Cake Competition prep: Day 1

Hi!

I didn't get "a lot" of stuff done on my cake today, but I did.... if that makes any sense! lol

No cakes were baked, but I cleared out my kitchen, made lists, finalized the design (it's totally awesome, if I do say so myself.... nobody ever accused me of not being ambitious THAT's for sure!!) and started some of the prep work. I swear, if it were possible to get contact diabetes, I would have gone into a coma tonight!

I made:
2 batches of butter cream
1 batch modeling chocolate (I think I may need 2 or 3 batches, but I only had enough chocolate for 1)
1 batch Rice Krispie treats (I like these better than cake... it was all I could do not to eat the whole batch!! lol)
2 batches of royal icing double (Might be too runny, I might need to add more sugar... we'll have to see)
A Gelatin sheet (I'm going to have a "water" element and this is a really cool technique that I discovered on the internet)
a double batch of piping gel

I'm punking out and buying the fondant. I just don't have the time or sanity to try and make it right now. For me, fondant outcomes tend to rely more on the position of the moon and some sort of mystical chant/dance/special handshake that I am not privy to, than my actual skills. I nearly had a breakdown in September over making the stupid fondant (ANTS were in my sugar!! and you don't really notice powdered sugar ants until you have freckled fondant. At that point in time, you either chuck it, take a deep breath and have a good cry or try to convince everyone that you used fancy vanilla beans in your recipe....)

I'm really pushing my skill set with this cake. It's going to be a stacked AND tiered cake*. It will have figures modeled out of chocolate and dusted with lustre dust to look like bronze*. It will have a cool "fountain" with water.* piped royal icing decorations* Handmade flowers and ferns* and a bunch of other cool stuff, I'm not gonna tell you about right now :) You will just have to follow along if you want to see the final product!



*all stuff I have ever done

OMG OMG OMG!!!

As you know (if you've been reading, lol) that I finished my first Wilton course on Wednesday. After class, I was talking with my instructor and she asked me if I had ever thought about doing a cake competition. I told her that I *had* thought about it, but that I didn't have any idea where to find one locally. She said that she got an email the other day about one in the area and that I should check it out. She told me that Duff Goldman from Ace of Cakes was going to judge it.


(*squeal* I wanna work there for a week.... just to absorb the knowledge!)

I googled and found the website, but the web page said that entries had closed at 5 pm that day. I was all bummed out, and I read the rules in a "woulda, coulda, shoulda" mood and I discovered in the fine print that the entries were to be closed on March 4 at 5pm. After a few emails back and forth, the powers that be decided that due to a technicality (the web guy didn't change the rules when they changed the date every where else on the website) that they would send me an application. I filled it out and sent it in with pictures of my airplane, firetruck, blue flower, and hand of cards cake.

I've been on pins and needles for a day in a half, part of me desperately hoping they pick me and the other half dreading it.




I got an acceptance email at 4pm today!!!!



OMG OMG OMG!!!


I have to go up against 55 other cakes, most of whom have been planning/preparing their cakes for weeks..... at a venue that is 3 hours away..... in the middle of spring break.


*breathe* *breathe* *breathe* *breathe* *breathe* *breathe*



This is the competition http://cakechallenge.missouri.edu/ The theme is “A Mizzou Spring.” I have been madly googling, because not only do I have JUST 10 days to pull this cake out of thin air, I have NEVER BEEN TO MIZZOU!!! lol

Oh well! I have tons of ideas and I'm hoping to "make it Bigger, make it Badder, make it AWESOME!!!" enough.


ACK!!!





Anyone want to come clean my house??

More Cake!!

I just finished the Wilton Cake Decorating Basics Course I (four week class covering the basics of cake decorating), and I have been reminded that I abso-freakin-lutely HATE working in just buttercream! lol. Can't stand it!! The second class in this course had me throwing a tantrum/meltdown to rival any 2 yr olds! (It probably didn't help that I hadn't eaten all day and was hopped up on diet coke). lol

I have redeemed myself (I believe) with tonight's cake. It was my final for the class and I think it turned out very nicely.

When I grow up......

Over dinner tonight, James mapped out his future career plan for me. He's going to have a different job for each season.

Fall - Pilot
Winter - Lake Ice Thickness Tester
Spring - Weather Man
Summer - House Builder

That is Wack......y

Today was "Wacky Tacky" day at school.  James is excited that he's wearing 2 different socks.  



2 different WHITE socks.  




2 different white ANKLE socks!

And he's wearing red pants with a lime green shirt.


Watch out for us... we are sooooooooo "Wacky"!!!

Valentines Treats!

James wanted to bring some cute treats in to school for his friends on Valentine's Day, so I racked my brain for something easy that we could do together. Inspiration struck when we were at Chip's Chocolate Factory watching them make their fudge and I spied chocolate covered marshmallows in the display case.

I thought "I can do that!" and "How would we make that valentiney?"

I pondered the problem for a few days and got my answer on a trip to the commissary when I saw a huge display of heart shaped marshmallows and sprinkles. LIGHT BULB!

So earlier today James and I got out all our gear to make our treats.

To make these you need:

long lollipop sticks
1 lb of dark chocolate candy melts (or melting chocolate of choice)
Heart shaped marshmallows
Crisco
paper towel
sprinkles
tall coffee mug (I put this mug into my tiny crockpot to keep the chocolate melted... you can just keep microwaving and stirring if you prefer... but you want it tall to be able to dip your whole stick with)
block of Styrofoam
paper towels


I folded a paper towel up and put a little crisco on it, so I could grease my lollipop sticks. The Marshmallows go on MUCH better and keep their shape when you grease the stick. If you don't, the marshmallows tend to resemble little butts,



which is ok if that's the kind of thing you want to convey... lol... but I didn't think it was *quite* appropriate for Kindergarten, kwim?

I left a little dab of crisco at the top of my stick and spun the stick as I inserted it into the marshmallow.




Much better!!! No Marshmallow carnage on the stick...



I did this for all 4 marshmallows. I only inserted the stick 1/2 way through the last marshmallow so the stick didn't show.

Having an adorable helper putting the marshmallows small to large on the plate for you makes things go so much faster! lol






Once you get all the sticks made, it's time for the CHOCOLATE!!! YUMMY!!

I put my chocolate and a tablespoon of crisco into a tall coffee mug (the easier to dip into) and popped it into the microwave... 1 minute, stir... 30 secs, stir... until all is melted and ready to go. I then put the cup into my small crockpot to keep the chocolate melted.




Dip your stick in the chocolate and then shake/drip off the excess chocolate.







Add Sprinkles! We found it was neater to just dribble the sprinkles directly onto the treats instead of rolling or dipping the treats into the sprinkles... especially if you have an over-enthusiastic sprinkler, lol.




I stuck them into my styrofoam at an angle to compensate for any drips. The styrofoam went into the freezer after each pop to help the chocolate set up.




Finished treats!







I'm just going to pop them into some pretzel stick bags and attach James's Scooby-Doo Valentines to them and then we'll hand them out to his friends at school. I hope they enjoy eating them as much as we enjoyed making them!

Conversations

in my Kitchen:

James: Mom, Christina and I can get married, right?
Me: Uh... yeah.. when are you planning on having the wedding?
James: Oh.... when we're older
Me: Ok... so not like next week or anything right?
James: Nah, not next week, I need to be older
Me: How old is "older" enough to get married (sweating)
James: Oh.... about 28 or so..
Me: Yes!! Yes!! 28 is EXACTLY right!! Good Answer!!!




In the Car: (when "You Should Be Dancin" by the Bee Gees comes on the radio)

James: Hey!! That song was on Despicable Me!
Me: Yep
~pause~
James: SWEET! My Butt is dancing!
Me: lol




In the parking lot at the Commissary:

Upon seeing his first "Smart Car"

James: ~squeal~ That car is a-DOR-able!!! It's sooooo CUUUUUUUTE!!!!

I R Genius

I locked my keys in my car this morning.



Which in turn had me locked out of my house.



Which wouldn't have been such a huge issue in the grand scheme of life, if it wasn't for the fact that it is 4 degrees outside with a windchill of -6 and Hubby has training today, so is out of the office and incommunicado.



Thank goodness I had my cell in my pocket with the emergency # to housing programmed on it. They had a Service worker out in less than 20 minutes. He checked my I.D. (I thankfully had my wallet!) and went to work on the door with his big ring of keys.


I'm now back in my house, no worse for wear. My keys are still in my car, and I'm not going anywhere for a while, but I am extremely thankful we decided to live ON post when we moved here 4 years ago! lol

SNOMAGEDDON!!

Ok.. not really. But it *did* snow. A lot! And it was COLD and WINDY!

James managed to hit the Trifecta of Snow Days. School was out Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday for the weather and Friday was Parent-Teacher Conferences/In Service... so no school THEN either!! We haven't a full week of school since mid-December!

AND it's supposed to Snow again on Sunday.






*sigh*








It got so bad on Friday, I took him to a McDonalds with a playland and to the movies to see Yogi Bear.... neither of which are things I would usually be caught dead doing, lol.


Anyway... at least it was warm enough today to toss him out the back door to play in the snow. And NO... I did NOT slam it and lock it behind him! lol I went out and we slid on the snow and made a snow man.











Oh... and see that beautifully dry sidewalk behind the snow man?? SOMEBODY decided to throw snowballs at the garage wall while I was typing this, getting snow all over it.

The short perpetrator is sweeping the walk as I speak, whining "There's tooooo much snoooooooowwwwww!"

Uh Yeah... there wouldn't have been.... if you hadn't THROWN it there, Genius! ~facepalm~

Snow Days, Snow Days... There's no going to School Days....

There has been NO school here at all this week!

We've gotten 12 inches of snow. (I know that is NOTHING compared to you in the East) Current temps are 5 degrees. Wind chill is -10.

Tomorrow is going to be -5. Fun times... no school tomorrow either! lol

Mom is having to get creative coming up with fun things to do with James to keep from going stir crazy.

Yesterday, before it got too cold to play outside, We all went outside and took advantage of the hill behind our house. We busted out the snow-tube and saucer to have some snowy fun.



Sledding is NOT just for kids!



Bowling for Jameses











And YES... I *DID* sled... several times!! I just happened to have full possession of the camera that quite possibly might have been zippered into my pocket the entire time...

There is nothing quite like playing in the snow. We had so much fun. James made snow angles, built moguls on his snow tube run, licked the snow (don't ask... he is so weird), caught snowflakes on his tongue and *attempted* to be slick by sneaking up and pelting Mom with a huge snowball while she was trying to take pictures. Then he was schooled on how getting snow down Mommy's shirt earns you a whitewash, lol.







There are pink cheeks and cold fingers to warm up between runs, so thanks to our friends who gave us a fire pit when they moved, we were able to stay out longer than we normally would have. We would have had marshmallows and hotdogs, but the hotdogs were frozen and somehow slacker Mommy didn't manage to have large marshmallows in stock, only mini ones.... and we all know how difficult those are to get on a coat hanger! lol





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Today was cleaning, tv and board games!

We played Scrabble Jr., Chutes and Ladders, Candyland, Bingo, and Operation.

And since Mommy can only take so much fun, we baked and decorated cookies, lol We found some leftover gingerbread cookie dough in the fridge(thanks Mr. Pillsbury! lol) and broke into Mommy's stash of fondant and decorator markers to make a big family of Gingerbread men.

(I am supposed to make sure to tell you that James decorated NINE cookies. NINE. Yes... I know there are only 8 in the pictures.... I wasn't fast enough with the camera)



I only managed to get 2 before Picasso over there snagged the rest of the cookies to decorate.....



James requested a "summer" Cookie, so this one is a little different.




If anyone has any ideas for tomorrow, I'm all ears!! lol

New Year's Resolutions

MIL: I resolve to be nicer in 2011

Me: ~busts out laughing~

MIL: ~throws something at me and says~ Thanks for ruining that one! I didn't even get to make it 15 mins in!!

Me: (after about 5 minutes of uncontrollable giggling) That's OK... you are from Montana, it's still last year there. So technically you are still good for about 20 more mins!

MIL: ~rolls eyes~ Gee thanks.

The bandages are off!!

And James is upset that his outtie is now an innie!

He wailed "They STOLE my Belly Button!!!!"




lol!

It looks good. No infection and beyond being upset over his altered appearance, he seems to be doing well.

It's only been 3.5 yrs...

And I FINALLY got my foyer decorated! lol

I have decorating ADD (ooooo look.... something shiney!!) and very specific ideas about what I want in my house. Most often I can find something that is *almost* right, but not quite, lol. And if it's not right, I don't buy it, you know? It still needs *something* cool, but I have to be conscious of little hands that can't seem to leave Mommy's stuff alone, even though he should know better.

It's been painted for over a year, lol. I've had the vinyl expression for about as long (but couldn't find the "right" sized frame for what I was willing to pay). I've had the picture frame for even LONGER. My MIL gave it to me, what, 2? yrs ago??

It just took me this long to find the exact table I like, the pics I want in the frame, and stuff for the table. Once the Christmas season is over, I'm in trouble again, because I'll have to put away the little trees I made (Which I love!! Styrofoam is awesome!) Suggestions are welcome!

Any way... here are the pics! (It's a REALLY tight area, so it's hard to get a good picture of any of it, sorry)






Close up of the Uppercase Living expression (anyone who likes UL and wants some, let me know, I have a good friend who is a rep)








Now.... only 1300 sq ft to go!! lol

Though as my friend, Jamie, said "Now that you got that done, when will you be moving??" LOL!!! I figure we'll get orders in about a week! lol

Surgery Day!

I'll be updating throughout the day, so watch this space!!

7:00 am: In the waiting room, waiting for james's name to be called. He seems remarkably calm for someone who is going under the knife! Lol. But we have really down played this too. He's watching Jungle Junction and playing with a bead toy.

7:30: the nurse has checked all his vitals (perfect) and we have spoken to the surgeon. Now we are just waiting for the Ana. to show up

8:30 am: we are in the waiting room, waiting....
James is on his way to surgery. It was tough on Mom and Dad to leave him. He was too busy jabbering at the nurse to even notice, lol!  The child does NOT know a stranger

So now, we wait. His surgery should take about an hour. Then he has to go to recovery to wake up. That takes about 45 mins to an hour or so. THEN we get to see him and take him home. 

Daddy is having a really tough time with this. He doesn't like needles or hospitals or doctors, lol.. And then to abandon his little guy to them??


9:30 am: Just talked to the surgeon... Every thing went fine. Apparently the hole was bigger than they thought, about the size of the surgeon's thumb!  They gave him an incision on the underside of his belly button, lifted it up, gave him 6 stitches on the inside, laid the belly button down and then gave him 8 on the outside. 

He should be waking up soon and then we'll be able to go see him in about 1/2 hour. 

The doc wants us to try to keep him still for a week. 

Hahahahahahaha. ~wipes tears from eyes~

Wednesday Random Tidbits

We are watching Frosty the Snowman, and Frosty said something to the effect fo "Why didn't I think of that?"

To which James replies to the TV, "Because you have a brain made out of snow!"


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James told me he has decided that we are taking Curious George goes to the Hospital, Madeline and The Belly Button Book to the hospital tomorrow.

I like that kid's style! Lol


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I was looking for a new treat to make this year, so a friend of mine gave me the recipe to Puppy Chow this evening and I made a big double batch.

Hubby came in and started snarfing down the puppy chow. He was like "Awesome!! Puppy chow!! I LOVE this stuff!!"

9.5 years of marriage and I never knew this! lol

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Mom sent Hubby something packed in dry ice and he and James spent quite a few minutes playing with it in the kitchen, lol! It was like getting 2 presents in one! lol The rest of the dry ice is residing in the freezer for future fun.




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James played Santa at school for his friends on Friday.




I made Candy Christmas lights.




Added just a little trim and a ribbon..... And Voila!!! Adorable little gifts!!




There are 20 kids in his class (including him) and I made 40 pops so he could have some too. He took all of them to school and instead of eating his, he gave them to the assistant teacher, not knowing that I already had a gift for her. With his high energy and impulse issues, I sometimes forget that he has such a huge heart and can be really sweet. I do love that kid!

Christmas Funny

I love Christmas. I love everything about it. Our Christmases are a mix of Religious and Secular, with a dash of irreverence mixed in for spice.

But I'll admit that some years (especially this year!) I don't just don't feel it. And I need something to make me laugh to put me in the mood.

Boy did I find it!!

THIS IS SOME FUNNY STUFF!!

Seriously, I laughed until I cried. I posted it to a friend and then had flashbacks that reduced me to helpless giggles when she posted back about how much she loved it (Hi Tracy!!)

Now I want to go out and put on my own Christmas play.... with a soundtrack by Kenny Loggins, of course! lol

Another Holiday..... Another Hospital!

As I sit here composing this post in my head I realize that I never blogged about Thanksgiving.

Part of our Thanksgiving was spent at the emergency room. James face-planted into the concrete outside of the movie theater after we went to see Tangled. There was lots of blood. His face was pretty banged up and he had a fat lip and a goose egg, but nothing was broken and he didn't seem to have a concussion. Thank goodness he'd already lost that front tooth, or it may have been knocked out. It was pretty epic as far as face-plants go, but I'd rather not have a repeat of it! lol

Fast forward to yesterday. A little background, James has had an umbilical hernia (a hole behind his belly-button) since he was born. We had an appointment at Children's Mercy Hospital to have the surgeon look at it and schedule a time to have it fixed. Imagine my surprise when he came back in and said "Does Thursday morning work for you?".

Well, um, yeah, I guess! lol

So James will be going under the knife this Thursday morning! It's outpatient surgery, so he'll be home in the afternoon. It will probably be harder on Mom and Dad than it will be on James. The hardest part is going to be keeping James still and quiet long enough to recover. I'm not looking forward to the whining, mine or James!! lol

If you pray, please keep us in your prayers, and if you think, keep us in your thoughts ;) lol!!

When did this become a cake blog??

lol I don't know! But here you go.... ANOTHER cake post!

Hubby's department needed cake for some dealy-o at work where some high octane muckety-mucks are coming through and he asked me last Saturday if I'd be willing to volunteer to make it. For Today.... or Friday morning by 10 am to be specific.

And like the moron that I am, I said "Sure! Why not! It won't be too hard to whip up a cake! What do you need?"

This cake has been the BANE of my existence! It went from one big cake, to seven small cakes, to seven large cakes, and back down to 2 cakes.... one huge and one pretty big. I was ready to kill myself before I even broke out the kitchen aide! But you know me... I'm game for anything (or insane... the votes are still out and it could go either way.)

So I went to the store for the supplies for White Almond Sour Cream Cake (my "go to" cake when I have to do some carving and when I'm covering with fondant), buttercream and fondant. Yes.... I MADE my own fondant and buttercream (which way are you gonna vote now? lol) and baked three 12 x 18 sheet cakes... that ended up being 11x17 after I carved and leveled them. My stupid oven bakes crooked so I have to put the wet wraps on the pan and spin the cakes 3 times while baking. I still end up with cake that is 1 in tall in one corner and almost 3 in the other. I end up with more cake in the carvings bowl than I do on the board! lol

Carving, covering, crying, stripping, re-covering, lying in the fetal position on the floor of the closet vibrating in a sugar induced seizure, panicked calls to Cake Guru friend after a fondant emergency (MANY thanks Anna Mae!!), several sleepless nights, fast food and tons of hand painting later, I have 2 beautiful cakes to present at the event. My kitchen looks like the opening scene in NCIS and if you didn't know I was working with an insane amount of powdered sugar, you'd think it was a drug bust gone bad! lol

I think they came out Totally Awesome! (If I do say so myself) The theme is "Poker", so I made a "Hand" of cards and a deck of cards. The hand of cards ended up being 24 z 20 and the deck ended up being 11 x 17! From now on, I will only make cute, small botique cakes. If I need to feed a large amount of people, I'll make a plain sheet cake to hide in the back and serve, lol!















I have come to the conclusion that I like the decorating and eating of the cake. I need Minions



to bake, make the fondant, buttercream and bring me already baked/covered cakes to be painted or decorated. Then they need to clean up and set my kitchen to rights.

Oh.... and cook dinner and parent my child while I'm doing the cakes! lol

Any volunteers??






Eta: I guess all that money Mom and Dad spent on my Graphic Design degree didn't go to waste after all, lol!!

REAL Vampires DON'T Sparkle!!

Tonight was Trick or Treating on post. Yeah, yeah... I KNOW!! It's not Halloween... blah... blah... blah. lol! The Powers That Be here on post decided that Trick or Treat was to be tonight instead of Sunday, so Trick or Treating we did go!

Or... Trick or Treating Hubby and James did go! lol. I hung out at home and passed out candy. It was only fair, since Hubby has only gotten to take James out twice (counting tonight) due to work or deployments.

This year James decided he was going to be a vampire. (Actually, he wanted to be a vampire last year, but I wanted to get ONE more year of "cute" costumes out of him before we went the scary/gross out route... hence last year's Imagination Mover... did I post about that?? Damn.... I can't remember if I did. It was super cute too, lol. I sucked last year, sorry)




And wow.... I do ramble on sometimes, don't I? lol



ANYway... lol... I couldn't help but put my own stamp on his costume, hence the hair and makeup. I wanted him to reference the cool, suave "Old School" vamps and not the newer, more recent teenybopper version.... Although... if I had been walking with him, I would have worn a t-shirt that said "Team James" on the front and "Real Vampires don't Sparkle" on the back.... but I didn't because it wouldn't have made sense if I wore it to pass out candy! lol

ANYway.... AGAIN.... lol Pictures Now!!


I Vant to Suck Your Bluuuuuuuuuuhd!!!!









"Grrrrrrrr...... Scary!!"






I SAID.... "GRRRRRRRRRR..... SCARY!!!!!"




James REALLY enjoyed helping me give out candy when they were done Trick or Treating




ALMOST as much as he loved playing with the fog machine! lol