Today's plan was to get up fairly early (at least for me, lol) and spend the day baking. Once I got up and had breakfast, I realized I needed to attend to my duties as head of the cake club that I belong too. Once I was done with everything I could do today, it was 2pm and I was hungry for lunch, lol. So, I had lunch and proceeded to mix up the first cake to be baked today - raspberry cake. It was a recipe I found online that started with a box white cake mix. Yes....I bake with box mixes. It's a personal choice, and I'm quite happy with it. Mixed up and baked the raspberry cakes. They came out great! I tasted a small bite of it, and was shocked at how good it tasted. Once it cooled, I proceeded to crumble it up in my Kitchen Aid in preparation for making cake truffles.
I then had to go out and pick up my car, and while out had dinner, lol. Got home and baked the cakes I need for the weekend for a celebration cake for my cousin's wife. So, I mixed up an baked the lemon cakes (added a few drops of lemon oil to the mix for an extra boost), let them cool and packaged them up to keep them fresh until tomorrow when I decorate it. By this time it was close to midnight, and I called it a night, lol.
Tomorrow's plan is to roll all the cake truffles in preparation for dipping them. Hopefully I can get around to dipping them also, but I don't think that's going to happen. I have the party on Saturday, so hopefully they will get dipped on Sunday. I'm busy for part of Monday, so next week I am planning on getting the 6 varieties of cookies baked, 2 batches of caramel made and 5 varieties of pet goodies made.
Happy caking!
~Chelle
Friday, December 10, 2010
Thursday, December 9, 2010
It's always something.............
Why is it that when you have a plan of what you're going to do in a day, it always seems to be sabotaged?
I started out this morning by heading out to meet with a hotel to set up a function, and then proceeded to Lorraine's Cake Supply in Hanover, MA to get some butterscotch melting wafers for some of my Christmas treats. Of course, I did not buy just what I went there for, lol! After there, I had planned to head to the grocery store to finish up buying some ingredients, and then to another cake shop for some boards and boxes.
Turns out the car had other ideas!! I guess it spent so much time at the dealer that it was homesick..... I left Lorraine's and got on the highway to head to my next destination and noticed something red flash on the instrument panel on the dash. At first I thought I was seeing things....then it happened again and stayed on. It was the battery light, and after stopping and checking the owner's manual, learned that it meant the battery wasn't being charged while driving. ABS light also kept flashing on and off. Well......that pretty much nixed the trip to the grocery store, and I turned around and headed to the dealer.
Got there about 1:00 or so, told them what was going on. About 3:30 or so, they came and said that I needed a new alternator, new rear brakes (old one's won't pass inspection, and mine is expired), and my brake fluid was black. Great! The service tech said it would be ready in 3 hours....I actually said to him 'Will it really be ready in 3 hrs??'. Cause everytime they give me a time estimate, it's never ready at that time. I told him I'd be back tomorrow to pick it up. I had already been there 2.5 hours and was in no mood to be there another 3-4-5 hrs. So, I called my wonderful brother and he came and picked me up and brought me home.
Since I didn't get to the grocery store (and wasn't going to have wheels to go tomorrow), my mom and I went out for dinner and then to the store and finally got home about 8:30. Needless to say, I had no desire to do any baking or anything else. So I decided to relax tonight and spend tomorrow baking and treating :)
Hopefully, there will be pictures for you tomorrow!
~Chelle
I started out this morning by heading out to meet with a hotel to set up a function, and then proceeded to Lorraine's Cake Supply in Hanover, MA to get some butterscotch melting wafers for some of my Christmas treats. Of course, I did not buy just what I went there for, lol! After there, I had planned to head to the grocery store to finish up buying some ingredients, and then to another cake shop for some boards and boxes.
Turns out the car had other ideas!! I guess it spent so much time at the dealer that it was homesick..... I left Lorraine's and got on the highway to head to my next destination and noticed something red flash on the instrument panel on the dash. At first I thought I was seeing things....then it happened again and stayed on. It was the battery light, and after stopping and checking the owner's manual, learned that it meant the battery wasn't being charged while driving. ABS light also kept flashing on and off. Well......that pretty much nixed the trip to the grocery store, and I turned around and headed to the dealer.
Got there about 1:00 or so, told them what was going on. About 3:30 or so, they came and said that I needed a new alternator, new rear brakes (old one's won't pass inspection, and mine is expired), and my brake fluid was black. Great! The service tech said it would be ready in 3 hours....I actually said to him 'Will it really be ready in 3 hrs??'. Cause everytime they give me a time estimate, it's never ready at that time. I told him I'd be back tomorrow to pick it up. I had already been there 2.5 hours and was in no mood to be there another 3-4-5 hrs. So, I called my wonderful brother and he came and picked me up and brought me home.
Since I didn't get to the grocery store (and wasn't going to have wheels to go tomorrow), my mom and I went out for dinner and then to the store and finally got home about 8:30. Needless to say, I had no desire to do any baking or anything else. So I decided to relax tonight and spend tomorrow baking and treating :)
Hopefully, there will be pictures for you tomorrow!
~Chelle
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Christmas Treats
It is Christmastime - Yeah!!! I love Christmas, it's my favorite holiday of the year. I also love making Christmas treats. For a few years, I've been giving them as Christmas gifts, and the recipients all seem to enjoy them!
So....you might be wondering....what kind of treats am I making? Probably too many, lol! Here is the list that I have come up with so far, hopefully I won't be adding any more - I seem to be running out of time to make them (eek!):
* Cake Truffles - I am planning 10 different flavors of these. They seem to be a love'em or hate'em kind of treat. Most people I know love them, but there are a few that don't like them. That's fine with me, and I do buy a gift for those that don't like them :)
* Caramel Apples - These may get nixed. I did a trial run of them, and it was ok, but I wasn't all that impressed with them.
* Caramel Candies - These are stupendously delicious!!
* Chocolate Caramel Candies - Haven't made these before, but how can chocolate and caramel be bad together?
* Cocoa Cones - Assorted flavors
* Rocher's - My first time trying to replicate a store-bought confection!
* Cookies - Right now I think about 6 different varieties....this could change depending on time constraints however!
I also have a friend who's son is on a Gluten Free Casein Free diet. I will be making him his very own cake truffles and peanut butter cookies.
Last but not least - PETS!! Can't leave them out, they love homemade treats too! It was an experiment last year, and it seemed to go over VERY well!
* Peanut Butter Honey Dog Treats
* Bacon Balls - last years turned out to be bacon blobs, but I think I used the wrong flour, lol. My dog did not complain about the taste!
* Pumpkin Dog Treats
* Dipped Dog Bones - store bought bones dipped in carob coating and yogurt coating
* Soft Doggie Treats - a few friend's dogs have trouble eating hard crunchy treats, and I didn't want to leave them out
* Cake Truffles - these may or may not get done....I found a recipe for Doggy Cake, and had the idea, lol
* Kitty Treats - since many friends seem to have cats!
So far, I have 8 of the cake flavors baked for the cake truffles. I have 2 more left to bake tomorrow. No pictures yet, but perhaps I will remember to take some while in the process of making the truffles tomorrow! Then again.....maybe not....don't want to give out ALL my secrets, lol
I will post pictures along the way, however. I just haven't taken any yet.
~Chelle
So....you might be wondering....what kind of treats am I making? Probably too many, lol! Here is the list that I have come up with so far, hopefully I won't be adding any more - I seem to be running out of time to make them (eek!):
* Cake Truffles - I am planning 10 different flavors of these. They seem to be a love'em or hate'em kind of treat. Most people I know love them, but there are a few that don't like them. That's fine with me, and I do buy a gift for those that don't like them :)
* Caramel Apples - These may get nixed. I did a trial run of them, and it was ok, but I wasn't all that impressed with them.
* Caramel Candies - These are stupendously delicious!!
* Chocolate Caramel Candies - Haven't made these before, but how can chocolate and caramel be bad together?
* Cocoa Cones - Assorted flavors
* Rocher's - My first time trying to replicate a store-bought confection!
* Cookies - Right now I think about 6 different varieties....this could change depending on time constraints however!
I also have a friend who's son is on a Gluten Free Casein Free diet. I will be making him his very own cake truffles and peanut butter cookies.
Last but not least - PETS!! Can't leave them out, they love homemade treats too! It was an experiment last year, and it seemed to go over VERY well!
* Peanut Butter Honey Dog Treats
* Bacon Balls - last years turned out to be bacon blobs, but I think I used the wrong flour, lol. My dog did not complain about the taste!
* Pumpkin Dog Treats
* Dipped Dog Bones - store bought bones dipped in carob coating and yogurt coating
* Soft Doggie Treats - a few friend's dogs have trouble eating hard crunchy treats, and I didn't want to leave them out
* Cake Truffles - these may or may not get done....I found a recipe for Doggy Cake, and had the idea, lol
* Kitty Treats - since many friends seem to have cats!
So far, I have 8 of the cake flavors baked for the cake truffles. I have 2 more left to bake tomorrow. No pictures yet, but perhaps I will remember to take some while in the process of making the truffles tomorrow! Then again.....maybe not....don't want to give out ALL my secrets, lol
I will post pictures along the way, however. I just haven't taken any yet.
~Chelle
White Rose Cake Show
Ohhhhhhhh, where to begin........lol
The White Rose Cake Show was held the first weekend of November, in York PA. It's about a 9hr trip from where I live. Fortunately, we had an incident-free trip on the way there (not so much on the way home, but we'll get to that later).
I had originally intended to create one entry for the show. However, once the cake was done, I decided that to add anything else to it would detract from the cake, so I ended up with two entries.
I had decided to do a cake based on daisies. I tend to pick a flower/flowers and then design a cake around that. I tried to think of a color I haven't used lately, and picked orange. Not halloween/pumpkin orange, but rather a muted/subdued orange, almost tangerine like. Amazingly enough, there were no real issues or aggravation laden moments with the cake or the flowers! There are things I will do different in the future, and learned a few things while doing the cake, but I was actually pretty happy with it when it was finished.
Here is the cake that I entered:
The daisies and leaves are made from gumpaste, and have 3 layers of petals. The stems are piped from royal icing.
The side scallops are done in royal icing, using a template to space them properly.
The border is done with tip 32, with drop strings piped over them. Then little green dots are piped between the shells to tie in the green from the stems.
The cake won Second Place in it's category.
I had also made a lei of daisies that I had originally intended to put around the base of the cake. After finishing the cake, I decided the lei would not improve the cake any, so I finished them up and entered them as their own entry.
The lei won First place in it's category.
If you read my entry the other day, about the Abby Cadabby cake, then you'll remember me mentioning car repairs. I picked the car up the night before I left for the 300+ mile trip to York PA. Unfortunately, the saga does not end there, oh no, it's gets A LOT better!
As I said above, the trip down to York was uneventful, as was the weekend. We left York on Sunday night, and had planned to drive to New Jersey to stay the night (I know..it's NJ....but it was half way home!), so that I didn't have to drive the whole 9hrs home the next morning. Everything was going along fine, until we decided to make a pit stop about an hour from our hotel. Got off the highway, and suddenly the car can't accelerate above 3k rpm's. Shutting the car off and restarting it didn't work (hey, cars have computers, you never know, it could have worked). I, fortunately, drive a standard, and was still able to shit, albeit a little earlier than I usually do. So, I made the executive decision to continue on our way to the hotel, an hour away....driving no more than 55mph (I normally drive 65-70).
Got to the hotel, and looked up the closest Honda dealer (yes, I'm one of those that takes the car to a dealer). There was one 3 miles away that would be open in the morning. Great...went to sleep and planned to be up and at the dealership when it opened. Got there, and explained to the service manager was was going on, and what work had just been done on the car. At this point, I'm thinking it has to be related to the head gasket work, since they pretty much had my engine all apart. After a few hours, and a few phone calls to my home dealership, it was determined that there was an oil leak somewhere, and that I HAD NO OIL IN MY CAR! They found the leak...apparently a seal had not been placed back correctly, which caused ALL the oil to leak out. The leaking oil, subsequently, damaged some other parts in the engine - FABULOUS! This dealership in NJ could fix it, but wouldn't have the parts until the next day. After a few phone calls to my home dealership, they agreed to reimburse me for the repairs in NJ, as well as a hotel room, since I would not be going home that day.
Got a call the next morning at the hotel, and the car was finished and ready earlier than I had expected (noon). Got a ride to the dealership, paid for the repairs, and were on our way. Stopped and topped off the tank, and headed for home. We took the Tappanzee Bridge home (no way I was dealing with GWB), and went to accelerate out of the toll plaza, and AGAIN couldn't accelerate over 3k rpm's. We were no more than 35 MILES from where we picked up the car!! I pulled over and called the service manager. This time, shutting the car off and turning it back on somewhat solved the immediate problem. We continued home, without stopping, mostly without incident. Got off the highway, about 10 miles from home, and it happened again. I figured, I was close enough, and drove home. Checked the oil when I got home AND THERE WAS NONE!
I called my home dealership the next day, had the car towed to it, and told them I didn't want the car back until it was fixed, and expected a free loaner car. Got the car back a week later, no charge, and so far it's been ok. Turns out the technician that did the head gasket work, nicked some housing in the engine that caused the oil to spew out. UGH!! At least it's fixed. It was one hell of a few weeks though!
The White Rose Cake Show was held the first weekend of November, in York PA. It's about a 9hr trip from where I live. Fortunately, we had an incident-free trip on the way there (not so much on the way home, but we'll get to that later).
I had originally intended to create one entry for the show. However, once the cake was done, I decided that to add anything else to it would detract from the cake, so I ended up with two entries.
I had decided to do a cake based on daisies. I tend to pick a flower/flowers and then design a cake around that. I tried to think of a color I haven't used lately, and picked orange. Not halloween/pumpkin orange, but rather a muted/subdued orange, almost tangerine like. Amazingly enough, there were no real issues or aggravation laden moments with the cake or the flowers! There are things I will do different in the future, and learned a few things while doing the cake, but I was actually pretty happy with it when it was finished.
Here is the cake that I entered:
The daisies and leaves are made from gumpaste, and have 3 layers of petals. The stems are piped from royal icing.The side scallops are done in royal icing, using a template to space them properly.
The border is done with tip 32, with drop strings piped over them. Then little green dots are piped between the shells to tie in the green from the stems.
The cake won Second Place in it's category.
I had also made a lei of daisies that I had originally intended to put around the base of the cake. After finishing the cake, I decided the lei would not improve the cake any, so I finished them up and entered them as their own entry.
The lei won First place in it's category.
If you read my entry the other day, about the Abby Cadabby cake, then you'll remember me mentioning car repairs. I picked the car up the night before I left for the 300+ mile trip to York PA. Unfortunately, the saga does not end there, oh no, it's gets A LOT better!
As I said above, the trip down to York was uneventful, as was the weekend. We left York on Sunday night, and had planned to drive to New Jersey to stay the night (I know..it's NJ....but it was half way home!), so that I didn't have to drive the whole 9hrs home the next morning. Everything was going along fine, until we decided to make a pit stop about an hour from our hotel. Got off the highway, and suddenly the car can't accelerate above 3k rpm's. Shutting the car off and restarting it didn't work (hey, cars have computers, you never know, it could have worked). I, fortunately, drive a standard, and was still able to shit, albeit a little earlier than I usually do. So, I made the executive decision to continue on our way to the hotel, an hour away....driving no more than 55mph (I normally drive 65-70).
Got to the hotel, and looked up the closest Honda dealer (yes, I'm one of those that takes the car to a dealer). There was one 3 miles away that would be open in the morning. Great...went to sleep and planned to be up and at the dealership when it opened. Got there, and explained to the service manager was was going on, and what work had just been done on the car. At this point, I'm thinking it has to be related to the head gasket work, since they pretty much had my engine all apart. After a few hours, and a few phone calls to my home dealership, it was determined that there was an oil leak somewhere, and that I HAD NO OIL IN MY CAR! They found the leak...apparently a seal had not been placed back correctly, which caused ALL the oil to leak out. The leaking oil, subsequently, damaged some other parts in the engine - FABULOUS! This dealership in NJ could fix it, but wouldn't have the parts until the next day. After a few phone calls to my home dealership, they agreed to reimburse me for the repairs in NJ, as well as a hotel room, since I would not be going home that day.
Got a call the next morning at the hotel, and the car was finished and ready earlier than I had expected (noon). Got a ride to the dealership, paid for the repairs, and were on our way. Stopped and topped off the tank, and headed for home. We took the Tappanzee Bridge home (no way I was dealing with GWB), and went to accelerate out of the toll plaza, and AGAIN couldn't accelerate over 3k rpm's. We were no more than 35 MILES from where we picked up the car!! I pulled over and called the service manager. This time, shutting the car off and turning it back on somewhat solved the immediate problem. We continued home, without stopping, mostly without incident. Got off the highway, about 10 miles from home, and it happened again. I figured, I was close enough, and drove home. Checked the oil when I got home AND THERE WAS NONE!
I called my home dealership the next day, had the car towed to it, and told them I didn't want the car back until it was fixed, and expected a free loaner car. Got the car back a week later, no charge, and so far it's been ok. Turns out the technician that did the head gasket work, nicked some housing in the engine that caused the oil to spew out. UGH!! At least it's fixed. It was one hell of a few weeks though!
Monday, December 6, 2010
Abby Cadabby
My cousin's daughter turned 2 the end of October. For the last few years, I've been doing her birthday cakes and her brother's (he's 2 yrs older). They pick out the character/theme that they want, and I pretty much have free reign to do whatever design I like. They have not been disappointed yet!
This year, she had an Abby Cadabby themed party. So, after looking online for inspiration, I decided to do a 3D Abby sitting up on a 12" round cake. After looking at the different 3D cake pans available, I decided that the 3D Standup Pooh Pan would be the best choice.
Once it was baked and cooled, I carved the cake to approximate the shape of Abby. Then used the star tip for her fir and fondant for her dress, and grass tip for her ponytails. In order to sit her on top of the bigger cake, I decorated Abby on a 6" separator plate. I marked on the 12" cake where the plate would sit, and used Bubble Tea straws as supports under the separator plate. I like using straws for support because, rather than displacing the cake like wooden dowels do, the cake goes inside the straws. I prefer the bubble tea straws because they are bigger than regular straws.
I stacked Abby on top of the base cake, it looked fantastic! If only I had taken a picture then..........
I have a Honda Element (which I loooooove!!!), and all my cakes get transported in it. I've had it 6.5 years and it has about 183k miles on it. No, you didn't read that wrong! I love to drive, and I drive everywhere, lol. As can happen with a car with the many miles on it, it periodically needs repairs. The car picked the week before the cake was due, to decide it needed a new head gasket.........and the shop kept finding more things that needed fixing in the engine.....it ended up taking them 2 weeks to get it fixed. So....I ended up with a rental, at their expense, for delivery of Abby. The only thing they had available that seemed to have a flat enough floor was a minivan. For various reasons (which are unrelated to this), I hate minivans. Oh well.....it was free....
I'll start out by saying, what you are about to read, is the first time this has EVER happened to me, and I sort of started to freak out (big surprise, I know). In hindsight.....Abby should have traveled in her own box, but oh well, lol. I put the cakes in an open top box in order to transport them. Put the box behind the drivers seat in the mini-van (it seemed the most level). Fortunately, I had a passenger along with me for the ride (my brother). All seemed to be going fine, until about 5 minutes into our ride, he says to me "The cake is leaning." Now....my brother is a practical joker and likes to joke around about stuff that not everyone considers funny. So, I laughed. He assured me it truly was leaning over. I totally started freaking out! Thankfully, he was thinking much more level headed than I was! I was trying to figure out how I was going to drive the almost 80 miles to the party with a cake that wouldn't sit up straight!
We ended up stopping at the grocery store and getting some bamboo skewers. We propped Abby up with them, but sticking them into her neck (which fortunately still had the metal core in it) and into the side of the box. We first propped her so she couldn't wobble side to side, and thought this was enough. Oh silly us! Not 10 minutes later, someone stopped short in front of me, and I had to slam the brakes on. Yup....Abby took a header into the back of the driver seat. Fortunately, she only lost one of her ponytails. So, my wonderful brother propped her up, and the rest of the trip was without incident (yeah!)!
I was able to hide most of the damage once I arrived at the party, with the exception of the ponytail. The birthday girl was still very happy with her cake!
This year, she had an Abby Cadabby themed party. So, after looking online for inspiration, I decided to do a 3D Abby sitting up on a 12" round cake. After looking at the different 3D cake pans available, I decided that the 3D Standup Pooh Pan would be the best choice.
Once it was baked and cooled, I carved the cake to approximate the shape of Abby. Then used the star tip for her fir and fondant for her dress, and grass tip for her ponytails. In order to sit her on top of the bigger cake, I decorated Abby on a 6" separator plate. I marked on the 12" cake where the plate would sit, and used Bubble Tea straws as supports under the separator plate. I like using straws for support because, rather than displacing the cake like wooden dowels do, the cake goes inside the straws. I prefer the bubble tea straws because they are bigger than regular straws.
I stacked Abby on top of the base cake, it looked fantastic! If only I had taken a picture then..........
I have a Honda Element (which I loooooove!!!), and all my cakes get transported in it. I've had it 6.5 years and it has about 183k miles on it. No, you didn't read that wrong! I love to drive, and I drive everywhere, lol. As can happen with a car with the many miles on it, it periodically needs repairs. The car picked the week before the cake was due, to decide it needed a new head gasket.........and the shop kept finding more things that needed fixing in the engine.....it ended up taking them 2 weeks to get it fixed. So....I ended up with a rental, at their expense, for delivery of Abby. The only thing they had available that seemed to have a flat enough floor was a minivan. For various reasons (which are unrelated to this), I hate minivans. Oh well.....it was free....
I'll start out by saying, what you are about to read, is the first time this has EVER happened to me, and I sort of started to freak out (big surprise, I know). In hindsight.....Abby should have traveled in her own box, but oh well, lol. I put the cakes in an open top box in order to transport them. Put the box behind the drivers seat in the mini-van (it seemed the most level). Fortunately, I had a passenger along with me for the ride (my brother). All seemed to be going fine, until about 5 minutes into our ride, he says to me "The cake is leaning." Now....my brother is a practical joker and likes to joke around about stuff that not everyone considers funny. So, I laughed. He assured me it truly was leaning over. I totally started freaking out! Thankfully, he was thinking much more level headed than I was! I was trying to figure out how I was going to drive the almost 80 miles to the party with a cake that wouldn't sit up straight!
We ended up stopping at the grocery store and getting some bamboo skewers. We propped Abby up with them, but sticking them into her neck (which fortunately still had the metal core in it) and into the side of the box. We first propped her so she couldn't wobble side to side, and thought this was enough. Oh silly us! Not 10 minutes later, someone stopped short in front of me, and I had to slam the brakes on. Yup....Abby took a header into the back of the driver seat. Fortunately, she only lost one of her ponytails. So, my wonderful brother propped her up, and the rest of the trip was without incident (yeah!)!
I was able to hide most of the damage once I arrived at the party, with the exception of the ponytail. The birthday girl was still very happy with her cake!
Cake Decorator's of Tidewater Cake Show
This was the first time I had been down to this cake show. It is held every October, down in Norfolk, VA.
Since I love making gumpaste flowers, I decided to do a wedding bouquet as my entry.
The bouquet featured roses, petunias, and rosebuds in various shades of pinks and purples. There were also stephanotis and baby's breath in the bouquet.
The bouquet won First Place in it's category!
Since I love making gumpaste flowers, I decided to do a wedding bouquet as my entry.
The bouquet featured roses, petunias, and rosebuds in various shades of pinks and purples. There were also stephanotis and baby's breath in the bouquet.
The bouquet won First Place in it's category!
I'm back!
Hello loyal followers (if there are any of you left)! Sorry to be gone for so long....needed a break and there isn't much going on cake-wise during the summer.
I attended the Cake Decorator's of Tidewater cake show in Norfolk, VA the beginning of October; did a 3D Abby Cadabby cake for my cousin's daughter the end of October; and attended the White Rose Cake Show in York, PA the beginning of November.
Of course, there are some funny stories that go along with all of these adventures. I will attempt over the next day or so to post my experiences here for you all to laugh at, lol!
~Chelle
I attended the Cake Decorator's of Tidewater cake show in Norfolk, VA the beginning of October; did a 3D Abby Cadabby cake for my cousin's daughter the end of October; and attended the White Rose Cake Show in York, PA the beginning of November.
Of course, there are some funny stories that go along with all of these adventures. I will attempt over the next day or so to post my experiences here for you all to laugh at, lol!
~Chelle
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