Decorating Cake Class II

Tonight I start my second cake class, these next 4 sessions are on fondant and gum paste. I am excited to learn how to handle pre-made fondant. I used it one time and it was a flop! So my question is what did I do wrong! I hope to find that out tonight.  I had said I was going to get back to you about the cakes John and I did for our last class and how we did them.  First here is how I started:

First I found the picture I wanted and sketched it out on paper

I drew over that with the colors I wanted for the peacock

To transfer the image I used piping gel and parchment paper

To do this I laid the parchment over the sketch and traced the picture with clear piping gel onto the parchment. To keep the parchment in place, our teacher gave the tip to tape the corners of the parchment to the table.  Slowly pull the parchment up and turn it to face your cake top, this may take 2 people so the parchment doesn't roll up.  Carefully position and lay it down on the cake. Smooth it with your spatula to press the image onto the cake.  I only traced the body and feathers for the layout and piped the other frills on the peacock using a 1, 3(lines) and 21(pink shell) tip. 

For John's cute Nest cake, he actually designed his own.  He did the same first step which was sketching out his design and then decided on the colors for the icing.  

 To transfer his picture to his cake, he hand drew his design with a toothpick on the cake.  If he messed up anything he would be able to smooth the icing out and start over.  Then he piped out the nest using the mum technique! I just love his cake! He used a tip 12 (eggs), 233(Nest), 352(leaves), 104 (Tree)

My husband is so creative! Our kids love it!

Let us know what you've done! We'd love to see it!