Icing on the cake

Until now, I did not put frosting on stuff. This was not because I hate frosting, but because frosting hated me. I usually managed to turn baked goods into trifles when I tried to frost them. So I just didn't use frosting.

My friend has a blog with her beautiful creations at it: Create Cakes. I told her I would love to learn how to put frosting on a cake without tearing up the whole cake and she said she'd teach me!

This photo is the finished product. It is my own, monogrammed piece of cake heaven. I learned all about how I need a few good pieces of equipment in addition to my new skills with the frosting/icing. (I don't know if there is a difference between those words yet.)

I was very happy with how nice the frosting looked. Here is a photo of the cake before the decorative frosting was added. Isn't it amazing? It is tapered slightly on the top edge because I learned 2 methods of frosting, one on each half of the cake and to make them look better for a finished product, the slight tapering of the top corner was necessary. It is a beautiful frosting job, I think. :)

I had a lot of fun learning to frost a cake so it looked pretty. And then practicing basic dots and writing skills to make the decorations. It was fascinating. I may even take more classes at some point!

We decided to do some baking challenges of our own, being inspired by those Daring Bakers and Weekend Cookbook Challengers. We picked out our own recipes we've always wanted to make and will blog about them and compare pictures and challenges. Our first recipe will be a flourless chocolate cake. So I will be starting another blog devoted to my cooking adventures. It will be fun! :)