Note to Self: 12 Rules of Cake Decorating

NOTE TO SELF: 

1. It takes 2-3 days to complete a large sugar dahlia flower. (I already knew this.) 
2. When applying the final row of petals, do not sit on the foot to view flower from above. 
3. Sitting on your foot for an extended period of time may cause paralysis in that extremely. 
4. While standing up, be aware that said foot may be completely asleep. 
5. When trying to use this appendage, remember the foot will be completely numb and ineffective. 
6. Putting weight on it at this time, may cause the foot to suddenly collapse under your body weight. 
7. A rapid decent will ensue causing you extreme embarrassment! 
8. CAUTION: DO NOT, I repeat... DO NOT hold the sugar dahlia while testing this theory.... during your rapid decent, said sugar flower may suddenly fly from your hand landing face down upon the tile floor. 
9. Be very cautious, small broken pieces of the delicate petals will fly in every direction causing extreme anger and frustration. 
10. Be careful which words are allowed out of your mouth at this time! Language may contain a colorful hue. 
11. The next day you may see areas of purple and green coloring located on various parts of your body. There may also be slight pain and stiffness involved. 
12. The best remedy for this situation? Take a deep breath and relax.... it's only sugar. Life goes on, it could be a whole lot worse, and sometimes unexpected events force you to stretch your limits. You may even end up accomplishing things you didn't know you could! 

NOTE TO SELF: 

After all was said and done... I did a little petal repair and was able to salvage my poor broken dahlia. It's not perfect like it was before... but hey, nothing in nature's ever perfect anyway. Right??? I decided it gave my flower a little unexpected "character". And hopefully, I gained a little character along the way as well... ;) 

(Not to mention a pretty good story!) 

Berry Excited!

Yup, I've been extremely busy lately. I'm working on a very special wedding cake.... it's for my son! He's the first of my children to get married. So I'm pretty excited about making his cake!

Today I've spent most of the morning making little gray berries. They're pretty simple, and you can make quite a few in no time at all. So I thought I'd put together a quick tutorial on how to make these cute little berries.

You'll need: gumpaste, wire, a small circle cutter, a rolling pin with spacers, gum glue, and an umbrella tool. (Yes, that's what the green tool is called.... I'm not sure why. I didn't know it's official name so I had to look it up.... "umbrella tool"? Strange... I would have named it something special like "that green pointy thingy"! )

 Roll out the gumpaste to an even thickness... using spacers on your rolling pin makes this quick and easy. Cut out some small circles. The circle cutter makes the gumpaste pieces identical so all of your berries will be the same size.

,

Roll the gumpaste into a small, smooth ball. The heat from your hands will make this a little easier.

Push the point of the umbrella tool about 1/3 of the way into the ball. I used the point with 5 lines.
 

 This is what it looks like. Pretty simple isn't it.

 Dip the end of your wire into the gum glue. Most of the time, I bend the tip of my wire to keep flowers from spinning and falling off. But these berries are small and not very heavy, so I don't think it's necessary. I'm using a wrapped wire so this also helps to keep the berries in place. 

 Push the dipped end of the wire into the bottom of the berry. Sometimes the berries will get a little squished, so use your fingers to re-shape them. 

After the berries are dry, I will brush on just a hint of color. This really brings them to life.

 Then before you know it.... You've made dozens and dozens of those cute little things!

 Give it a try... you'll be "berry" excited too!  ;)

Waiting on Pins and Needles....

Where have I been all month? Well, lets get right to the "point"....

Do you see that little white line on my x-ray? It's not suppose to be there, and it's definitely not supposed to be inside my foot!!!
It's a needle... or what's left of the needle I kicked that it was hiding in my carpet!

-Painful? ...YES!
-Stupid? ...YES!
-Embarrassing? ...YES!
-Little needle? ...NO! It was one of those 2" long heavy duty darning needles.
-A small piece that broke and lodged in my foot? ...NO! It was about 3/4" long.
-Just under the skin? ...NO! It was next to the bone and probably sticking in the joint.
-Easy little numbing shots? NO! I found out that shots in your foot hurt like #&%*@! (Pardon my language... I am a lady after all!)
-Easy to remove? ...NO? It's not a good thing when the doctor uses words like "very difficult to find", "hiding", "fishing & digging around", or "very deep". After searching for an hour, the first doctor I saw gave up and said she couldn't find it. So I went to a podiatrist the next day, and he finally removed the needle.
-Pain medication? ...YES! Heavy duty ones... I pretty much slept through the first week.
-Crutches? ...YES! But I just graduated to one of those lovely black podiatrist's post-op walking shoes... the chunky ones that come with the stylish Velcro straps! It's probably the most expensive shoe I'll ever own... ;(

I hope these pictures aren't too graphic and make someone feel nauseous! (Not the kind of pictures you'd expect to see on a cake blog!) LOL

I get the stitches out in 5 days, then things should get back to normal around here. I have to thank my wonderful husband for taking such good care of me! I appreciate how he took care of the house, the food, cleaning up, the laundry, paying the bills, and driving our kids to all of their activities. He did all of this in addition to his normal daily job. What a guy!

I hope this is the end of my foot saga, so I can get back to cake decorating. Now it's your turn to wait on "pins and needles" for my next blog entry! And I promise to get right to the "point"!

Coming Up..... my Swiss Meringue Buttercream recipe!

A Quick Update

I just wanted to give a quick update to all of you who were wondering about my son's percussion group and Red Bull's "Tum Tum Pa" drumming competition. Well...... they are GOING TO BRAZIL! They were chosen as one of the top 5 groups in the USA to go to Rio de Janeiro and compete in the world championship! I'm sooooo thrilled for these boys. (If you missed my last couple of posts... you can scroll down and read all about it.)

I also wanted send out a huge thank-you to all of you who were so supportive and voted for Noob Heist. It's the chance of a lifetime for them..... I just wish I could go too! LOL

Anyway, to all of my Brazilian friends who live near Rio.... go to the competition for me, then tell me all about what happens! I think it takes place on June 11th. Don't forget to yell and cheer for Noob Heist.... and of course my amazing son! ;)

Another Shameless Plug... then back to cake!

The last post was about my son's percussion group trying to win a trip to Rio de Janeiro to compete in "Tum Tum Pa's" world championship. Well... Red Bull changed the way they're picking the finalists. Now instead of getting the most views on You Tube, you need to go to Red Bull's website to vote for them... Noob Heist is the name of their group. Here's the link:

http://www.redbullusa.com/cs/Satellite/en_US/Red-Bull-Tum-Tum-Pa-Entries/001242989518239

Noob Heist is in the "Mountain South Conference". There's no need to register, and it'll only take you a minute to vote. Just find Noob Heist's video, listen to it, then click on the "vote" button. (The video lasts for 1 minute.)

I know this is a shameless plug for my son... but they've worked so hard! I figure this is the least I can do to help them out. It's funny because the Tum Tum Pa contest was designed for college students... my son and his friends are all in high school! They're very talented kids and have impressed everyone who's heard them play. Red Bull's regional representative even told these boy's to get their passports ready! The problem is that it's difficult for Noob Heist to get enough votes when a competing university asks the student body to vote for their school's team.

So if you have a few minutes to spare... they'd really appreciate your vote!  Ok... I'd appreciate your vote too!!!

Nothing to Do With Cake

Sorry, but this post has nothing to do with cake.... it's just a mom thing! :P

As I've mentioned before, 3 of my 4 kids are percussionists. And if you're wondering... yes, there's always lots of drumming, noise, and music around my house. hahaha
But I absolutely love it!

My youngest son and his friends recently entered Red Bull's Tum Tum Pa contest, (percussion contest) and made it past the first round. Here's the video they made for the second round. If they get enough views on Youtube they will go to Brazil! While there, they would compete in Rio de Janeiro for the world championship. (They decided to play a Brazilian beat just for fun.) The boys could only use office or school supplies for instruments. This video's only a minute long and it's kind of fun to watch. My son's the one playing the garbage cans with rulers and his feet are on the staplers.

.... I'm such a proud mom!!! LOL

Free Online Training... at Home!

Do you have a free hour on Tuesday, April 19th? Cake Fu Masters Training Series is offering another free online webinar for anyone who's interested. Cake Fu (started by Amelia Carbine) is a new series that invites well known professional cake decorators to be their guests. Be aware, however, that the interview is held over the phone. So you don't actually see the guest, but you do listen to the interview. Amelia begins the hour by talking to the guest about their background and training. Then, using a series of slides, the guest decorator teaches us one of their well known skills. The hour ends with the guest answering some questions and giving us one of their favorite recipes.

Cake Fu's past guests have included James Rosselle and Kaysie Lacky. James showed us how to make one of his parrot tulips, and Kasie taught how to sculpt an adorable bunny's head out of modeling chocolate. The webinar's teaching segment is the by far the most informative and best part of the hour. Sometimes Amelia's interviewing skills can be a little odd. She giggles quite often and tends to talk over the guest, but I'll cut her some slack because Amelia's a cake decorator... not a professional journalist.

 Tuesday's guest decorator will be the amazing Sharon Zambito. If you're interested in this week's webinar, you can read more about Sharon and register here:

http://cakefu.com/masters-series/
 
Cake Fu will then email you the information you need to participate. The webinar will begin at 10:30 Pacific time.
Cake Fu's webinars are a great idea! Especially for those of us who wouldn't otherwise have the opportunity or $$$ to travel and be taught by these professionals. Taking their classes can cost many hundreds or even $1000 for the classes alone!

I hope you'll be able to participate tomorrow or sometime in the future... I know I'll be there! There's always something new to learn when it comes to cake decorating! So here's your opportunity to be taught by the best in the business!

February... I'm glad it's over!

This month has been awful!



I got sick early in the month and it seemed to last forever. Yup, about 2 weeks of not wanting to do anything! Last night was the first night I didn't wake up with coughing fits. (My poor husband.) So hopefully that's all behind me now.

The highlight of this month has been my kids and their music activities. (I have 3 children who are percussionists.) Two of them had solo night at the high school... it's always a very stressful thing. They both did well and will go on to the state competition.

My 23 year old son is in a band. (Don't worry, it's not what you think.) It's great music that I even enjoy listening to. They have 3 members who are all excellent musicians. They are very well trained on their instruments, and have a strong background in jazz music. My son's the drummer. Anyway, they had 2 huge concerts for the release of their second CD. "j.wride" is the name of their band. You can look them up on facebook if you're interested.

My 16 year old son had a week full of rehearsals and 2 nights of huge concerts. He's the drummer for the "Crescent Super Band". This band has been ranked #1 in the world for high school aged jazz bands. They are really amazing, you'd never guess they were so young if you heard them play. Each year they have different Grammy award winning and world renowned artists come to teach and perform with them. This year Jeff Coffin from the Dave Matthew's Band, Poncho Sanchez, Steve Reid, Abraham Laboriel, Fransico Torres, and Rick Drumm came and performed. What an amazing opportunity for him!

My eighteen year old daughter will be performing again this summer with a drum corps. (Santa Clara Vanguard) She flies to California once a month and practices with them. In May she'll move there and will spend the summer touring all over the country competing with other drum corps. It's a lot of hard work, but she loves it. She spends hours & hours practicing and learning her music.

Well, I think I've filled you in on my month. Now it's time to get back to cake! I'm working on something right now, and will try to write a post about it soon.

Until then remember... Birthdays are nature's way of telling us to eat more cake!

One of "THOSE" Days!!!

Disclaimer: I wrote something similar to this on facebook a few days ago. (I needed some sympathy from my friends.) So if you're one of my facebook friends, please excuse me for repeating the story.



It was one of those mornings and I was waaaay behind on everything. It seemed like the more I tried to do, the farther I fell behind. Then the doorbell rang... I had just finished coloring my hair (ummm... I mean "conditioning" ;) and was right in the middle of highlighting it. My highlighting solution is blue in color, so there were segments of blue hair sticking out in every... and I mean every direction! Of course, I was still in my robe, and to top it all off... NO face on! (my way of saying no makeup) I looked like re-fried roadkill!

I'd decided not to open the door, then I looked out the window and realized it was the mailman. I had to answer the door because my son was expecting a package from China! UGH! I prayed that it was the mail-lady and not the mail-man. "NOPE......  it's the man!" :(

"OK" I said to myself, I'll make this as quick as possible with NO eye contact. I sheepishly opened the door. The mailman stopped and gave me a quick double take, then he smiled and handed me a slip of paper to sign. After quickly signing my name, I started to give it back. "Ohhh," he said, "You'll also needed to print your name." (Can I please just get this over with!!!") So I printed my name and handed him the slip of paper. Did I forget to mention that he stared at me the entire time?

He rustled around for a second then found my package. I took it and eagerly began to close the door. "Wait!" he said, "I have the rest of your mail." (Ugh! This is taking waaaay too long!) As he finally began to leave, the mailman had one last comment, he said...  "Of course I come when you look your worst. Hahahaha!" Then he snickered all the way back to his mail truck.

I just want to crawl in a hole and die.....

Making Cakes Rise Evenly

Have you ever spent an afternoon measuring, mixing, and baking a cake only to have it end up looking like an igloo? Doming is OK for cupcakes, but it causes all kinds of problems for cake. Doming happens because the outside edge of the cake cooks faster then the inside. This gives the middle more time to grow during the baking process and become taller then the edges. 

A cake that's domed on top can cause the following problems:

1. The center of the cake can crack.
2. The edges can over bake and become too brown.
3. The edges can turn hard.
4. The edges can also become dry.

Luckily there is a solution to this problem... baking strips. Cake baking strips insulate the pan so your cake bakes more evenly. You can buy several different brands, the most common is probably Wilton's Bake-Even Cake Strips. Have you tried them? They work well... the only problem is that they are expensive! Luckily you don't have to shell out $$ to buy them. You can make a simple substitute at home. It works just as well, plus it's cheap! All you need is an old towel.  :D

Cut an old towel into 2" strips.

Wet the towel in water. (DO NOT forget this step!!!!) It doesn't need to be dripping wet, but it needs to be quite wet. Wrap the towel around the outside edge of the pan. I just tie my strip and tuck in the edges, but you could also use pins or clips to hold the edges together. If you're baking a large cake, tie a couple of towel strips together and make it longer.

These two cakes were baked together at the same time. The cake on the left was baked in a pan alone. The cake on the right was baked using the homemade baking strips. Notice the differences... the cake on the left is domed in the center, it's edge is too dark and has a harder texture.

If using strips, you may need to add a few extra minutes to the total baking time. Give cake baking strips a try, I'm sure you'll be thrilled with the results!

My Christmas Gift of Music

During this Christmas season, I wanted to send everyone a big "THANK YOU"! I really appreciate your time and thoughtfulness. You've made me feel very welcome in this blogging world. I've made new friends all over the world and hope to know many more. So this is my special gift to each of you...

Here are two of my children performing their own arrangement of  "O Holy Night". My daughter's playing the marimba and my son's playing the vibraphone.

Merry Christmas!

Sifting, Sifting, Sifting...

No, I'm not talking about flour! Although whether or not it's necessary to sift flour is a great debate, I'm talking about cakes mixes.

For those of you who like to bake using cake mixes, sifting can make a huge difference in your finished product. Sifting the cake mix will get rid of any lumps or clumps that may have formed. Usually there aren't too many lumps unless you have a cake mix that's been sitting around for a while. If your mix is a little older, the lumps can be a hard and kind of stubborn. Use the back of a spoon to help push those stubborn lumps through the sifter. I like using a large strainer with a fine mesh to sift my cake mixes... it works like a charm.

The cake mix dumped into a strainer.

These are the lumps left over after sifting through the powder.

Push the lumps through with the back of a spoon. I like to use a gravy ladle.

This is what the cake mix will look like if you don't sift.

Here's the cake mix after sifting. It looks much nicer!

If you sift your cake mixes, you'll notice a fluffier and much smoother looking batter. After baking, the cake will have a much better texture and there won't be any of those annoying air tunnels. Give it a try... you'll never go back!

A Very "sTiCkY" Situation

Just imagine for a moment that it's cake baking day! You're very excited and eager to get started. You love the way baking fills your home with wonderful delicious smells. For the next couple of hours you measure, sift, cream, stir, pour and bake your sweet treat. After cooking the batter for just the right amount of time, you rush to the oven and take out your perfectly baked cake. A sense of pride fills your breast as you carefully set the pans down to cool. The aroma filling the air is even better then you'd remembered and it brings a smile to your face. After a few minutes, it's time to remove your cakes from the pans. Very carefully, you run a knife along the outside edge of the pan anticipating the moment when you'll see your finished product. You turn the pan over expecting to hear the cake gently release and descend to the cooling rack below, but after a few seconds.... nothing. So you turn the pan back over and try running the knife around the outside edge one more time. Again you turn the pan over onto the cooling rack expecting to hear something but.... nothing. A warm flush sweeps over your body and you begin to worry that something's gone wrong. You grab a spoon and carefully tap the bottom and outside edge of your pan. Surely the cake will release after your gentle persuasion but.... nothing! Now you begin to panic and start whacking it with frustrated anger leaving unwanted dents in the pan each time your spoon makes contact.... still nothing!!! Suddenly you hear a familiar sound and breath a huge sigh of relief. Whew, you think the cake's finally come out of the pan. One last time you turn the pan over expecting to find success and.... NOOOOOO! Half of the cake is lying on the cooling rack, while the other half is still stuck to the bottom of the pan! @*#%!!! (Not that I ever speak like that, but it sure makes my point. LOL)

Sound familiar? Unfortunately, this has happened to most of us at one time or another. You can prevent this from happening to you. There's a sure fire way to keep your blood pressure down and ensure happy endings to your cake baking days.

Simply use something called Pan Release and parchment paper. (Waxed paper works just as well as parchment paper, plus it's much cheaper.)

Place your pan on top of a piece of parchment paper. Take a pencil and trace around the outside bottom edge of the pan.

Cut the paper with scissors just inside the pencil lines. Cutting it this way makes the paper fit nicely inside the pan and also removes any pencil marks. Set the cut piece of parchment paper to the side.

Pan Release

1 part oil

1 part white vegetable shortening

1 part flour

Combine all the ingredients in a mixing bowl.

Beat together using a mixer.

Continue beating until it's smooth and creamy.

Using a pastry brush, liberally brush Pan Release around the sides and bottom edge of the cake pans. Also apply a small amount of Pan Release to the bottom so the parchment paper will stay in place. Store the left over Pan Release in a covered container inside the refrigerator. It will keep for a very long time.

Place the parchment paper in the bottom of the pan and pour cake batter over the top. Bake as usual.

After baking and cooling your cake, make sure you remove the parchment paper before frosting it. If you forget to take the paper off your cake, you'll have one "very chewy" dessert. Yuck!

Some people don't want to take the time and use this method. They think it's easier to just spray the pans with non-stick spray or coat them with shortening and flour. This may be true, but it doesn't always work. I like having the peace of mind knowing that my cake is going to release perfectly each and every time. This method will work 100% of the time. I figure if I'm going to spend the time and money baking a beautiful cake, I'd much rather be safe than sorry! 

 Happy Baking!

My New Toy

I hate to admit it, but sometimes I'm spoiled.... I've owned a 5 qt. Kitchen Aid mixer for a long time. Over the years I've used it to make bread, rolls, cake, cookies, brownies, whipped cream, candy, frosting, gum paste etc. I use it quite often to make white chocolate fondant. When making fondant, powdered sugar is kneaded into the dough (small amounts at a time) until it becomes very very stiff. So stiff in fact that making fondant can be a little tough on your machine. My mixer had been acting "sick" for a while and was making loud awful noises when turned on. This particular day, the mixer was working fine until it suddenly started slowing down. The motor ran slower and slower until it finally came to a complete stop. I tried turning it on and off a few times but nothing happened. My kitchen Aid was dead, never to be turned on again. Good bye 5 qt. mixer... (sniff, sniff)

The next morning I got in my car and drove all over the valley searching for a new mixer. I wanted one with a more powerful motor, and one that had greater capacity. Well, after pricing my mixer options, I realized spending that much $$$ was not going to be in my budget. The dream of buying the mixer I really wanted was probably just that... a dream. I came home and called my husband, informing him of the sad news. I complained a little bit but really wanted to cry on his shoulder. After listening to me whine for a while, he said he might know of a place where the price on mixers was quite a bit lower then what I'd seen. To make a long story short, a few hours later he came home bearing a wonderful gift of joy! A refurbished Professional 600 Kitchen Aid 6 qt. mixer at a fantastic price. Happy Day!

 Yes, Judy... there is a Santa Clause! :)