Fresh Home baked Bread without Machine

When I step out to buy any grocery, I get confused with too much of options these days. One such confusions comes in choosing the yeast I buy. I wanted to look into what each yeast is for and what major variations they could bring?

Some facts from the web, the particular brand which I buy has these options for the type of yeast to choose;

Cake (moist) - the traditional live yeast; needs to be dissolved in water
Active dry - the traditional dry yeast; needs to be dissolved usually with a bit of sugar
Instant - contains a bit of yeast enhancer (citric acid, maybe some other stuff?) and is possibly more concentrated than active dry; does not need to be dissolved
Bread Machine - exactly the same as instant in a different package
Rapid Rise - larger amount of yeast enhancers and other packaging changes to the granules. Does not have to be dissolved. Works very fast and is intended for straight doughs that you want to complete within an hour or so. Generally not used by artisan bakers who seek slower, not faster, rise.

The confusing part is that some manufacturers reverse the meaning of "instant" and "rapid rise", and vary on which they call "bread machine".

My Best Cake...

The final day of my course 2 was  yesterday. Always, it was fun gathering there and chit chat while learning the techniques. I have always wondered if I would be able to prepare some nice cakes. I mean a neatly decorated cake. Even at the beginning of the last class, I never imagined I could make a nice decorated cake. But, I took back my opinion, when I could make a cake like this,

This is my best cake ever till now. When I prepare the cake, I was waiting to decorate and cut soon. As the cake is a vennila cake with Strawberry Marshmallow Mousse filling. I loved the filling and it tasted to good when I prepared them. But when I decorated the cake, I never had the mind to cut the cake :)

Class cakes - Basic Yellow Cake

I have started with more of baking these days. I should say I have begun to bake a cake moderately well and frost it well too! What to do after that? I am confused at this stage without much ideas. I have made varieties of cakes with chocolate shavings, black forest cake, fresh fruit cake & even dry fruit cake. I have seen many beautifully decorated cakes. I have wondered how they were made.

I browsed to find the basic cake class. And I came across Michaels' offering the Wilton's Cake Decorating class. And I have joined the course 1. The classes are so useful for any curious learner. We’ve learned to make the frosting, frost a pre-baked cake and also a few decorating techniques. It isn’t as hard as I thought it would be, I’m thoroughly enjoying. For all the cakes I’ve baked till now, I’ve used a whipped cream frosting, so the usual butter-cream frosting is new to me. The one taught in the class is very tasty indeed and is white as snow.
After going here, I really wonder so many ideas, and techniques and so many possibilities.

My instructor asked to use a boxed cake mix and not to use ready to use icing. But I have never preferred boxed cake mix nor the ready to use icing. I always loved to make the cake at home, as well learning the icing and preparing it every time helps you to overcome the mistakes we might make.

I have made cup cakes and cakes. For the cakes, I prepared the Basic yellow cake recipe from Wilton's Basic Yellow cake