Learning and Decorating

First cake decorated

On my first visit to Sweet Blessings I was lucky enough to be able to decorate a cake for a child.  I went with another girl from my group, Lanie, and upon arriving we met Ashley, the founder.  She was very helpful throughout the night by getting us started and teaching us the ropes.  By the time we arrived all the cakes had been baked, stacked, and covered with fondant.  This made it easy for us to walk in and just decorate. Among many other skills, we learned how to roll out fondant, cut out shapes and stick them to the cake, and form bow loops.  Since it was our first day there and our first cake, Ashley was there to show us where to find all of the supplies and how to perform the tasks.  I am very proud of how this cake turned out, and I believe the little girl whose birthday it was will be very excited.  The theme of the cake came from a show that the little watches frequently, Gravity Falls.

The boxed up cake

After decorating the cake with the stars, name, and figure, Ashley helped us make the bow on top and then demonstrated how to steam the cake. Steaming the cake make it glossy and visually enhanced the cake.  Then it was time to box up the cake and tie it with a ribbon and happy birthday message.  Our first visit lasted approximately three hours, and it left me very excited to visit the next week to hopefully decorate another cake.

Second cake decorated

The following week, Lanie and I were given much more freedom with the cake we were allowed to decorate.  We came in and Ashley had us wash our hands, like last week, and then she gave us a cake.  Like the previous week, the cake had been previously baked, stacked, and covered.  Unlike last week, our only direction was that the girl liked the colors red and black and music.  This made me feel trusted, even though it was only our second trip.  That being said, Lanie and I wanted to make sure this cake turned out well.  While looking through the available fondant shapes, we found music notes of various sizes.  These proved to be quite a challenge to make because of how thin the music notes were, and how thin the fondant needs to be rolled.  We attached the shapes to the top tier, and then added polka dots and her name to the bottom tier.  Although this cake was time consuming, I believe it turned out great, and a lot of the volunteers also offered their compliments.  As with the first cake, we steamed the cake before it was boxed.  Sweet Blessings so far has been very rewarding knowing that our cakes are going to children who may not have received a cake otherwise.  I am looking forward to all of our future visits and future cakes!