CUPCAKES

Here are the cupcakes I've made on the 3rd week of the Wilton Course. We are still practicing using the different tips. The kids liked the clown the most. I still don't like the too sweet frosting and looking for a frosting that will taste better and work the same as the buttercream frosting.

WILTON CAKE DECORATING CLASS

I started a Wilton Cake Decorating Class at our local Michaels store last week. It is only once a week and I have been there two times. So far we have learned how to make buttercream icing and how to use the different kinds of decorating tips. My first cake is not something I would post in my blog but my mom insisted that I should put a picture of it in my blog so here it is... I must tell you that frosting the cake was more difficult than I expected. I brought out lots of crumbs, I had a hard time to cover the cake completely, I had a hard time to make buttercream at the right consistency. But hey, this was my first time right! I am sure it will get better if I practise. I will also give the buttercream recipe here once I get proficient on making it. Personally, buttercream icing is too greasy and and too sugary and definitely not my most favorite icing but it is still good to learn how to make it. Because, you can make lots of decorations with this icing. Clowns, flowers, stars, shells, faces..... To make all these without the fondant, you need to know how to make the buttercream. I will try other icing recipes to find one that suits our (Turkish) tastebuds and still use this buttercream for decorations.

SUNFLOWERS AND MY PARENTS' DOGWOODS

I always impatiently await for the new instructional videos at floral design institute's website. The owner of the institute is Leanne Kessler. To me she is one of the best floral designers in America. I love her videos and I benefit from them a lot. I've seen this design on one of her videos too. She off course used fresh sunflowers in her design but I've found these sunflowers at Michaels for 25 cents each and used them instead of fresh sunflowers. And the dogwood branches that I used were from my parents. They know how much I love branches and they picked those for me. I will include Leanne Kessler's video to this post so you can see how it is made as soon as they fixed the problem in their site. For now, just pictures of my design...

SWEET BATH BEAR DIAPER CAKE

This diaper cake includes some gifts for the mom to be instead of gifts all for the baby. I added a Sweet Bath Bear Cherry Shower Gel and a Sweet Bath Bear Bubble Bath for the mom. And there are around 60 size 1 diapers and a cute pink teddy bear, "Sweet Bath Bear" they called it on the packaging. I also really like using silk flowers, even if it is just a few stems.
I started selling my diaper cakes on Ebay and locally. One person actually thought that these were real cakes and sent me an e-mail to ask which part of it is the actual cake:) I tried to explain that these were not meant to be eaten and made out of disposable baby diapers. She did not write back:) I think she needed real cakes for people to eat:) Anyways, I am very happy that people liked my cakes very much and I already sold some of my diaper cakes. Even though I have been kind of obsessed with these lately, my mind is still at the wedding flowers. I am planning to spend some time on those bridal bouquets I wanted to practice making but I can only go to my little studio after the kids are asleep so we'll see...