Babies and Showers

Hi again! Twice in a month and within 2 days of each other! I'm making up for lost time.

Well, I can upload some photos for you and would like to share some sugar with you. I mean it. First take a look at this cake.

This is a baby shower cake I did recently but take a look at the bassinet. Here is another view.

See the texture? It's ALL Sugar! This is the first time I've ever done a dry sugar mold. Here's what you do:

Take 1 cup of sugar (granulated)

1/4 teaspoon of water

Mix with your hands thoroughly. Avoid the temptation to add more water. It will feel dry. I should know...I made that mistake and it fell apart. Now I didn't have a mold for the bassinet. I just used a small bowl about the size I needed that was smooth inside and nice and round. Pack the sugar into the bowl all the way to the top. Now you do need to judge just how many cups of sugar you will need for the bowl you are using. After you pack that bowl (like you would with brown sugar), smooth the top with wax paper. Take a carboard piece or cake board, put over the top and invert. Wax paper and all. Let it dry overnight or for at least 8 hours. It will be solid and hard. Then just carve it out with a spoon. All the sugar you carve out is reuseable. Put it right back in your sugar bowl for coffee or tea. It's that easy! One caution...when you decorate it, don't use anything that is too wet or you will cause it to crumble. Have Fun! And please send me pictures! I'd love to see what you come up with!

Here's one more picture of a closeup of the baby. I'll tell you about that next time.

Computers!

Hey you cake bakers, cupcake makers and I'll include you cookie makers as well.

My computer has been being a bad little machine and is being fixed. So I have no pictures for you. I haven't been able to get on here either. I am on a borrowed laptop right now.

I checked my e-mails today and Bakerella has sent out her blog for the month. I want to encourage you to check her blog out. She is very clever and creative and she has introduced us to a store you might be interested in. This is th 2nd time she is introducing it actually. This time though, there is a contest you can enter. Just type in www.Bakerella.com or just click on this link.

Good luck and I'll be back soon!

Weddings

A whole month of being very busy has gone by and I've missed writing to you! The final cake I created was a graduation cap. Quickly done and lotsa fun! I like rhyming.

Here it is:And here is another view...

What does this have to do with weddings? Just that it is wedding season! Weird that weddings actually have a season but this is when you cake makers/bakers/decorators out there are very busy. Before this cake, I was working on a wedding cake. Here is the picture of the finished cake:

And again...
And the final, full view...drum roll, please...

Sometimes you do all this work, get all excited about the creative process but when you see the finished results you're not happy with the work. That happens a lot with me. Does anyone go through this too? The cake looks great! Don't get me wrong. It's just that I know all the problems I had with it. For starters, it was suppose to be covered with fondant. The top tier is. I had ordered two nice big buckets (only 5 lbs. ea.) of ivory fondant. I didn't want to make my own and chance the texture not being right, so I ordered it. Well the 2nd bucket's texture was dry and wouldn't stretch. I tried to add a little of ingredients that would help but 3 hours later and behind schedule, I gave up. The end result was no one seemed to notice the 2 bottom tiers didn't have the fondant covering and ooed and ahhed at the cake. In my mind though...not how I wanted it to look.

I have found out though that even those beautiful professional cakes, even Duff's of Ace of Cakes, have something go wrong or is wrong that they have found a way of hiding. So...I won't be discouraged and neither should you be. Until next time...Happy baking AND decorating!