The Icing Cometh...

Whew! This "posting every day" thing is exhausting!

I didn't post last night, because I was on my way to crash a cake decorating class.

I am going to pause a moment to let that sink in.

Take your time.

I have been wanting to take a cake decorating class since my grandmother made me my first Barbie doll cake, with the skirt made of cake. The idea of a legless Barbie, wearing only a frosting bodice, is probably something that will need to be worked out with some intense therapy, but at the time, I thought it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.

Cake decorating is one of those things that fascinate me. I can stand in the Publix, and watch the women decorating cakes for hours. The cakes spin, the icing flies, and shells and flowers appear as if by magic.

I don't know what started the most recent drive to take a class, but I decided that I was going to take the class that started yesterday. Classes are four weeks, one day a week, for about 2 hours. Not a huge commitment.

Historically, I think I have always thought about signing up mid-month, and by the time the next class rolls around, my hummingbird-like attention span will have moved on to something else (oh, look, shiny!). This time, the timing appeared to be right.

I was at a local Michael's last weekend, intending to register, but found myself in line behind a woman who was attempting to return an entire grocery bag full of beads and jewelry parts. Her receipt, no joke, was about 7 feet long. The clerk would take one little packet out of the bag, then begin to scan down the receipt to find it, circle it, and place the item to the side. Next item. I waited for about 3 minutes, almost had an aneurysm, and decided to do it later.

Since I had the calendar, I decided to call from my desk a few days later. I did call, and was told that all class registrations had to be done in person. Fine.

I finally made it back to Michael's this weekend, intending to register for the class that started on Tuesday. Naturally, by the time I arrived, the class was "full". Grrr...

I was more than a little annoyed, as I had spent some time online that weekend, looking at various cakes and techniques, and was excited about the class.

Yesterday at work, on a whim, I decided to call a different Michael's, and see if they had availability in their class.

They did have a class starting that day, and there was availability, but they weren't sure that they had an instructor (?!?). I asked if I could show up, on the off chance that an instructor appeared, and was told, sure, if you want to.

I presented myself at the Michael's and found that not only was the instructor there, but that the class was 40% off ($18 instead of $30) and that I was the only one in the class. This poor woman schlepped in all of her stuff, baked a cake, made icing, and I was the only one to show.

Woo hoo! Not only do I get to take the class, I receive personalized instruction!

Last night was the intro class, so we discussed the tools, tips, bags and recipes that would be required. I learned the difference between thin, medium and stiff icing, and the uses for each. I got tips on filling and frosting layer cakes, crumb coats and smoothing icing. We colored icing, using gel colors, which don't mess with the icing's consistency like liquid colors do. All in all, it was interesting, but not hands on. That is next week, WEEK TWO.

For week two, I need to bring a cake and a big batch of frosting. I am also supposed to have an apron, but I don't know where I am going to find one of those. Next week, we are going to actually start with stars and flowers. It should be very exciting. I will take my camera with, and post pictures of my progress here on my blog. I am sure that the results will be laughable, but hey, I get to play with my food, and that is always fun!

If you click here, you will see a link to the Wilton page about the classes. There isn't a lot of info there, but you can see the box that contains all of the tools for this class, and the pictures on the front of the box show some of the things that we will be learning this month (stars, shells, dots, people, leaves, roses). The cake on the cover is the one that I will be able to make in my last class.

Watch this space!