Cake, Cake, and More Cake

So yesterday I had many, many plans. However, I didn't get them all done. I did get some of them, but not all. I had planned on borrowing a bike from a co-worker and getting up early Saturday to see if I would be able to ride to work in an hour. I am not much of a biker. Also, a couple of years ago I fell on one of my knees, not once, but three times in about a minute. It wasn't a pretty sight, nor was the falling private. I fell in the airport. I kept tripping over my coat that was hanging on my arm. I didn't figure out what was causing me to face plant into the cement ground until the third time. I really felt stupid, but I digress.

I wanted to see if I would be able to get to work in an hour. I have been thinking of biking to work. This would help get the exercise in, as well as save a bit on fuel. There are few downsides to this. The first is the roads that I would be on. There really aren't paved shoulders. The gravel shoulders are fairly large, but still it is gravel. The roads are traveled on 55-70 mph. The speed limit is 55, but I know people go about 70 (no, I am not one of those people). There is one spot where there are two large dogs that chase cars, and I would imagine they would chase people on bikes. Then the last downside is the amazing heat. Yes, 100 degrees would zap my energy, but it would make me be grateful for the air conditioning once I get home. Now you are thinking, who would want to work with me after an hour of biking in 100 degrees. I know I wouldn't. However, work does have a shower. I had thought about biking a few times, but the thought of showering at work has always been an icky thought. However, when gas finally reached $4.45/gallon last week, I have been thinking about biking a bit more.

However, my co-worker didn't bring the bike in on Friday, so I couldn't try this out on Saturday. I wanted to try it on Saturday since I wasn't sure if I would be able to bike 8 miles in an hour. I really am not sure how fast I can be. I haven't been on a bike in, well, I can't remember when the last time was.

I also had plans on baking 12 cakes. This actually sounds worse than it is, it is only 6-two layer cakes. So, when my alarm went off at 8:00, I was still tired, so turned it off, and rolled back over. When I did get up, I ran for about an hour, then started to work on my kitchen. I got it cleaned up enough to bake the million cakes. While they were cooking, I was able to clean my bathrooms, my bedroom, my office, and washed my clothes. Around 7:30, the cakes were finally done cooking. My house was 3 degrees warmer than it was outside. I didn't get all the cakes done. I didn't have enough eggs in the house. I was able to get 8 of them done. The two hardest cakes I still have to make. After they were done cooking, I put them in the freezer so they would be ready to frost for the wedding cake on the 20th. I was also able to make a couple batches of icing so I could go to my cake decorating class on Tuesday.

Chocolate

I thought I would do one post about chocolate. I love chocolate. My favorite is melted milk chocolate. It seems like it is richer and I can just enjoy it more. Dark chocolate is good on some things like on York Peppermint Patties or even on Milky Way Midnights. Other than that, I am not a big fan. Milk is definitely my favorite.

A couple of years ago on a camping trip, we accidentally left a Hershey's bar on the camping chair overnight. We really didn't notice it until sometime in the afternoon. When I found it, I was amazed the squirrels didn't run off with it. When I picked it up, I noticed that it was completely melted. This was when Hershey's had just started out with plastic wrapper and so the chocolate was completely sealed up in the wrapper. At first I put the bar aside because I thought it would be too messy to eat, and I wasn't sure how I would do it. Then it dawned on me that I could cut off a tiny corner and squeeze it out. That was the best chocolate bar I had ever had. Hmm!

I also love hot chocolate. When I was back in college I discovered the flavored coffee creamers. Mom had sometimes made our hot chocolate, and I can remember something about powered coffee creamer going into it. So I thought I would experiment with the flavors. I have found some that I love. I love the hazelnut, amaretto (almond), pralines and cream, toffee nut, and a few others. It sure makes a cup of chocolate 10 times better.

Flower Arrangement

So last night I went to Michael's for the cake decorating class. Just before the class started, I met Jen to pick out some flowers to decorate her cake with. She wanted some calla lilies, and some light butter colored roses, and some other small filler flowers. So we picked them out, and now I am not entirely sure what I am going to do to with them. I know that I need to arrange them in a gentle curve/slope so they will go down the side of her three tier cake. I just am looking at the flowers and not really seeing it in my head, and so I don't know where to start. I think I will need to think about this for a couple of days then start working on it. I want to have the flowers arranged long before I start baking the cakes.

Since the reception is on the 20th, I thought I would bake the cakes on the 15th. This means that I should probably get this thing together this weekend and see where I am from there. I will have to post a picture when I finally finish the arrangement, as well as when I finish the cake.

Cake Decorating II

So I have started a cake decorating class. I am a bit more excited to start the next class. This is because the accountant in me really likes the price of the second class. It will be only $7.50. So this will be great. I got into this class when it was 1/2 off. So I only paid $21.00 for this one, and apparently they are running a better special for the July classes. On top of that, I get a $10 coupon if I take the next class back-to-back with the current one I am in. Plus, I get to get a copy of the current weeks coupons to the Michael's store. This next week, I can take 50% off one item. Now I just have to find the ONE item I want to take the 50% off of.

One thing about this class that I wasn't expecting was that I would have to make a cake every week. I am not sure why I didn't think that would be expected. I think I thought that since it was a 4 week class, we would just be making flowers the whole time, and possibly make one cake on the last day. However, nope. I am expected to make a cake every week and two batches of icing. Here I am trying to lose weight, and then I go and sign up for a class that will have sugar in front of me. Gurrrr!

So the instructor wants us to bring in our cakes while they are frozen. I live over a 1/2 hour away. How in the world, in 100 degree heat, will I be able to do that. I already have a cooler in my car so I can put my cold stuff in their when I go shopping. However, it isn't cold enough to keep a cake frozen. Anyway, the crazier question is when am I going to bake these cakes. I have a saying that I don't turn my oven on between June and September. It is way too hot here to be baking. I guess I will just have to suck it up and bake. Perhaps I should bake three whole layered cakes at once and put them in the freezer. This way I will only have to heat up my house the one day.

So what I was thinking was that I am going to have to find a boy or boyz that will take a cake a week off my hands. :-) Perhaps I can figure out where the missionaries live and drop a cake off to them once in a while. The class ends at 8:30, and it is basically right across the highway from where they live (or where they used to live a couple of years ago). This would be an easy thing to do.

Well enough griping and complaining. It is past my bedtime. :-)

Talents

It is a bit amusing that whenever there is a talk at church about talents, no one can think of any talents they have. I have a hard time saying that I have many talents. I know that I can do things, but since I do them, I can see all the flaws in them and compare it to what I perceive others can do and do better. For instance I can play the piano. However, I don't think that I play very well. I have about 10-15 hymns I can play, and the rest I stumble through. So when asked if I play the piano, I am a bit nervous to say yes in case they ask me to play something I don't know how.

Then, I can sure bake a mean batch of chocolate chip or sugar cookies. I am not afraid of saying this. I know they are good. Quite frankly, I have an ego about my chocolate chip cookies. They are really good. Thank you Sharlie for the main recipe that I then tweaked a little. My sugar cookies also are good, and they are just like the Lofthouse cookies. So close in fact, someone thought they had actually been purchased.

Then the cake decorating. I know I am able to do this, but I feel that it is only good enough for family birthdays (not that I get a lot of practice where I am at). So when I was asked to do a cake for someones wedding, I was a bit scared. I told her that I wasn't that great and the cake would be far from perfect. She doesn't seem to mind. Someone actually called me in February this year for their birthday. They wanted lime green, pink, and other colors and some stripes. Here is a picture. I look at this, and can see a couple of problems with this, but when I gave it too them, they said that it was exactly what they were hoping for and thought it was beautiful.

Then a couple of years ago, I made a wedding cake for a co-worker. She had already had a "religious" wedding, and was now getting married legally. So since she had, had the big wedding already, I did her cake. With this cake, I see the problems of it being a little lopsided in the middle layer. Also, it is a good thing you can't see the back because the fondant is not as smooth as it should be. Then again, I am told no one sees the flaws but me, and that is only because I made it.

So now, I have taken up stained glass windows. I know there are flaws in the things I create. I know they don't fit as close as they should. Also, I end up creating a few "extra" pieces because the cut was too difficult and I decided that instead of one piece of glass two will work.

So with all this said, it is hard to feel that I have a lot of talent. I can see the flaws in all my work and feel that someone else would do a better job. Then I remember, that it is amazing that I am able to do these things anyway. I am so blessed to have the nerve to do these things and try my hand at the different projects. How many years did I think about trying stained glass? I finally am doing it. It may not be perfect, however, the projects end up pretty anyway, and when I give them away as gifts, people love them. So with that said, I am blessed with many talents. It is hard to think of them as talents since I have to work hard at them, but then again, how hard did the servant have to work to get his talents to double? If I didn't work hard on them, would I be burying them and then be in a bit of trouble when finally asked what I had to show for the talents I had been given?

We all have talents and they are so different from each others talents. That is what makes this world work out so well. Where would we be if everyone had the same talents? The Lord knows what will work out for us and what talents will enrich our lives.

Hmm! I think it will be a Sunflower.

So, here is a picture of one of the "other" plates I purchased on eBay. I have an idea about what to do with this one. I can see this one being a sunflower. It is yellow with a hint of gray. The plate is kind of wavy and textured. Now, I know that sunflower centers are brown, but I think that I want to put a border around this plate of whimsical sunflower-like green petals. Anyway, it's in my head, and quite frankly I don't think of myself as artistic and so I hope I am able to put what I want down on paper, and then again into glass. I have another blue relish plate I picked up. I fell in love with its design, and felt like the glass prisms I pulled from my chandelier and the blue plate and some ruby red glass would make a fantastic window. We will see. I guess I need to finish my current project first before moving on.

Quite honestly, I have picked up a lot of glass over the past year. I had been thinking of stained glass for about five years. I can't really say what made me start thinking of it. It may have been a TV show I was watching and it had colored panes of glass in the windows. I really can't say. Anyway, I started buying glass last year, and at the beginning of this year I bought a few too many glass plates with the hopes of making them focal points in windows. So far, it has only happened for one plate. I don't want to say how many more I have to go.

New Window

So here is a picture of my latest creation. I created this design in February/March. When it was finally done, I had to make an exact copy so I could cut out the pattern. Once I cut it out, I wondered if I was a bit stupid. There were 136 pieces in this window, and some of the pieces are itsy-bitsy. It seems like a pretty easy design, but as I cut out some of the flower stems, I had trouble. I eventually had to make it a 138 piece design because some of the angles I put into the design weren't actually do-able. I still have about 25 pieces to cut out. Seven of them are going to be a bit tricky as I try to match up the pattern of the glass the pieces go between. The remaining 16 pieces will be easy since they are just the border pieces and are all straight cuts. I found the plate on eBay (I really do have a bad eBay habit). When I saw the plate, I decided I wanted to create a window around it. Once I saw it, I realized that it had butterflies and flowers around it. I then created this window to kind of match the design on the plate. If you can't tell, there are two butterflies and about seven flowers. I can't wait to get this window done and be able to take a picture of it with the light streaming through it. The butterflies have a black body and dark purple and light yellow wings. The leaves and the stems are a forest green. Since there isn't light streaming through it, the green and the purple all look similar.

For the background, I used this glass called Baroque. I really love the look of it. It seems to be clear glass with a white (not clear) marbleized into the clear.

Hopefully I will be able to finish this one in the next two weeks. I still have to grind and smooth the pieces so they fit together nicely. Then I have to wrap the edges in copper foil and then solder it all together. I hope I will have the time to do this over the next couple of weeks. This week is going to be a busy week.