Winter bakes and a Grooms cake

As usual, a very busy Winter and Spring! 

I finished up my baking class at school with a Gingerbread "house". I really didn't want to do the normal house, so I decided to do a paddle boat!! This took about 30 + hours to complete over a 4 week period. It was a lot of fun to make and it turned out better than I hoped!! 

 

I entered this into the local Gingerbread contest in our community and it won Best in Show!! My Baking instructor was very happy for me! I won some money so it made it even better! 

I had a very busy winter so did not do much baking or cooking outside of my International Cuisine Class in school. I did manage to make a zebra cake for the daughter of one of my friends.

 

Later this Spring I had the opportunity to make a grooms cake as requested by my friend! This one was really fun to make and I loved surprising him at the reception! 

The Groom is a Penguins fan, so thankfully the players were yellow and black! This was a blast to put together complete with Stanly Cup replica (piggy bank) and crowd. 

The reason for so few cakes this Spring is all the house projects we have been working on. My hubby and I have replaced all the rugs on our first floor with hardwood flooring. We are working on replacing the decking on our deck, and we have been going to the beach and other vacations!! I am looking forward to creating some more unique cakes in the months to come!

Praying you all are having a safe and blessed summer! Stay Cool!!

 

Fall Frills and cakes!

Wow, this Fall was one crazy, busy few months. A lot was going on but I got some neat cakes made!

Ok, so last Friday was an excellent baking bread day! I started using my microwave as an air tight proofer box and it has been making my home made bread turn out really nice! I just put a 4 cup measure pirex with boiling water to help it stay warm and moist. :-) (just don't turn on your microwave!)

(just as a side.... if you ever want to clean your microwave and you don't want to use cleaner, just boil 4 cups of water in a glass bowl and let it sit in your microwave for 30 minutes. The moisture and heat will saturate any splatters that may be in there and you can just wipe it clean with a paper towel)

This next project was made for the Homecoming of Red Lion Christian School. Their theme was the Wizard of Oz. This was a fun cake to make! 

Replica of the upper school at Red Lion with the Emerald city behind. 

Below are some of the items I made for baking class. 

This sandwich was excellent!! Grilled chicken with pickled carrots and cucumbers with ginger mayo. BEST sandwich ever!

My baking class has a final project requirement where we have to make a gingerbread house. I decided to be different and make a river boat.

Here is my project in pictures.

Puzzle pieces!

I had to make sure to do all the interior decorating before "gluing" it together!

Almost done!

The water really helped make it look like a boat. :-)

 

See the school of fish?

Rudolf!

And.... 40 hours later.... It is DONE!! Yay!

If you want to see my boat and all the other great gingerbread houses this coming week 12/16 - 12/22, come out to the Christiana Hilton in Delaware.

Summer Fun

Well, I figure I should update about my summer before the full swing of Fall activities begins! This was a very fun and crazy summer! Many beach trips and times with family filled my summer!

A few cakes were made and here they are!

We had a couple 4th of July parties to go to, so my daughter thought up this one. She really wanted to decorate a cake. We split it to take it to two different parties. It was yummy! All the decorating was done by my daughter. :0) 

Steel Magnolias Armadillo cake... yes, this is, red velvet cake and all. :-) One of my bestest friends wanted this cake for her 30th. So this what I made! I had to buy the flowers pre-made because I just did not have the time to make them from scratch! But I am happy with how it all came together!  (my new favorite!!)

The party spread. What a fun night with friends!! Peter made the best BBQ Chicken too!!  

 This cake was for a friend who's co worker likes eating PB&J at work. This was fun to make.  

This cake is for the Gamer in the family and his friend. :0) XBOX anyone? I had to make this one in record time because the party is at my house and I have to make lots of food and clean the place!! My first time using modeling chocolate that I made from mixing chocolate melts and corn syrup. A lot easier to mold and cover things than fondant!   

 

Looking forward to the change of season and all that goes with it. It will be a crazy Fall, but praying that I will be able to fit in a few more cake projects along the way. I start my International Cuisine class next week, so should have some yummy recipes and dishes to write about!!!

Violin Grad Party

I had the privilege to make a cake for a very talented Violinist. Her mom asked me to make a cake to look like a violin and cupcakes! This one was a lot of fun to make. I have taken violin lesson before and still have my violin. Someday I will make the time to learn to play again.

The stem of the violin was the most challenging, but it worked out using gum paste with lots of powdered sugar mixed in to make it harden quickly.

Here is the set up at the reception.