Cake Decorating Part 1 & Butter Cream Icing

So I've been cooped up all winter and needed to get out and do something, so when Camille and her sister-in-law to be (also named Camille) mentioned this cake decorating class, I jumped on the bandwagon!! It's through Michaels and is four 2 hour classes. We had our first class last night and the two hours flew by. I couldn't believe it was time to go home and I had only decorated four cookies!

Things that I learned:

• How to pipe stars
• How to color icing
• Use 'Bake Easy' non-stick spray instead of Pam to make sure that your cake pops out with no crumbs. (makes a difference when icing a chocolate cake with white icing!)
• Use meringue powder in your icing so that it'll harden and be easy to touch up after it's dried.
• How thick or thin to make the icing depending on what you wanna do with it!
• Let your cake sit exactly 10 minutes before popping it out of the pan after it's baked.

I'm kinda worried that this is going to get expensive though.

Here's a list of what I've spent so far:

Class tuition 50% off plus another $5 off at the till = $18

Wilton basics starter kit (Reg price $49.99 + 50% off coupon) $24.99

Wilton 12 icing colors (Reg price $21.99 + 50% off coupon) $10.99

Small tub decorator icing (Reg price 5.99 + 25% off coupon) $4.50

Meringue Powder (Reg price $8.49 + 40% off coupon) $5.09

plus tax = $66.06

Plus I made 2 dozen cookies to decorate and ran out of sugar.

There's a lot more things that I want to buy, but I'm going to check with my FIL first to see what extra things he has, to save me a couple of bucks.

Things on my to buy list:

Cake leveler, turntable, cake boards, some good quality cake pans, piping gel, sifter, angled spatula, tool box, and I think the list will keep growing!

I have my next class tomorrow night and I have to bake a cake and whip up a batch of the butter cream icing, and make some of it thick and some of it medium consistency.

Class Butter Cream Icing (stiff consistency)

1 cup solid white vegetable shortening

1 tsp flavor (vanilla, almond, or butter) (make sure they're clear)

7-8 tsps milk or water

1 lb (4 cups) icing sugar

1 TBSP wilton meringue powder

pinch of salt (dissolve in water first before mixing )

Cream shortening, flavoring and water. Sift icing sugar. Add dry ingredients and mix on medium speed until all ingredients have been thoroughly mixed together. Blend an additional minure or so, until creamy. Makes 2 1/2 cups.