I LOVE to bake, design, and decorate cakes. I also love to share my knowledge and skills with others. I get to share this passion on my blog site, which just hit it’s 1 year anniversary in January! In the last year, I have posted 145 recipes/tutorials on my site, Facebook, and Pinterest, had 32 photo submissions accepted by foodgawker, enrolled in a series of photography classes, and continue to work my way toward writing a cookbook in the near future!

I thought it would be a super fun idea to invite a few close friends over to get some “hands-on” experience with cake decorating! This idea came together last night, as 4 of my girlfriends got together in my kitchen for an evening of fun AND cake decorating. For starters, we enjoyed 2 of our favorite martinis, along with some appetizers that everyone brought to share.

I wanted to incorporate many of the “basics” of frosting techniques into a short 2 hour class, so I chose 2 cakes, and both chocolate and vanilla cupcakes. I had pre-baked the cakes and cupcakes, and mixed up a few batches of my cream cheese buttercream, so that we could just dive right into the decorating! On the menu was a 6″ chocolate hydrangea cake, a 6″ vanilla cake, scraped with vanilla buttercream, then dripped with a white chocolate ganache, and decorated with pink roses. Then it was on to the cupcakes, to try out some piping techniques. Decorating with frosting just takes practice. I taught myself everything I know about cake decorating, so really anyone can do it. It’s relaxing, fun, creative, and of course – BEAUTIFUL! These girls did an amazing job!

I shared my basic tools for decorating – which I consider “must-haves”.

revolving cake pedestle
off-set spatula
disposable piping bags (12″ and 16″)
assorted piping tips
rubber spatulas
electric mixing bowl with both whisk and paddle attachments
bench scraper
assorted paste food colors
sprinkles/decorations
cardboard cake circles
plastic cake carrier with lid (for transporting)

First we made a chocolate hydrangea cake.

Then we moved on to the vanilla drip cake.

After the cakes were completed – with everyone stepping in to give the techniques a try – we moved on to the cupcakes. This was the most fun for sure!

Seeing these girls having fun, and getting their “creative” on was a true moment of joy for me!

After all the decorating fun was over, we cut into the hydrangea cake, then had a drawing for the drip cake – Beth won, and was thrilled to take that cake home to her family! We plan to get together again for another baking adventure!