What was I thinking??

First, I just went into the bathroom and found Sam lying in the bathtub (empty of course) trying to stay cool. Poor cat.

Anyway, remember the wedding cake?? How could anyone forget, right? Anyway, when some of the ladies at church heard I was making a wedding cake, they mentioned they would love to learn how to do that, and that I should do an Enrichment night on cake decorating. I kind of didn't really want to. I had done a cake decorating Enrichment about a year or two ago, and really didn't want to teach another one. However, I got to thinking that I shouldn't hide my talents under a bushel, and that I don't use my talents, I may lose them, and I should be using my talents to help the people.

So, I talked to my friend who is the Enrichment counselor and told her that is she wanted, I would teach a class. I talked to her last month before we had Enrichment in June. She called me back and told me that she didn't think that we could do it in June. I let her know that I wasn't thinking June, but I just wanted to throw the idea out and we could do it later in the future. So we decided July.

I told her that I would make the icing for everyone so that they would have the right consistency, but they would need to bring their own cake. I did have a few instructions for them for their cakes they were to bring, and wanted to announce them.

The sign up went around two weeks ago when we had a combined meeting, but I didn't think much of it. The turn out for the regular Enrichment is about 4-7, and a good turn out is 10-12. So this Sunday I got up in RS and told them the details about what they needed to bring for their cake and some tips for it. One lady raised her hand and asked, "So, we need to bring a cake to Enrichment to decorate?" I wasn't going to make cakes for everyone. I had learned my lesson with the gingerbread houses...or so I thought.

When the sign up came around to me, I about fell off my chair. I couldn't believe it. There were 25 people signed up. TWENTY-FIVE. This means that I will need about 30 batches of buttercream icing. Let's break this down a bit.

30 batches of frosting =
60 lbs of powdered sugar-30 2 lb regular sized bags, or one 50 lb Costco bag, and 5 regular
45 cups of Crisco, which I think will be 7.5 of the regular sized cans
4 cups of Karo Syrup
30 teaspoons of vanilla
30 teaspoons of almond extract
15 teaspoons of butter extract

Since I will be purchasing the powered sugar at Costco because a 50 lb bag is only $19.99 (2 lb bags about $1.80) I will have to sift the sugar. I have roughly estimated that it will take me 6-8 hours to sift 50 pounds of powered sugar. It took me 2.5 hours to sift enough sugar for 8 batches last month, and I figure I will just have to go faster this time around.

Then once the sugar is sifted, my little Kitchenaid will run for 7.5 hours nonstop. Each batch of frosting takes 10-15 minutes to beat to the right consistency.

With that said, I should stop typing and start sifting. I may get done in time for Enrichment next Thursday night. :-)

Enough griping, I know it will be fun, I just wasn't prepared for that many batches of frosting.