I started a Wilton's beginner class this evening, as I thought it would be a good idea to learn piping skills in this manner.
I had trouble not showing that I thought it was nasty that we were taught to use the Wilton already-made icing for class. I bought a can for the class, and it was so stiff, I couldn't squeeze it out of the bag, and neither could the teacher!
We need to bake a cake for class #2, as well as make a batch of the Wilton icing. I've decided that I'm taking in my own SugarShack bc frosting. I made 6 qts of it last evening, and I can't make myself use the Wilton on a cake. Yuk! I'll be making a WASC cake with strawberry filling, and it deserves better than Wilton premade icing....
Question: will the Sugarshack work well for piping? I think we'll be learning the basic flowers and some borders.
I'm right there with you. I took my first class yesterday afternoon and tasted that buttercream. I might have said how nasty it tasted a little to loud...lol...opps. There is no way I'm putting that on my cake. I'll use it to practice and that's about it.
It's not the best frosting in the world, but when you are taking a class and everyone has their own idea of what frosting should look and taste like....it's a good place to start.
You don't have to use it. And it doesn't make you a cake snob, it makes you someone who knows what you like and why.
I found for making roses their canned frosting works great. The edges aren't all jagged like they can be when making buttercream, and its stiff enough for making flowers . So its the only thing I would use it on.
I use it on my competition (decoration only, not tasting) cakes when I cant use royal icing and need something that will stick like cement. I also used to use it to stick the cakeboard to the base, but recently found that piping gel works better. So it's good for glue and cement, but not much else.
The Wilton pre-made icing is a convenience item. There isn't anyone who thinks it tastes good but it does work for wilton students who don't have time to make icing for class.
I think too that icing is formulated for learning/practicing. Beginners fill the bag too full then hold the bag too long which makes the nicer buttercreams very soft quickly. Pre-made contains no butter so stands up to handling better.
JMHO but was a Wilton Instructor for 6 years. Saw how this product fits into the program.
The Wilton pre-made icing is a convenience item. There isn't anyone who thinks it tastes good but it does work for wilton students who don't have time to make icing for class.
I think too that icing is formulated for learning/practicing. Beginners fill the bag too full then hold the bag too long which makes the nicer buttercreams very soft quickly. Pre-made contains no butter so stands up to handling better.
JMHO but was a Wilton Instructor for 6 years. Saw how this product fits into the program.
I teach cake decorating to our local 4H kids its a wilton course but i wasn't required to take the courses to Be a wilton instructor- so i take my own creative licensing with the course- such as one of the first things they learn is how to make their own cake boards instead of buying them lol THEn we learn how to make a decent cake from mix AND how to make our own buttercream. the class is usualy just the right size so each student gets plenty of one on one instruction etc.
Wilton teaches students to make icing WAYYYYYY too stiff....they need to add more liquid to the recipe to do anything with it.....
Alot of students who work and rush to class in the evening love to buy that premade stuff....as long as your icing looks enough like the "right" buttercream the teacher will never care or even know. Who knows, the other students might be like "Hey how do you get your buttercream so nice?" (Ummm not use Wilton? haha)
I found the Wilton premade icing too stiff also, but very convenient. I think I used it once. Well I tried. What I ended up doing is adding some water to it to thin it out. But only do a few drops at a time. It can quickly turn into something too thin to pipe with.
Even then when I did use it I didn't put it on the cake, I just used my practice board and I took a cake pan and turned it upside down for practice piping around a cake. After I was done I just scooped it up and started over. As for my real cake I used SMBC which was a mistake. It was my first time making it and I didn't realize I had not made it to be stable enough. It worked for piping, I got a nice definition. But the room was very hot the day we did the cake and everything had a melted look to it. So after that I made my own frosting using Indydeb's recipe. It worked way better and went over well on taste too. My DH's coworkers loved it.
I'm such a cake snob I've never even tasted W pre-made frosting. And I won't. Ever.
I guilted a woman at Michael's out of buying a can of that crap. By the time I was done telling her how nasty it is she decided that making your own isn't really that hard.
KayMc - Sugarshack's works great for piping.
The Wilton icing is gross, but if you for true beginners (like I was when I took that course) it's VERY forgiving. Plus, being non-dairy, you can use it over and over for the whole course. My teacher didn't require us to bring in cakes every week, we just practiced on the plastid board. So you'd scrape it up and put it back in your bag.
As a WMI, I will say that while the canned icing can be nice when you are in a hurry it isn't my favorite thing. Wilton's idea by using it the first night of class is to get the students more interactive in the first lesson, to actually give you a piping bag in your hand and let you leave having done something more than sat there for two hours listening to us talk. How it works in reality will be seen in the coming months.
The one thing I have found with the premade can is the more you stir it (or squeeze it through the bag) the softer it gets.
I also ask my students to use the Wilton Class recipe in class. It may not be everyone's favorite, but it holds up well to class use. Since Sharon's icing is a crisco based it shouldn't be a problem, as long as you adjust it to the different thicknesses.
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