My first official cake. And what I learned to follow. Those of you more experienced please let me know any hints, tips or if I am really off base in anything I say so that I know the right way to do this.

AWESOME BC DECORATING ICING ! I read here and on Wilton's about putting meringue powder in buttercream to stabilize. I bought Wilton's meringue powder and used the recipe that came with it. I AM IMPRESSED! Crusted beautifully. I thinned with a few tsp of corn syrup (or should I have used milk?) for the base icing and just used straight to pipe.

WILTON'S SNOW-WHITE BUTTERCREAM ICING
2/3 c water
4 tbsp Wilton Meringue Powder
12 cups (approx 3 lbs) sifted confectioner's sugar
1 1/4 cups solid vegetable shortening
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp Wilton Clear Vanilla Extract
1/4 tsp Wilton Butter Flavor

Combine water and meringue powder. Whip at high speed until peaks form. Add 4 cups sugar, one cup at a time, beating at low speed after each addition. Alternately add shortening and remaining sugar. Add salt and flavorings. Beat at low speed until smooth. Makes 7-1/2 cups. May be stored up to two weeks in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

IMPORTANT: Cover it while you are not working with it because it will crust in the bowl if exposed to air. I covered it with wax paper and a damp towel.

SMOOTHING A CAKE: I had never been able to figure out how people did this before lol! I could never get "smooth" bc with a spatula, warm or otherwise. This icing made it very easy! After I crumbcoated I refrigerated it for about 10 minutes to set. Did base icing and let set until it crusted (about 15 minutes or so) at room temp. I had no Viva or parchment, so I just used waxed paper. Laid it gently over the cake and smoothed with a fondant scraper (I think that is what it is called-looks like a pastry scraper but is plastic.) My base icing was very smooth, so this I think I have the hang of.

ICING TIPS AND BAGS: I used disposable pastry bags. This icing unthinned seemed a bit thick for these bags-I had a few blowouts. I thought maybe I was using too much pressure but I don't think so. And I liked the consistency and didnt want to thin it to pipe. And I didnt overfill the bags. I think I need to invest in real pastry bags. I also understand you can use parchment bags? (NOTE TO SELF: Buy real pastry bags next week.) Unless someone else knows what else I could be doing wrong and that it isn't that the icing is too thick, let me know and I'd appreciate it!

My tip work leaves a LOT to be desired. Between being unfamiliar with what the tips do and trying to gauge the correct pressure, my relative inexperience is obvious in the inconsistency on some of the sizing. What I suggest for me is buying a practice board and spending a lot of time with icing lol!

CAKE BOARD: Learned it is good to use a cake board. This makes it very easy to work with your cake and pick it up. I think they only costed about a quarter at my bakery supply store.

NOTE TO SELF: Buy a turntable. Will make life much easier.

Sorry for the tacky colors lol! Since this was just a play cake I was just using up some opened colors I had.

I do not know how to add 2 pictures to one post so...

Picture of the sides...

Turned out good for the first try. Sound to me like you learned alot. A turntable does make life easier. Keep up the good work and yes, practice, practice, practice. When I first started I made some icing that I just kept in a big plastic bowl with a good tight fitting lid that I just used, scraped up and used again. It keeps of a long time in an air tight container.

Looks great!

To answer your questions there are three types of icing consitancy. Stiff, medium, and thin.

Stiff is what the recipe makes. That's what you use for roses. You can still add some corn syrup (about 1-2 teaspoons per cup) if your edges are ragged.

Medium is adding 1 teaspoon of water or milk per cup.

Thin is adding 2 teaspoon of water or milk per cup.

Thin icing is for frosting, leaves, and writing. Medium is for piping shells and stuff like that.

I think to frost the cake you add 2-3 tablespoons of corn syrup per batch of frosting? It's something like that.

I use the featherweight bags. The disposables just seem like a waste, and the parchment is too much work. A disposable comes in handy if you want to add a strip of color.

One thing you might want to do is pick up a copy of the Witon yearbook. It's $10.00 and has all the basic stuff in the back.

Thank you! I will do that in my next practice try to find the 3 different consistencies and will post back with examples. Thats why I am here to learn.

Sounds and looks like your off to a really great start, and I'm sure the more you learn the more you will love it.

I have also had problems with the Wilton disposable decorating bags popping. Now I use Keeseal bags and find them to be much better. You did a great job on your cake...keep it up!
traci

You did a great job on the cake!
All I can really say is keep practicing

I also wanted to let you know you are not alone with the bag problem
I have tried everything. parchment, disposable, and my good ole' wilton pastry bags. I CAN NOT decorate with anything but pastry bags for some reason. The disposable bags feel like they are slipping out of my hand, I blow up the parchment bags. So I went out and invested in about 10 wilton bags and I love them. Do what you are comfortable with!

Keep up the good work
Denise

A good tip I have to offer is to look on ebay for the Wilton course books. I bought mine along with the little parctice board for about 20 bucks. There are 3 course books and they teach you alot about pressure control and about what the tips do. Good investment! Great cake by the way!

Or you could go to your local caft store and buy a kit. I bought the course 1 kit before and it came with all the tips you need for course 1, couplers and two lightweight bags. I tend to use thoes for borders and the disposable bags for most colors.

Thanks again all! I did buy the Wilton Course 1 & 2 books. I went back and read them more closely AFTER I did the cake lol! Like it also has the information on consistency and how to thin frosting for the different purposes. I will be getting a practice board on payday (out of budget for right now). I also bought a ton of tips (the Deluxe set plus about 15 others) and other assorted doo dads (like the flower lifter, tip cleaner, couplers, disposable bags which I intend to dispose of lol!, etc.) I will be studying them more this week and try one of the cakes in the books next weekend.

I didnt get the Course 3 book because it appeared to be a lot of fondant and tiers-not really anything I intend to get into. But it mite be nice to have so I think I will go back and get it. Also someone recommended the Wilton book about uses of the tips-I am definitely going to get that one.

I love the fact that you did a "cake report" - I do the same thing! I took Course I last summer, so am a complete beginner, and have found that every cake seems to have its own set of problems and learning experiences. I started keeping a notebook of cakes where I write down the date of each cake and note everything that went right or wrong, and what I learned from it.

It started as a way to channel my frustration and disappointment (geez, this is harder than it looks ), but has ended up being a great way to track what I've learned along the way.

I think your cake looks pretty darned good. Let's both keep practicing to catch up with these skilled veterans.

i like your report and it will probably help other newbies coming to the site! i learned so much the first week i was on here probably a hour or more every day!
i was going to comment that in the 1st course book the recipie for the icing is a little smaller. it might be easier at first to do the smaller recipie (i know it is for me using a hand mixer still!).
this i believe is that recipie, if i am missing anything please someone correct me:
1 cup crisco
1 teasp butter flavoring (i like to do 1/2 teasp butter and 1/2 teasp something else like lemon or vanilla)
2 tablespoons water or milk
pinch of salt
--cream the above
1 tablespoon meringue powder
1 lb powdered sugar (i found this at walmart in boxes for like 89 cents i think)
--add the above to the cream mixture and mix, mix, mix. i might be doing it wrong, but i add the sugar in thirds so that it incorporates better. so like, i add the meringue powder and 1/3 of the box, then mix till incorporated, then add the 2nd third, mix, then the last of it.

what i did this weekend was add the coloring between the creaming and the adding of powdered sugar because i knew i needed a bright yellow to cover the whole cake...i loved doing that because i HATE hand mixing to incorporate the colors.

this recipie gives you stiff consistency. add 1 teasp of water or milk for medium, and another for thin. i like the ratios on this recipie it makes it simple to figure for larger quantities.