I'm a Cize Instructor!

I took a HUGE leap of faith last weekend and did my Cize Instructor Training.

Never, ever did I even imagine ever teaching a group fitness class, but my coach mentioned that there was a training happening in Miami, and it was being done by Tania "The Machine" from the Insanity and T25 videos! And for real, I couldn't not meet Tania.

As luck would have it, of course, I got a cold the week of the training. I was planning on doing some extra Cize workouts to get ready for my training, but that was not in the cards. By Friday, I was able to get in a workout, and then Saturday was my training.

Tania was so nice and greeted me with a hug. We were all cramped into a little dance studio, but we made it work. The day started out with a master class by Tania, which was a huge, sweaty, fun dance party!

Then we got into the nitty-gritty of breaking down the class and how to teach it. It was so hot inside, that we did one of the last parts of the class outside. You know it's hot inside when a slight Miami breeze is refreshing.

Before we were done for the day though, we Cized it up! one more time. It was such a blast and the energy was so great.

So I'll be practicing and hopefully soon, will be sharing the fun that is Cize with others in the Miami area. EEK! I'm still kinda in shock about it, but it's so cool.

Cake decorating class: Week 4

Tonight was the final night of my cake decorating class. I brought in my frosted cake (it was yellow cake with chocolate frosting filling). I loved the colors we used tonight.

 

We started straight away with the roses. At first the frosting Mom and I had was too stiff, so we thinned it out with some water. Then we were able to make these cabbage looking roses. The yellow ones were the first ones I made, so they look a little weak, but the pink ones were improving.

After we made all the roses, we transferred them to our cakes. Moving the roses from parchment paper to the cake was surprisingly easy.

Look how pretty all the colors look together. I'm not usually a pink fan, but I really liked the colors on this cake, pink and all.

Then we added some white lines and dots to the cake... and my favorite, the leaves.

 Here I am working on the final piece, the border. This came out so much prettier than I thought it would.

And going around the whole bottom of the cake was pretty quick too. Gotta love that flower tip.

 

Here is the finished product! Though my roses don't look like they did in the book (which I kinda knew would be the case) I kinda got the hang of the roses.

I will definitely try my hand at roses again, I'm sure that with some practice they'll come out great. I know that practice makes perfect when it comes to most things, especially crafts.

Mom signed up for the next cake course (I just don't have time), so hopefully I'll get to show off some of her creations here in the next few weeks.

Cake decorating class: Week 3

Tonight we got to decorate cupcakes, and boy, do I love cupcakes. I made my cupcakes on Sunday and then froze them. I defrosted them this morning and pulled out the "buttercream" to get it to room temp. Once we got to class we prepped all of our frostings and put them into bags. Then we started on the cupcakes.

I didn't take pics of this, but the first thing we did was fill our cupcakes with a filling. I brought lemon pudding. I filled them as best as I could, since the pudding was basically pouring out of the bag. (When Grandma had her sample cupcake once I got home, she said there wasn't much filling in there... oh well, I'll have to try it again next time.)

First we did this. I call it the Publix bakery cupcake. Just a HUGE star tip and swirl it around the cupcake to frost it. This is the perfect base for sprinkles and also awesome for those people that love frosting.

Next, we made this pretty flower. Please don't judge how it's supposed to look by my first feeble attempt. I know with practice I'll get better at this.

This is what is supposed to be a shaggy mum. I saw it in our course book and couldn't wait to make it. Apparently this one was harder than it looked. But making the leaves was awesome. I totally got the hang of that pretty quick.

Here's Mom decorating some of her cupcakes.

Next week is our final class, and we'll finally get to make roses. The cake that we're making next week is so pretty. I hope mine looks half as good as the one in the book does. I guess I'll have to wait til next week to see.

Cake decorating class: Week 2

Today was my second cake decorating class. Tonight we got to work on an actual cake. I took my cake, which I baked the other day. I filled the center of the cake with strawberry preserves, then I frosted it with my blue frosting.

Then we filled up our bags and got to work on the cakes.

 That's the the bottom of my cupcake. Not too bad, huh?

Making the top was super fun. It was like piping in clouds.Here's Mom making the top of her cupcake.

It's so fluffy!! (Yes, that should be said in the voice of the little girl from "Despicable Me.")

You can't forget the cherry on top. Then we made a border at the bottom. I made mine continuous. I think for my first try it came out pretty even.

 

And here it is all done and ready to eat! I'm saving it for my co-workers who've been patiently waiting for it all week, so I'll let you know how it tastes tomorrow.

I'm liking the class, especially now that we're doing some real decorating. Next week we have to bring in cupcakes. I can't wait to decorate those! :)

Cake decorating class: Week 1

Tonight was my first cake decorating class. This class was all about the basics. We learned about baking our cakes, cutting them and filling them. Then we learned how to make faux buttercream to frost our cakes with. The book calls it buttercream, but since there is no butter involved, I'll call it what it is.

We did get to play with some frosting though. After piping out our stars on the practice mat, we got to work on the cookies we brought. The cookies may have been store-bought, but the decorations were all mine.

I'm liking the class so far and got some really great tips for making cakes. I can't wait to get more into the nitty gritty of the decorating.

Next week we have to bring a frosted cake to class, so you'll get to see my creation once I'm done. I can't wait to have my first decorated cake using my new techniques!