Cake Decorating Take One

Thanks to an awesome birthday present (thanks Mom and Dad) I can now learn to make those AWESOME cakes I've seen around. Let's start with the basics -- this is new to me.

First off, start with a no-lose cake recipe (I chose the cake on the Hershey website)

Make sure you have some moral support close by. Here's my helper.

This vanilla is clear so it doesn't tint your frosting... smart.

Look at my cool cake slicer! I had to make a four layer cake so I could use the slicer.

See if you can enlist someone's help. My husband decided to lend his culinary brilliance to the filling (strawberries, cream cheese, chocolate chunks and chocolate sauce, AMAZING!)

Frost (remember for next time: dark cake and white frosting are hard to keep clean)

Tint!

The right frosting and cool tips make this pretty easy (at least these very basic techniques)

Purple... this frosting was too tough and my flowers kept crumbling and not sticking to the cake

So I added about 1 1/2 tsp. corn syrup like the book said. It made a WORLD of difference.

Purple Flowers!

I had to try the rainbow frosting. Paint the inside of the bag with the colors and fill with white icing.

Look how cool it looks?

There it is. I don't love the taste of butter cream but a bit between the layers is pretty good :)
Can't wait to try some more fun techniques like making roses!