We had to bake another cake and bring in more frosting for the third class. Class 3 is when you’re supposed to make the dreaded clown cake, but since my instructor is so lax, nobody actually ended up doing it. Everyone ended up working with the drop flowers and shell border we learned instead.
During this class, we practiced figure piping. We made a few heads, faces, etc. and then we did the clown bodies. We also practiced grapes (there is a grapes and vines cake pictured in the Course I book and she was showing us how to do it).
We also spent a good deal of time on the Wilton rose. Last week, she taught us how to build the base with icing, and how to do the center petal. This week, we moved on and learned how to do the 3-petal, 5-petal, and 7-petal layers, completing the rose. The first few I did were a joke, but I did get the hang of it pretty quickly. I was so proud of myself, I actually brought one of my roses home to show my husband. :) Next class, we’re actually using roses on our cakes, so we’ll certainly be doing more of them.
We learned and practiced the shell border. For some reason, this gave me some trouble. But after a little extra one-on-one with the instructor, I finally figured it out (I think). I ended up using it as a border around my Class 3 cake, and I think it turned out pretty well for a beginner.
Then we learned how to do a couple different kinds of drop flowers. The drop flowers on my cake actually ended up being a cross between the two we learned. Whoops. I didn’t realize I was doing the swirl flowers wrong until I got home later and was looking more closely at the book. Oh well.
Anyway, here are a few pictures of my finished Class 3 cake. I apologize in advance for the crappy quality (the color and lighting is off), but it was dark by the time I got home and had opportunities to take pictures of it:
Overall, I wasn’t impressed with my finished result. Certainly better than cakes I’ve made prior to the class, but nothing to write home about. But then I brought the cake to work (had to get it out of the house!) and everyone raved about how fantastic it was, so maybe I’m too critical. Or they’re good liars.
I’m most unhappy with the smoothness of my icing. I have had major issues with my first two cakes, with the icing cracking on the cake. I asked my instructor about it at class–she thinks I may be moving around my cake too much, or the cake is “settling” after I ice it.
I am trying a few different methods for my Class 4 cake, so we’ll see how it goes. I baked the cake last night and am waiting until tonight to ice it. Hopefully the cake will be all settled by then. I’m also going to do a “hot water spatula” thing that my instructor suggested.
I have my final Course I class tomorrow!
This one comes from Amber over at Amber’s Delectable Delights. Thanks, Amber!
About a month ago, when we were just getting back into the swing of things at home after the honeymoon, I decided I really wanted to start cooking more. The amount of cooking I was doing had seriously diminished in the weeks and even the last couple of months before the wedding. I was on the prowl for new recipes. Our favorite protein to use in our meals is chicken, and we love meals that pair it with rice or pasta. After taking a look at the ingredients for this recipe, it seemed right up our alley. Plus, I looooove broccoli.
This is tasty stuff. It’s deceiving because based on the pictures, it doesn’t seem like it even has any sauce on it. But the truth is that it is well coated and very flavorful. It’s an easy meal to prepare, too… which is always welcome in our house!
I made it for the second time this past weekend, and we’ve enjoyed leftovers this week. The recipe is below… I’ve included my version instead of copying directly from Amber. We double up the recipe because we like to have leftovers, and whenever we make pasta, I always like to cook up the whole box.
Spicy Garlic & Lime Chicken Pasta
Ingredients:
– 2 cups chicken broth
– 3 tbsp. lime juice
– 2 tbsp. corn starch
– 4-5 cloves garlic (Amber’s original recipe calls for 3 cloves, but I’m afraid to actually double it. 6 cloves seems like a lot! Since we use fresh garlic, it’s plenty potent… but you can adjust the amount of garlic to your taste)
– 1 tsp. salt
– 1/2 tsp. black pepper
– 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
– 1/2 tsp. paprika
– 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
– 1/2 tsp. onion powder
– 1/2 tsp. dried thyme
– 1/2 tsp. dried parsley
– Approximately 1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into small chunks
– 2 tbsp. butter or margarine
– Drizzle of olive oil
– A box of pasta (approx. 1 lb.–we use the Barilla Plus or Barilla Whole Wheat, and it usually comes in slightly smaller amounts, like 14.5 oz.)
– 3-4 cups broccoli florets
– Parmesan cheese for topping
Directions:
1. Boil a pot of water and cook pasta according to your package directions. During the last 5 minutes of pasta cooking time, add the broccoli into the boiling water. Drain.
2. Meanwhile, mix together all of the sauce ingredients (chicken broth through parsley). Set aside.
3. Heat butter and olive oil in large skillet (we use a big stir fry pan) over medium heat. Add chicken pieces into the heated pan. Cook chicken until no longer pink. Pour sauce mixture into pan over the chicken and bring to a simmer. Let simmer until chicken has cooked through and sauce has thickened.
4. Add cooked broccoli and pasta into pan and toss to evenly coat with the sauce. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and serve.
My dear friend and bridesmaid, Bethany, is due to have her first baby (a girl!) at the end of October. Her shower is coming up on September 7, and I offered my help.
Bethany’s sister called me on Friday and asked if I would be willing to make the invitations. I accepted that challenge and created a mock-up on Saturday. I sent photos to her sister for approval (she says they’re awesome!), and then yesterday went and bought all of the supplies I need to make 65 of these babies.
So now, I have to somehow fit in making all of these invitations this week… in between my cake decorating classes (Monday and Thursday), my birthday (Saturday), and a BBQ on Friday night! Not to mention my Olympics obsession.
Yikes!
But then I take a look at the invitations and get all excited for Bethany’s baby shower, and that I’m able to do these for her…
And seriously now. Aren’t they adorable? (If I do say so myself.) They coordinate with the bedding she picked out for her nursery, which I used for color inspiration. LOVE them!
I get so giddy about this stuff.
Remind me why I don’t do these things for a living? Oh, right. The need for a steady job with a steady income. Damn it.
I was tagged by Linda.
Every few months, I order a bunch of books all at once off of Amazon.com. When the time to order approaches, I’m always looking for stuff to read, so I figured this was worth posting.
I don’t read as much as I wish I did. I’m somewhat of a TV junkie, and always seem to have some sort of craft project going on. I take aerobics twice a week after work. All of this doesn’t leave me with a lot of free time for reading. I do love having good books for the gym, though. I read when I’m on the elliptical machine. I also love to have books for vacations. Airplanes, airports, the beach–all perfect places for reading.
A lot of books on the list below are classics, and I don’t think I have read too many of them, except back when I was in school. So my list is going to be pretty sad.
The rules:
1) Bold those you have read. (Bold does not show up very well on my blog–you kinda have to look closely!)
2) Put an asterisk next to those you started but didn’t finish.
3) Italicize those you intend to read (or have started and intend to finish).
4) The ones you LOVE are Green.
5) Reprint this list in your own blog.
1 Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series – JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
6 The Bible*
7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare* (I’ve read a lot of Shakespeare, but not everything!)
15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch – George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
34 Emma – Jane Austen
35 Persuasion – Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne
41 Animal Farm – George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding
50 Atonement – Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel
52 Dune – Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold (Such a unique book!)
65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
72 Dracula – Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses – James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal – Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession – AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94 Watership Down – Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo
I tag Jenn. :)
It’s been a pretty bad year so far in terms of celebrity deaths, hasn’t it?
Signing onto the computer this morning resulted in the news of Bernie Mac’s untimely death at the age of 50 due to complications of pneumonia. It’s depressing, really. I’m not one of those people who feels like they know celebrities personally from watching them in movies and on TV, but I always feel such deep sympathy for the families, and it’s heartbreaking.
Heath Ledger.
Tim Russert.
George Carlin.
Bernie Mac.
I’m probably forgetting others, but those are the names that stick out the most to me. Such a big loss of great personalities and talent.
About
I'm Heather. I'm 33 and have been married to Michael for seven years. Together, we have two beautiful little girls we love more than anything, and a miniature dachshund who drives us crazy. I'm a full-time working mom who has very little time for my own "stuff" these days, like home improvement, cooking/baking, cake decorating, and photography. Despite the team not making the playoffs since 1999, I'm STILL a Buffalo Bills fan, which I think speaks to my loyalty AND sense of humor. I can't wait to pick up the pace with travel again some day... you know, when we're done being ruled by tiny fists. Welcome to my blog.
