Let them eat cake!

The last couple of months I've been taking Wilton cake decorating courses at JoAnn's. Cake decorating is has been on my "That'd be neat to learn" list for a long time. These classes were short and taught in classic hands-on Alaskan style by a lovely woman named Joyce, who has been decorating cakes for 40 years.

If you get a chance to take one of these classes you should, it's fun! I had an absolute blast and the family has been quite cooperative about eating my homework. Be warned that while the class fees are cheap, you can get sucked in buying materials. Required materials aren't terribly expensive, but if you get into it you want to get lots more (join JoAnn's mailing list for coupons)!

Things I learned: grocery store canned icing is no good for decorating, it's just too soft. You need buttercream icing, also called wedding cake icing. And those candy cake decorations you buy in the cake mix aisle? They're made from royal icing! Royal icing, by the way, can single-handedly kill an electric hand mixer. When I finally get a good-sized kitchen, and big Kitchen-Aid style counter mixer is on my list.

Anyway, I though I'd share my final project. The flowers and butterfly are "candy":