Hello,

I have been working in cake decoration for a year and a half at home (self learning) and i would like to take courses in the Wilton School of Cake Decoration. I don't live in Illinois (where the school is located) so i will be traveling there.

Has any of you ever taken a course/class there?  If so, do you recommend it? or maybe recommend another institute? 

My purpose is to learn more and upgrade my skills and become more professional and maybe even become certified if applicable.  

I appreciate any advice you can give me.

Thank you

I have not attended there BUT......yrs ago when I was considering going there I was told by some long-time  Wilton teachers that it is exactly the same as you get if you attend the classes offered at Michael's only taught at a much faster pace.   At that time in my 'career' they told me I was beyond what was taught there.  Sooo if you can attend local classes you would save yourself the travel and hotel costs.  Yes, it will take longer because those classes are once a week (instead of all crammed into daily work) but if you are lucky enough to get a good Wilton instructor you will learn just as much - and possibly more as the instructor just might add much from her experiences :)  Also you probably will retain much more as you will have time between classes to practice and absorb from week to week.  

Speaking of local Wilton instructors......they delight in coaxing new students into becoming instructions even before you finish the 1st course!!  That's why I said above if you are lucky enough to get a good one that has been around awhile :)  

My husband and I both took the Wilton Master course along with the Fondant modeling class and the Gumpaste flower  class last year. It was a very intense,quick moving  2 weeks and we learned alot of new techniques and ideas. Paula was a great instructor and had so much patience,Sandy and Mary and  everyone was so nice . It was great to tour the Wilton headquarters and see the new ideas for some of this years products. We felt the more skills we learned we'd be better for it and it was great just doing something together. The plan is for my husband  to become my backup and maybe down the road after retirement to join me fulltime.

. My husband had never decorated a cake before and he did a 3 tier wedding cake while there. Not bad for a beginner,I was very proud of him. He really liked making the fondant figures while I liked the gumpaste flowers. Met lots of nice people from the US ,Israel, Bermuda and Chile. We have misplaced our notebooks with everyone's addresses and we're hoping they are somewhere  in the storage trailer while we're remodeling  and hope to find them  soon.

As a former Wilton instructor , I can say it is a game of chance on who you get. If they NEED an instructor, any one will do. Honestly, I was barely screened....if I knew anything, or not. And I live in a large city....top 30 in the USA. Base pay  was ridiculously low and they expected ME to recruit students for my classes. The immediately lower the minimum number of students, and I was told I had to teach a two hour class for $10 (plus my own supplies plus my clean up a tear down time)....NO WAY. My replacement was hired, and I saw her piping skills as she took course one from me. Attended two classes, and was assigned to teach. Not great, not an enthusiast.....blah. Would not want to pay for a class she taught.

HOWEVER, I was invited to "seminar" where they teach you to teach the four courses and gave you lots of free stuff. I drove 200 miles to one and stayed in a hotel overnight.Two full days of caking.  Worth it! We also got 40% classes at the headquarters....if you went.... as a Wilton instructor.

There are MANY who love to teach, feel they are fairly compensated, and do it. Any MANY wonderful teachers, and, many bad ones too. Just be careful, look for reviews, whatever....I would drop by during class time and see how the teacher was doing BEFORE I signed up for a class.

Or sign up to be a Wilton instructor, if you are in a teacher shortage area,  and get 40% off.

Many, many moons ago  (in  the 1990s) I taught Wilton for about 8 yrs.  ..............johnson6ofus said:  I was invited to "seminar" where they teach you to teach the four courses and gave you lots of free stuff. I drove 200 miles to one and stayed in a hotel overnight.Two full days of caking...............  Yep, been there did that also :)  In my opinion this would be much better than going to the Wilton school if you could ever get invited to one.  

I've taken several of the Wilton's classes, and I would recommend them. I've learned a lot from taking them and it's a lot of fun. The classes are not expensive and I'm sure you already have many of the products that you'll need. I say go for it!

I teach Wilton classes at Michaels Craft stores in Clovis, CA.   The classes are very informative and fun.

@Lucrettia...your skills are way too good to learn much from the Wilton courses...IMHO. Youtube has some fun stuff and classes at cake shows for more expert level would be better. Like That takes the cake in Austin, TX. A Wilton instructor is told to follow the book EXACTLY, so if the book doesn't represent skills you lack...it is not worth it-as a class.

Referring to the standard 4 courses Wilton teaches across the country, not the "Wilton school" ones you originally asked about: for $20 (on sale, half price) it is fun to spend a few evenings playing with sugar. .... but again, at your level, I doubt you will LEARN anything you haven't taught yourself.

This is my 3rd attenpt to type a reply....they keep getting erased somehow :(    After reading the above post by johnson6ofus I took at look at your pix.  Yes, I agree you do very nice, neat work.  However I don't see a single flower.   Maybe look for a local Wilton class on flowers.  Since I specialized in b'cream I favor piped ones but fondant/gp ones would be nice to learn too.  If you want to learn piped b'cream flowers look  for books/online videos by Roland Winblecker (not sure of spelling).  Since you are self taught I bet your could learn plenty on your own following books/videos.  And if you can't afford tobuy books, check out your local library.  There is a wealth of info there:)