Wilton Method of Decorating Cakes: Session TWO

Well, the second session of my cake decorating class was....OK. And I only say that because I had planned to decorate a 2 layer cake, but after all was said and done, it turned out to be only 1 layer. Frosting the top and sides of the cake and making it nice and even is HARD. Especially if you have a lot of crumbs you are dealing with.

So first things first. I made my cake from scratch using this recipe that I found on Pinterest. I had never baked a cake before that called for soda pop in the recipe and I thought it sounded good! I used a Zevia coke instead of real coke because their is ZERO sugar and ZERO calories!!!

For the frosting, I made my own buttercream (it is soooo good) using this recipe:

1 cup butter (I use the Land-O-Lakes brand)

1 pound of pure cane powdered sugar

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp meringue powder 

First, cream together the butter and vanilla extract, then slowly add the powdered sugar and meringue powder until combined! 

I went ahead and made two batches of the icing.

Now for the cake, note that if you are planning on making a 2 layer cake, the batter should be spread evenly between the two pans. At first, I was only planning on working with one layer of cake (I used a 2" thick cake pan and was planning on cutting it into two 1" layers in class), but then I had a lot of batter left over so I decided to just bake a second layer. 

In the first class, the instructor told us that it works better if you bake the cake at 325 degrees instead of 350 degrees.

I didn't have the same amount of batter in each pan and so the second one did not get as big as the first one, as you can see below. 

This is how my cakes turned out! The one on the bottom is the one I ended up using for class.

In class, I learned that one of the most critical things to get right when icing a cake is to get the consistency of the icing right! 

The top and sides of the cake should be iced with medium-stiff icing. By the time I got to class and had worked with my icing to make it smooth again (I had stored it in the refrigerator and so it was hard), it was too soft, so I had to add a LOT of powdered sugar to it to make it stiffer. If the icing is too soft, it will pick up the crumbs off the top of the cake and it will not dry as fast. 

I didn't want to waste cake, so I saved the layer I didn't end up using and smeared the last of my green frosting on top. It's not very pretty, but it doesn't taste half bad. I had bought a lemon creme pie filling to put in between the two layers so there is some of that in this cake. 

The one I decorated doesn't have any filling.

:(

Ta-daa!! Here is the finished product!

(In case you are wondering, it's a cup-cake with green frosting and a purple base...STACI)...