Time flies...

When I first started this blog I wondered how it would go. I wasn't sure if I'd be posting a lot or a little and so far, it looks like I'm posting a little. What can I say? It's hard to find time to blog when you're busy trying to keep life balanced. Though I'm pretty sure a "balanced life" is a myth. Or at least it's something I need to stop searching for and hope it finds me one day. Really. If you have a balanced life, please let me in on your secret.

It's February 25th and I've done more baking and decorating this month than any month before. It helps that Elizabeth (my 4 year old) and I had a Valentine bake sale in our home. We created an event on facebook, posted pictures of what we would be selling, invited our friends and family,  took some pre-orders and then 2 days before we were "open" I started baking. I wanted everything to be fresh. NEVER start baking and decorating over 200 cookies just 2 days before your bake sale when you also need to bake and decorate a cake that's due the day before the sale and also bake and decorate cupcakes and cake balls for the bake sale too. I didn't get to go to bed Saturday night. I spent it decorating cookies. All in all, with the help of my amazing husband, my Mom, my brother David and David's friend Michael, we were ready enough when our "customers" started coming over.

Why did we have a bake sale? Well, Elizabeth has been wanting to have one for quite some time now. She is great at coming up with ideas for her and I to make some money. "I can sell your cakes for you mommy! I can put up posters, I'll tell all my friends at school, and I'll make signs to put up at the store". I love her enthusiasm. Gerrit asked me what Elizabeth wants to make money for. I told him that she has a list of things she'd like to save up for. She'd like us to buy a house so she can have her own room again with a little rocking chair like the one she had at our old home. And like most kids, she also wants to go to Disneyland.

Thanks to my lack of sleep on Saturday night, I forgot to take pictures of everything that we hd ready for our bake sale until it was almost over. Here is the table with some of the cupcakes we had ready for our customers

We had 15 of these personalized mini cookie bouquets wrapped and ready to go by the time our customers arrived :)

And the cake balls were a big hit too. I continued making them even as our bake sale was going on and there really weren't too many left over after. Thanks to my cousin Marie we even had someone phone and ask for 4 boxes of them for later on that day. 

Cake balls. Soooo much better than the cake pops. At least I think they're better and it probably has a lot to do with the fact that the first cake balls I made (which were inspired by Margo) were made with chocolate cake crumbs that I had poured a couple shots of bailey's over and bailey's buttercream and once they were shaped  they were dipped in chocolate. That's more my style than anything vanilla. I also made some mocha cake balls and they were oh so yummy too. I was hoping to play with some new cake ball flavors this week but haven't found the time to yet... hopefully I'll get to it next week :)

  

Okay, that's all for now. It's taken me three days to get this post ready. When I first started it was February 22nd. I couldn't get the pictures to line up the way I wanted so I had to walk away for a day. I came back and found that I was still frustrated. Yesterday I was just about to post this but was interupted by a phone call and forgot what I was working on. It happens. Life happens. I love it.

~Rachel

Cake Pops!

Cake Pops. As a cake decorating enthusiast, I tend to pay attention to what's new and exciting the the cake, cupcake and cookie world. Cake Pops are the "in thing" these days and I finally gave in and made some today.

"What the heck is a cake pop?" you might ask. Well, you start off by baking a cake. Once that cake has cooled, you crumble it up into little pieces. This step alone goes against what I normally work for which is to keep my cake together so it looks nice and even when it's all decorated up. I didn't enjoy crumbling up my cake. Once you have a bowl full of crumbs, you add your icing and mix it all together with a wooden spoon til you have a bowl of cake mush. Then you take a bit of cake mush and roll it into a ball, or if you want to get creative, you can make it into a hamburger patty and use a cookie cutter to get a heart, star or whatever shape you'd like to work with. Once you have your cake ball or shape, place it on some wax or parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Then some say you should stick this in the fridge for a few hours but I put mine in the freezer just because it made more sense to me for some reason. They only need about 15 minutes in the freezer. While your cake shapes are getting nice and firm in the freezer, you need to melt your candy melts or chocolate coating. I melted my candy melts in the microwave in mugs so there was plenty of depth for when I was ready to dip my cake hearts. With your candy coating melted and your cake pops by your side, you need to take your lollipop sticks and dip the tip into the melted candy before inserting them into your cake balls or cake shapes. Then place them back on the cookie sheet til they're held firmly in place. If you've frozen your cake balls, this won't take long at all... just a couple minutes really.  Now you're ready to dip your cake balls into the candy coating. Be sure to have some floral foam ready to stick your cake pops in so they can harden. One thing that many cake pop instuctors haven't mentioned is that candy melts are quite thick even when melted, so one lady (I can't remember who... probably Bakerella) suggested adding some vegetable oil to the candy melts which I did and it made quite a difference in the consistency of the melted candy. So... now that you know how what's in a cake pop and really, how to make them, here's a picture of my very first cake pops:

I didn't really like the looks of them so I added a little royal icing to try and make them prettier.

Well, this is what I crossed off my list of "things to try" today.  I know a lot of people love cake pops, and I might like them one day too. For now, I can take them or leave them. Maybe if they were covered in chocolate I'd like them better. The candy melts taste like cheap white chocolate and I don't like white chocolate. It's not chocolate. I don't know why "chocolate" is even in the name.

That's all for now! I'm looking forward to tomorrow's projects... they involve cupcakes and I like working with cupcakes :)

~Rachel

Oh yeah! For all my baking friends, if you haven't heard of Bakerella, she's the one who invented cake pops. At least that seems to be the argument that's going on on a few cake community boards. Here's the link http://www.bakerella.com/

Saying goodbye to my clutterbug lifestyle

Where oh where did January go? With February's arrival, I'm met with new goals when I haven't quite reached the ones from last month! It's a good thing I've adopted the "let it go" motto with my new age.  It's not really "new" anymore, but on December 28th I turned 30. I took it a lot better than I had expected. Lucky for me, 30 meant something good. It meant that I was ready to start becomming more organized, which it turn helped me become more relaxed and now I find that a relaxed mommy has in turn helped my children's behaviour improve. Who knew? I'm not saying they were bad. I'm just saying there's not as much fighting when it's time to pick up their toys. I love it. I also love how the clutter in my home is slowly disapearing. I love the extra time I have now that I don't procrastinate as much as I did before and I get things done rather than just feeling bogged down by the list of things to do. What's a girl to do with extra time?  Well,  if she's me, she is gonna finally try all those projects she's been adding to the "Must try this" list. It's a long list, but I've managed to cross a few things off it lately! YAY!

COOKIE BOUQUETS! I've been wanting to play around with these for over a year now but just never took the time to do it. That must sound funny to those of you out there who haven't been living the life of  a clutterbug. It's not a fun life. Not only was my house cluttered, but my mind was cluttered too and anyone who has a cluttered life knows what I'm talking about. Here's hoping I never go back to that way of living because I'm loving the projects that are coming out of my declutterd kitchen :)

Here is my very first cookie bouquet. Would you believe the most frustrating part was the tissue paper? I found that to be a little funny. After baking and decorating the cookies, waiting for them to dry, and carefully inserting the cookie sticks into the floral foam, I was getting frustrated with tissue paper. Oh well. I'm happy with the results. The reason these bouquets finally came to be crossed of the list is because Paula from Balloons 'N' More Party Shop suggested we work on a cross promotion. A cookie bouquet with some balloons. What kid wouldn't like that? We even got into the talk about why we feel the need to buy gifts for our children on Valentines day. I don't know. I think it's because it's fun. It's fun for me and it's fun for them, so why not?

After e-mailing a picture of the first bouquet, Paula suggested I try using a different vessel for the bouquet since the target receivers of these bouquets with balloons are kids and kids don't really need coffee mugs. I had picked the coffee mug while at the dollar store so I wouldn't have to paint another big flower pot. I just didn't feel like painting. These cute little valentine boxes were readily available at her store so I took the box home and worked my magic. I think it's cute. I like it with the little bit of toule around it as well.

 

After finishing the sample bouquet, I went home to work on the next one that was on my list. A mini cookie bouquet! So cute! I just love it! And I took a picture of my little model holding it to show how small it is. Both my girls are now asking me to make them cookie bouquets for Valentines day, Easter and their birthdays. I bet birthday bouquets will be brite and fun! Yep, I've added them to the list.

I'm keeping both my girls home today for a day of rest since they each have a slight fever and a stuffed up nose. I just don't think it'd be fair to send Miss Elizabeth to school or dance to share her germs with all her friends. 

 This means I get a catch up day! I get to spend the day in my jammies and catch up on some household paper work and a few other little things I haven't gotten to yet while making sure my girls get rid of their icky colds. YAY! 

~Rachel

Sometimes things just don't work out the way you hoped...

I'm feeling a little discouraged. Once in awhile that happens after I've made something that doesn't look the way I wanted it to. I'm a bit of a perfectionist. This can make cake and cookie decorating a little frustrating. I look at a cake I've finished and I can see all the little things that are wrong with it before I see how pretty it is or how cute it looks. I need to work on that. Chef Duff said something the other day on an episode of "Ace of cakes" that I really liked. He said that cake decorating is a lot of smoke in mirrors. If someone puts their thumb in the cake, you put a flower there to cover it up. This made me feel a lot better. If he has to hide imperfections too... then I'm not doing too bad.

Now, on to the little projects that had me feeling a little down. First, I wanted to make some cookies to send with my mom who was flying to Edmonton to help celebrate my nieces first birthday. I was gonna make her some big pink crown cookies that she could give to her guests and some big pink flower cookies that she could share at her party. Then we read about the new luggage limits that west jet has set and realized there just wasn't room for a big box of cookies, so I made some mini flowers and little number 1's. This wasn't too upsetting. I can get over a change of plans when it's caused by something that I can't control. What had me feeling discouraged was my number 1 cookie cutter. It didn't look like I had remembered it. Turns out I had remembered someone else's cookie cutter. I baked the mini flowers and 1's anyways, hoping I could make them look better with some icing. Here's the end result:

I know the cookies look cute... and I am happy with the flowers though they're not as detailed as I had planned. It turns out I need more piping practice. I know I'll improve with time and experience but I am one of those silly people who expects more from myself on the first, second or fifty sixth try.

 I'm bothered by the number 1's. They were so small I couldn't fit Brooklyn's name on them the way I had wanted to. Wow. Seems kind of silly to be so concerned about a cookie that I've already heard Brooklyn sucked the icing off of. I'll work on it. I'll learn to accept that I'm not yet the cake (or cookie) boss.  

On to the next discouraging project. I have wanted to make a mini cake for quite some time now. Yesterday was the day. I baked a cake on a cookie sheet. Then used one of my heart cookie cutters to cut a few mini heart cakes. Filled them with chocolate icing and then covered them with dark cocoa candy melts. I don't have much experience with candy melts but when I saw the pictures of other mini cakes they seem to cover mini cakes witha nice smooth finish. This wasn't the case with my mini cake. It wasn't smooth. Just that fact alone irked me. I didn't even bother decorating it. Instead, my girls and I ate it. You see, Elizabeth (my 4 year old) had a play date yesterday afternoon. When her friends mom came to pick her up, she said she could tell I had been baking because it smelled good in the house. I showed her what I had done and what I had used. She mentioned that she'd tasted some colored candy melts before and they tasted like poison. Or maybe she said they tasted toxic. I can't quite remember. Either way I figured I better taste this mini cake before I bother putting anymore time into it. I was mad at it anyway so it may as well be eaten. I conluded that while the chcolate candy melts didn't taste bad, they also didn't taste great. Who knows... there's a good chance I'll try this again and if it looks smooth, I'll think it tastes better too. 

 

I have big baking plans for the next few days so here's hoping things turn out the way I want. Or that I learn to accept that I'm not perfect so my baking doesn't have to be.

Either way, after getting all that out, I'm feeling hopeful. Each project is a fresh start.

~Rachel

2011 is off to a good start!

Wow... it's a new year with new opportunities to create some fabulous cakes, beautiful cupcakes and maybe a few cute cookies. With this new year and the suggestion from someone who has a popular blog I thought I'd give it another try. I've always been self conscious about having people read what I write so previous blogs have not gotten too far. After a post or two, I lose interest and the blog is left alone and fairly empty. Let's see how this one does :)

Where to start? How about I tell you about a wonderful opportunity I had last week? Well, after creating a couple of beautiful cupcake bouquets for a baby shower,  Bobbi-jo (the lady who requested the bouquets) showed them to Paula and Paula loved them! She loved them so much that she asked me to make one for her table that would be set up at the bridal show in Courtenay! Why does Paula have a table at a bridal show? Because she owns the fabulous party and event store "Balloons 'N' More Party Shop" here in Willow Point! I've ordered balloons from her a few times and when I've needed a last minute cake board, I've gone to her store for those too! All the times I'd been in her store I never told her what I did or any of that so it was a happy surprise when I received an e-mail from her with the bouquet request. After meeting with her it was decided that I could make a bouquet or a wedding themed cake... whatever I felt like doing was fine with her. I love creative freedom! So, I went home, told my hubby the great news and started planning what Iwould make.  While I thought about the style of cake (Paula had suggested that my topsy turvy cakes were cute) and wether or not I wanted to make a cupcake bouquet I figured I could make both... why not, right? I had time to make them both before Saturday when I'd be leaving for Vancouver to see the Flames beat the Canucks. I could deliver them friday afternoon (the bridal show was on Sunday) get a good nights sleep and head to Vancouver in the morning for a fun night away with my hubby! I was set! But then my brain started thinking... what about those wedding cookie cutters you have in the drawer? What about that great idea you have for an individual cookie box for wedding favors? Let's make some of those and see if they turn out as pretty as we think they will. That's when I decided to make a topsy turvey cake, a cupcake bouquet and some wedding themed cookies. Here's how they turned out:

In case you're thinking "why didn't she put flowers on the top?" I left the top open to show that there's room for a cake topper should it be needed. And I love that the cake board is covered with fondant to match the cake. I'm happy that this is something that I can now confidently do.

I love the colors in the cupcake bouquet. I used twice as much tissue paper as I had in the ones for the baby shower bouquets to try and make it look leafier. (I'm not sure if that's a word, but you know what I mean)I'm so happy with the results, though I will admit I get a little frustrated when a little buttercream gets on the tissue paper. I know it's gonna happen, but it's that little buttercream that leaves me feeling it's just not quite as perfect as it could be. 

COOKIES! I had a hard time deciding how to decorate both the wedding dresses and the wedding cakes so I googled both to find some inspiration. I think the top left dress is my favorite, and then the two that have a little ribbon hanging down are next on my list.

And for these ones... I like the top middle one and then the two bottom corner cakes the best. I LOVE how they look after I've luster dusted them too:) I really like shiney, sparkly things.

The first individual cookie box. I of course loved it when I first finished it, but then my hubby said "why is the bow in the middle? It's covering up the cookie!"

Point taken. So here's the next box I made. I love it even more than the first one!

And then I wrapped a few cookies in these little bags just to show that there are other options for cookie wrapping.

Okay. That's it for my first post. I can't believe how long this all took. I've been sitting in front of the computer for just over an hour now. Hopefully the next one won't take as long now that I've figured out how to add pictures and move them around.  

 Let me know what you think!

~Rachel