If at first you don't succeed, bake another cake!

Some of you may be wondering how my cake decorating skills are progressing - or maybe you just want another chuckle. In any case, today's post is about my second attempt at making Caleb's wagon cake.

After looking at my pictures from the last trial run, my great-aunt Pat decided to come for a visit to give me a few pointers.

This morning she showed up with this "tackle box"
(as I call it) full of just about everything you would
ever need to decorate a cake.

She had every type of tip I could imagine.

Last time I attempted the cake, I decided the dimensions were best if I stacked two cakes on top of each other. Rather than trying to make one cake, cut it in the middle, and stack the two halves, I made two cakes in smaller pans last night to use for practicing. Then, I put the cakes in the freezer because my friend Jody commented that cakes don't crumble as much when you are working with them if they're frozen first. When Aunt Pat arrived, she helped cut off the dome shape from the top of the cakes. Then, we flipped one cake upside down on top of the other so I had the nice even shape of the pan to icing. Here's how it looked before the icing:

At that point, Aunt Pat showed me how to put on the tips and use the icing bag to decorate the cake. It was a lot simpler than I thought it would be, but having the right tools truly makes a difference.

Here she is modeling how to wrap the bag around
your hand while filling it with icing.

While it seemed like I should be squeezing the icing bag and
guiding it with both hands, she modeled how to hold the
bag with just one hand, explaining the design is dependent
on how much you squeeze.

After demonstrating how to go up and down, she also
taught me how to "star tip" around the bottom of the cake.

Aunt Pat also demonstrated how to use one of the tips to icing
cupcakes. This picture shows some of my practice attempts
with the different designs.

In the end though, we simply smoothed out the icing to see how it would look for the wagon cake. She brought me a knife that was great for spreading and smoothing it out. After the two cakes were covered with icing, they made the shape I was looking for this time. I think it turned out pretty good.

Put the wheels, graham cracker sides, and snack cake
handle on this one, and I think we'd have ourselves a wagon cake!

Overall, I learned quite a bit today and really enjoyed the quality time. We'll have to wait 'til next week to see how Caleb's real cake turns out...

On other note, while we were busy cleaning up the kitchen after our experimenting, my grandma Nora Ann stopped by to entertain Caleb. She brought these Easter window clings which were a big hit.

I was glad Caleb got some special quality time too. :)