The new Wilton Yearbook is out. Ten years ago, that sentence would have had me in my car immediately, on the way to Michael's.
I got into cake decorating while I was trying to get pregnant. (It's a long story, and a whole lot messier than that one tidy sentence lets on.) At any rate, it was a diversion, and those weekly cakes I worked on in class for 3 months made me pretty damn popular at work for a while.
I fell away from cake decorating a while after trying my first "paid" cake. It was a birthday cake for my friend's daughter, and had Aladdin's blanket, and some figures from the cake store. It cracked across the middle, in a very bad, noticeable way, and the repair didn't hold.
After that I stuck to making cakes for family parties. I made a solemn vow to Never Make Anyone's Wedding Cake Because I'm Not a Professional, and I've stuck to that. Shower and anniversary cakes, yes.
Every year Wilton puts out their yearbook, a magazine showcasing whatever new shaped pans they've created, and various designs using other existing pans. I stopped buying the Wilton yearbook for a while, because it was too heavy on fondant. Rolled fondant, if you don't watch Ace of Cakes, is something of an edible clay made of sugar and water, but it doesn't really taste very good. It's gluey, more like a marshmallow than a regular frosting.
For a while, every Wilton yearbook cake had the stuff on it. This year it's nice to see they've gradually returned to the more traditional methods, like making flowers from royal icing and using 10,000 stars to cover a cake with frosting. (Fun unless it's YOU doing it... )
Pay no attention to the tacky "castle" pieces on the cover. It's not their best yearbook ever, but some of the cakes are cute. Just stay away from that fondant!
3 comments:
If you decide to try fondant again i have a good recipe. I found a thin layer under the fondant of a high flavored butter cream or citrusy glaze works wonders. Gives the bottom of the fondant a snap with the glaze and a lot more taste.Plus I roll the beejeezus out of it so it's a very thin fondant by the time I get done smoothing it out.
Me, I can't stand royal Icing. -p
yes, shoot me a recipe, I will give it a whirl (definitely send me the glaze too!!)
thanks P
My daughter, the Food Network Junky... was watching Ace of Cakes today and I though thought of you. How funny that you should post this.
Never did get into making cakes.. but my MIL used to do cake decorating.. back in another life.
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