My First Gum Paste Flowers-Class Was Today!
Decorating By SheilaF Updated 10 Jul 2006 , 7:44am by SheilaF
This was such a fun class! The instructor was great. Hopefully, I'll be able to take more classes out there in the future. An hour and a half drive makes that more difficult though. I made a lot of mistakes on these, but they aren't to bad for my first time. i can't wait to get to work on some more!
Thanks. They were fun to make, but not very good yet. Of course, I can find the mistakes really fast since I was there when they were made 
I'm really looking forward to playing more with this medium though. it'll really change what I can do with a cake. My niece will be jazzed as she's wanting me to do her "sweet 16" cake in a few months.
SheilaF, where did you take your class? You did a beautiful job, your flowers are great.
dawnrunner
San Diego. There's a place there called Do It With Icing and they offer the classes. Well worth the $50 IMO. All supplies for the class were provided (but you didn't get to keep them) so you didn't even have to worry about purchasing supplies ahead of time that you might never use again. And she is a really fun instructor!
SheilaF, thanks for the info. SD is over a 2 hr drive from our area so that leaves me out.
I totally hear you on that one. It was an hour and a half drive for me. I got my husband to agree to let me go b/c I told him about cake camp in Vegas first. ANd how cool it would be (they have a 3 day workshop in Vegas the first week of September) then told him about this class and it would be "OK for now" so he agreed I understand the wilton instructors are taking courses on gum paste flowers now and will most likely be providing that course in addition to the basic courses. Maybe ck with your local Michaels (or where ever cake classes are offered) to see if they will be providing this in your area anytime soon?
Is that Wilton's course three? I didn't realize there was an actual wedding cake course. There's not a lot in this area, which is suprising to me for being in the heart of Orange County. The one cake store I went to in Tustin that offers classes, I was not happy with the general atmosphere of the place. So I would not even consider taking classes there. ANd most of what they had are what Wilton offers at Michaels and the Tall Mouse. it'd be so much easier if I wasn't such a visual learner! LOL.
Sheila, thanks I will check with Michael's. Our Wilton instructor there was a bit on the distracted side - it was hard to keep her on task so we could finish our projects. I am hoping someone else will start teaching the classes so I can do the last course.
Hey I think your flowers look great. When you are doing gumpaste flowers just remember nature isn't perfect. Keep up the good work
Your flowers look great! I haven't tried gum paste flowers before, but plan on it real soon. There aren't any classes offered right now, so I am going to try and self teach. I am waiting for a book to arrive from Amazon.com, and bought some supplies from our local Michael's. I hope my first ones turn out as good as yours did.
I saw the Vegas cake camp too. Hubby said okay, but like you I said with 4 kids running around (youngest is 11mo.) I thought I better wait until the next one - 2 yrs from now. Do you think we will still need the class in two years??? LOL!
There's always something new to learn! I'd love to do the cake camp. The classes are already pretty full now for this one anyway. And I totally understand on the 11 mo old. Mine was about that age when I took the wilton classes here locally, and it was a chore to get him to watch them then. I only got to take courses 2 & 3 because the guys at work wanted to know where all the cakes are? Why did they stop coming? LOL. I think they still miss the once/week cakes they were getting. And with courses 2&3, it was once/week for 8 weeks since I took the classes back to back! I understand they change the location each time too. From what the instructor said at class yesterday, the last cake camp was in Riverside. That's where I used to live and only a 40 min drive in good traffic!
Uhhhg, to think it was so close to you the last time. I have taken Wilton 1 & 2, and another class from a local bakery. The rest is practice, practice, practice.
You know the cake camp is every other year. I wonder where it will be 2 years from now. I hope not too far. I would really love to go, and I think my kids will finally be old enough to be away from them for a weekend or so.
Your flowers look great! I'm so jealous! I wanted to take a course on gumpaste flowers after I finished my 3 Wilton courses, but it just isn't offered where I live! I bought the gumpaste kit by Wilton, which comes with an instruction book, some tools, and cutters, and I'll just try to teach myself. I'm usually pretty good with teaching myself things, so I will give it a try! I'm having a little trouble getting started with it though! I've had the kit for a while, and I want to get started doing it, but everytime I pull it out to start, I wind up putting it away and saying " another time"! I'm not sure why I can't get started, but hopefully this will pass SOON!...lol...
The instructor actually pre-mixed and pre-colored all the gumpaste a couple days before class. She said it has to "cure" for 24 hours before you actually use it. But she used a box of powdered pre-mixed stuff that you just add water too. I can't recall the name off the top of my head. Sorry.
From what I understand, the next cake camp is going to be a cruise to Alaska or something? I vaguely remember hearing something along those lines, but I could be wrong. Me+boat on ocean=very sick person. Yuck.
I'm really bad about teaching myself stuff too. The wilton kit is hard to use (according to the instructor) b/c there are ridges. They are not perfectly smooth, so they'll rip your gum paste. She suggests sanding them down so they are totally smooth first. Of course, those are the tools I have too, but I couldn't find them the day of class so I'll need to sand them a bit before I can use them.
I wish mine come out that good on my first time. I know it won't but to dream.
Cake camp?!!!!!! I'd love to go. I am in Massachusetts but I would love to get away from these wild and crazy kids (girl 11- thinks she is 20 and boy 8 thinks he is two) Any excuxe to get away and have fun. Any way do you have any info or a site to get the info. I would realy appreciate it.
Vic
We have similar things to Cake Camp down here in Oz. They are great fun but you do suffer from brain overload when you get back. The good part is you get to meet lots of people who have the same interests (cakes of course) and you learn so much, thank goodness for notes.
Hopefully, someday, I can experience the overload Our gumpaste instructor said the first thing you should do when you get to one of those is hit the vendor area as the things you want sell out VERY fast. I doubt I'll ever do cakes on a professional level, but I like to learn as much as I can and it's fun to do them. My cakes are basically my edible works of art. Each one is an art project. And after I'm done and photojournalize the project, then they can do with it what they want. I have to download my camera first to make sure the pictures came out ok. i've had more than a handful that took a LONG time for my husbands co-workers to build up enough courage to cut and there are several cakes for parties that I had to cut because nobody else wanted to demolish it. But honestly, I get a rush from the reaction of the crowd. And I'm not even really THAT good yet. I'm a cake junky
Your gumpaste instructor is right the shops do sell out very quickly particularly the things the demonstrators are using as soon as a dem is finished everyone hits the shops to buy that special cutter, colour, whatever the demonstrator was using. I'm a bit like you and do it for fun although sometimes I would like to do it as a business, then I hear horror stories of brides being very difficult, so I will probably keep doing it for family and friends and sometimes they recommend me to others. Word of mouth is the best advertisement.
Quote by @%username% on %date%
%body%