Cake Class #4

Tonight was the final basic cake decorating class.  We learned how to make a ribbon rose which I still need lots of practice with, but they do look extremely pretty when created correctly...as I could see by most everyone else's attempts.  Writing was another topic that was covered, but to be honest, I didn't give much thought to this portion because I have written on cakes before without needing to add piping gel to make the writing work well.  Then the remainder of the class was our final project...decorating a cake using some of skills we learned in class.

For this class we were asked to bring an iced cake with us, and we would use our frosting to decorate it during class time.  I promised my husband my final cake could go into work with him since his work hasn't seen any of my cake decorating accomplishments.  Since it is bike month, and my husband will be riding his bike to work tomorrow, the boys and I will drive over and hand deliver the cake...hopefully we will be able to steal Daddy for lunch at the nearby park, but we will see how busy his schedule is. 

As I have mentioned before, I am using these cake classes as an excuse to test out recipes that intrigue me.  For this go around, I decided to bake this Coconut Cake by Tender Crumb.  I also choose to fill the cake with this Lemon Curd by Kitchen Confidante.  I had seen a few coconut cakes filled with lemon curd online, and I have never attempted a lemon curd before, so it was calling out to me.  Personally I think the lemon curd tastes delicious, but a few others (my husband, my mom and James) thought it was a bit too sour.  I am hoping the sweet cake and the sweet frosting will help ease the tartness of the lemons.  For the frosting I just made a butter cream using coconut milk in place of regular milk.

I wanted to decorate my cake in a tropical theme since it is a coconut cake, so I decided to focus on palm trees using the leaf tip (super neat!) we learned about in class.  I did try out the shell pattern for the border of the cake where the islands were not.  Also I added some coconuts to the palm trees and a few flowers down below.  I am pretty pleased with the overall look of the cake...even if it is a bit uneven and not precisely what I originally imagined.  For some reason I thought I was going to have room to add the sun and clouds and other additional items, but it didn't work that way, and I think I am happy with that.  If I had put all those things on the cake, it would have taken away from it...in my opinion.

Update: We dropped off the cake (and got to sample a little) at my husband's work.  I was already receiving rave compliments right away from my husband's coworkers.  The coconut was not very noticeable (at least not to me, and I don't like coconut), but the lemon sure stood out.  Overall I am very pleased with how it turned out.