Who's ready for some football!?!

Last night we had our final forever cake class, actually until next February I've heard Wilton is bringing out a 4th class that is Advanced Gum Paste and Fondant Flowers.  I'll being taking that one too.

Anyway last nights cake was a cake of our own design we had no restrictions not requirements.  Being this coming weekend is the opening of my favorite time of year College Football Season I chose to do an Alabama Cake, can I get a ROLL TIDE!!!

The idea in my head didn't actually work out like I wanted it to but what I wanted to do was a 2 layered cake with a cake football coming out of the center of it.  In order to make the cake football I decided I'd bake a cake in a loaf pan and trim it down.  That might have worked but the cake fell in the center.  Since it was still a few days early I froze the loaf of cake until the next day where I shaped it into a football while it was still frozen using cake shavings to fill in the holes.  That worked fine until when I was ready to put the cakes together (Tuesday night before I had to be in class on Wednesday) and it had thawed out it fell apart.  So since I had already color my fondant brown I just shaped the fondant into a football to place on top of the cake.  It turned out pretty good.

I designed my cake after my favorite cake carrier that I got from my Aunt Jan one year for Christmas.  It's your standard $10 cake carrier from Target and some creative person put vinyl stickers on it, and old insignia Alabama sticker and then dots of different sizes in crimson, black, and grey.  Absolute genius!  It colored my fondant black, grey, and made a pretty good crimson (I'll probably never be able to do it again!) cut out 3 different size circles using cookie cutters and laid them aside to dry.  I used the grey to make two elephants to place on the sides as well.  When all was said and done I think it turned out pretty cute!

Elephant parts!

Roll Tide Y'all!

Wine Bag done!

I got the wine bag finished tonight but it sure took awhile.  My sewing machine kept tearing the thread above where it goes into the eye of the needle, so I kept having to start over.  It also kept skipping the bottom thread so the one stitch would be longer than the others it that makes any sense!  I unfortunately do not know the exact sewing termnology.  I guess if I'm going to continue to sew maybe I should invest in a new sewing machine but we'll see!  As of now I really enjoy making things myself especially when they turn out!  Now for the pictures!

Finished draw string wine bag!

The inside has a coordinating fabric!

Ready for the cruise!

Next is to make a beach bag the same way with the same fabric, keep your fingers crossed folks with my crazy sewing machine and limited skill I need the help!

Bye Y'all! 



So Pretty!

Last night was class number 2 of the Wilton Fondant and Gum Paste Methods class.  This class required a square cake, which I've never done.  It didn't start out too great,  my bake even strips wouldn't fit around the pan so my corners got to done.  I especially noticed that when I ate it this morning.  Anyway!  When we got to class we needed to have two loops made like last week cause we were making a flat bow with streamers and ribbon on the top of the cake. 

Covering a square cake with Fondant wasn't all that fun.  My corners did not want to cooperate and I was glad to see we got the opportunity to make and use a border.  We covered the cake first and then we made 2 5"x1" stips and cut a "v" at the bottom for the streamers.  Then we had to make the ribbon that would wrap around the cake one way and then the connecting ribbon that wrapped the other way.  In case you don't know you use a Gum Paste glue to make your fondant pieces stick to your fondant cake.  You can use water but this dries faster.

1/4 teaspoon Gum Paste

1 tablespoon water

Break the Gum Paste into small bits and pour the water over, let it sit for an hour.

Once we got the ribbon on the cake we took the already cut streamers and placed them on and glued them down.  Then I used paper towels underneath the streamers to give them some shape until the dried.  For the center of the bow you make a 1"x3" strip and pinch then ends like you would if you were making loops.  You position the loops on the cake and clue them down and then position the center piece and tuck it around so you cannot see the pinched ends.

To make the border we used some of Wiltons, silicone molds.  You just fill the designe you want with the fondant and pop it out and glue it to the cake.  Just like magic!

Silicone mild

I think this is probably the prettiest cake I've made so far.

We also made our first Fondant rose in this class.  You use a cutter and make 3 individual flowers then slit the petals and use the ball tool to make them curl and glue them together.  Actually there is more too it but it's too complicated to tell without pictures of each step so I'll just show you the finished product.

Next week in the cake class is all about flowers, we will be making 5 different ones and one bonus flower that our instructor Sandy did on a wedding cake for the weekend.  The final cake we have to make is of our own design.  Anything we want to make I'm excited to see if what I have in my head actually works out on the cake.  We'll see!

Bye Y'all!

 

Cake Class #3 is well under way!

Ok I'll admit I've been slacking!  We've already had our second class in the Gum Paste and Fondant Wilton Method class.  Momma, Amy, and I are all doing fabulous so far!  We'll get to that in a minute.

Momma and I are going on a cruise!!!!  It is 27 days away and I can hardly contain myself!  This will be my first cruise and her second just 4 days and one port in Cozumel.  On the day we are in Cozumel our excursion consists of a dolphin encounter, you get to swim with them and one will pull your through the water, I'm so excited I'm bouncing in my chair as I type this.  My previous sewing project was supposed to be a tote bag that we could use to take our stuff to the pool in.  Being that it ended up more along the size of a purse than a tote I'll be passing that off to my niece Justice for her to play dress up with.  I scoured the Internet to find a new bag to try, actually not really, my wonderful friend Teresa found this site and sent it to me http://www.finecraftguild.com/ there are a ton of cute sewing projects on this website. 

I found an adorable drawstring bag that I decided to make.  The pattern can be found here at Sew for Home http://sew4home.com/projects/storage-solutions/405-citrus-holiday-reversible-gift-a-wine-bags.  It is actually to make a bag to put a bottle of wine in but you can make it bigger and use it as a beach bag.  I also decided to make one of the wine bags cause we can each take a bottle of wine on the boat!  So far I'm almost done with the wine bag, I'm just so slow and don't have a ton of free time.  Once I get them finished I'll post some pictures.

Ok so on to class one of the last Wilton Methods class.  This class is using fondant and gum paste.  I haven't had much experience with using either of these so I was excited to start this class.  We had to bring a two tiered cake covered with a crumb coat of butter cream and while in class roll out and cover it with fondant.  One thing I'm not good at is rolling out fondant or dough for that matter into a circle.  That was an experience getting it smoothed down with no wrinkles and not putting my fingers through it.  Once it was all said and done it looked pretty good.  One thing I didn't realize is the fondant won't hid all the imperfections in your buttercream so it is best to smooth out the buttercream before you put on the fondant!  Dually noted!!

The bow was pretty easy to make but I didn't have a real clear picture in my head and should have made more loops to make a fuller bow.  You just roll out our fondant and use this adjustable cutting tool that cuts 1 inch  (or whatever you make it cut) strips. Then you cut the strips into 5 inch pieces.  So my bow had 16 5 inch by 1 inch strips, folded over and pinch the ends.  In order for the fondant to keep its shape it has to dry before you place it on the cake and you can use paper towels or something else to help it keeps its shape until it is completely dry.  Once you are ready you just use some candy melts as clue and place the loops together.

To get the lines in the ribbon we used a texture thing like below.  You can find them at Michale's, you just lay them on your fondant and use the roller to go over the make the impression.  So easy. 

Texture mat

This particular cake I used Duff's Fondant this particular brand of fondant is to soft to use to make things with but it tastes sooooo good, its actually more like a rolled buttercream than a fondant.

Yummy!

Bye Y'all!

Sew Busy continued...

I finally got back to it and finished my first sewing project!  The picture on the blog Me Sew Crazy where I got the pattern looks bigger than what I ended up with but it will still hold something if I put it in there so I'm ok with that, at least I think it will I haven't tried it yet!  So when my back couldn't take it anymore and I stopped last time I had the two sides internal and external sewn together.

Tonight I had to whip stitch the 3 inch hole at the bottom to close it up do an edge stitch around the whole bag.  If you don't look to close the edge stitch looks good!  Lastly I had to make a knot in the middle and sew it together.

One side edge stitched and knot stitched together.  Doogie checking it out!

Once both sides were done I had to lay the outside edges together and sew it around the edges and turn it inside out.

Ready to turn inside out!  I'm scared

It looks good!  Just don't get to close!

I took it upon myself to make pockets on the inside!  I think this would be perfect if I could sew a straight line!  Maybe in time!

Pockets!

Bye Y'all!

Sew Busy!

A few posts back I showcased my "new" 1940 something Domestic Rotary Series 153 sewing machine.  Once I finally found and printed out a manual I realized I didn't have a bobbin case.  So I started doing some research and I found one online for $59.95 which really hurt my feelings since I paid $50.00 for the whole machine!  Across the highway from me is Jim's Sewing and Vacuum so I went over there and he had two bobbin cases and would have sold them to me for $5.00 but neither one had a tension spring and he couldn't find one that fit.  So out of the kindness of his heart he gave me one and wished me luck in finding a tension spring.  I didn't have any luck but I did call Vickery's Sewing in Marianna and first me mailed me the wrong case and then I sent that one back with my correct one and he found a tension spring that worked!!!  So tonight I started my first sewing project I found it on the Blog Me Sew Crazy.  It's a Knot Tote!  Here is a link to the tutorial http://www.mesewcrazy.com/2011/06/knot-tote-tutorial.html

First I printed the pattern Jessica provided and taped it together.  I folded the fabric over and traced the pattern onto the fabric.

Then I cut out the interior and exterior fabric

I even went a step further and added pockets!

 

I pined the pieces together and ran it through the sewing machine.  I'm really slow so you can only see one half tonight.  Plus my back is killing me, I'm too old to be bending over a sewing machine all night!

It took me 4 hours to get to this point!  Daphne and the new foster dog Doogie Bowser, D.O.G. are crashed on the couch.  Doogie is currently crashed in my lap helping me update this!  I think we are going to go to bed!

Foster Doogie and my old girl Daphne in the back!

Bye Y'all!

Sew Busy!

A few posts back I showcased my "new" 1940 something Domestic Rotary Series 153 sewing machine.  Once I finally found and printed out a manual I realized I didn't have a bobbin case.  So I started doing some research and I found one online for $59.95 which really hurt my feelings since I paid $50.00 for the whole machine!  Across the highway from me is Jim's Sewing and Vacuum so I went over there and he had two bobbin cases and would have sold them to me for $5.00 but neither one had a tension spring and he couldn't find one that fit.  So out of the kindness of his heart he gave me one and wished me luck in finding a tension spring.  I didn't have any luck but I did call Vickery's Sewing in Marianna and first me mailed me the wrong case and then I sent that one back with my correct one and he found a tension spring that worked!!!  So tonight I started my first sewing project I found it on the Blog Me Sew Crazy.  It's a Knot Tote!  Here is a link to the tutorial http://www.mesewcrazy.com/2011/06/knot-tote-tutorial.html

First I printed the pattern Jessica provided and taped it together.  I folded the fabric over and traced the pattern onto the fabric.

Then I cut out the interior and exterior fabric

I even went a step further and added pockets!

 

I pined the pieces together and ran it through the sewing machine.  I'm really slow so you can only see one half tonight.  Plus my back is killing me, I'm too old to be bending over a sewing machine all night!

It took me 4 hours to get to this point!  Daphne and the new foster dog Doogie Bowser, D.O.G. are crashed on the couch.  Doogie is currently crashed in my lap helping me update this!  I think we are going to go to bed!

Foster Doogie and my old girl Daphne in the back!

Bye Y'all!

Two down one to go!

Tonight was the final class in the second Wilton Method class.  I started off kinda fond of royal icing over buttercream but now fondant is my favorite!  Last week we made fondant flowers and I can do that all day!  This weeks "final exam" was to bring a two tiered cake iced with a crumb coat on the sides and normal on the top, your ready to go on your cake royal icing flowers, and 2 batches of buttercream to put basket weave on the side of the cake.

I started on Sunday making some new fondant flowers.  Then on Monday night I had to make my royal icing flowers over again because the first batch of daffodils from 2 weeks ago had turned to liquid and the others were just ugly.  I worked pretty much all night but I got 4 of each (rose, rose bud, primrose, apple blossom, daffodil, violet, lilly) to put on my cake.

Last night after working my second job I got home about 10 I had to make the icing to ice the cake and the 2 batches for the basket weave.  I had one little problem I needed 4 batches of icing and I had 3 cups of shortening and I was not going to the store.  I made due and got everything done and had everything I needed for class.

Basket weave with a rose bud

All my flowers

My cake!

For a recap of last week Friday was the Cupcake War at work.  I made Triple Chocolate with White Chocolate pudding filling and Vanilla Buttercream icing and Martha Stewart's Roasted Banana with Honey Cinnamon Icing.  I won 2nd place in the best fruit/vegetable category for the Banana and 3rd in the best chocolate category.

Triple Chocolate with White Chocolate pudding filling and Vanilla Buttercream icing

1 Duncan Hines's Triple Chocolate cake mix prepared by the directions on the box

1 White Chocolate Instant Pudding mix, prepared by the directions on the box

1 - 12oz Cool Whip

Buttercream icing or any store bought icing

Mix the pudding and let it be setting in the fridge, bake the cupcakes and let them cool completely.  Mix about half the cool whip into the pudding to give it a little lighter consistency.  Put the pudding mixture into a pastry bag and put on Wilton tip 230 and fill the cupcakes.  Ice them and enjoy!

We have a week off and then start the next Wilton decorating class that will be the last one in the series.  We get to play with fondant and gumpaste

I Hate Flowers at Least Ones Made of Icing!

Class 2 of the second Wilton Methods class Momma, Amy, and I are in is fast approaching, actually it's tomorrow night.  This class is Flowers and Cake Design using Royal icing rather than buttercream.  I just thought I didn't like buttercream, I really don't like royal icing!  It is extremely easy to make but will crust over in a heartbeat, so you have to keep it in air tight containers and cover your icing tips when you aren't making something.

In the last class we tried or should I say I tried, Momma and Amy did good, to make Apple Blossoms, Violets, and Primrose.  I think my issue is that I can't do all the things required to make a flower at the same time.  I can {and I just checked to make sure} pat my head and rub my belly at the same time but I cannot turn the flower nail and move the icing bag and squeeze it independently of each other to make a flower.  This apparently requires an amount of coordination that I do not have, and I'm not sure I'll ever be able to acquire it!  I tried to practice for just a few minutes on Saturday and I got p'd off and quit.  I think my other issue is hand strength at least I can work on that, the coordination part I might just be completely screwed on!   In order for the flowers to have the shape they need to look like real flowers, the icing has to be stiff and when it is stiff it is hard to squeeze out of the end a tiny tip.  So if anyone has some suggestions for some exercises for hand strength let me know.  If I can't figure it out I guess I can always call my bakery the "No Flower Bakery" and never decorate anything with flowers!

This weeks class we are supposed to make a Rose, Lilly, and a Daffodil we'll see what happens!

Bye y'all!

Busy busy busy!

Hey it's me again!  I've been so busy since my last post.  So I'm going to do like 3 posts so they aren't so long and drawn out!  We all know how I can drag out a story!  This actually goes with my last post I saw this in an email from Divine Caroline, I so want this bathing suit!!!  It's called Beach Blanket Bingo, so cute!



from Modcloth.com

Back to the current post...the last Wednesday in June was the last class in the Wilton Cake Decoration Basic Methods class.  As I said on the last post our mission was to bring an iced cake and make ribbon roses in class.  I already knew my buttercream wasn't of the right consistency so it wasn't going to work out.  Out of desperation and a little perfectionism I sent an email to a blogger named Amanda who blogs I Am Baker (her link is over there on the left hand side) she does some awesome cakes.  I asked her if she had any tips for making a consistent buttercream.  I felt a little better when she came back and told me that inconsistent buttercream is the norm, it never comes out the same way twice.  So that helped but it took a ton of our teacher Sandy's gel paste in my buttercream icing for it to make somewhat decent ribbon roses.

This class Amy took the show, Momma and I were having a hard time with our icing and the roses weren't coming out just right.  I will say I didn't cheat like some people {Amy} and use Hershey kisses as my roses center, just sayin'!  Amy was all excited about how her cake turned out she got all crazy with vines and leaves on the cake, well good for her.  I'll post some pictures in a little bit!  Their won't be one of Momma's cake cause she wouldn't let me take a picture.  I didn't think it looked that bad but oh well. 

Bye y'all!

Just Call Me June Cleaver!

I was so born in the wrong era!  I came to this realization as I ran around the house in my apron making icing and working on my new to me sewing machine.  If you know me you know I'm in love with diner motif, glittery red vinyl, and '60's Mustangs! 

If I had my way I'd drive a '67 Mustang fastback during the week and a '65 Mustang Convertible on the weekends!

I'm in LOVE!!!!

Who knew you could be in so love with two things at once!

Any way I digress, cake class is coming up in two days and I made my icing so I can ice my cake tomorrow night.  The last night of cake class is putting ribbon roses on an already iced and smoothed cake.  The icing part I have down, it's the ribbon roes that are the issue.  I'm doing something wrong and I can't decide if it's my consistency of the icing or the pressure I'm using on the pastry bag.  But either way I'll work it out in class Wednesday night.  This weeks project is a white cake with a hint of banana flavoring and banana flavored buttercream.  Yummy!

Butter cream is an easy icing to make it just depends on what you want to do with it that gets tricky.  The below recipe is for stiff consistency buttercream which is used for making roses.

1 cup shortening

2 tablespoons water

1 teaspoon flavoring (vanilla, almond, butter, banana, etc)

1 lbs powdered sugar

pinch of salt (optional)

Cream the shortening, water, and flavoring until smooth at medium speed.

Blend in powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time mixing well between additions.

 Yields 3 cups.

The salt is used to cut the sweetness if you use salt and are coloring your icing dissolve the salt in the 2 tablespoons of water before adding to the recipe.

Medium Consistency icing is used for leaves etc, add 2 tablespoons water

Thin Consistency icing is used for icing the cake, add 3-4 tablespoons water

So after I got my icing completed and practiced a few roses I turned my attention to my new sewing machine.  I (actually Momma) found it in a used furniture store downtown.  It's a Domestic Rotary Series 153, from what I can find the 153 Series was made between 1946-1953.  I found a manual and got started getting it ready to use.

I still need to get some 3-n-1 oil but I did fill the grease cups after I called Daddy to make sure that when the manual said Petroleum Jelly, that petroleum jelly today was the same as petroleum jelly of yesterday!  I thought it was but I wanted to be sure.  It actually runs good and I'd hate to screw it up before I got to use it.  I did get it threaded but the last step has me confused.  Something about taking the needle down and making a loop and moving the thread to the left.  I'm sure Momma knows what the manual is talking about.  I'll have to have her over soon!

The cabinet that the machine is in is great shape, not sure if it's the original one or not but I like it either way!

Time to get sewing!

Bye y'all!

Old Dogs Can Learn New Tricks!

Next Wednesday will be last class of the Wilton Cake Decorating Methods Course 1 Decorating Basics and I have learned alot not just about decorating but also about baking a great cake.  I thought I'd share some of those tips with you.

1.  The box or recipe says set the oven to 350 set it to 325 it takes longer to bake but it cooks more evenly.

2.  Coat your cake pans with a pan release mixture.  Wilton makes a product called Cake Release you can find it at Michale's.  You can also find recipes for a mixture that work online.  I Googled "pan release" and came up with the below recipe.  Just coat your pan before you pour in your batter and your cake will come right out no problem!

1/2 cup shortening

1/2 cup all-pourpose flour

1/2 cup vegitable/canola/corn oil

Use a mixer and blend them all together.  Put it in an air tight container and you can store it in the cabinet or on the counter.  If you go to use it and it looks like it is separating just whisk it up.

3.  Go get some Wilton Bake Even strips.  You can find them at Michale's they run about $9.00 and so worth it!  You soak them in cold water don't ring them out just run them through your fingers to get the excess water out, then wrap them and use the included pin to secure them around the outside of your cake pan.  By keeping the edge of the pan cool the edges do not get over done and the cake cooks evenly!

4.  Use two boxes of cake mix instead of one and over fill your cake pans so the cake will cook over the top of the pan.  Then use a cake leveler and the edge of the cake pan to level the cake evenly before turning it out onto a cooling rack.

Over fill the pans, wrap them with bake even strips, and coat the inside with pan release

Let the cake cook over the top of the pan and use the pan as a straight edge when leveling the cake

Nice and level!

Look how pretty it turned out!

5.  Only leave the cake in the pans for 10-15 minutes after it comes out of the oven that way it won't stick to the pan when you try to get it out.  If it does stick you can stick it back in the oven for a few minutes to losen it up again.

6.  When icing the cake put the cut side down to avoid crumbs in your icing.

7.  Use Wilton tip 789 to get the icing on the cake fast and thick.  Then smooth it out with a spatula.

Hopefully these tips will help your cakes turn out beautiful!

Bye y'all!

 

Still Alive continued from earlier!

The Wilton Cake Decorating class went good tonight.  Besides filling the cupcakes we decorated them with flowers and a swirly thing.  This week my stiff consistency buttercream icing was too thin, surprise, surprise, I swear I make it the same each week but it comes out different each time!   



So the pictures aren't so great this time I had to use my phone because my big camera's (or the one I'm borrowing from Momma) battery is dead!  We did 2 cupcakes for each flower I'll save you the trouble of seeing the bad one and only share the good one!



Shaggy Mum

You make this one using the Wilton tip 233 there are leaves under the "petals" but you can't really see them.

Pompom

This one turned out the best I think.  You use the Wilton tip 12 for the middle you can't see then 16 for the middle you can see, then 18 for the outside petals.  I hope who ever eats this one likes lots of icing!



Swirl Drop Flower

We actually made these first and let them set up on some wax paper before placing them on the cupcake.  I was out of green icing at this point so no leaves, sorry!  You use a Wilton tip 2D to make these.

Swirl 1

Swirl 2

I don't remember what tip we used for these two but it was pretty cool who we got the two colors on the cupcake.  You take 3 pastry bags (disposable is best), fill one bag with one color with no tip, fill the second with the other color with no tip, and the third bag you cut and fit with the tip.  Layer the two bags with the icing in them and cut holes in the end that way they are even.  Slide them into the third bag making sure they go into the tip evenly.  Squeeze the bags until both icings are coming out even, then swirl them on top of the cupcake.  Pretty cool trick!

Rose

I'm still not great at roses but this time we used Hersey kisses in the middle rather than use the icing to make a center, that seemed to work better.  I really need to practice!  More importantly I need the icing to be correct!

Next weeks class is the last one for class 1 the basics.  We have to make a two tiered cake and decorate it with roses.  Keep your fingers crossed!

Just a little teaser!

White Chocolate Pudding filling inside triple chocolate cupcakes!  Can you see the fudge in the bottom right corner?!?  I might be a bit biased but these were darn yummy!

Now on other notes!

Domestic Diva Teresa (http://www.tickledpink-southernstyle.blogspot.com/) made some of the most awesome honey grit face/body scrub!  I used some this morning and my face felt amazing when I got done!  She has the recipe posted on her site, it's so worth it!

I wish I could figure out who to contact at the Hallmark Channel they have moved my Golden Girls from 10pm to 11pm so they can show an hour of Frasier.  Really who likes Frasier anyways!  I could put in one of my Golden Girl DVD's but it's just easier to watch the TV!  I guess I'll get off here so I can watch them now that they are on!

Bye y'all!