The cake decorating classes at Michael’s are taught using the Wilton method of cake decorating. There are 3 different courses offered.

Course 1 – Decorating Basics is the first course they recommend you take and covers baking the cake, making icing and using the piping bag and a variety of the tips to create borders, stars, flowers and lettering. Upon completion of course 1 you have the option to either move on to course 2 - Flowers and Cake Design or course 3 – Gum Paste and Fondant.

Course 2 covers flower making, you will learn how to make flowers such as lilies and pansies with the famous Wilton rose thrown in for good measure. You will be taught how to arrange them in beautiful cake top bouquets that will look great on any cake. You will get practice using the flower nail, which is simply a small flat disc on a metal spike that is used to turn the item as you pipe icing onto it to create your flowers.

Course 3 teaches you everything you need to know to create a stunning cake with Fondant and the decorations using Gum Paste that adorn the cakes you will be decorating in the classes. You will learn how to do bold borders and accents using different icings such as buttercream and royal icing. Making hand shaped flowers like mums, roses, carnations, calla lilies, rosebuds and daisy will be taught as well. By the time you complete all 3 courses you will be able to create your very own beautifully decorated cakes.

The fee for each course covers the instructor and the instruction manual for each course but there are other items you will need to purchase for each course. Things like the tools you will be using for each lesson and the icings and mixes that you will be using to make and decorate each cake.

There is also a fair amount of work you will need to do in preparation for each course, like mixing the icings to bring to class and baking the cakes you will be decorating.

While some people like to learn at their own pace using online resources, the Wilton Classes at Michael’s offers you an opportunity to learn from individual instructors as well as meet other people that have the same interest in learning cake decorating as you do.

You can find resources and links to tools and supplies you will need to purchase as you take the cake decorating classes at Michael’s, at Cake Decorating Central.