Beginner Cake Class Week 1

Last night my mom, 16 year old sister, Hannah, and I attended our first week of Wilton 1 Cake Decorating at AC Moore. This week was more an introductory to the class and while it was somewhat boring to us at times, we did learn some cool techniques that we didn't know before. We learned how to make stiff, medium, and thin frosting. We learned that thin frosting is used to ice cakes while medium is better used for tips like stars and stiff is better used for other things that we haven't learned yet! We also learned how to bake a cake so it bakes evenly, how to level a cake, how to tort a cake using a dam and a filler, and many other things!

Source

Hannah (in purple) working hard. Kia (far end) is our teacher!

As far as decorating went this week, we got to experiment with the star tip! My mom baked some cookies and made frosting for all three of us (thanks, Mommy!) to use. We also had these cool practice sheets that came with our decorating basics kit. (I forgot to take a pic of mine!) The star tip is pretty simple to use, actually! My mom brought her whole cake kit it would seem, so we ended up using sprinkles, too. haha. Pretty cookies are more fun to eat! :-D

Hannah couldn't wait to chow down on her cookies!

K is for Mommy! (Her name is Kimberly.) 

Mom's Snowflake Cookie

Overall, even though we're some of the more advanced bakers in the class, we had a great time! I'm looking forward to next week's class when we get to ice, level, tort, and decorate a 1 layer cake!

My Alabama "A" that I made for the hubs!

V is for Vance...aka The Hubs!

I made a star of stars! :-D

Red Jack-O-Lantern? I worked with what I had!

Have you ever taken a cooking/baking/decorating/crafting class? Have you ever taken a class at Michael's, AC Moore, Joann's, etc.? If so, please tell me about your experience(s) in the comments below! I'd love to hear about it!

Adoring comments about our outstanding cookies may proceed...starting...NOW!

Have a great weekend, friends! xoxo

If you could take 2 seconds and give this a click, it would mean so much to me! Thank you!!

When Life Hands You Lemons...Make Lemonade Cake!

If you live in Winston-Salem, NC, or have ever visited here, you might have heard of Dewey's Bakery. Dewey's is a Moravian bakery that's existed since 1930. It makes such favorites as Moravian Sugar Cake, Moravian Cookies, custom cakes and cookies, and a personal favorite of mine, the Pink Lemonade Cake. Dewey's Pink Lemonade Cake is not just any ordinary lemon cake. It isn't like buying a boxed lemon cake mix and slabbing on some icing. Oh no! It is so much more than that!




Recently, I was craving pink lemonade cake from Dewey's, but I wanted to know if there was a recorded recipe out there that I could make myself. Throughout my scouring of the umpteen "pink lemonade cake" recipes, I stumbled upon this little gem!  While this is NOT the official Dewey's recipe, it sounds pretty darn good to me. I haven't actually executed this recipe yet, but I have a feeling it will pass my taste buds with flying colors!


Pink Lemonade Cake
(6 oz) frozen Pink Lemonade Concentrate, thawed
White cake mix
3 egg whites
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
Pink or red food coloring ( just enough to make it a pretty pink)
Lemon Buttercream Icing (recipe below)
.
In a stand mixer, add the cake mix, egg whites, vegetable oil, and the pink lemonade concentrate. Mix on low for 2 minutes.

Spray a 9x13 pan and spoon in batter. Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick is clean. Cool completely on a baking rack.
Lemon Buttercream Icing
3 cups + 3 Tbsp confectioners sugar
1 stick butter at room temperature
2 Tbsp lemon juice
Yellow food color
Add the butter, confectioners sugar, lemon juice, and food coloring to the stand mixer and mix on low until combined. Turn the speed to med-high until the icing is fluffy and yellow.


(Recipe rights reserved to the original owner.)

My husband and I are currently fasting from desserts, high-calorie food, and our weakness, diet soda, so, sadly, this recipe will have to be put on the back burner for the time being. If you see this post or have had Dewey's cake and decide to try this lovely concoction, please let me know how it turns out. Oh yeah, and have a slice for me!






~A