Cake decorating is something that I grew up with. To earn extra cash when I was little, my mom would decorate cakes for weddings and graduations, etc, and every once in a while I got to help. When I got older and joined 4-H, cake decorating was the first thing I signed up for and the only event that I stuck with the 5 years that I was in 4-H. Not to toot my own horn, but the other cake decorators of Delta County didn't have a chance once I came on the scene. Seriously, I got 1st place, Grand Champion, and Reserve Grand Champion all 5 years that I competed in the fair. My magnum opus was a cake shaped like the United States, decorated to look like an American flag, with Colorado outlined in blue, and a red star for Delta County. All done with a star tip. All this is sort of destroying my image of kitchen ineptitude, isn't it? Crap. My point: Several weeks ago, my manager and I were bullshitting, and the subject of cake decorating came up. I modestly told her that I used to be kind of good at it, and she offered to give me all of her stuff because she HATED it. She said she had a few pans and some of the Wilton Yearbooks, which was the Most Fun Magazine Ever as far as my 5-year old self had been concerned.
Anyway, today was the day, the day she remembered to pack it all up and bring it to me. The pans are really cute, a Smurfette and a gum ball machine and one of those spiffy 3-D round cake pans. But the books. Oh my gods. In addition to several of the Wilton Yearbooks (including this one), there is a hardcover Betty Crocker book and - I can't even believe this - The Wilton Way of Cake Decorating Home Study Course. That's right, my manager actually paid who knows how much money to have 5 installments of this cake decorating course mailed to her door. And the course is (supposedly) written by the man himself, Norman Wilton. He looks rather severe, as though he's just waiting for someone to make a wisecrack about him decorating cakes. In fact, he addresses this in the Introduction booklet: "Surprised? Well, don't be. The art of cake decorating is a family tradition with us Wiltons." So there.
I can't wait to look through all of the yearbooks and see what cakes I can make. How exciting!
2 comments:
I just recieved this Wilton home study course in a yellow binder and a wilton candy maker home study course and was looking for a price on them when I googled and found your site. What do you think they are worth, any idea?
Well, I asked the woman who gave it to me how much she paid back in the 70's or whenever, and she said she didn't know because her mom bought it for her. So no luck there. I would say ... $15? $20? Especially if you're planning on playing up the kitsch factor. I don't know about the candy maker home study one, is it from the same um era in Wilton home study courses? Maybe $30 for the set? I hope this was a little bit helpful, I'm sorry I don't know more about it!
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