Wilton Method - Fondant and Gumpaste

So, I'm done with Wilton courses. I've actually been done for almost a month but I just suck at fitting this blog thing into my schedule. I'm trying to get caught up before I buckle down for the GMAT. Below was my final cake for the Fondant and Gumpaste course. This course consisted mainly of making gumpaste flowers, something I don't think I'll ever do often. Joanna was much better at it than I so, should we ever recognize our dreams of having a bakery, she'll do gumpaste and fondant flowers while I do the buttercream ones.

This was kind of an experimental thing that I didn't spend too much time on as I was making this on a Monday night after work. I wanted to use my Wilton Sportsball pan, which I did for the main part of the skull. However, I used my old standby of the Hershey's chocolate cake recipe, which was a little moist for being shaped into a sphere. For the jaw, which rivals only Bruce Campbell's in size, I used a mini-loaf pan. Once again, I used homemade marshmallow fondant, although I didn't have as much success making it this time. I love the stuff, and it tastes a lot better than the boxed Wilton crap, but it is harder to work with and dries out quickly.

Wilton Method Course III

Fondant, gum paste, and tiered cakes...plus proof that, for me, every day is Halloween.

For this cake, I also took a crack at making Marshmallow Fondant. It's not difficult to make and tastes far better than the rollable boot leather than Wilton sells as premade fondant. The recipe can be obtained from Confections of a Foodie Bride

Here's the final result of my efforts. Butterscotch cake with vanilla buttercream covered by marshmallow fondant. My coworkers loved it.

Cake class, week two

This is a crappy picture from my Blackberry but making this cake amused me. The writing is fairly self explanatory. I had weird colors of icing going (never choose colors when you're tired) and used this cake as essentially a practice board for some techniques (and to get rid of excess icing). Thus, the writing is a disclaimer, if you will.

A pirate's life for me...

As I mentioned, Joanna and I are taking a cake decorating class. I've often said that my baked goods are delicious but I can't pipe for crap. Last night I made this cake. The lettering kinda sucks but I like the border I did and it amused me so I thought I'd share. This is NOT an admission of guilt so the RIAA, MPAA, and SBA can go suck a lemon.















L'chaim!