Review of a Wilton Cake Decorating Class

New to cake decorating or thinking about starting to learning frosting techniques? Having an interest in baking, and wanting to know more about how to frost my gourmet cupcakes, I decided that it was time to take a Wilton sponsored cake decorating class.

Wilton is a very popular brand of cake decorating tools and ingredients. You will find Wilton tools at most of your local craft stores, that even include Walmart stores. To supplement the tools and frosting they sell, Wilton also sponsors cake decorating classes with a formal agenda. Classes in my area were conducted by Michael's, Hobby Lobby, or local cake bakeries.

When I originally signed up for the class, I decided that I wanted to take the class from a cake bakery in my area. The woman that owns the bakery has been making cakes for over 40 years, including the cake she made for my wedding.

With each Wilton cake decorating class you attend, you purchase a course kit that includes the tools you need for the class. The first class is geared around learning "core" frosting techniques so it included a variety of different templates and a practice board to use in class to practice the frosting techniques.

I took a weekend class, which each day covering 4 hours of class time, but typically these classes are slotted for 4 weeks with 2 hour sessions. The timing worked well for me, especially since I took my cake class in a different city.

Our first 4 hours were spent learning how to make icing, different icing consistencies, how to color icing, how to ice a cake, and basic frosting techniques. At the end of the class on the first day, we frosted jumbo marshmallows using different frosting techniques to create a baby shoe.

Overnight we were expected to make different consistencies of icing including thin, medium and thick. We needed to bake two cakes to bring back to class for decorating, and the two cakes needed to be frosted and ready to decorate. Although it seemed like a lot of homework, it really made me feel like I learned a lot from class to be able to produce the cakes I did. They looked wonderful, even without frosting.

In our second 4 hours of class time, we spent more time learning and practicing frosting techniques. The hardest part of this second day was creating roses out of frosting. It was very challenging and takes a lot of practice. After we would practice a few frosting techniques, we would then color some of our frosting, and practice our techniques on the cakes we had made.

Our first cake we designed into a fun clown cake. It had two different clowns that we created out of multi-colored frosting that was also used to edge our cake. Then we topped both of the clown forms with clown heads and finished with some details on the clowns. Although I wasn't crazy about making a clown cake, it turned out very fun.

Our second cake was designed with roses. We had to create a few different roses ourselves and then set these on top of our cake and create greenery with leave frosting detail and ribbon. This cake turned out to be pretty challenging, but turned out great.

At the end of the class we received a certificate of achievement for completing the first class and had our pictures taken with our cakes. It really felt as though I'd learned a lot, and my cakes were better than I've ever made before. The class itself for quite reasonable in price to take, but be fore-warned that the supplies you need for class add up quickly.

I highly recommend taking a Wilton cake decorating class. Once you have completed the first course, there are several other courses that progress to the next level of decorating. I can't wait to take more classes.