Several years ago, my siblings and I were throwing a 50th anniversary party for my parents. I wanted to make a fancy two-tier cake, so I signed up for a Wilton cake decorating class at Micheal’s. When I look back at photos of that cake, it strikes me as “rustic.” 🙂 Not to worry, adding fresh flowers to a cake will distract from what’s lacking in the buttercream.
Piping takes a lot of practice, and I’ve gotten better over the years. The ministry coffee shop where I’ve been volunteering is beginning to host birthday parties complete with cakes, so I had the pleasure of sharing what I’ve learned with the kitchen staff. We condensed the 4 lessons into one; which was fine because they picked it up so quickly.
If there isn’t a Wilton school near you, I found these resources online: a lesson plan, and practice sheets. We put the practice sheets into a plastic bag and piped onto the outside of the bag, scraped it off to practice again, and refilled the bags as needed. I learned why the Wilton frosting recipe for practice is made with shortening (something not available in Poland). A frosting with real butter gets too soft from the heat from your hands if you keep using it over and over. Looking back, I should have made a double batch and we could have been rotating frosting in and out of the fridge.
In spite of the buttercream dilemma, we all had a blast and hope to get together for a second class. Maybe we’ll take on fondant for lesson number 2.
An accountant by trade and a food blogger since 2009, Lois Britton fell in love with Polish cuisine during the years she lived in Poznań, Poland. As the creator of PolishHousewife.com, she loves connecting readers with traditional Polish recipes. Lois has a graduate certificate in Food Writing and Photography from the University of South Florida. She is the author of The Polish Housewife Cookbook, available on Amazon and on her website.
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