Daffodils

Once I was home for the summer, I decided to take a real Wiltons Cake Decorating class at my local Michaels craft store. The class I took was called "Flowers and Gum Paste", which taught you (can you guess?)how to make different types of flowers out of icing and gum paste. It was SUCH a helpful class and I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in cake decorating. The class only had about 10 people in it (all middle aged women of course) which allowed for personal instructions and attention.

Throughout the class we were ultimately working toward our final cake which we were to decorate during the last class. The final cake was to be created and designed by ourselves, so I was torn between making a cake with roses or a cake with daffodils, but finally decided on the daffodils only because its something that you do not see everyday.

The daffodil petals are piped with a specific tip. Once the petals have been piped the tips must be pinched by flour powdered fingers. After the base has been made the tubular center is piped by circling icing upward, "as high as you dare" according to my instructor. The final touch is to squiggle icing around the top of the tube.

The side of the cake is a basket weave pattern which is nice on the eyes texturally and also is great because it hides any imperfections. I learned from this cake to always start the basket weave from the BOTTOM. Not the top. This is because the bottom of the cake is the closest you will come to having a straight line to follow, while the top of the cake is sometime slanted. Its so simple but will make your life so much easier.

The border of the cake is a "reverse shell" (the direction of the shells alternate), which I am torn about. I think that it looks cool and unique to someone studying it, but a little sloppy at a quick glance.

In the end I absolutely loved this cake. I thought it had the perfect balance of color, elegance and texture. I would make it again in a heartbeat.