Deflated balloon

Our cake decorating class got cancelled last week so last night was our second class. I was excited to learn some great new techniques but was fairly disappointed. I did pick up a few good tips about how to hold the bag without killing your hand and how to really smooth out your icing. But as far as actually doing any decorating it was a big thumbs down from me. We learned how to work with gel paste and how to make stars but instead of everyone making up 5 different colors of gel for the balloons (which does make sense) we had to each make up a color and share them. So for some reason I was the last to get any of the colors so I had to really work to get anything out of the bags and then smear it around to make it fill the balloon. By the time I was done this everyone else was finishing up doing their star borders. So there I was trying to get my border done when everyone else was cleaning up and packing out. I don't like feeling rushed. I mean, I guess I didn't have to have it finished by the time I left but... oh well. Anyway, When I got home I used up the rest of the icing in my bag and practiced a squiggly border and filled the top with stars. Well, not filled because I ran out of icing. Oh yeah, btw and fyi for those people like me who have never worked with shorteneing, Tenderflake and Crisco are not the same thing. Carolyn was telling me the story of how she almost used animal fat shortening to make her icing which made me realize that I just did! As if icing isn't bad enough for you already! EEEWWW!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I just started a cake decorating course this last Wednesday. I was a little disappointed because we didn't get to do any hands on stuff yet and I had to buy a bunch of extra stuff on top of what the starter kit would have had. Long story short, I'm only gonna take course 1 and learn the rest on my own. Well, I came home from the class itching to do some decorating. I have never really done any before but I figured...how hard can it be? I whipped up some icing and started practicing. Oh man did my hand hurt! So at least I know now before next class that I need to buy one of those hand workout machines! We have to bring an iced cake to decorate for next class and I have never really done that either. So I wanted to practice but I didn't want to do just a boring cake but as I said my hand wasn't up to doing major decorating. So....here is my thanksgiving cake!