CAKE and CUPCAKES!

We had our second and third classes and it was more hands on as we had hoped! Actually by the time I was done my hands…and clothes…and the table around me…we covered with icing! HAHA…but the cake looked nice.

We had to bring a cake for each of us and double recipe of icing—which meant four times as much for both Lady Hiva and I. Now, I did not like icing before this class, but now knowing what is in the recipe I almost want to throw up thinking about eating it (sorry to those of you that like icing…) It is literally Crisco lard, water, and sugar. The teacher of the class said, in her chipper tone, “It is great stuff! You can leave it out in a sealed container and it will be good for up to 12 weeks!”  YIKES! That is supposed to be a good thing?

Anyway, to move on from my rant, the class was fun. We first learned how to icing the cake then use paper towels to smooth it down so it almost looks like fondant. The room was full of laughs and conversations as we worked. The 7^th grader in the class sat next to me and every chance she had she would sneak the icing bag down so nobody could see it (except me) and fill her had with a large goop and then lick it off with excitement. I just pretended I still was not looking…haha.

We then decided that we had icing left so we used the remaining icing and the fancy equipment we have and we decorated our cakes. I wanted to see what one of the decorating tips did…but instead of practicing on a paper beforehand, I tried it right on the cake. Brrmp! I then had a glob of icing that I spent the next few minutes trying to shape into something useful. Who knows if it did…

Cupcakes were really fun! It is a smaller area to decorate and therefore easier to try some fun things. We learned how to make leaves and swirls and other tricks. Class was over and there were several cupcakes that we had not finished and we still had icing left…so when we went home I talked Lady Hiva into decorating more with me. (she agreed and then just sat there and took photos while I did them—her excuse was she did not want to get her hands greasy again…LAME!)

I had fun, I experimented making roses (with the help of some British lady on YouTube). We also found the DC cupcakes recipe for cream cheese frosting...much better than the lard base of the butter-cream frosting.  All in all our new talent is quite fun! We are both enjoying it!