The Wilton "Sweet-Up"

Last week, I was one of the lucky recipients of an invite to the first ever Wilton "Sweet up" in Woodridge, Illinois. I knew I would probably run into traffic (I did, three times) and I knew the drive was a "bit" long (it was, two hours), but being quite the baker, I just had to go.

I'm so glad I did! How colorful was the "Sweet Up" room! Tables were set up everywhere with examples of cakes and products...and the vanilla smell was heavenly! They proceeded to have demonstrations, question and answer sessions and gave us a tour of the decorator's room (where all of the items are made and decorated for product labels and photography.)
While we were in the decorator's room, I talked with a lady who has worked there for 20 years. She was making "cake pops" - which are sort of these balls of cake on a stick. These are rather new to me. Basically, you bake a cake and crumble it. Add a bit of preserves of some sort. Then, add enough homemade or pre-made frosting in order to form it into a ball. Put them on wax paper, put a stick in each one and harden in the fridge. Then, dip each one in melted chocolate and let cool - then decorate if you wish. She said chocolate cake, chocolate frosting with raspberry preserves is her favorite, but you can make whatever combination you want. I think I would like chocolate with chocolate with a bit of orange marmalade - because chocolate and orange together are just the bomb. She did warn that when you mush it all together, it looks grosser than all heck - but never fear, the delicious yumminess is hiding inside.
(You can almost always find a printable coupon for cake mix and frosting HERE. Stack this on top of a store sale...and a better bonus if your store doubles coupons!)

Look at this generosity! After the sweet-up was officially over, the kind people at Wilton gave us each a swag bag full of these wonderful products. We were all blown away.
See that yearbook? It was *hot* off the press. Really. We were the first ones to see it and it is FILLED with awesome ideas.

Then, we all headed over to the annual tent sale...wait...when I say "tent", I mean four-aisles-of-I-want-everything-I-see-covered-by-a-tent-as-big-as-a-football-field." Get this...it was all marked 50 to 75% off AND...we got an EXTRA 20% off.
Needless to say, I was overwhelmed. All I could do was just stand there and stare.
(by the way, if you live close to the Wilton headquarters, the sale is going until June 22.)

I finally got myself moving. I could have spent THOUSANDS of dollars in there. That is NOT an exaggeration. I wish I DID have thousands to spend...it was amazing. I did a lot of picking things up, putting them in the cart and then putting them back. I knew I had to be practical and that I wasn't there for a shopping spree. So many people have asked me what I bought, so here it is. $43.00 worth of items I "needed." Upon second look, it appears I left out the little mini-cookie cutter set that I found.
(A pastry mat, 2 jumbo cookie sheets, 2 double rolls parchment, mini cookie cutters, a round cake carrier with 2 round cake pans inside, stickers and candy melts)
And if you were ever lucky enough to receive one of Cheapo's Peanut Butter & Chocolate Hat Suckers, you now know where the candy melts come from. Mmmm...Thanks so much @WiltonCakes - it was a really "Sweet" time!