Cake Decorating 101

I am constantly wanting to try new things. Whether it's painting, pottery, knitting, or anything else crafty, I become interested for a couple of months, and then all my supplies end up in the back of a closet filled with other forgotten good intentions and projects. I rarely have the ambition to try my hand at something, and actually go through with it. But about a month ago I decided to try something different: cake decorating. My mom used to decorate cakes and sell them for weddings, baby showers, birthdays, etc. One of the dietitians that I work with also teaches the class at another store, and had lots of coupons to give me, and extra supplies. I was out of excuses, so I signed up. Our first class was yesterday, and it was great. Even though our class was taught at a table in the middle of the store. Listening to screaming toddlers for 2 hours while trying to pay attention was less than ideal. But apparently we will have a classroom next week, complete with a sink. We didn't do much this week as far as decorating, it was mostly watching the instructor, but it was still fascinating to me. We learned how to make white icing, which to my disgust, is made of Crisco, sugar, and water. My personal nightmare. We also learned how to fit the decorating tips into pastry bags, how to fill the pastry bags with icing, and how to make stars. We didn't have cake for this week, but we brought several cookies to decorate. I was going along in class, making my stars, putting the tip close to the cookie, squeeze, and lift straight up. Over and over and over. I heard the instructor say "Those are perfect stars." I just kept on going, surely she wasn't talking to me... but she was! "Thank you!" was all I could say. There is definitely a lot more technicality that goes into cake decorating that I never would have imagined. It's almost like edible chemistry class. Next week, we will be bringing out own cakes and decorating them. I'll have to see what flavor Alex is in the mood for. My goal is to be able to make a birthday cake for my cousin, Kayden's first birthday. We'll see what my graduation cake looks like in 3 more weeks...