Wilton Cake Decorating Class - Week 2

My mom, my sister Sara and I are all taking a Wilton cake decorating class for beginners. We keep joking that we are taking this class so we can make our other sister Casey's wedding cake. But seriously, we have been REALLY excited about getting this thing started! The first week was basically a show and tell from our instructor Shelly on how to layer and frost our cakes to get us ready for our second class. It was a lot of information in only two hours, but I diligently took notes (wait... I thought I was done with "taking notes"!) and made sure I was prepared for our first cake. I went to Michaels/Walmart to get all my tools and ingredients. Then it was finally time for me to attempt the Wilton frosting recipe.

Classic Butter Cream (double recipe to ice AND decorate the cake)
1 cup solid veg. shortening
1 tsp of flavoring (I use Wilton clear vanilla extra)
2 tbsp of water (bottled water is best)
4 cups of icing sugar
1 tablespoon of meringue powder
a pinch of salt

For Stiff Consistency (used to make roses):
Cream shortening, flavoring and 1 tablespoon of water. Add icing sugar 1 cup at a time, after the second cup is incorporated add the salt, meringue powder and the rest of the water. Mix in the last 2 cups of icing sugar until blended thoroughly. Keep covered.

For Medium Consistency (use to make most piped decorations such as stars, small flowers, edging):
Take out desired cups of stiff consistency frosting and place in a Tupperware container or small bowl. Add 1 teaspoon of water for each cup of icing you are using and blend thoroughly.

For Thin Consistency (used for icing the cake): Take out desired cups of stiff consistency frosting and place in a Tupperware container or small bowl. Add 2 teaspoons of water for each cup of icing you are using and blend thoroughly.

Although I hit a few bumps along the way with my frosting consistency and making a huge mess, I was pretty happy with how my first cake turned out. The recipe called for four different colors for the rainbow, but I wanted a Gator cake, so I settled on two colors. The cake tasted pretty great and I am really looking forward to my next class!