Gum Paste Class - All Done

Last night was the last class of my four week gum paste class at Michaels.  It was Course 4, the new Advanced gum paste.  The class was a lot of fun and I'm really pleased at the flowers that we learned.  Mostly I wanted to make the Stargazer Lily, and it doesn't disappoint.  The only thing I would do differently if I had the chance, would be to bring a cake to the final class to put the bouquet on.  I know the course doesn't require it, but it would have been a fitting end, given the finished product.  Here are the different parts made in advance of class four.

The little filler flowers with an ivy leaf.  The blossoms learned in class are alright, but I prefer hand pulled blossoms.

The stephanotis were fun to make.  I could see doing a bouquet of these with the buds and leaves only.  I mean to dust these with some pearl dust.  

These are the petals for the lily that we made in class three.  I made an extra set, in case of breakage.   We learned to colour the petals and assemble them last night.   Luckily, none have broken so I will make another bouquet and hopefully get a cake together.

The lily leaves after steaming.  The sheen doesn't really last though.

The finished spray.  See how it needs a cake?

Close up of the lily.  I made a different set of stamens as I din't think the ones by Wilton were as natural looking as I would have liked.  These are not that difficult to form by hand.

Ah St. Patrick's Day.

where you can drink your face off and not feel you should apologize for your behaviour the next day.  What is it about our notions of the Irish and drinking??

As I work early early sunday morning I will not be drinking my face off this Saturday night.  However, I still made some cupcakes for the occasion because it just didn't seem right not to.  I used the same recipe as I did last year from Smitten Kitchen because it's a reliable recipe for the cupcake batter  - when something works, I don't mess with it!  I didn't use a ganache filling, instead making butterscotch pudding to fill some of them.  The rest I didn't fill at all.
I also - don't shoot me here - didn't use Guinness.  I bought a wonderful stout brewed here in Ontario.

On the back label it said it was brewed with chocolate wheat.  How could I resist?  It really was a lovely beer.  ( there was a bit leftover, a fitting reward for slaving over the stove!)  I am sure you can find it at any LCBO - Black Creek Brewery.  Go local!

I had already made the toppers

 when I was planning to attend a party and bring these, so even though I'm not sure what to do with them, I dressed them up anyway!

I encourage everyone to check out Smitten Kitchen for all the wonderful recipes and fantastic photography.  It's well worth visiting!