Wilton Course 2

Last night was my last class in Wilton Course 2. For our final class we have to decorate an oval shaped cake using some very specific techniques: the basketweave, the rope border, and at least two kinds of flowers made from Royal Icing.

I was really nervous about both the basketweave and the rope border. I made all the flowers last Thursday so that they had time to dry out before class. Both the rope border and the basketweave ended up being easier than I had anticipated.

I need to get a cake leveler I think. It's so hard for me to level my cake and make it even. I'm not too worried about it since the cake just got eaten, but it would be nice to have an even top.

Here are some detail shots of the side of the cake.

Have a Drink

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I also made Martini shaped cookies for the Jewelry party. I like a little variety (at least in shapes, if not in flavors) in my cookies, and I know some people don't like candy on their cookies.

These were a little more challenging, because I couldn't really get the sugar sprinkles to spread the way I wanted them to. I wanted a more concentrated grouping towards the bottom of the "glass" with a lighter sprinkle at the top- simulating a fizzy martini. Sprinkles are like my nemisis. I love them (they're delicious and look fantastic), but I always have a hard time getting them to cooperate.

I was going to use the dragees here too, but again opted not to. I do think that next time I will put some food coloring in the royal icing (here used to pipe the outline of the martini glass) to have the color match the sprinkles.

Enough martinis to last me for days...

Give yourself a Hand

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I co-hosted a Jewelry party this weekend at my place. I wanted to come up with some fun and creative snacks. I love a good cheese and cracker plate as much as anyone, but since I love to bake I wanted to make something fun.

I saw these adorable hand cookies in a book (I'll find the source later), and thought they would be just perfect. The cookie cutter I got (from cookiecutter.com) was smaller than the size in the book, so I had to improvies a bit with the candies. I used Spice Drops (cut in half) for the rings and Hershey Mini Kissables for the bracelets. The candies were secured on the cookie using Royal Icing.

I want to get some dragees to use as accents, but unfortunately that did not happen in time. I don't think anyone noticed but me, as usual.

Here's a shot of all the cookies lined up on the counter, after being decorated.