On decorating

I find I am getting a little tired of eating cupcakes, and hence more critical of the final results. This can only be good for the cuspcake quest, of course, but I'm starting to find that after a whole day of plotting, baking, filling then frosting cupcakes, when I'm done, all I really want to sink my teeth into is an apple.

One other thing I have realised is, I do not like buttercream. My shortlived urge to learn to create buttercream flowers is dying. I would be happy to master enough skills so all my cupcakes looked liked this:

(vanillabakeshop.com, check it out!)

which look fairly minimal. I dislike handling it in this weather, feeling it get too-soft-to-handle after just three cupcakes. I dislike the taste of buttercream. And I really hate the cleaning up. Pastry bags are impossible to clean!

I am however still quite keen to learn to handle fondant, which looks simpler (how wrong can you go with cutters?) and cleaner. I love these cupcakes from therepressedpastrychef's review of Leda's Bake Shop, with the simple, layered fondant shapes, and slightly off-centre placement. So pretty and modern. And they look like the cream bits are straightforward to do too!

Anyway I'm off to find out if I can take Wilton course 2 (fondant), without taking course 1 (buttercream!) first, although I somehow suspect I can't...