The finale cake

My last lesson for the wilton course 1 was just a day after the lesson 3. This was because E needed to leave for a work trip the following week and the day we are supposedly gonna have the last class is a public holiday, so instead of finishing the class 1 week later, we decided to push it forward.
This lesson, we have to decorate a finale cake, based on what we learnt in the past few lessons. It's basically making use of the piping tips and techniques. I have chosen the rose as the main theme for the cake... a BLUE one too! I actually wanted to place roses at the sides of the cake , but it was not possible due to the weight of the piped roses. It'll end up falling off the sides! So I decided to pipe sweet peas on the sides instead. I kept the colours used simple too. In fact, I had thot of using the only 1 colour, besides the white at the base of the cake, but in different tones for the vines, leaves and flowers, but looking at the amount of buttercream leftover from the last few lessons, I decided to just add some colour tints to them and use them for the cake instead. But I did whip up 1 recipe of the buttercream to frost the cake.
Here's what I did for the finale cake. I'm glad to say that I'm happy with the design and it looks so sweet. :P

Piping designs

These were done during the Wilton course 1, lesson 3. We learnt how to pipe and make use of different tips. For decorating on cupcakes, I decided to do a bouquet of flowers, a clown and practise the rose.... here's what I had done.

Looks familiar?

I'm sure those who had attended the wilton courses will be familiar with this cake design. This is usually the cake design to create by the 2nd class, during course 1 of wilton cake decorating class.

For those who are my regular blog readers, you may be puzzled why I took up this class at this time when I had started my cake decorating journey years ago.... well, I guess after frumbing in the dark for so long, it's time to have some formal education! LOLz... I remembered when I 1st started cake decorating, I did not even refer to any internet sites, eg. youtube or any baking sites, for any help. Most that I had done was by trial and error and I was glad that it still managed to "pass the test" for my family. I realised that there maybe some special techniques, tips or recipes that were revealed only when you signed up for the class, so when E asked me if I was interested for the wilton courses, I said yes immediately... well, almost immediately.

E had done a write-up on the 1st lesson of course 1, while this cake was done during the 2nd lesson of the same course.

I'm glad to have attended this course as I did pick up some tips and techniques for piping. And me being the only leftie in the class, my set of instructions varied slightly from the rest.

Techniques aside, I was quite surprised that alot of stuff are not inlcuded in the course. I was given the straight spatula, instead of the angled one (which will definately be a better choice to be included in the startup kit). They included the small brush for washing tips, which was a very considerate gesture, making washing the tips a much easier. Besides the tools, we had to prepare cakes and buttercream for the class, which I find a chore as I had to find time to get all these ready after work. And the amount of buttercream needed was terrifying to me!

Also I had some issues with the instructor. She was not organised and professional enough. Many a times I wondered if I had signed up with another school, will I be able to learn more? Or is it that my expectations were too high? All these remained to be answered.

At the meantime, I'll try to enjoy the classes. There's only 2 more lessons to go. I'll make sure that I make sure of every minute spend there and learn everything that I should. One thing is for sure tho... practise makes perfect!