When Char Sakakeeny of Dayton heard the Dayton Senior Center was offering cake decorating classes, she was there " early.
Instructed by Mary Hauseur, who has 25 years experience decorating cakes, the class is free and open to all ages.
"When I donate something to the church for the bake sales, I want it to be special," Sakakeeny said. "That's the main purpose of taking this class."
Hauseur provided tips first on the cake " if you have time, bake it the day before, let it cool, or best yet, freeze it overnight. Let it come to room temperature before icing. This helps it stay firm and easier to frost. Also, make sure the cake is level " use the edge of the pan as a guide and with a serrated knife, cut the "hump" from the cake, then turn it over to frost it.
Then the icing. You can make a variety of icings.
"When you make icing and you're going to decorate with it, it needs to be firm," Hauseur said. "That's when you use the 50/50 icing. Fifty-percent shortening to 50 percent powdered sugar. That recipe's for basic stability, so don't plan on eating it."
The participants of the class are asked to bring in their own cake for decorating. On Thursday, Hauseur will teach how to design trees and landscape on the cake.
"You see all the stuff in the bakery displays and you want to try it yourself," said Dennis Tye of Spanish Springs. "I thought this would be fun."
Tye brought some of his own decorating materials for the lesson. He helped make piping bags from parchment paper so everyone could decorate the individual cakes. The center baked about two dozen yellow cakes for them to practice their skills on, which were then delivered to homebound senior citizens on the Meals on Wheels program.
Hauseur, who lives in Dayton, said decorating started as a hobby for her, then she had to go to work.
"I learned in 1975 from a woman at my kids' grammar school," she said. "I've worked at Raley's-Bel-Air, the private industry and eight-and-a-half years at Safeway, where I retired at the end of 2005.
"I enjoyed doing it while I did it. But after the death of my husband, I was looking for something to fill my time with and Denise (Earp, senior center director) asked me if I would hold classes here."
Earp and her class frosted the cakes with a basic frosting, then stenciled a pink heart onto them. She instructed Tye how to use various tips in the piping bag for various edgings. Sylvia Contreras of Dayton added colored sprinkles to the pink hearts.
"We're going to make rose tips and edging on these cakes," she said, as her fluid movements created a small wave at the edge of the pan.
"And a decorators worse nightmare " lumpy powdered sugar. Always sift your powdered sugar before making the icing."
Hauseur said her biggest challenge was not multi-tiered wedding cakes, but a five-sheet cake for a woman's 100th birthday.
"It had a 100-year history on it, from when she was a child to her 100th year," Hauseur said. "It was a challenge and a learning experience. You're only limited by your imagination."
- Contact Rhonda Costa at rcosta
@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1223.
WHAT: Cake decorating class
WHO: Instructed by Mary Hauseur
WHEN: 9:30 a.m. Thursdays
WHERE: Dayton Senior Center, 320 Old Dayton Valley Road
COST: Free; open to all ages. Bring your own cake.
CALL: 246-6210