lessons

As the fall approaches and all the kiddies (to include this big kid herself) enjoy the last few days of freedom before school begins again, I seem to be learning lessons at every turn. First, a lesson in patience, of which, I have none. Not even after 15 months of being a mother have I acquired a never-ending supply of paitience. My daughter was on par with everything regarding her development with one exception: her teeth. Until about three weeks ago, she was the biggest, toothless baby for miles. All of a sudden her four front teeth are emerging and she is just not having it. She's cranky, she's whiny, she's crying--I'm cranky, I'm whining, I'm crying. Lesson #1: get over it. Sometimes things just suck. It will pass. Lesson #2: things don't always work out the way you plan them. What's the saying? 'If you want to make God laugh, tell Him about your plans.' Well let me just tell you, I've got the good Lord rolling! I'm a planner to a fault sometimes and when things don't quite work out I throw an inner (and sometimes outer) hissy fit. This week I worked on a cake for the staff at my husband's school. He is a technology something or other at a high school and I attempted a two-layer cake (bottom layer- 10" square and top an 8" round) for the staff retreat. Well, something about the bottom layer just didn't sit right and it sunk in the middle which proved disastrous when I put the top layer on. Fortunately, the top layer worked out fine and I sent the cake along, a day late, but still happy with the results. The cooperating layer was the fabulous vanilla cake recipe from Confetti Cakes (see book to the right) with a strawberry filling and vanilla buttercream by Wilton. This weekend's venture is cupcakes and cookies--I have a new martini glass cookie cutter I've been dying to try. This time, I'll try not to plan so much, but, until then, here's the recipe for strawberry filling:

Strawberry filling

-1 pound of clean strawberries; quartered

-3/4 cup of sugar

-2 tablespoons of cornstarch

-The juice of half a lemon

1. Place the strawberries, sugar, and cornstarch in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat until the strawberries burst and start to look like jam. Remove from heat and squeeze half a lemon. Cool completely to room temperature.2. Put the strawberries in a food processor and pulse until small pieces of strawberry remain. 3. Move strawberry filling to a bowl and cover. Refrigerate a couple of hours.

beachy keen

I honestly can't think of anything better than lying around poolside (or seaside if you like), beneath an umbrella with a cold beverage in one hand and a frivolous magazine in the other--can you? That is how the dear husband and I spent a few days last week in Daytona beach at the fabulous Shores Resort and Spa to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary. Seems like only yesterday I was a (skinny) girl of 23 in a big white dress holding a lovely bouquet of roses to marry a man who would later confess that, due to an eye condition, I was nothing but a big white blur coming down the aisle--he could barely see anything. But, one house, dog, and daughter, two lost wedding rings (his, not mine), and five years later, here we are, just kicking along and making this married thing look easy. All jokes aside, my husband is one of the most caring, selfless, and kind people I have ever met and I love him dearly for it. He is wonderful when it is least deserved...and most of all, he just loves me.
But now, to the cake! The cake was for my father's 54th birthday and was supposed to be reminiscent of his youth as a twenty-something living in California. First, let me say this--Florida and fondant are NOT very fond of each other. The humidity was ridiculous and the fondant let me know with every crack and disobedient fold it made. Not to mention I covered and decorated this cake in record time (for me, anyway) with four children--yes, four!--2 years old and under running around at a family get together. I finished the cake literally one minute before my dad walked in the door. Happily, he seemed pleased--and happily, I left him the next day with my daughter as my husband and I drove, sans responsibilities, to the beach.

Spice Cake recipe adapted from Better Homes and Gardens, New Cookbook

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1 cup buttermilk or sour milk
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup shortening
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3 eggs

In a bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger. Add buttermilk or sour milk, butter, shortening, and vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer on low to medium speed until combined. Beat 2 minutes on high speed. Add eggs and beat 2 minutes more.

Pour batter into a greased 13x9x2 in pan. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Makes 12 servings.

hats off

So, I have to thank Elisa Strauss for publishing the book Confetti Cakes (see link in previous post or 'books to love' to your right) because without this book, I could not have made my latest fondant creation, an open hatbox cake. My mother-in-law was in town this weekend to attend a friends fashion party. Since I hope to start a business and need the practice, I asked if she would like a cake. After much drawing and planning I came up with the idea of a hatbox and got busy purchasing everything I would need. I made the tissue paper and bow three days in advance while on conference call with my girlfriends who very politely asked that I stop crumpling parchment paper--nobody could hear anything I was saying. Thursday morning my daughter and I ran to the grocery store for last minute ingredients and then I proceeded to bake (using the vanilla cake recipe in Confetti Cakes). I will not bore you with the details, but the first cake was a total disaster! I don't know the science of it all, but the baking pan I used was 3 inches deep and while the outside was cooked, the inside was pure mush. By the time the inside was cooked the outside was burnt. Fabulous. Trip to the grocery store for more ingredients. Vanilla cake: take two. Much better. Friday morning my mother and brother-in-law were on board for watching my darling one-year old while I faught with, I mean, decorated, the cake. I am not the greatest slicer of cakes and so some troubles ensued. Luckily, I was able to cover some of my slicing mistakes and all was well. Covering with fondant was also not the best--I rolled it too thin and you could see through a bit to the cake. Lesson learned--when directions read 'roll to 1/4 in. thick' it means 'roll to 1/4in. thick', not 'roll until fondant is transparent!' At the end of the day, however, the cake turned out fantastic and everyone was more than pleased with it. Sure, it has it's little flaws, but the big picture, well I was pretty darn proud of myself. It was certainly the hit of the party until, of course, my one-year old and all of her cuteness stole the show. But that's okay, I guess--I made her too!