LAST DAY of our course and final photos ...

Hello ...

Enjoy all the pics ... everyone's final cakes were brilliant!!! Here is just a small selection of them ...

Was sad to say goodbye to my new friends today and friggen heck have we learnt alot over the past 2 weeks!!! (still can't move my right hand properly)

Very ready to be coming home and just want to get the big flight on the red and white kangaroo over and done with ... its a 24 hour trip with transfers and waiting time ....

To sum the last 2 weeks up has just been sensational and worth the last year and a half wait.

We did the big tour of Wilton HQ today and saw the test kitchens and the creative design departments. We then 'graduated' got our certificates and it was time to pack up our final clobber.

We also got to see new cakes and cupcakes and cookies that haven't been published yet so were not allowed to take photos, have tried to remember most and draw them down .... you should have seen the gingerbread houses designs .... can't wait for Xmas this year

Wasn't easy to leave my cake behind but I took Judy Sue, Mike and the orange lily's off and hope they make it home safe with my 'yeah brilliant' tight packing skills.

See you all next week 

Thanks for your lovely words

Fiona x

Wilton Master course - 2nd last day!!!

Hello there

Too tired to ramble on today so will just post the pics. We finished our final cakes and was amazing to see everyone elses. For a class of 24, everyone had such different styles and no 2 were nearly the same at all.

Will just put the planning of mine today and then tomorrow I will put my favourite ones of my class mates. We are doing a tour of Wilton HQ tomorrow and seeing all the kitchens and all the preparation behind the scenes, can't wait!!! (and we get to sleep in until 0600)

Don't look too much at Mike and Judy Sue ... poor things, I managed to drop them today so Judy Sue got a bit of a bump on her head ...

Also did round 3 (ding ding) of shopping at the Wilton Shop .... will definitely have to buy another suitcase tomorrow arvo ....

Hope you like my final cake .... looks OK

love Fiona x

Wilton Master Course - Week 2!! Wed 06 Oct DAY 8

Hello there

Its getting near the end now .... 2 days of class left to go and then we are on our own in cake world ...

Long day today with Gum paste class tonight after Masters Class.

This morning we did prep for a couple of hours on our final cakes. My poor little Judy Sue and Mike figurines, I put them under the heating lamps and they nearly got an all over tan ... all OK though

The rest of Masters Class was spent prepping and finishing the 'b'day' cakes. We divided the cakes into 8 and did all sorts of various designs from everything we have learnt over the last couple of weeks. Have a look at the progress photos ....after all that work I had to take everything back off as I can't bring mine home .... oh well to the next one

Don't be too critical of my flowers, not perfect but they are OK, will get there

Also check all the flowers we have made .... went to the biggest art and craft shop at lunch today and bought a compartment box .... really excellent ... lets see if I can get them back to Sydney safely though

Tonight in Gum Paste class we finished off our flowers which looked awesome. All was going greatly until I friggen snapped off one of my orchid leaves .... thank christ we made a sparey leaf for these such occasions.

Tomorrow we are doing our 3 tier cakes ALL DAY!!! Can't wait ... have changed the design but wont bore you with it .... wait for the pics tomorrow night.

Fact for the day: got the telly on right now in the background and one of the commercials is advertising hamburgers but they call them 'Manwich' for meat in a sandwich ... what will our world come with next

Bye for now ....

Fiona x

Wilton Master Course - Week 2!! Tue 05 Oct DAY 7

Evening all, hope you are all excellent.

Very good over here this morning with frost all over the grass -  looked really pretty.

Today was all good, rather than rumble on what we did, will go through each of the pics which will tell the story ...

1. My paradise ... every colour possible of the Wilton range for all your desires. None of us can do anything in just white anymore, everything gets a colour. Because I just can't be normal, am always looking to create new colours and schemes

2. Some of the flowers we have been making which will go on the birthdays cakes, putting these together tomorrow

3. My butterfly which we did with icing gels (new technique learnt today) - the colours haven't come out very well but they are purple and red, yellow and black. Quite proud of myself that I didn't take hours to decide on the colours

4. Learning to write with the royal icing and piping skills - felt like we were back at kindy learning to write again ....

5 & 6. Have look at the difference between Debbie and teachers and mine ... am sure you can tell who is the student ....this was just before I wrecked mine and chucked it

7 & 8. Please meet Judy Sue and Mike who I made this afternoon. This photo doesn't do my little friends any justice. They are actually about 10cm in height. Named after the 2 TV presenters who wake me up at 0530 each morning over here. Will send another one through tomorrow when I have finished them ....

9. Another mission nearly completed - I went to the Wilton shop this afternoon and again boosted the US economy - should be getting my telegram from Barrack soon ....Thank god for the 25% discount though, just be prepared for all the baking that I will need sampling from next week

Right that's it for today ... bring on a few hours sleep and back into it again tomorrow .... You will be happy to know that I have changed my mind bout the cake design .... just going to see what happens when I get everything prepped and go from there ...

Be good

Fiona x

Wilton Master Course - Week 2!! Mon 04 Oct

Hello Everyone

Welcome back to week 2!!!

Just a quick round up for the weekend. On Saturday we all took a trip downtown (to Chicago city) (partaking in local customs and catching a train!!!) to play tourists for the day. Was brilliant apart from being fricken freezing and rainy .... but as Chicago has the 2nd biggest McDonalds in the world (1st in Moscow), they can't have good weather all the time ....

We took one of those red tourist buses and was actually really interesting hearing all the facts .... just one more for you .... The 2 creators of The Ninja Turtles were sitting in a cafe across the road from the Chicago History Museum and they were stuck for names of their 4 x main ninja turtle characters ... one of the guys looked up to read the names on the history museum of famous artists ..... you get the picture now ....

Sunday was all about boosting the US economy with my well practised shopping skills and I did a very good job!!!

Rightio to cake school this morning .... we all had to do approx designs of our final 3 tier cake (see picture and remember I am not the artist in the family!!!) Was also time to start making our final flowers so I started the deep orange lily's which I think are looking good.

The rest of the day was all about flowers ..... am sure you are surprised as me about how many variety of flowers there are in the botanical world .... today we finished off the wild rose (ok), primrose (quite OK), daisies (very ok), daffodils (how can you go past a daffodil), pansies (can take or leave as I was very unco in trying to get the bag settled, had to take a moment ....) and a couple of others .....

We also did colour flower today which is when you pipe icing as an outline and then colour in with a different technique and texture of icing. Looks good ... wait for all the new style of cookies I will be able to do.....

By the end of the day my hands looked like the hungary little catepillar's stomach had exploded all over me ... all colours everywhere, loved it

Tonight we had Gum Paste class again which was awesome. See the pics to explain but we kept on with our orchids, daisies, stefanova's, calias lillies, apologies to botanists out there with my spelling ....

Worked out this morning why we are all so tired ... we have brekkie when the sun is still asleep and the stars are still up and when we drove back to the hotel tonight, the moon was already out ... long days but loving it. The people in my class make it worth it too ... all a classic.

Enjoy the new pics, bit of a variety from the weekend. The fountain which you can hardly see is from the TV show Married with Children. We also went past Oprah's House too ... The first pic is from the Sky deck Willis Tower which is 103 stories above the ground ... you are literally looking down to the ground below

Fiona x

Wilton Master Course - Day 5 - Fri 01 Oct

Hello!!

Welcome to the end of week 1 - its nice to have it here ...

Today started with an hour and a half practise of our roses which we know and love ( I figure if I keep telling myself that it will sink in).

Next the half roses came along which were OK however I don't think you would classify the ones that I did as half roses ... more petals that just need a bit of encouragement ....

For a bit of variety we attempted the victorian rose which is just like its cousin but with a curvier tip (97) - its not in the nice part of the family either ....

BUT .... we then got introduced to Petunias and my stress levels came back to normal!!! They are a dream and I put violet paste in my icing bag with the white and got stripy petunias which looked fabulous in colour and will get their slowly in design.

Now I just need to work out if you can get purple, pink or orange petunias for my final work.

After lunch it was time to ice in royal icing our b'day cake and 3 tier wedding cake for next week. We went next door to Johnny's for lunch (awesome chicken wraps with hot chips (got into the fries debate again) so were all on a high until we started decorating.

We were just covering foam cakes as they will be for display and although it was brilliant having a palet knife back in my hand, I still need to learn not to be so critical of my own work ... its only icing!!!

The teachers put some music on and I was actually humming along and enjoying the 'pan flute' until they played my favourite Elvis song ... wasn't pretty!!!

So I am getting ready to go out to dinner tonight (Italian with big glass of red wine) with my team that are staying here at my hotel and it will be nice to get ready and know I am not getting covered in icing.

Tomorrow I don't have to wake up at 5.30am either, a few of us are going Downtown to play tourist (will say hi to Oprah if we find her) and then on Sunday I am going to the Mall next to the hotel for SHOPPING all day!!!

Have had an incredible week and wouldn't change a thing at all. Have got homework too which are the figurines I am going to make for my final work. Just the bride and groom though ....

Have brilliant weekends and look forward to posting on Monday with the beginning of my final works. Lets hope I can make a decision about designs and colours

Fiona x