My first cake job!

I had my first wedding cake job!

It was for a friend from grad school's wedding this past weekend. Three tiers, served about 100. The bottom tier was coconut cake with raspberries, the middle was a vanilla pound cake with lemon curd and the top tier was a chocolate cake with mocha cream filling. All frosted in buttercream in a spackle/plaster fashion (what was requested). It was pretty darn good if I do say so myself! I even got some very nice compliments from the reception hall staff and was asked what shop I worked for. No one believed it was my first wedding cake (ok... 2nd)! Here are some pictures of the masterpiece. (the flowers and ribbon were the bride's choice and how cute are those little mice for a science-y couple?!?!?)

As a bonus, Craig and I actually had an adult night out for a change! My mom got to stay with the munchkin and other than some bathtime related poo, they had a blast too.

Weekend in Review

One tired kiddo... she had a BUSY weekend! All sorts of cleaning and errands to get ready for her buddies welcome party! (Plus some very crazed kicking on her gym!)

Another weekend come and gone. The baby girl is 13 weeks tomorrow. Where has the time gone???? We had the baby shower for Sam (and his Mom and Dad) today. Sam's nursery has a bee theme-- hence this cake. (Old-fashioned chocolate layer cake with buttercream frosting and yellow cupcakes with chocolate ganache frosting-- all with royal icing piped flowers and bees)

Just a cute pic of the kiddo doing what she does best, being adorable (well... she's pretty good at that and filling diapers too)

And one more attempt at capturing that beautiful toothless grin!

La Torta Final!

(Ok, so that's the last cake)

Our last cake decorating class was this past week. I finally got the pictures today and thought I would share. This is one more example of the everpresent buttermilk cake-- though this time flavored with a little orange blossom water and then soaked with a mandarin orange syrup. This cake was filled with mandarin orange (clementinas in spanish) and frosted with a normal buttercream. We then covered it with fondant and did the fondant drape in the colors of the flag of Spain and then I made a little gumpaste flower to stick on the top. Tada! the last cake for class... so now I just need to get a few cake jobs to make some money with all I have learned!

wussy cake instructor

And one quick vent... our cake class was cancelled last night-- because it RAINED. Yes that's right... 1 20-minute thunderstorm and our teacher cancelled class. OF course, she didn't do this until 6pm... when we were already on our way to get there. So we (and 2 other people from our class of 5) ended up a Micheal's only to be informed we'd driven out there for NOTHING. GRRRRR.

So class is pushed back one week now. Next week will be lesson 3... and then into July to finish the course.

And now to go bake off some wings! Its Wing night... tonight's flavors
Store bought chile-lime
Semi-Homemade honey BBQ
Jesse's Hot as she can figure out how to make them Hot Wings
Sweet and Spicy Ginger Soy Wings (new trial recipe)
YUM!

Bits and pieces

It seems Craig has managed to pick up my cold. So hopefully he's not sick for too long. I am finally feeling better after going to bed at 7 last night-- yep, you read that right. I slept from 7pm until 7am... and finally feel almost human. Now if I could only stop coughing like a 70 year old chain smoker I'd be back to normal. Winnie had another day with no messes-- YAY! She does have the most painful ear splitting bark though--- ugh, I sure hope she doesn't do that all day while we're at work. 5 barks is enough to make me want to try and chop out her vocal cords.. I can only imagine what the neighbors think after a day of that noise.





I've got a long and hectic procedure at work today, so I am hoping to be out of here by 5. The one thing I can say about this procedure is that when it is done I have TON of data. So its nice to show the boss that I can be productive-- it just makes for an unpleasant work day. Keep your fingers crossed that it works!


Here is one pic of a previous run of this experiment. The procedure takes mouse boobs (yes, the techinical term) and turns them into a soup of single mouse boob cells. Then I can run those cells through a machine called a flow cytometer that lines them all up single file and looks at them. It looks at them for what they have on their outsides--- (that is, are the tags I stuck on there)-- I can then see how many cells that have a certain tag (A) also have other tags (B, C, etc)-- then I can quantify how many cells are A+B vs B+C, vs A+C--- which tells me something about the kind of cells that make up the mouse boob. The big problem for me is that I put a LOT of cells in, but only the ones circled in the picture are the ones that matter. So it takes me a long long time to get enough of the important cells--- oh yeah... and it takes me 6+ months to get a mouse with the right combo of genes to be old enough for the experiment--- so there is a lot riding on it working right--- cause if it doesn't I have to start over with breeding more mice-- YUCK!









Other than a big science day, we have cake class tonight--- no actual cake this week, just working with fondant and gumpaste-- we're learning carnations, "fantasy flowers" and daisies. Should be a quick and easy class. I'll try and get some pics up tomorrow for everyone to see.






Also-- if you have any recommendations for an affordable reliable car-- 4 door, decent gas mileage (ok, so anything will be better than the blazer was), has a radio, good safety record, would hypothetically hold a car seat and associated progeny related crap, that doesn't look awful-- please, let me know.
The blazer is dead (may she rest in peace) and I need to find a new car. I figure I am going to have the new one for a bunch of years, so practicality is important. All suggestions of models or makes are welcome!

Irish Cake

Here is the Irish cake.


On a review of the Guinness cake-- VERY GOOD. Not overly sweet. Nicely moist. Dense enough to take icing, just be careful of cut surfaces as it makes a LOT of crumbs. This cake domed a fair amount when I baked it, so it required some leveling. I am not sure if that is a me specific problem or a problem due to the recipe, so be warned.

I filled and frosted it with an Irish Cream/Cream Cheese Butter Cream. No more of that nasty crisco icing we had to use before. Other than getting mildly buzzed by evaporating alcohol fumes while whipping the icing, it really doesn't have too much of an alcohol taste to it. (Much.... can I serve this to my intern? He's only 19... of course, when I mentioned what kind of cake it was his response was "Cool, an Irish Car Bomb in a cake" so I have a feeling I am not the one doing the corrupting here!)

There are some lumps and bumps in the fondant on this one-- we were using the base cake to demo different techniques and then just did this as the way to leave it finally-- so it had stuff "glued" on and then pulled off which left it less than perfect under there. This one is pretty simple as class this week was to cover a cake in fondant-- we didn't learn any flowers or anything else, so its a basic cake.

Final Cake Course

We had class one of the last cake decorating course last night-- Fondant and Gumpaste-- we dutifully picked up the tools and I packed all the items required for class this week and headed off-- but class was USELESS this week.
This week's topic-- tinting fondand and covering cakes with fondant-- I had that mastered 7 months ago-- BOOOOOO.

So I am hoping next week will be better-- if nothing else, Craig and I have picked a theme for the 2 cakes this course-- countries. So stay tuned for the current plan of one Ireland cake and one Spain cake-- this should be interesting.

(oh... and we may get in trouble... cause-- well, I can lay fondant better than the teacher-- sooo... well, I may have had to help fix her demo cake-- so... should be an interesting course)

The poo-machine crapped in the house AGAIN. So she's in the Murph's crate while we are not home. She needs to learn that she can't poo where she sleeps-- and she needs to have a small sleeping area for awhile to enforce that. (Not that murphy's crate is small by any definition)Hopefully we can get the mutt trained before too too long-- cause ugh... 4 year old neurotic midget dogs are not my thing-- and my patience is strechted VERY thin with her. Craig got Murphy trained, so hopefully he can work a miracle on this little monster.

Latest Cake

Here are a couple quick photos of the latest cake for class. This cake was the final cake for the "Fondant and tiered cakes" course (Course 3). We passed... even with our slightly unorthodox cake. No movies this time. just some quick snapshots and a recipe.

This cake is actually a brownie then frosted in peppermint REAL buttercream and then done up to look like a plate and cake in fondant.

I did up the bottom round brownie to look like a fancy plate using silver tinted royal icing and brush embroidery and stringwork-- which sadly does not come across in the pictures. Made the fork from silvery-gray fondant and then stacked some triangular pieces of brownie together to make the slice of 'cake' which Craig then covered in chocolate-y brown fondant and minty green for the top and back. I added on the rope borders and made a quick fondant rose, and there you have it... our final cake!

This is our last cake for about a month as there is no class during May. Our next course (Fondant and Gumpaste) begins again in June-- I for one am looking forward to the next class... but also glad for a few weeks with no baking that HAS to be done-- plus it should help with that whole diet plan thing! Cakes are awfully tempting, plus you have to taste things along the way to make sure they are "ok for company".

The Cake!

Here is the cake I made this weekend for the Bridal Shower. I am still working on the whole film-making thing, but this one is not as shaky as the last one. I used the same yellow cake recipe I referred to before and then made a stabilized whipped cream to fill and frost. I also sliced til I had about 2.5 cups of strawberries and put some sugar on them til they were softened a little and leaked juice. I split the layers, filled them with the whipped cream then topped with a good handful of strawberries and then stuck the next layer on and did the same again. I had made the roses and leaves from fondant the night before and let them dry, then arranged them on the cake just before I put it out. I would be cautious about using fondant on whipped cream for any cake that has to sit-- as the moisture of the whipped cream can liquefy the fondant into a sticky oozy mess.

Another look at the latest cake

A different view. a pretty package. Still VERY yellow...

oh, and on that recipe... allrecipes.com allows you to scale them... I halved it and made 2 full 8-inch rounds.

Cake Course #3 Cake #1

The latest cake. all fondant and yes it is very very yellow. Also you can see here my first fondant rose. I still need some work, but I am pretty happy with it overall. We were pretty good this week and did follow the directions for the most part... well... everyone else made a white cake but still... and I did all the little flowers to the side, but something had to be done to tone down that yellow. (next time it needs to be a prettier pastel color to go with the others!)

too bad fondant isn't too tasty-- but this cake is a yellow buttermilk cake with a strawberry butter cream filling... so the inside should be good at least! I REALLY recommend this cake recipe, its super simple, very flavorful and moist too--- Craig even did the baking this time-- and it still turned out great!

lots of posting today

So putting aside this morning,and my somewhat crappy handling of it on the phone (I have to remember that not everyone deals with things the same way my family does... and to some people it could be scary--- we respond by learning as much as we can so we can understand... I think some people prefer to learn as they go... we go with the lets hear it all now and then we can go from there strategy)

outside of that, the afternoon was pretty great. Tonight was the last night at fish fry at the church. This was our second year working at the fish fry... and at least this year most of the people know I am an adult so I get a lot fewer "what grade are you ins?" and the "is this your confirmation service project?" questions... so that's an improvement... I'm not sure what they think I should look like to prove I am 25, but apparently I am not pulling it off! This year the best I got was thinking I was 18.... I'd cut my finger pulling the tabs off soda cans for the ronald mcdonald house and asked the woman near me if she had a bandaid ... I made some sort of silly comment about not having moved up to the "mommy purse" yet. She replied "oh deary, you've got lots of time, don't rush it." After she dug a bandaid out, I went back over the few feet to craig and then laughed that I didn't think a baby at 26 would be rushing it, and the woman overheard me... she laughed and said "in that case, do it now... don't wait... I had mine at 33 and they run me ragged!" and then continiued through the evening to make similar comments.
Ah, now if only the highschool boys would stop picking on me... if only they knew!

Anyway, I love working the fish fry, we get to meet people from the church and it allows us to give back to the church. Plus we get fed for free... so thats an added bonus! Every Friday evening in lent we spend about 2 hours doing whatever they tell us needs to be done... sometimes we serve food, or clear tables, sell sodas (and in a slightly nutty fashion reorganize the 100+ cases of soda by type, brand, and diet), and for Craig... sometimes he gets suckered into shoveling. Sadly tonight was the last night til next year... but I hope next year we will be out there again.

in other news, nothing too much in the plans for the weekend... the cleaning frenzy is somewhat on hold, but I need to start planning a bridal shower for a gal I know through work... we have 2 maybe 3 weeks to get it all together... but it should be a small bunch... maybe 10 girls for it or so? I think I can handle that without too much headache.

Oh... one last note... I may have gotten my first cake making job today! One of the women I work with, her sister's step-daughter (follow all that!) has decided to probably move her wedding date way up and needs to do it all on a budget... and my coworker having seen my cakes suggested to her sister (who has seen some of my work) that I could do it... which is true... and I can certainly do it for less than most anywhere else would charge for a wedding cake. So keep your fingers crossed... I may have my first gig!!!

The Final Cake for Course 2

Well, here is our final cake for course 2! I think it turned out really well. This is just a quick cell phone pic, I have some better ones on the camera at home and I will try and get them uploaded soon. Yay for a frog cake! (and yes, the teacher thinks we are nuts) And here is a movie to show it off and also make you a little dizzy-- I am no filmmaker!




For comparison, here is our final cake from course one.

Cake class

So after the insanity of baking my own wedding cake (which turned out gorgeous if I do say so myself (see the picture there!)) Craig is now pushing me to open a cake business of my own and make wedding cakes for others (and in his eyes, for profit). I am not allowed to have outside employment due to my grad student contract (they want us poor and grateful for the scraps we are given)-- so I cannot go into this full time, but I am enjoying it. I started the wilton method cake decorating classes at the local Micheal's-- and craig decided to take them along with me -- he gets to eat the practice cakes.

I am pretty sure the teacher thinks we are nuts-- everyone else in the class does the same boring yet pretty cake and our are a little out there-- radioactive symbols (a big hit when we brought them to the nerd factory we work in), snakes, funny colors, ants-- you name it... everyone else does the same flowers in the same colors-- not so exciting. Don't get me wrong we are doing the flowers too, we're just putting them in more interesting settings-- so its been fun. Our flowers are the best in the class so we get a little antsy to try something a bit more challenging and interesting and we do.

Tonight is our final cake for level 2-- every one else will be doing white basket weaves with pastel flowers and small sugar blue birds... we're making frogs, cattails,lilypads and dragonflies-- with oodles of flowers to grow around the pond -- so the teacher will be satisfied-- our required basket weave will be in chocolate buttercream as the ground. I will have to take a picture and send it along so I can share it. We've got all the flowers made, so all we have to do in class is basket weave the cake and then place the royal icing decorations... I have high hopes for it.

Plus I tried a new chocolate cake recipe and I am pleased with it, I sliced the layers for torting this morning before work, so all I have to do tonight before class is fill and crumb coat the cake and make enough buttercream for frosting it.

I'll send a post later with the picture to share!