Saturday, April 7, 2012

When the parents are away...




the kids dog will play.  At least it was in our cause tonight.  My husband and I dropped the kidlets off at the inlaws for the night.  Figuring the dog was safe and sound in her crate we grabbed dinner and a movie.  This was the sight that greeted us when we returned home. 
See that red and black crate in the upper left corner of the picture.  She broke the zipper and pushed her way out.  They she decided the room was in no way festive enough so my ultra crafty puppy make home made confettii from a ream of copy paper.  Then because white wasn't her thing she peed on it to make it yellow.  BUT we told her before we left to not eat her doggie bed and I can happily say that she left the bed alone.  Guess next time we need to say "stay in the crate, don't destroy the room and don't eat the bed!"

It is a good thing she's so stinking cute!


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Friday, April 6, 2012

Trial and Error

I've learned a few things in life; how to tie my shoes, how to french braid, how to drive a stick but when it comes to baking I like to fly by the seat of my pants.  Now grated most of the time I land perfectly on my feet but occasionally I land in the belly flop position shaking my head going what happened?  Thankfully I am learning from my mistakes lessons and not jumping so wildly before wondering if it will work. 

Example:

This beautiful cake I made this week looks absolutely scrumptious!


Just look at it.  All that creamy, pink icing piled up the sides. 


With all those moist, mouth watering layers of cake tucked inside that dreamy shell of icing. 


Who could resist the sirens call of this cake.  No one...until you taste it.  BLECH!  The cake was great, the icing tasted like Crisco.  No joke, it tasted like Crisco and the funny part...there isn't a lick of Crisco in the entire batch of icing!  I had attempted to make Swiss Meringue Buttercream and followed the directions step-by-step.  The consistency was great but the taste...was not good at all.  So in the trash it went and I wiped up another cake using my traditional, never fail, always tastes good buttercream. 

So lesson learned that sometimes trial runs on food are a good thing before serving to your guests.  I know I am glad I did a practice cake for the baby shower next weekend!

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Monday, April 2, 2012

Pretty Pink Ribbons



I am in the process of planning a baby shower for my sister in law Katie.  Now this isn't your run of the mill baby shower because let's be honest...I don't do anything run of the mill.  After spending weeks custom designing every aspect of this shower my attention has finally turned to the food and I figure let's start with my favorite part...dessert!

I knew I wanted the cake to be cute, girly, sweet, pretty, dainty and just plain fun.  After seeing pictures after pictures of ribbon cakes I had to try my hand at it.

I started with a plain white cake batter from this I was able to make 3 six inch cakes all in different colors.  I wanted to keep mine in the pink color spectrum but you could do any three colors.  I divided the batter into 3 equal parts; leaving 1 part white, 1 part had 1 drop of coloring and the last part had 2 drops of coloring. 


I trimmed the tops off of each cake so that they would have a smooth, flat surface (if you eat the scraps no one will know they existed and the calories don't count.  At least that is what I tell myself).   Then I cut each six inch cake in half so that I would have a six layer cake. 


Starting with the darkest color I assembled the cake.


One layer...


at a time.


Until...


All six layers were stacked.  A thin crumb coat finished it off.


Phew, mission assemble the cake is done.  Now onto mission decorate the cake.  For this I used a Wilson #104 tip (a.k.a. rose tip).  As you can see there is a wider opening (bottom) on one side and a narrower opening (top) on the other.  (Please ignore my alien hand.  I know it looks like I have no fingers and my arm ends in a piping bag hand.  I promise that is not the case.)


To make the ribbons on the side of the cake you are going to hold the piping bag pointing straight down with the wider opening against the cake and the narrower opening closest to you.


Then gently apply pressure to the bag moving it back and forth so the icing piles up on itself.  Keep doing this until you have reached the top of the cake.  Then repeat all the way around the cake.


Some rows are going to be better than others but thankfully this is not a have to be precise design. 


The finished cake is so frilly and sweet and cute and delicate and girly but what takes this already cute cake over the top is the inside.


I love how the layers go from darker pink to white.  This screams baby girl baby shower but you could easily switch it up with blue or do both for a gender unknown baby shower. 

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