the four Wilton courses I plan to take.

Baking is one of those things that I always wanted to be better at. Since childhood I’ve loved art and design, so I figured why not mix it with my love of food?

Each class was two hours long. Our instructor, Amy, was very knowledgeable and helpful. There were about six of us in the class. On day one we got familiar with filling a bag with icing, it’s various consistencies, and the different decorating tips that can be used.

Day two had us getting a firm handle on working with cakes (leveling, adding filling, icing), using pattern transfers and creating borders.

Day three was fun, as we got to work with cupcakes. I made some red velvet ones (from the package), and we learned how to make pom-pom flowers and shaggy mums. We also got introduced to the flower nail.

The last class we were asked to bring in a cake that had already been filled and iced so that we can decorate it with what we’ve learned over the past few days. I made a carrot cake and filled it with some cream cheese and coconut filling. It came out pretty good, if I do say so myself. That is until I got off the subway and noticed it was doing a slight leaning tower of Pisa thing (too much filling I suppose).

I went on the Wilton website prior to class and was able to find out how to create a carrot shape using two different tips. I added a rose that we learned to create in today’s class and voila! Not bad for my first, real buttercream-frosted cake.

Filled, iced and ready to go!

Bottom border was made with a #2 tip.

The Wilton Rose. I think my icing was a tad too stiff, as to why it’s cracking.

I love these buttercream icing carrots I made with tips #12 and #233.

A little lopsided with room for some refinement, but I think I did a decent job!

Delicious!

These are some of the red velvel cupcakes I decorated in class 3. It was fun working with all those tips!

I’ll definitely be taking the rest of the classes in this series, though I can’t wait for the fondant class, as I seems to be a bit easier to work with than buttercream icing.

I think it’s time to do some P90X now.