I have been wanting to take this class forever and finally got around to call Hobby Lobby and sign up for the Course 1 a few weeks ago. For our first class, I decided to use regular yellow-cake from a box and fill it with strawberry preserves to save some time. But I will probably try to make cakes from scratch for our future class.

For class 1, we basically just watched the instructor frost a cake, and listen to many techniques of baking cake and frosting. Then we were asked to bring a frosted cake for class 2, like this one.

Then during class 2, we learned to pipe using star tip and write using regular round/writing tip. And this is what I ended up. Since we had no celebratory events coming up, I decided to pipe our puppy’s name on the cake. She turned 2 this past May, but I am sure she appreciated seeing her name on here!

For this course, these are the items that I bought so far:

1. Professional decorating kit, which was about $139.99, but I used the internet coupon for 40% off, plus you get additional 10% for being a student, so I paid about $80 included taxes. I also plan on taking all of the other classes, which will require some of the tips in this kit. I also wanted to get the bake strip to make the baking even.
2. Meringue powder, for the frosting
3. Turn-table
4. Decorator icing in a jar (to make roses for class 3)
5. Cake carrier (which was the only thing I bought at Wal-Mart for $6. Hobby Lobby cake carrier is about $25, and even with 50% off, that is still way much more than what Wal-Mart has)
6. 8-inch and 3-inch tall cake pan (optional, I believe you can use whatever pan you already have, if you choose so, but I wanted to use the recommended size).
7. Almond-flavoring (optional)
8. Bake spray (optional), because I wanted to see if they really work out better than SPAM!
9. Cut out cake board