I've recently completed Wilton Course One, and next week is our final week in Course Two. I'm very excited to be learning all of these new things, but I'm also very disappointed in our Wilton Instructor.

For our Course One "final", I brought a 3 layer square cake and asked if she would help me do the corners so that they would look like corners instead of rounded edges. She told me that I had done a "great" job on the corners and they looked good to her. She also thought my buttercream smoothing job was "great" and I thought it looked like crap!!

I guess I'm just frustrated with the whole thing. We completely skip parts of the course that our class wants to learn. We skipped the whole part about color flow..." we could just read the book and do that on our own."
Also... we seriously spent about 2 minutes on learning how to basketweave. She just held her hand up in the air and did it on her hand while everyone watched. That was it.

I've learned more from reading on this site, the tutorials, and all the great advice you all give!

Any suggestions for getting the most out of the class with a bad teacher?

Thanks in advance!!

It is unfortunate that your instructor isn't giving you what you need. You can learn many things from reading the book and practicing. There are also some additional guides on the Wilton site.

You should complain to the instructor, the store manager and to Wilton.

I agree with JoAnnB, complain to the instructor, store manager, and wilton. You should be learning everything in the book, that's what the course is all about. Is there another store where you could take course 3? I loved my instructor, for course 3 I was the only student, but I had to miss a day so I made it up by going to one of her other classes. She had 7 students in that class and went around to each one to make sure they were doing okay, so I know there are good instructors out there!

i also agree. My instructor was great very personal with each student. You should definitely complain to wilton because as much as we may not like there BC taste they do have standards that they hold themselves to. Otherwise they wouldn't be the most popular cake decorating classes in the US (i am assuming b/c i haven't ever seen another cake dec class besides at colleges)

I'm sorry your instructor isn't a good one, but unfortunately, I doubt Wilton will do anything. Are you in an area where other stores offer Wilton classes?

There's a good reason why there's an insert for the practice board on which you learn and practice basket weave. That's so gross she did it on her hand! Blech

I'm sorry you are having a hard time. Is there a requirement somewhere for the instructors to do what Wilton requires? Showing you the basketweave on the hand seems a bit much to me. I'd talk to the store manager or e-mail Wiltons.

leadra, I can SO empathize. I took course 1 & 2 in 1999, with a wonderful instructor. I never took 3 because fondant didn't interest me. I just decided to take it, so I can learn more about tiered cakes. Well the new instructor STINKS! I can't believe that I am WAY better than her. She can't even do a decent row of shells and I am not kidding! Her ruffle isn't even CLOSE! How this woman got the job is beyond me. I'm so disappointed because I'm learning nothing from her, I'm better than her! (and I'm not trying to sound full of myself at all!) I told her I didn't like the end of my ruffle and she said I should be so happy with how good it is. Well, I'm not! We obviously don't have the same standards.

So, I know what you mean. I would just say that she probably doesn't know how to do some of those techniques, that's why she can't help you. Just try to go over it yourself a few times, and post questions at this site and you'll get further that way. BTW, you'll get color flow easily, it seems intimidating but its really not.

I noticed on the back of the course 3 book there's a phone number to call to be a Wilton instructor. I'm thinking of calling it and at least voicing my opinion that my teacher should not be teaching until she gets better. I'm also going to call the store and talk to the mgr because I wanted to take the gumpaste class but it's taught by this woman and there's no way I'm taking one with her again!

I am sorry you are having so much trouble with your instructor! I have recently completed Course 1, and I am planning on taking 2 and 3, and the fondant/gumpaste class if I can. The woman that that teaches the classes is wonderful, and she has decorated cakes professionally for years. I just lucked out because I had looked into classes at a few Michael's stores, but this one was close and had the most convenient times for me. I agree that you should complain to Wilton. They should know who they are hiring, and how can they improve their classes if they don't hear about the problems? If there isn't somewhere else you can take classes, you can learn a lot on your own. Before I started Course 1, I learned a lot on my own from baking911.com - they have very good detailed instructions. I even managed to make my own fondant and cover a small cake with it from the instructions on their site. It didn't look that great, but not bad for a 1st attempt. Then our Wilton instructor recommended CakeCentral. I wish I had found it sooner! Good luck!

Thanks to everyone! I'm thinking you all are right. She doesn't know how to do a lot of the things and that's why she can't show us. Grrr.....

I'm with you eieio1234, what I think looks good and what she thinks is good must be two totally different things!

So.. in the mean time... expect me to be asking lots of questions to you all!

I think I will give Wilton a call. I don't get the impression the store manager will do much about it.

Once again! Thanks to all of you!