SO…i had my last class of cake decorating course one. It went pretty well. learned to make roses, which was cool. now if ONLY i remember which end of the tip is UP, i will be just fine.

my plan WAS to post pictures of the cake, which turned out alright….but then i left it in my car a little too long and it melted and got all flung around inside the box. so it looked like shit. and no picture. ah well…maybe next time.

i used a cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take over the World, and made a cake out of it. i was pleased to say that it actually worked really well. then i made vegan cream cheese frosting, which was also delicious. but then, of course, i used the wilton recipe for my piping icing…not vegan. and not really all that delicious. but it tastes not bad overall.

i will make more cakes soon and post pictures. i bought some gum paste to play with. FUN!

my mom is visiting, which is great.
i’m lucky.
not only is SHE fabulous herself…but she seems to think that everything i do/make is fabulous.
a mother’s love, i tell ya. certainly good for the self esteem.
i really am lucky.

Have you ever made a cake which you knew would never be eaten? i mean, on purpose?? yeah…neither had i. until today!

some friends of mine are having a bike event, and will be having a cake-in-the-face while riding your bike challenge! (most likely tall bikes, at that). SO…they asked me to make some cakes for that purpose. i made SIX cakes, and ALL of the supplies cost approximately $16. THAT to me, is disgusting. that also means, entirely NOT something i would ever eat. CALL me a cake snob. Here is what i bought: 3 cake mixes, a dozen eggs, a bottle of veg oil, 4 things of shelf-life-a million-years frosting,
and 6 tin cake pans.

i cannot recall the last time i used a cake mix. and DEFINITELY never chemically created frosting. (go ahead, call me a snob again)

most of them looked like shit…since it just doesn’t matter, and i have to work all weekend. but britt and i decorated a couple so they looked (almost) alright! this is the one i did.

by the way…store-bought frosting is a real pain in the ass to pipe. it is entirely too soft. yuck.

the endeavor was pretty fun though, so i’m really glad i got to do it. baking is baking.

So, my friends over at CAKEISM, in Austin, are amazing! If you haven’t checked them out, you definitely should.

Last night, i went over to watch/help them with some cakes they are in the process of making. These ladies are truly amazing! The cake they were working on was to have three cats on top, which were to look like the three black cats owned by the woman ordering the cake. When i got there, the cats were already constructed, but details were being worked on.

I helped with the face and hair of a long haired cat, which was made out of sculpted fondant. This is a much harder endeavor than it might sound. making HAIR out of fondant is no easy task. Either way…it was really fun, and hopefully I actually helped the process along. I definitely learned some things, even in the few hours i spent with them.

Baking and art really do go hand in hand. It is a true combination of science (the chemistry involved in a delicious cake) and art (sculpture, painting, etc… of the fondant). I am amazed.

Either way, you should really check these girls out. Their cakes are custom made, ridiculously awesome, and totally DIY.

to reiterate…if you haven’t already clicked the link at the top…GO! NOW!
CAKEISM

Last night was my second cake decorating class. This week i made cupcakes to decorate, which is obviously fun! . Since we got to make our own cakes and icing this week, mine were vegan chocolate with vegan buttercream frosting. .This was for the sake of making them delicious(crazy thought, i know!).The only part then, that wasn’t vegan, was the icing used to decorate. The recipe they make us use has meringue powder (eggwhites) in it. I still think i’m probably the only person in the class who will use black icing relatively often!
The techniques we learned first were a couple different flowers and the shell border. I decided, however, that this could also be a good accent to more fun designs. SO…of course i started drawing silly things: .
ANYWAY…the real thing we were supposed to learn in that lesson was the clown cake. Here is the one i made…it turned out looking like shit. But i decided i hated it anyway, so i wasn’t concerned!
I think that’s about it. The class isn’t exactly what I want to learn ultimately, but i think its pretty important that i take it anyway.

As i mentioned before, i love to make banana bread.
I also love things that are wee.
these turned out as delicious as normal banana bread, only smaller, more fun to eat, and less messy.