Jul 18, 2012 |
It’s already Wednesday.
Wait. What?
It’s already Wednesday?!
This week has gone by far too fast for me. Dot’s now enrolled in college. College! I’ve got ten resumes out for review, and I’m considering signing up with LinkedIn.com and Kickstarter.com. [If any of you have advice regarding either of those sites, please… I’m all ears!] We had our second class of cake decorating, and Dot’s creation garnered her incredible attentions. I don’t often put photos up on my Facebook page unless they’re linked to posts. But Monday night I posted her cake, as well as wrote about it yesterday. I don’t have tons of followers on Facebook, but I was really impressed to see that Dot’s Cake is my most popular photo to date. Way to go, Kid! I’m one proud Momma!
Last week’s “What’s the Word?” Wednesday Blog Hop was my most popular to date. I love seeing the diversity of writings offered up around the Blogosphere. Would you like to be a part of it?
“What’s the Word?” Wednesdays is a link-up that allows other bloggers and readers to share whatever they want to talk about. Think of it as a virtual coffee date with some great friends. What’s going on in your world? Tell us all about it!
A few things to remember:
- Each week’s link-up is valid from Wednesday through the following Tuesday. So if you link a post today, you can still come back and link another post tomorrow! In fact, you can link up as many posts as you want.
- If you add a link, please put the badge on your post as well.
- Be sure to check out what others are posting, and even leave a few comments.
- You can now show your “likes” by voting for your favorite links.
So, c’mon. Join the conversation. After all, a great coffee date is one where everyone gets to chat, dontcha think?
Jul 18, 2012 |
Thank you to everyone who entered the Route 66 Gift Pack Giveaway. I enjoyed reading all your vacation comments!
The winner is Veronica G., who stated “The best summer trip I ever had was our highschool trip to Myrtle Beach.”
I look forward to doing another giveaway soon, so stay tuned… and Happy Summer!
And Frankly, My Dear… that’s all she wrote!
Jul 17, 2012 |
As some of you know, Dot and I are in the middle of the Wilton Cake Decorating Basics Class.
Last week we learned how to level a cake, and how to cut, fill, and frost it.
You’ll recall that for as much as I love being in the kitchen, I’d never baked a cake until a few months ago. It turned out all right for my first attempt.
This week, our homework was to bake and ice a cake before coming to class. My first two cake attempts failed miserably. I neglected to let the first cake cool before trying to remove it from the pan. I think needing the hot pads before turning it over onto the cooling rack should have been a clue. The second cake decided it wanted to stay in the pan as well… or at least, half of it did.
Finally, with Cake Round No. 3, I was greeted with near-perfect, 8-inch, round French Vanilla cakes. We iced them the day before and took them to class with us.
After a little instruction and demonstration from the instructor, we were basically told to do our own thing.
The icing colorant I brought was unusable. Apparently, when the directions say “use a clean toothpick each time” to pull the gel from the tiny jar, they mean it! Also apparently, the last time I used my reds and greens, I didn’t pay attention. Because my colorant was unusable. So I was relegated to using the coloring that Dot chose.
I’m proud of my efforts:
I intentionally left part of the outline transfer showing. I liked the red gel underneath. I also intentionally blended the blue and white icings to look like a Frost-ee or Icee.
I’ve no intentions of eating the cake; as we have enough in the house with just Dot’s cake. So I promised this one to my friend’s son whom I affectionately refer to as my Un-Son Number One. His sister is taking the class with us. When we took her home, we showed the family all our cakes, and USNO said he liked mine so I told him after I show it to my family, he can have it. Hey, at least I know it won’t go to waste!
Dot has never decorated a cake before (other than the cupcakes we practiced on last year). The instructor was ah-mazed! Dot has a gift for artistry. Instead of family photos in my house, I hang some of her artwork. So it was no surprise when, at the end of class, everyone ~ and yes, I do mean everyone ~ gaped and gasped and questioned whether she’d actually taken a decorating class before.
Her cake, as you see, was the Piece de Resistance.
Which is just one more reason I’m so proud of her. This Girl’s Got Talent!
And Frankly, My Dear… that’s all she wrote!
