Grapevine Cake

7 1/2" oval spice cake, buttercream frosting, apple cinnamon filling

Techniques Used-grapes, vines, leaf borders

Focus-casual frosting coat, grapes, vines,

I found this idea in my Wilton Cake Course 1 book, but it's no longer available. 

I was interested in learning how to frost the cake so that it had slight waves in it.  It was harder than I thought.  I found out that I needed to put more frosting on than usual (I tend to make thin coats).  It was a good experience, and maybe I will do that again.  Here's a picture below of the cake with a wavy coat.

I learned with the vines that I had a hard time doing them free hand.  I ended up taking a toothpick and imprinting the design first.  I think I should've added more vines or grapes, but it was good practice.  Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of just the vines.

The grapes were easier than I thought.  I learned that at the top of the clump, try to put 2 or 3 grapes in the first row instead of 1 grape.  Then I just made each row bigger by one and then smaller more gradually towards the bottom.  Then to add some volume, I added smaller rows of grapes on top of the ones I already made.  Then three leaves are added at the top.  Grapes are time consuming, but not difficult.  Here is one grape cluster up close.

This cake was decorated April 2009.

Garden Party Cake

8" White Cake, buttercream frosting

Techniques Used-swirl star flowers, leaves

Focus-swirl star flowers

This cake idea was in my Wilton Cake Course 1 book, but I don't think it's in print anymore.  When taking the cake class, I found that I really liked doing these flowers.  That's why I decided to try this cake out.  The difficulty with this cake was arranging the flowers, because they were delicate.  I should mention that I made all the flowers first on wax paper a couple days ahead of time.  Anyway, I'm happy with how the cake turned out.

This cake was decorated March 2009.

Sweet Peas and Star Flowers Cake

First Tier-10" vanilla round cake, buttercream frosting

Second Tier-8" chocolate round cake, buttercream frosting

Techniques Used-sweet pea flowers, star flowers, leaves, vines,

Focus-two tier cake

I knew that with a tiered cake, each tier can't just be place on top of each other without any support, but I wanted some practice with this.  Honestly, the design on the cake wasn't at all what I envisioned, even though I think it still looks nice. 

Tier Cake Materials-4-8 supports per tier (wooden dowels, tapioca/milkshake straws, Wilton supports, etc.)

Tier Cake Directions-Make sure each tier has a plate, foil-wrapped cardboard, or something similar underneath it. 

Take your supports and set them next to the bottom tier for your measurement.  Cut to the length you need, then stick them into the bottom tier.  I only used 4, but if you are starting out with bigger tiers, you may want more support. 

Another note, if you are wanting to make a "topsy turvy" cake, I would recommend watching the Cake Boss episode called "Freaks, Fast Food, & Frightened Frankie" from Season 2.  It shows how to stack the tiers about 9 minutes into the show. 

This cake was decorated September 2009.