There's a Chocolate Cake In Here Somewhere

Tonight was the final class of Wilton Course 2, and here's a shot of my grand finale cake. I had a blast in this class, but it was accelerated due to our teacher's travel schedule, so now I'm very tired! Week after next I'll be starting Course 3, and may be taking Course 4 simultaneously (big class discounts at Michael's in August). I must be out of my mind! I hate to cut this cake after all the work, but it is chocolate under all that icing, so....

Having My Cake

Here's a tiny peek at my final project for Wilton Course 1. I'm a bit tired of smelling buttercream icing -- both my studio and kitchen smell like it all the time now -- so I don't know what I will do with this cake, except maybe slice it up and freeze it, since Dan doesn't really care for non-chocolate cake. I have a 3-week break before Course 2 begins, so now I can put this out of my mind for a bit and get some other things done. I had planned some paper crafting for tomorrow, but it looks like I will be in the midst of a candle-making marathon, so the notecards will have to wait til Thursday.

By the way, for my friend who likes raw cake batter (don't worry, I won't rat you out!), Duncan Hines French Vanilla is pretty good...

Crafty Goodness

No time for creative work today -- we were busy setting up a space to make our candles so we don't have to use the kitchen. Then I baked a cake and made icing for my final class tomorrow of Wilton Course 1. On Wednesday I'll be making some tags, notecards, and a few other things, which will be for sale on our Jazzful Art website, when that gets finished. Check back for more information on that later. So for now, I'll just leave you with some crafty goodness -- photos of paper and formica chips I'll be using for some of my tags and cards and miscellaneous projects.

Bath Time

Last night I attended a Natural Bath & Beauty Products class, and learned how to make bath salts and melt-n-pour soaps. Theresa is a very animated, knowledgeable instructor, and I would love to take a more intensive, hands-on course from her. She approaches most of her soap recipes the same way my grandmother did her cooking -- the "pinch of this" and "handful of that" technique. Not much precision measuring going on here, but it always turns out just fine. However, when I start to make bath products for resale, I will certainly have to measure carefully and keep accurate records. Pictured here are an exfoliating facial bar made with an avocado-cucumber base, honey, and black walnut shells; and bath salts that include orange peel and chamomile. We also made a peppermint and honey body bar with an olive oil base, but I haven't brought that home yet because it was still too soft to unmold at the end of class. Next week we will be making a milk bath and a brown sugar scrub.

And tonight I'll be practicing my buttercream roses!

Crackin' Up

I haven't spent much time the past few days doing creative work, because I've been trying to finish some books that were due back at the library today. I am not ashamed to admit that I'm a huge Harry Potter fan, and I've been re-reading all the books so that everything will be fresh in my mind when The Deathly Hallows (Book 7) is finally out. I just returned Prisoner of Azkaban and Goblet of Fire, and there were no copies of Order of the Phoenix at the library tonight, so I guess I'll be visiting another branch. Last night I was trying to finish up The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield, but --- sometimes I've just gotta bake! So, during all the breaks while baking sugar cookies, I worked on finishing my book.

Now, this baking experience was very satisfying, not because I used a great recipe (it was just a packaged mix), but because I managed to crack an egg one-handed. I've always been a two-handed egg-cracker, probably because I want the yolks to stay perfectly intact, especially when I expect my breakfast eggs to be cooked easy-over (no hard yolks for me!). But a couple of weeks ago, when Erin and Tara baked my cake for my cake decorating class, Erin was cracking eggs, one-handed, like a pro. She told me how to do it with 5 simple words. "You just squeeze it here." Sounded simple enough, and looked pretty simple, and it really is! Yes, I do get excited about the smallest things. I'm not sure where Erin learned how to do it, but since she and Tara watch even more of the Food Network than I do, it was probably from Giada or Rachel, or maybe Bobby.

Tonight I went to a class on how to make natural bath and beauty products. I'll share a photo tomorrow.

Icing on the Cake

The cake decorating class is going --- well, let's just say it's going. I find the whole "icing consistency" thing very challenging, but I'm still having fun. I think my frustration stems from the fact that we start class in what seems to be a cool room, but by the end of class it's hot and my "roses" are wilting.

Now that my class is out of the way, other things I have lined up for this week include finishing my cell phone case, starting a small velvet bag, visiting the farmers' market at the Mobile Museum of Art, and attending the Balloon Festival in Foley.

Cases and Cakes

After dropping my old flip phone only about 6 inches onto concrete and breaking the speaker, I replaced it with this slider phone, which isn't very well-protected while in my purse. So, what you see here is a padded cell phone case in the making. It will probably have a wrist strap in case I want to take it along on my walks. The fabrics are from my carefully protected stash of Hoffman batiks. No embellishment here - it needs to be easy to wash.

Now, a cake decorating update. On the day of my class I went to Mobile to use Mama's oven, since mine was permanently out of service. My nieces, Erin and Tara, who live next door, kindly baked the cake for me. Erin, almost 13, might be a pastry chef if she doesn't become a big cat trainer or a book reviewer. Tara, 11, had planned on being a teacher, but now she might be a culinary artist. So I left them at my parents, happily baking brownies in muffin tins, and went home to make my icing. About 30 seconds into the buttercream icing, my heavy-duty Kitchenaid mixer stopped working. So I went to plan B - the hand mixer. While reaching into the drawer to get the beaters, I cut my left thumb - yes, I'm lefthanded - on an extremely sharp knife made out of a saw blade. I bought it from a Texas gentleman at the Peter Anderson Festival, and I love it because it's made for lefties and it cuts bread beautifully. Now I've learned my lesson about knife storage.

I made it to class in spite of everything, and will admit that cake decorating can be challenging, but I think that with practice I can master it. I still have 3 more weeks of class to decide. Funny, but my mixer started working again, so maybe I can make my icing without another mishap.

My new range arrived today and I will try out the oven tomorrow.

To Bake or Not to Bake?

It's always something. This time, the oven is dead, so instead of repairing a 25-year-old range that has definitely seen better days, we decided to buy a new one. However, things aren't that easy. The project has turned into a minor kitchen remodel, and we still don't have anything to cook on. The timing is perfect, of course. I need a cake for my first decorating class tomorrow night, and I have no oven in which to bake it. I'll be over at Mama & Daddy's in the morning to use their oven, and if all goes well, I'll have my new stove on Thursday and will be baking cookies by Thursday night. Life is always an adventure!

To keep my mind off the lost baking opportunities, I've been trying the drawing lessons over at Drawspace. So much fun!

Cake Decorator in Training

What on earth was I thinking? Today I signed up for a cake decorating class at Michael's. I've always wanted to take my baking to the next level (in terms of presentation, at least), and since the class was 50% off this month, and I could use my 40% off coupons from Hobby Lobby to get some of my supplies, and I love frosting, I didn't see any reason not to sign up. Even after using coupons at Hobby Lobby to buy the most expensive items, and using my class discount to get the rest at Michael's, the supplies still cost about 5 times as much as the class. And I still have to go to the supermarket to buy ingredients for the frosting and cake I'll need to make before the first class on Tuesday! At least I'll be able to eat my class projects.