Broken Cake

I just want to remind everyone that crappy days do happen

This cake did not happen. It just wasn’t in the cards. But that’s ok. I moved on…although it was incredibly therapeutic to wash it down the garbage disposal 😉

Happy 1 Year Blogaversary Carrie!

I couldn’t realize how many cool people I would meet through this blog. And when I say “meet” I mean virtually 🙂 One of my fellow cake/cookiers, Carrie, mentioned about a month or so ago that she had been blogging for about a year and that her “blogaversary” was coming up. Having only been blogging since the beginning of the year I can attest this is a very special accomplishment!

I want to congratulate her in proper cake style 🙂 When I saw this cake from My Cake School, I knew instantly it was the one I wanted to make for her.

Happy Birthday/Anniversary Carrie’s Creations!! I know it’s not until April 9th, but I couldn’t wait to say “WAY TO GO!!” I can’t wait to see what creations you have for the 2nd year 🙂

If you haven’t checked out her site before, please stop by…she’s very creative and has some really cute cookies that she’s shown off in various posts 🙂

Fondant Fun

Tonight was the fourth class of the third Wilton cake decorating course. It was all about Gum Paste and Fondant. I had such a good time in the class, but I have to say I was WAY outta my comfort zone!! I don’t think we used a piping bag the entire month. And there wasn’t a single dollop of royal icing. Yowsers! But we made some beautiful flowers. Stuff that looks great…but to be honest doesn’t taste good at all. I know there are people that love to eat fondant, but I’m just not one of them. The flowers may look cleaner made in fondant, but I’ll take a buttercream or royal icing rose any day 😉

I thought I would showcase our final cakes. There were two other people in the class with me and their cakes turned out fantastic! One is a 13 year old girl and she did such a good job. She LOVES color that’s for sure 😉

And here’s my cake…

I’m unfortunately not going to be taking the fourth and final course at this time. Just too busy making cookies. This Wilton ride has been a fun and a wild one. Highly recommend it to anyone who wants to dabble in the arts and get out of the house for some “me” time.

Final Cake Full O’ Flowers

Final class of course 2 in the Wilton Cake Decorating series…COMPLETE!

I was telling the other girl in the class that I enjoyed this course (Flowers and Cake Design) more than the first (Decorating Basics) because we did cooler things, but I missed not bringing something home to eat each week like we did in the first course! hehe  Not that I need it of course and not that my husband and I even eat it, but it was still fun to have a little treat.

Last night I decorated my final cake using the flowers I’d made from the previous classes. I have zero artistic creativity so with some help from the instructor talking through the placement of the flowers I came up with this. Note the last picture is how my husband decided to dig in and eat the cake 🙂

The Cake That Couldn’t Break Me

If you saw my post from earlier today you know I baked a couple cakes to play with today. I need one for Monday’s cake decorating class and the other for my friend’s brunch tomorrow. I’ve been really looking forward to this brunch! I was assigned to bring a fruit salad…lord knows I love fruit so it was a perfect pairing. However, she also said, and I quote,

Should you have any type of homemade pastry/baked good hanging around the house, feel free to bring it with you on Sunday…I mean, why feed the raccoons of Bellingham when you can feed the girls of Arlington..? 🙂

So what’s a sugar crazed girl gonna do? Bake a cake!

Thank you to my sister-in-law who thought of me when she saw this amazingly beautiful cake on Pinterest. I Am Baker is an amazing site for things like this 🙂 Gorgeous! And since I was pretty good with making the rosettes I figured I should give it a whirl 🙂

Ran into a few hurdles along the way, but I was bound and determined to clear em.

First…Ran out of buttercream. I’ve never used buttercream before, but figured I needed quite a bit so I doubled the recipe, which by the way is SCRUMPTIOUS!! However it only made enough to frost the cake and make the roses around the sides.

Second…During mid-cake clean up my hubby crunched my only 1M decorating tip in the garbage disposal because I was an airhead and dumped out the cup they were soaking in. Never never never put the cup you are using to soak tips in the sink…always keep on the counter so you think about what you are doing! Nothing that a quick trip to the local Michael’s craft store can’t fix!

Third…My daughter who I swear grows an inch a week is either taller than she appears or used her go-go gadget arms and stuck a little finger in one of the side roses for an unofficial tasting.

Fourth…New batch of frosting tint doesn’t quiet match the tint for the side roses. Maybe after it sits a bit it’ll blend.

and Fifth…The cake is all done, pictures are taken and I’m happy. If you’ve ever seen the Food Network Cake Challenges you know it’s not over until you move the cake to the table. In my case, move the cake into the cake holder. My finger slipped when pushing the cake board back and whoops! there went my finger through one of the roses. My personal touch I guess 😉

Regardless…I’m happy with the cake for the first time making something like this. It’s pretty and I can’t wait to share it with my wonderful friends. The best part…I used milk chocolate mousse filling in the middle of the layers!! If you haven’t heard of this, it’s like heaven and you can find the recipe on one of my earlier posts here.

I Spy

I’ve been cooped up this week with a nasty head cold, not to mention my two kiddos were under the weather too. It’s been a rough one. I told my husband he’s lucky he can open the door and walk through the kitchen with how I’ve been feeling. But my energy level is back and I’m ready to bake!

On that note…I spy 2 cakes, milk chocolate mousse filling, 4 sticks of butter and new Americolor color gels. (oh and some chocolate chip cookies my hubby made while I was getting my piggies painted) Oh yeah I’m feeling better! Now, what to do…what to do…

A Not So Pretty Valentine’s Day Cookie

They can’t all be blue ribbon winners.

No one’s ever told me this, but I can imagine if when I was really good at raising squash or hogs as a kid someone would’ve wound up telling me this as a way to sooth my hurt pride when I didn’t win the local town’s heaviest _____ blue ribbon contest. So as I stare dumbfoundedly (there’s that damn word again) at my cookie I think to myself, “Suck it up girlfriend…they can’t all be blue ribbon winners.”

Scenario…Vanentine’s Day. Two sick kids at home, a kitchen in complete disarray and no boxed cake mix. There’s no way I can make a cake for my hubby with the heavy responsibilities of the day today. Nor can I bundle everyone up for a quick (read hour…don’t forget I have two kids nothing is ever quick) trip to the grocery store to buy a mix. So my next thought…I made cookies yesterday maybe I can decorate one for him. However, the only icing on hand is the one I made for class last night and it wasn’t what I was used to. Needless to say I was rushing things and next thing I knew I was piping out WAY too runny icing on my cookie. Thought the damn was going to hold but when I flooded it it ran over the sides. This picture shows the attempt at fixing it with a little scrapeage. Yeah…not gonna work. So…my hubby has a cookie that looks like it was decorated by his 2 year old daughter. Guess I could go for the cute factor and win a few points in the end 😉

Petal Power

Monday nights…Bachelor and cake decorating class. Oh and a glass of wine, after class of course! I suggest this for anyone who gets the Monday blues…sure makes my Mondays super!

Last night we learned to make flowers using royal icing. Very different than the royal icing I use for cookies. Used the Wilton recipe which, seemed very airy but made pretty flowers. I’m thinking in the future I’ll add some cornstarch to thicken up the icing before piping any flowers. Learned this tip when my roses were having impotence issues 😉

For color inspiration, I used the beautiful flowers a good friend sent me as a thank you for making her baby shower favors. I was going for a light pink and a nice girlie pink but wound up with a purpleish pink and a hot pink. Guess the teacher was right…colors will brighten up when left over night! Need to take this into consideration next time I make up icing!

We learned the Wilton Rose, apple blossoms and the primrose. I’m picturing some of these on my final cake 🙂

Wilton Rose

Primrose

Apple Blossoms

 

Royal Tower

Decided I’d make some cookies today during my babester’s naptime. I have all this royal icing I made for my cake decorating class tonight. I usually always have left over frosting and figured if history repeats itself I’d probably have some left over icing too! Can’t wait to make some beautiful flowers tonight and share them with you…hopefully they turn out!

100 Hits

Until now, I have only told 5 people about this blog. My parents, my husband, my mother-in-law and one of my good friends. It wasn’t that I was ashamed of what I was making, but I knew I had a LOT of room for improvement. This morning I received a comment from a complete stranger saying how she thought my latest cake was sweet…made me feel like a hundred bucks! It was just the boost of confidence I needed. Thank you A Kitty and Her Cakes!

I told myself when I started a couple weeks ago that I would post it to FB and let the world know what I was up to as soon as I got 100 hits. Well folks…I’m there! I’m proud to unveil my new blog about cake, cookie and cupcake decorating and my journey through unchartered territory as I teach myself how to do it all 🙂  If you’re looking for perfect sweets…ya ain’t gonna get it here! But if you’re looking for a little humor and some tipping, dripping and ripping desserts…this blog is your cup of tea! Hope you enjoy!