Ace of Cakes

Katrina registered me for a cake decorating class for Christmas this year and this is my first creation. The first week we learned how to level and frost a cake without getting crumbs or knife marks, and a few other things (I was obviously asleep the whole class evidenced by the plethora of crumbs and knife marks- I think the picture hides it well). This week we learned how to do stars, printing, dots and paper transfers. It's a fun class and I now know a few things to do and not to do.

1. DON'T wait until the day of to prepare the cake and frosting. The class isn't until the evening, and I thought I had plenty of time to complete these tasks among a few other things I needed to get done that day. Not so. After coming home to a frantic wife who he hadn't seen in nearly a week, Cameron so graciously went to the store for me to buy more shortening and then he actually made my icing for me while I was working. What a guy.

2. DON'T be stingy on the shortening when greasing the cake pan. Both my cakes completely stuck to the pans leaving huge chunks of cake behind and a less-than-pretty cake to have to decorate without knife marks and crumbs.

3. DO listen and take notes in class because your memory sucks and there's no way you can rely on it when it comes time to perform.

4. DO eat before class so that the edge will be taken off your sour mood.

5. DO consult your husband about how to rig up a turn table (a must have!) to decorate your cake because your too cheap to buy a real one. I'll just say that those spice racks do more than store spices. What a delightful invention.

6. DO watch more Ace of Cakes. What a cool show.