Gum Paste and Fondant

My first gum paste flower

For a very long time I have watched people decorate these amazing cakes at home and frankly I have been very very jealous of their abilities. I don't find myself overly artsy  - frankly speaking my mom even once said that I'm not a crafty person. While I completely disagree with her view on that in life - I will agree that I am not good and what I would call "traditional"art, specifically painting and/or drawing.

My stick figures suck - just trust me on this - they really suck.  But I have a love of baking and photography. So this has lead again to a lot of jealousy over people being able to do these things.

Well last December (no - not the one that just past but the one before that - 2014) I was in Micheals and I saw the signs for the Wilton Cake decorating classes - this is something I always wanted to do but a certain stick in the mud really didn't support it. The classes were $10 each and the course kits were also on sale for something stupid like $10 each, which is frankly a bargain when you consider the items in the kit. So I figured what the heck - I will sign up for the first three courses, get the course kits and see how it goes - worst comes to worst I spend $60 and fail miserably (Yes - a lot of my thinking is along the lines of what's the worst that can happen - oh right failing miserably and looking stupid...)

(Note: The next time they came on sale for $10/kit I actually stocked up and got two or maybe three sets of the course kits - I highly recommend this).

Bits and pieces of flowers and bow

I took the first course in February and LOVED it - it also made me miss a full size, proper non-apartment kitchen (more on that story later).  I took the first course again in September and then finally took the second course in November (I have to finish the course still I missed the last class).

This month I will complete Course 3 - Gum Paste and Fondant. I have always heard just how hard Fondant is to work with and from seeing some cake decorating shows on TV I was very very apprehensive about the course (not to mention I've never really liked the taste of Fondant). I must say the first class went really really well and using fondant and gum paste is almost like playing with play dough as a kid.  The pieces in the picture to the right are pieces that I completed in class and now I have a ton of homework to finish before the next class. Am I the only person that gets terribly excited about the idea of homework? Does that make me a nerd? If it does I'm ok with it!