Wilton Cake Course 3

Last Wednesday was my last class for Course 3 of Wilton’s Cake Decorating series.   It’s a bittersweet feeling.  I really enjoyed all of the classes, but I will also be really happy to have my Wednesday evenings back and to have more time to bake on my own.  

 I think that Course 3 was my favorite out of all of the classes because we learned how to cover a cake in fondant, as well as how to make all kinds of lovely, delicate gumpaste flowers.  Even though buttercream tastes better, I definitely enjoy making flowers out of gumpaste and fondant more than using buttercream.  It’s so much cleaner and easier to shape exactly the way you want it.

Our last class session was hectic and most of us didn’t have enough time to finish decorating our cakes after covering them in fondant.  I think that my cake turned out pretty well considering that it was my first time covering a cake in fondant, but  I did learn a couple of things:

• 1.       Even though swiss meringue buttercream is beautifully smooth and delicious for a non-fondant covered cake, it’s not as easy to cover a cake with fondant that’s frosted with SMB because it doesn’t crust.  I had frosting all over my hands at the end of and my fondant looked bumpy because of the softness of the SMB.

• 2.       Don’t be scared to take the plunge and cut the fondant once it’s smoothed and draped!  The longer you wait, the more chance it will tear.  Most of us had at least one tear in the fondant on our cake.

• 3.       Use rubber gloves with handling fondant, or scrub, scrub, scrub your hands.  If you don’t, you will see every little fiber and speck on your fondant cake.  Fondant absorbs EVERYTHING when you work with it.

• 4.       Don’t overuse shortening with your fondant, or else it will become brittle and hard to work with.  It will also dry less smooth. 

I think I will be making another fondant cake in the near future, but I will probably not use Wilton fondant.  I have not yet tried making my own cooked fondant- only marshmallow fondant.  I have heard that Satin Ice is sort of the go to fondant for professional cake shops, though.  

My favorite part of this cake is all of the flowers.  Out of all of the flowers we learned to make, I think I will use the rose the most.  They are beautiful, delicate and not that time consuming to make.  The daisies and mums were also pretty easy and really cute.  The most time consuming flower we made was the carnation (not picture) because it had so many layers.  

Overall, I would encourage anyone who is interested to take these courses.  Since I live in the Los Angeles area, I took mine at the Continuing Education center at Santa Monica College.  This was really great because each class session is actually 3 hours, versus 2 hours at Michael’s Crafts.  

Happy decorating and baking!