Quarter Life Crisis

I turned 25 this month. For some reason, I thought I would feel a lot different. I don't. But I had a really fun day--Reese and I went to lunch with some of my girlfriends, then we came home and took naps, then we played some more, I got calls from lots of my family and friends, then I got my favorite birthday cake from my sister--Cookie Dough Delirium ice cream cake from Cold Stone (if you haven't had this, you haven't lived! Only 351 days until next year's cake!)

My husband got me the most thoughtful gift--a cake decorating class at Sur La Table! I have wanted to sign up for their classes for years, but have just never done it. I didn't give Michael much help when he asked me what I wanted for my birthday and I was so excited when he told me what he got me!! I recruited one of my friends who shares my affinity for baking to come with me and we had the best time. When we arrived for class, our stations were all set up with an 8" cake, off-set spatulas, pastry bags, frosting, decorative tips and a practice board. And when the class got started, I could hardly contain my excitement--I am pretty sure I was grinning from ear to ear.
The first thing we learned how to do was to level and tort a cake, which just means splitting a single cake layer in half horizontally to form two layers. We learned the techniques to fill and frost the cake so that it is perfectly smooth and straight. This was the best I could do on my first try.
After we had our cakes prepped, we learned different decorating techniques with pastry bags and tips and tried them out on our practice boards. Finally, we learned how to make poinsettias and tah-dah...my masterpiece!
Unfortunately, we ran short on time--it's true what they say about time flying--and I didn't get to finish the bottom border. I've got a lot of practicing to do still, but, ooooh, it was the most fun way to spend a Saturday and the cake was delicious, if I do say so myself.