Cake Decorating

As a kid, I remember sitting in my Granny's kitchen while she baked cakes waiting for the beaters or the bowl to lick when she was done making her homemade icing. And when she was feeling especially generous, which she usually was, she'd give me and my brothers (and cousins if they were there) a small bowl of frosting all to ourselves. Of course we could never finish it because even though it was a small bowl, it was practically pure sugar! My Grandma was one of the best old-school cake decorators that I've ever known. My brothers once had a Darth Vader cake, and I remember the Tweety Bird cake she made for my 4th birthday, brought to my daycare to share with my friends. I'm very fortunate to still have Granny around, but age and arthritis have rendered her unable to make her beautiful cakes anymore. I waited just a little too long to develop any real interest in cooking and baking, and I moved a few hours away on top of it, so I didn't get the opportunity to learn cake decorating from the one woman whose cake decorating shoes I could only dream of trying to fill some day.

Nonetheless, my interest in baking and in being able to create beautiful cakes and other desserts has flourished, and my bestie, T, enrolled me in a cake decorating class as a birthday gift. You see why I love her? It was a three hour class dedicated solely to decorating this cake...three hours!! That didn't include baking the cake or making the icing...just decorating. Sheesh. What was I thinking?? I kid, I kid. Though I should have thought to eat breakfast first, and my hands protested at having to hold and squeeze the icing bag for so long, I had a wonderful time and I think my cake turned out pretty cute. Not perfect by any means, but pretty darn good for a first-timer!! Some of my grape bunches and border fell off during travel, but hey...we'll blame that on the bumps and temperature :)

This was the first of many classes I hope to take in the future, and hopefully you will see the improvements as they come along!