Axios NWA Does: Cake decorating at Rick's Bakery

I tried my hand at cake decorating — a first for this home chef who sticks to all things besides dessert.

🍰 State of play: A friend and I signed up for a floral cake decorating class at Rick's Bakery in Fayetteville. It was like getting to go rogue in an art class, except you get cake afterward.

👩‍🍳 How it works: We had the option of either chocolate or white cake. Each person started with a plainly iced single-layer round 8-inch cake plus five colors of frosting ready to go. The instructor went over how to make three kinds of flowers and leaves so everyone could decorate from there.

• We got more frosting than needed, which came in handy because we had to discard some attempts at flowers.

😋 The intrigue: This was a low-stakes way to learn this skill, instead of while in a rush to decorate a cake for an occasion. And it's a fun after-work weekday activity.

• And even if it goes poorly for you, you still get to take home a cake. Not a bad worst-case scenario.

🗓 Zoom out: Rick's regularly offers various dessert decorating classes at its Fayetteville and Rogers shops. October includes spooky tutorials like this cauldron cake or a kid-friendly haunted gingerbread house .

💰 By the numbers: The tickets for this class were $35, including the cake.