Cake Decorating

I started my first Wilton cake decorating class last Thursday and it was amazing!! I didn't think I really knew that much more than the average baker, so every time the ladies said, "I didn't know that!" I felt really good about teaching! 

I took some cupcakes to work the other day for someone's birthday, Vanilla Chai cupcakes to be exact, and they were kind of amazing. The girl who I took them to gave me the nickname "Kelly the Cupcake Kid." I love it! I really enjoy making cupcakes because they are so easy. And the first night of the class was all about cupcakes, so I was in my zone. 

But next week is about cakes. And while I have decorated them, I'm no expert! So I wanted to get in some practice. And Marius was so gracious as to have his 16th birthday just when I needed to practice decorating a cake!! 

Red is really hard to make, FYI. It takes a LOT of food coloring.

I toyed with a World of Warcraft cake, but didn't think my skills were quite there yet. Marius likes Bob Marley, so the red, yellow and green cake was born. The layers on the inside match the frosting on the outside. (I just now realized I did the frosting upside down... red was supposed to be on the bottom and green on the top. Oops.) The cake layers are flavored almond, lemon, and chocolate. 

The top has a pink shadow because I was trying a piping gel technique to give me a guide for the lettering. But I didn't have clear gel. And the pink was pretty bright. But the good news is that technique is pretty easy to master!

Ok, so wish me luck for the next session!