Wilton Decorating Basics Class #1 ... and a Mad Men Inspired Tiramisu

Tonight was my very first Wilton decorating class!  I learned so much about torting and icing a cake - ya know, those things you thought you knew, but, really, you didn't?  These classes are definitely going to be a great learning experience.  We learned how to fill icing bags the easy way and how to pipe stars.  I will post pictures of our projects as I do them in class.  Tonight we mostly watched and learned, and, after all the watching, I decided I must have a Wilton Trim N Turn Plus Cake Turntable and 10" Cake Leveler - how have I ever done anything without these tools!

The instruction sheet for this week's class called for 6 sugar cookies to decorate in class.  So, after much internal debate about whether or not to buy said cookies at Publix, I decided to make them.  I have always had a hard time making "cookie cutter cookies"; my cookies always look a bit more "rustic" ;-)  So, today, I searched the web high and low and finally found an amazing recipe that I altered just a bit by adding more sugar and vanilla.  You can find the recipe here.  Instead of rolling out these cookies, I formed them into perfectly round balls, rolled the balls in sugar, and then smashed them with my palms onto prepared wax paper - this is A LOT easier than a rolling pin (and a lot cleaner), and your cookies turn out thick, fluffy, and sparkly! I'll take delicious over perfectly flat any ole' day! Here are some pictures I took after piping stars onto my cookies in class (we ran out of time and only had 15 minutes, so we did not get to color the icing):

As most of you know, AMC's Mad Men shows on Sunday nights.  In honor of this glorious show, my husband and I always make a special dinner and have a nice wine or cocktail while watching.  Yesterday, we decided to go Italian (surprise!) and make a copycat of Macaroni Grill's Penne Rustica (recipe here), and what goes better with Penne Rustica than, you guessed it, tiramisu!  Since the new rule in my home is "no more store bought desserts", of course, I had to attempt to make the said tiramisu.  In my normal fashion, I scoured the Internet and found a basic recipe here.  I sent my sweet husband after the ingredients, and, wouldn't ya know it, Publix did not have any marscapone cheese .... NONE!  So, I subbed in 8oz. of cream cheese, 1/4 cup sour cream, and 2 tbsp whipping cream, and it worked beautifully.  I must admit that it was quite nice to not have to bake anything - I just chilled it in the fridge until it set up!  It is not the prettiest tiramisu I've ever seen, but it sure did taste great =)  Here are some pictures:

Next up ... Wilton class #2 and a picture transfer cake!