Of cakes and delicious frosting

I’ve been baking for a while now, and every time I bake a cake, I frost it well, but after that I’m stuck. I have no idea how to decorate it and make it pretty and presentable. I’ve been hanging onto a few tricks like using chocolate gratings and cut fruit, beyond that….I’m blank as a whiteboard.

So to learn the decorating techniques, I decided to take up the Wilton Cake Decorating Classes at Michaels. I’m done with three classes out of the four and it is definitely well worth it. I joined these classes at the right time, coz I know how to bake and am ready to decorate cakes.

We’ve learned to make the frosting, frost a pre-baked cake and also a few decorating techniques. It isn’t as hard as I thought it would be, I’m thoroughly enjoying myself too. For all the cakes I’ve baked till now, I’ve used a whipped cream frosting, so the usual buttercream frosting is new to me. The one taught in the class is very tasty indeed and is white as snow.

Our instructor suggested we use a box cake mix as that would be easy and inexpensive too. But I'm not a big fan of the cake mix unless its chocolate. I obviously would be sharing the cakes made at class with friends and I wanted them to have a good tasting cake too. So the past classes I've used the basic yellow cake recipe from the "New Baking Book" by Better Homes and Gardens.

Basic Yellow Cake

You will need:

2 ½ cup All purpose Flour
1 ¼ cups Milk
2 ½ tsps Baking powder
½ tsp Salt
2/3 cup butter
1 ¾ cups Sugar
1 ½ tsp Vanilla extract
2 Eggs

Preheat oven to 375F. Grease and lightly flour two 8 in. pans. Stir together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In a mixing bowl beat butter with an electric beater on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar and vanilla, beat until well combined. Add eggs, 1 at a time and beat and beat one minute after each addition. Add flour mixture and milk alternately to beaten mixture, beating on low speed after each addition just until combined. Pour batter into pans.

Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a wooden toothpick comes out clean. Cool layer cakes in a pans for 10 minutes and then invert onto wire racks to cool completely. Frost only after cakes have cooled completely.

These are the cakes from my second and third classes. The third class was last night and it was fun making these clown cakes. I was supposed to add another clown on top but ran out of time and it was too late when I got back home to finish it. I piped the word Clown and called it done:)

From my second class:


From my third class:


I'm looking forward to next class, where we "graduate" from Course 1. And of course we will have a Graduation cake too. More on that after the next class.

I'm sending in the Clown Cake to Bindiya for her event " My Favourite things: Cakes and Muffins"

25 comments:

  1. Your class is paying off girl, designs are really come out great!! Keep it up!:)

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  2. Thanks Asha dear, hope you are catching up with your other activities :)

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  3. Wow, these cakes are very beautiful!

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  4. those look really pretty girl!! looks like I should join Michaels too as I'm not too great with frosting:)

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  5. heeey did you write that "clown" on the cake? cool you truly have gone ahead in decorating the cakes :o) keep it up...

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  6. Thanks Meeso :)

    Hey thanks Mansi, you should take the class then, it will make a pro out of you :)

    I did write that Raki, thanks!! :)First time I tried to write something freehand on a cake...glad it came out well :D

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  7. looks like you have got a hang of it now... clown cake looks good :)

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  8. I like what you've done with this one. It is simple and says exactly what it means.

    I like simple, elegant decorations.

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  9. Thanks Suman :)

    Thanks Cynthia, glad you like it! :)

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  10. i wish i cud go for classes too :( they look lovely!!!

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  11. All the decorations look super...great going

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  12. Hi Namratha, thank you for calling by my blog and also for your lovely comment. I am aslo pleased to have found your wonderful site. Your cake decorating just looks stunning :) well done!!

    If you fancy exchanging links with me on your Food blog inspirations please do let me know - thanks.

    Rosie x

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  13. cake has come our really good namratha. u r too modest to admit it:) i cant see myself doing this for very long time:)

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  14. gret job nammu!!..you have the talend and the dedication for this..waititng to see ur next course cakes ;)

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  15. Namrata that's one of the most beautiful cakes I have seen in a long time, thanks for such a lovely entry!

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  16. That's just perfect Namratha. I esp. love the writing, so neatly done. I can only make little squiggles so I just leave out the decorating part. Thanks for the yellow cake recipe too :)

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  17. Thanks Nags, its a pity you don't have these classes there, do look for some other source though.

    Thanks Easy :)

    Thanks Rosie, I'm gonna add your blog link to my list, so you can go ahead and do it too :)

    Haha, thanks Sia, oh it really is very easy, join these classes and you will see :)

    Thanks Rajitha dear :)

    Thanks Bindiya :)

    Thanks Laavi, this is the first time I decided to write coz I couldn't make another clown... :D

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  18. Congrats on making such gorgeous cakes. I an so in awe of evryone who can bake wonderful cakes and frost n decorate them. I am still learning the baking tricks.

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  19. Namratha!! Gosh they look amazing!!! those classes are definitely paying off, love those beautiful n elegant cakes!!

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  20. beautifullll cakes namrathaa look like a store bough one

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  21. Oh they all looks so beautiful.
    And so really nice of you to make your own cake that using the box

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  23. Hi Namratha, Your cake looks beautiful. I really like your writing.Even i took those classes at Michaels and they are really worth.

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  24. Wow ! the cake looks delicious. Nice finishing . Those are really beautiful cakes.

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  25. Thanks Pooja :) ohh don't worry you will be doing this too before you know it! :)

    Thanks Padmaja, glad you stopped by)

    Haha, thanks Sagari, in fact my bro and cousins still don't believe I did it :D

    Thanks Happy :)

    Thanks Sandhya, the writing was in desperation to fill up the space :D

    Thanks Shriya :)

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