Wilton Food Blogger Workshop

Earlier this week, I was among 20+ food bloggers from around the country flown out to Chicago by Wilton to participate in the Wilton Food Blogger Workshop at their headquarters. Fortunately for me, my good friend Jenn was invited too, because without her, I may have gone crazy dealing with our flight mishaps and the insane Chicago weather. (Humid and 96 degrees on Wednesday, 65 and hail/thunder/lighting/rain/flooding the following day.)

Anyway, I was so flattered to have been chosen to attend and in great company, as you can see by the welcome board:
In good company

Thursday was packed full of fun! We learned about buttercream, tried out new products, took a tour of the Wilton decorating room and and photo studio, had lunch, learned about fondant (I need desperate help), then finally worked in teams to put our new skills to use in a decorating competition.

I was teamed up with Kristy of Mommy Hates Cooking and Megan of Not Martha who were both wonderful teammates and didn’t laugh at my lack of decorating skills. Here’s Kristy and Megan hard at work on our basket weave flower bouquet. It’s also one of the rare times none of us had frosting somewhere on our clothes or in our hair.
There was frosting EVERYWHERE

Following the competition, we boarded a bus and visited the Wilton School and Wilton Enterprises where we saw the history wall and visited the test kitchen (and ate cupcakes, naturally). From there we were pleasantly surprised with vouchers to spend at the Wilton tent sale. I got a ton of stuff, including doughnut pans (recipe coming soon), a bundt pan, bags, gel frosting, vanilla, a pastry wheel, and much more. It was like my birthday and Hanukkah all rolled into one! That night, we had an awards ceremony and dinner as a group, along with the Wilton folks. Each team was awarded a super cute [faux] cake, and our team won “Most Contemporary” for our basket weave bouquet.

Thank you Wilton for inviting me, I had an amazing time!

To see individual pictures, click on the mosaic then click on the links in Flickr.
Wilton Food Blogger Workshop

Comments

9 Responses to “Wilton Food Blogger Workshop”

    Nanette on 1 June 12th, 2011 6:38 pm

    WOW!

    Did you and Jenn start crying when you walked into the Wilton Tent Sale, like the women do on Oprah’s Favorite Things shows? ‘Cuz that’s totally how I picture it in my head.

    Hilary on 2 June 12th, 2011 6:41 pm

    Jenn was on a mission. As soon as we walked in, she was gone!

    Carole Yellen on 3 June 12th, 2011 7:13 pm

    Looks like so much fun and reminds me of my Wilton Cake Decorating Classes. Although I have to say, I only wish I had the icing bags and stacked cakes prepped like that whenever I went to make a cake.

    shelly (cookies and cups) on 4 June 13th, 2011 5:22 am

    Such a fun and busy trip!!

    Seanna Lea on 5 June 13th, 2011 7:00 am

    That sounds like a ton of fun. I’ve never done the basketweave, but I do occasionally use fondant. Time consuming and fun (though not the tastiest way to decorate a cake).

    blueviolet @ A Nut in a Nutshell on 6 June 14th, 2011 3:14 am

    Hilary, that looks like such a blast! I’m so glad you got to go, and your decorating was good no matter what you say!

    May - So Very Domestic on 7 June 22nd, 2011 11:01 am

    That looks like so much fun!! I’ve learned the basketweave thanks to my mom but there is so much more for me to learn!

    Nicole Navratil on 8 July 15th, 2011 4:51 pm

    This looks like so much fun! Could really go for a cupcake & some coffee, but alas, I am babysitting. 🙂

    Casey on 9 August 15th, 2011 5:45 am

    Sounds like a fabulous experience.