Wilton Course 1: Decorating Basics

Rose Technique on Cupcake

  While baking is a fairly new endeavor to me, my mom and my sister have always been big bakers. I was always content with consuming the baked goods, but never really interested in baking, or decorating.

   We have a tradition of decorating sugar cookies for many holidays, but especially Christmas. We use royal icing and dye a big batch into a rainbow of colors and go to town decorating our Christmas treats! Although I always look forward to this tradition, my cookies always pale in comparison to my sister's creative, quirky, impeccable design. Additionally, my mother is equally creative and has great technique when it comes to cake decorating, so when my cousin asked if I was interested in taking Wilton's Course 1 with her at A.C. Moore, I said, "Why not?"

Christmas 2009

   The course was $20 and consisted of two 4-hour sessions. Initially I was turned off by the prospect of cake decorating for four hours at a time, but the time actually flew by. In addition to the $20, they recommend purchasing Course Kit #1 which includes all tips, couplers, bags, and tools needed for the course. Because Candee already has the Wilton Professional Cake Decorating Kit, she loaned it to me for the duration of the course so I could save a little money ;) Thanks, Candee!!

Christmas 2010

   The first class consisted of a lot of practice. We just bought the Wilton Decorating Icing and added some food coloring to practice various techniques with different tips. Some of my favorites were the rosettes! The lesson kit includes a practice board and we spent time getting used to the bags, changing tips, and finally decorating some sugar cookies!

   The second class built on our skills learned in class one. Everyone  was a bit more at ease and moved a bit quicker. We learned the Pom-Pom flower, Mum, and Roses! The roses were absolutely my favorite and probably had something to do with the fact that I could make the roses better than the other two flowers. We practiced these skills on cupcakes instead of cookies.

Christmas 2011

   Also for the second class she encouraged us to make our own buttercream frosting from scratch, so I used the Wilton recipe found here. I used the Crisco that was NOT butter flavored (because I don't care for that flavor personally) and used 8 teaspoons of water and not milk so that the icing does not need to be refrigerated. I actually made this recipe twice because the first time I used tablespoons to measure the liquid aspect and my frosting came out too liquidy. The second batch was much stiffer so throughout the class I just mixed the two together to make whatever consistency I needed. Both consistencies were delicious. 

   We worked towards decorating a cake by the end of the class so I made a handful of roses and let them dry. Then I carefully iced my cake, and piped my letters. After that I placed my roses carefully using the special scissors, and then added the dots to pull the whole thing together. 

Proud Mama!

   Overall, I am incredibly proud of this cake. I almost don't want to eat it because it's so beautiful so it's still sitting on my counter...I didn't know that I had it in me, but it makes me want to practice more and ice more cakes!

   I would definitely recommend this course to someone interested in learning simple techniques for decorating, and I hope to continue on and take Course 2 in the future!

Stay sweet,
Jasmine