Sotas? Sotas Anyone?

Course 3, Wedding Cakes!

I had survived the first two grueling courses. Hey, it's hard work learning not to lick the frosting off your fingers! I think everyone was sick of frosting after the second week, and those who buy my cakes need not fear me licking. I don't actually eat my cakes very often, I have played in the frosting too much.

For my last assignment, I chose to do a chocolate cake. Tip: chocolate cake is one of the worst for crumbs. Plus, the crumbs also show up the worst. Well, not thinking about this, I ended up with the worst crumbs all over the frosting of the wedding cake. PANIC!

Then I remembered a decorating technique. Very sophisticated, daring, bold... The Sotas! This "hard to master" (wink wink) technique consists of getting a very small round tip, thinning out your frosting, preferably with a tiny bit of karo syrup or piping gell, and squeezing the bag like crazy. All over the place, like a frosting pile of angel hair pasta. Seriously! I tell you what, it not only works fabulous, the teacher was impressed (as was the class), and you couldn't see a single crumb!

Finished, in all it's glory!

A top view. You can really see the amazing texture the sotas gives the cake. The flowers are petunias. Beautiful flowers, and actually quite easy to do.

Just a detail shot of the top. The petunias have stamens in the middle, if you look closely, just like the real flower. These are plastic balls on top of hard strings that you set in the flower before it dries.

Incidentaly, my son's speech therapist came to work with him the next day and saw the cake sitting on the table. She was so impressed that she bought the top of the cake from me to take to work for a friend's birthday! Less cake I had to eat...

It Rained Flowers

This cake was my course 2 assignment. We learned some color flow basics, which is a mixture that is thinned out, poured into a shape, and left to harden. We also learned several types of flowers with petals that are shaped. Pansies, Daisies, Daffodils, and several more. Again, I did several flowers in royal icing. The ones I liked all got piled on top and cascaded down the side. I have done the cascade on other cakes, but lost those pictures.

I also used a reverse shell border. You do a shell in one direction, then switch to the opposite direction, and so on. This border is quite easy to get mixed up on, and takes lots of concentration if you are doing a large cake. I also like the Oval cake pan set that was used here. Now, if only my color flow butterfly hadn't broken...

My First Class Cake

This cake was the first one I was assigned and brought to class. It is a basic exercise in drop flowers, leaves, stems, and writing. All are covered in Wilton's first class. I was so excited to start the class and learn more about doing cakes. I had taken in high school, a Christmas gift from my parents. But several years later, a friend asked if she could borrow my oven, hers was on the fritz, and she needed to bake a cake for her class. I remember sitting there watching her do flowers and thinking "I could do that!" So I signed up and away I went!

For this one, I made lots of simple drop flowers in different colors. In class we only played with white frosting, so I went crazy at home. The best ones I set aside, and used on top of the assignment cake. There are flowers on the side as well. This cake taught me the importance of planning, at least a little, your design.

Welcome!

Hello All!

It has been mentioned by many that I should have a blog to show off the cakes that I have done. I thought about it and decided that was a great idea. Why not? I have a portfolio of cakes I have done that I keep to show perspective clients, but no one else gets to see them unless they are eating them!

So keep watching, and I will get up and running soon, with yummy pictures of delicious cakes, the making-of details, and finger-licking recipes!

Michelle