Friday, June 22, 2007
Zoo
We went to the Cincinnati Zoo yesterday with Marybeth Brown (fellow employee at GBS - no relation), Linda and Michaela Schaub (Linda's husband is in Iraq and she's due to have a baby the end of July). We had fun and it was a beautiful day. Daniel was with us even though he's not in any of the pictures I took. We lost his last pacifier :o) By last evening I was rummaging in the basement to find some that he had received for Christmas!
Monday, June 18, 2007
Now...for the Rest of the Story
For those of you who would like an explanation of why last week's wedding cake was so challenging:
Short version: The icing for the wedding cake had to be ordered from a local bakery but "all's well that ends well."
Blow-by-blow version: Tuesday of last week I made 7 batches of icing but every one of them had a slightly odd taste. If you can imagine eating something that tastes the way that gasoline fumes smell that would have been the best way to explain what it was like. The longer it sat the worse it became until it tasted like axle grease. I thought on Tuesday that I had solved the problem. Three weeks earlier I had purchased the powdered sugar and Crisco shortening and placed them in the trunk of our car. Having no place to store the ingredients in my kitchen I left them in the trunk. But in our trunk was also a gas powered weed eater and blower. I thought that the heat of the trunk had caused the gasoline fumes to get into my powered sugar. Wednesday I purchased all new Crisco and powered sugar to take care of the problem.
Thursday morning I began making icing with the new sugar and Crisco - same "fumey" taste! I was stumped! So I methodically began replacing all ingredients to find the problem. New salt, new flour, filtered water instead of tap water, special trip to get a new batch of clear vanilla. Same bad taste! It was getting very stressful. Just the week previous I had made icing and it was fine. Perhaps it was my mixer somehow dripping grease into the batch but inspection of the mixer showed no problems. So last shot - try a new mixer - same bad taste. At this moment I did not know if I should laugh or cry. When something like this happens I wonder, "Is God trying to tell me that I shouldn't make the icing?" Perhaps my icing is not stable enough to withstand the heat/drive and so to save me some heartache I'd better go a different route. So that's what I did. For a "small" fee a was able to order icing from a local bakery that was ready for pickup at 10:30 on Friday.
Bakery icing is so "sicky" sweet that I can hardly stomach it but there wasn't much choice. So even though the cake looked okay it wasn't as tasty as I would have liked. But I am so glad that Clarissa and Joe got a wedding cake. For awhile I wasn't sure how it was going to all work out.
Back to my dilemma: What could have happened? I've used this recipe with these ingredients for years and never had a problem. Then it hit me late Thursday afternoon. The lids of the cans of Crisco that I had purchased said, "0 Trans Fat - Same great taste." Hmmmmmm...did they change their recipe? I looked at the nutrition information and compared it to the half used can that I had used the week before and sure enough - the fat contents were all different. So, I mixed up another batch (this was batch 12!) using the old Crisco and WALA! Same great taste! Okay, so trans fat is bad for you but it tastes far better than axle grease! Sighhhh...now another challenge - find another recipe that can be used for decorating without compromising the taste and ease of preparation and use. Since my next wedding isn't until August I have some time to experiment. I'm also going to contact Crisco and make sure that this new "fume" taste is normal.
So there it is folks. More than you ever wanted to know.
Another interesting side note: all of my cakes are prayed over for multiple reasons. One of those reasons is that almost every cake decorator has a "horror story" and someone ends up with a wedding cake disaster or no wedding cake at all. When I finished icing the cakes at 11:00 Friday night I felt very impressed that the Lord was telling me not to decorate until after I had transported the cakes to Shelbyville. Hint: when God says something - His idea is always best. When I opened the trunk of the car after arriving at my destination all of the cakes had shifted and settled enough that there was a band of icing sticking out on every last cake between the layers. So all of them had to be resmoothed. Had I decorated them it would have been next to impossible to fix the problem. It was still difficult as it was because the icing was very crusty. My heart was very thankful that God had whispered a few instructions to me because he knew what was going to happen.
Something like this happened to my husband (who is feverishly working to meet his deadline for Zondervan next month!) not long ago. God impressed him to do something that looked like it was going to be a mistake but turned out that it saved him work in the end. I said to him, "Isn't it good to be in "cahoots" (if I can use that term) with a God who knows everything?!" He sure saves me from a lot of hurts and heartache (if I am listening for His voice and obey). That sure is encouraging to a person who feels so inadequate of facing the challenges of being a wife, mother, and teacher. The God who created this universe is interested enough in my life that he tells me, "Go to bed, decorate tomorrow when you get there!" So I got the rest I needed and Joe and Clarissa got a wedding cake. WAAAHOOOOOO!!!!
Short version: The icing for the wedding cake had to be ordered from a local bakery but "all's well that ends well."
Blow-by-blow version: Tuesday of last week I made 7 batches of icing but every one of them had a slightly odd taste. If you can imagine eating something that tastes the way that gasoline fumes smell that would have been the best way to explain what it was like. The longer it sat the worse it became until it tasted like axle grease. I thought on Tuesday that I had solved the problem. Three weeks earlier I had purchased the powdered sugar and Crisco shortening and placed them in the trunk of our car. Having no place to store the ingredients in my kitchen I left them in the trunk. But in our trunk was also a gas powered weed eater and blower. I thought that the heat of the trunk had caused the gasoline fumes to get into my powered sugar. Wednesday I purchased all new Crisco and powered sugar to take care of the problem.
Thursday morning I began making icing with the new sugar and Crisco - same "fumey" taste! I was stumped! So I methodically began replacing all ingredients to find the problem. New salt, new flour, filtered water instead of tap water, special trip to get a new batch of clear vanilla. Same bad taste! It was getting very stressful. Just the week previous I had made icing and it was fine. Perhaps it was my mixer somehow dripping grease into the batch but inspection of the mixer showed no problems. So last shot - try a new mixer - same bad taste. At this moment I did not know if I should laugh or cry. When something like this happens I wonder, "Is God trying to tell me that I shouldn't make the icing?" Perhaps my icing is not stable enough to withstand the heat/drive and so to save me some heartache I'd better go a different route. So that's what I did. For a "small" fee a was able to order icing from a local bakery that was ready for pickup at 10:30 on Friday.
Bakery icing is so "sicky" sweet that I can hardly stomach it but there wasn't much choice. So even though the cake looked okay it wasn't as tasty as I would have liked. But I am so glad that Clarissa and Joe got a wedding cake. For awhile I wasn't sure how it was going to all work out.
Back to my dilemma: What could have happened? I've used this recipe with these ingredients for years and never had a problem. Then it hit me late Thursday afternoon. The lids of the cans of Crisco that I had purchased said, "0 Trans Fat - Same great taste." Hmmmmmm...did they change their recipe? I looked at the nutrition information and compared it to the half used can that I had used the week before and sure enough - the fat contents were all different. So, I mixed up another batch (this was batch 12!) using the old Crisco and WALA! Same great taste! Okay, so trans fat is bad for you but it tastes far better than axle grease! Sighhhh...now another challenge - find another recipe that can be used for decorating without compromising the taste and ease of preparation and use. Since my next wedding isn't until August I have some time to experiment. I'm also going to contact Crisco and make sure that this new "fume" taste is normal.
So there it is folks. More than you ever wanted to know.
Another interesting side note: all of my cakes are prayed over for multiple reasons. One of those reasons is that almost every cake decorator has a "horror story" and someone ends up with a wedding cake disaster or no wedding cake at all. When I finished icing the cakes at 11:00 Friday night I felt very impressed that the Lord was telling me not to decorate until after I had transported the cakes to Shelbyville. Hint: when God says something - His idea is always best. When I opened the trunk of the car after arriving at my destination all of the cakes had shifted and settled enough that there was a band of icing sticking out on every last cake between the layers. So all of them had to be resmoothed. Had I decorated them it would have been next to impossible to fix the problem. It was still difficult as it was because the icing was very crusty. My heart was very thankful that God had whispered a few instructions to me because he knew what was going to happen.
Something like this happened to my husband (who is feverishly working to meet his deadline for Zondervan next month!) not long ago. God impressed him to do something that looked like it was going to be a mistake but turned out that it saved him work in the end. I said to him, "Isn't it good to be in "cahoots" (if I can use that term) with a God who knows everything?!" He sure saves me from a lot of hurts and heartache (if I am listening for His voice and obey). That sure is encouraging to a person who feels so inadequate of facing the challenges of being a wife, mother, and teacher. The God who created this universe is interested enough in my life that he tells me, "Go to bed, decorate tomorrow when you get there!" So I got the rest I needed and Joe and Clarissa got a wedding cake. WAAAHOOOOOO!!!!
Saturday, June 16, 2007
The Rest of the Story....
The finished product......whew......! Every cake decorator has a "Disaster Story" and I think this cake about takes the title but in the end it was redeemable.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Adventures of a Cake Decorator Continued
They're all baked! I'm so thankful that the Lord helped me to get really organized so that when one batch was coming out of the oven another was going in. The one layer that took 65 minutes to bake went into the oven right before lunch so that wasn't inturupted. Today was as much of a success as yesterday was a failure. That was an answer to prayer.
Now I have all day tomorrow to remake the icing. I ran to Sam's Club before church this evening and bought all new ingredients so we're good to go. Friday I'll spend putting the initial icing on (this takes the longest time of the whole process...ever tried to get a perfectly smooth finish?!) and decorating everything that I can before it's transported. Thanks to those of you who left comments to the last post that you'd be praying for the trip. All it takes is one person not paying attention to the fact you're stopped at a red light and it's all over. Some bride's dream will be one blob of confection. I also had the thought...what if I got a flat tire? The spare is under the floor of my trunk. That would not be cool!
Sighhhhh.....ummmmmm....I have a confession to make. Those gum past calla lilies were not made by me. When I have this many gum paste flowers on a cake (I believe a little something over 100) there is no way that I could take the time to make them myself and still make a profit. Let's face it, if you charged by the hour for a wedding cake - you wouldn't have any business! So when I have a wedding cake with special icing flowers (like gum paste) then I order in bulk from Pfeil and Holing. When I have a small cake where there are only 5-20 then I do them myself (Like the Hawaiian themed cake). The only large scale flowers that I do myself are the buttercream roses. Any gum paste roses are ordered. Sometimes you'll see a cake that I post where I order the complicated pieces and then do my own fillers. I would love to say that I do all of the flowers myself and I may go back to that once the boys are older. Right now it's more important to me that my hobby doesn't interfere with my ability to be a mommy. So there it is! The truth is out.
BTW: On Nancy Lambeth's birthday cake I used some of the overstock from this wedding.
I'll post pictures on Saturday...if I remember to take my camera!
Now I have all day tomorrow to remake the icing. I ran to Sam's Club before church this evening and bought all new ingredients so we're good to go. Friday I'll spend putting the initial icing on (this takes the longest time of the whole process...ever tried to get a perfectly smooth finish?!) and decorating everything that I can before it's transported. Thanks to those of you who left comments to the last post that you'd be praying for the trip. All it takes is one person not paying attention to the fact you're stopped at a red light and it's all over. Some bride's dream will be one blob of confection. I also had the thought...what if I got a flat tire? The spare is under the floor of my trunk. That would not be cool!
Sighhhhh.....ummmmmm....I have a confession to make. Those gum past calla lilies were not made by me. When I have this many gum paste flowers on a cake (I believe a little something over 100) there is no way that I could take the time to make them myself and still make a profit. Let's face it, if you charged by the hour for a wedding cake - you wouldn't have any business! So when I have a wedding cake with special icing flowers (like gum paste) then I order in bulk from Pfeil and Holing. When I have a small cake where there are only 5-20 then I do them myself (Like the Hawaiian themed cake). The only large scale flowers that I do myself are the buttercream roses. Any gum paste roses are ordered. Sometimes you'll see a cake that I post where I order the complicated pieces and then do my own fillers. I would love to say that I do all of the flowers myself and I may go back to that once the boys are older. Right now it's more important to me that my hobby doesn't interfere with my ability to be a mommy. So there it is! The truth is out.
BTW: On Nancy Lambeth's birthday cake I used some of the overstock from this wedding.
I'll post pictures on Saturday...if I remember to take my camera!
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Adventures of a Cake Decorator
Today I spent the day making icing for a wedding cake I'm doing this weekend. A whole day? Yes, a whole day. It takes that long to make seven (7) batches, get drinks, change diapers, take toddlers to the bathroom, change wet jeans on little boys who play with the water hose, put socks and shoes on (numerous times), read stories, cook meals, grind babyfood, rock fussy babies, well....you get the picture.
To make a very long story short...it was all for naught and seven (7) batches of icing have to be pitched! It hurts. That's 12 lbs of Crisco, 25 lbs of powdered sugar, and a lot of work for nothing. I think even my little mixer cried.
Tomorrow I start baking: the cake has eleven (11) different cakes which means twenty-two (22) different layers and many hours of baking. I should be able to finish baking on Thursday and then remake the icing so that I can decorate Friday. This cake has to travel two hours in my trunk to Shelbyville, IN on Saturday morning. The cake is to be white with pink calla lilies and iridescent butterflies. I've included a picture of the flowers before I "painted" them pink. It's going to be a really nifty cake but right now I don't want to think about it so I'm going to bed.
I love decorating cakes but there are days that I think I'm crazy. Last week I had a birthday cake for Michael Lambeth (dinosaur picture). I went to the store that morning to pick up the last minute ingredients and came home to preheat the oven and get started. The first glitch was...I could find no chocolate cake mix! Nowhere in my stock of cake mixes was there a chocolate one. I was not going to run back to the store so I decided to improvise. There was a 1/2 of a chocolate mix that was left over from graduation cake week (BTW: I forgot to take pictures of my graduation cakes this year except for the Hawaiian themed one), and I had a French vanilla white cake mix that I though could have some baking cocoa added to it and it would be fine. Mixed everything together, reached for the baking cocoa and WHAT!!!! none to be found! Somehow I managed to allow my home to be depleted of its chocolate stash. The only thing I had was...hot chocolate mix. Hey, it worked! Tasted a little odd/different but it did in a pinch.
To make a very long story short...it was all for naught and seven (7) batches of icing have to be pitched! It hurts. That's 12 lbs of Crisco, 25 lbs of powdered sugar, and a lot of work for nothing. I think even my little mixer cried.
Tomorrow I start baking: the cake has eleven (11) different cakes which means twenty-two (22) different layers and many hours of baking. I should be able to finish baking on Thursday and then remake the icing so that I can decorate Friday. This cake has to travel two hours in my trunk to Shelbyville, IN on Saturday morning. The cake is to be white with pink calla lilies and iridescent butterflies. I've included a picture of the flowers before I "painted" them pink. It's going to be a really nifty cake but right now I don't want to think about it so I'm going to bed.
I love decorating cakes but there are days that I think I'm crazy. Last week I had a birthday cake for Michael Lambeth (dinosaur picture). I went to the store that morning to pick up the last minute ingredients and came home to preheat the oven and get started. The first glitch was...I could find no chocolate cake mix! Nowhere in my stock of cake mixes was there a chocolate one. I was not going to run back to the store so I decided to improvise. There was a 1/2 of a chocolate mix that was left over from graduation cake week (BTW: I forgot to take pictures of my graduation cakes this year except for the Hawaiian themed one), and I had a French vanilla white cake mix that I though could have some baking cocoa added to it and it would be fine. Mixed everything together, reached for the baking cocoa and WHAT!!!! none to be found! Somehow I managed to allow my home to be depleted of its chocolate stash. The only thing I had was...hot chocolate mix. Hey, it worked! Tasted a little odd/different but it did in a pinch.
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