happy valentine's day!

I recently started taking a Wilton cake decorating class. I am not what I would call a naturally artistic person and given that I have little decorating experience and I will have to take two terms of cake decorating at culinary school, I thought it might be wise to try to get a leg up with a little practice and perhaps learn a different technique than will be taught at school.

The first cake you decorate in Course One of Wilton is a rainbow cake. I could've gone rogue and done my own design, but I didn't have the wherewithal to come up with something different. The original cake is a boy's birthday cake, complete with name and age, but C. suggested that in honor of tomorrow being Valentine's Day, I freehand a heart instead. It's a little wonky (symmetry is not something I'm terribly good at) but I think it looks great!

And not that you can see it, but the cake underneath is the cake from Cook's Country's Chocolate Blackout Cake. I'm not sure how it goes with Wilton's required (no butter -- not sure how I feel about eating this) class buttercream icing, but I wanted chocolate for Valentine's Day and the Blackout Cake recipe made two 8-inch rounds, which is what I needed for the assignment.