Week: 38 Costume Making & Babyshower cake

This past week as also really busy, I am starting to think it's a trend, but it was a lot of fun.
For the past 3.5 years I have gotten to volunteer with Crusade and help out with Fall Retreat and Spring break trips which has been amazing. Every year there is a dance on the second night of Fall Retreat and there is always a different theme. This year the theme as villains and superheroes. We were encouraged to pick an existing superhero/villain or to make one up.
I couldn't think of one I wanted to be so I decided to make one up. As I love to bake and my main "job" at fall retreat is to help run the kitchen I decided to be "Super Baker".
I have been wanting to try making my self an apron so was the perfect time to try it out. I decided to make myself a cute apron and a cape, every superhero needs a cape!
I decided to go to Walmart to find some cheap fabric as I didn't know how well it was going to turn out. I found a cute white and yellow checkered pattern in the $1.50 section, then got 2 squares of cute prints, some ribbon and of course some black shiny material to make my cape.

I am really happy with how the apron turned out

I especially like how the ruffles looked

Next it came the cape

As the super baker I decided my symbol would be a cupcake

And here is a picture of my and April (the one who is getting married in December and inspired me to do my year of experiences)

My baking experiment of the week was my first ever baby shower cake!
Julie, who was my college roommate my last year at UNC-G, contacted me about doing a baby shower cake for her sister's shower.
Having never done a baby shower cake before I was really excited to do it.

We went with a 2 tiered square cake. The bottom layer was chocolate cake with butter cream icing and the top layer was vanilla with chocolate butter cream.

All the details were made out of fondant

I had a lot of fun with this cake and I am really pleased with how it turned out. Julie's sister also really liked it which is always the goal: to make the customer happy!

Thanks for reading!!

Week 37: Lego cake

Things have been really busy the past couple weeks. So my new experience goes along with my baking experiences this week.
My baking experiment of the week was the Star wars Lego cake

First I made tons of lego pieces out of fondant. I then attached them to a second piece of fondant so it would cover up the sides of the cake

After attaching the lego walls I added the legos to the top of the cake and added the 8 little circles to each of the pieces. Next was moving the iced Lego figure to the cake

Then it was time time to add some details and the lightsaber

I am really happy with how this cake turned out! I had a lot of fun making it and know what I would do differently if I am ever asked to do another lego cake.
The mom also said the birthday boy really liked the cake which is always a good thing :)

Thanks for reading!!

Week 36: Treadmill, cupcake tasting, anniversary cake

This past week I had lots of new experiences. We started the week by going to Brasa, a Brazilian steak house in Raleigh, to celebrate our 3rd anniversary. It was yummy, but not as good as Chamas is. It's the second Brazilian steak house that we have been to that didn't have farofa!

Wednesday we decided to finally get a treadmill, Justin and his brother Tyler went to get it while I was at work which was a nice surprise.
We set up the treadmill Thursday afternoon, it took much longer than we expected, but it's now all set up. We are hoping this way we'll actually work out. Now we have the treadmill and Justin's bowflex in the extra bedroom with a tv/dvd player so we'll see how it goes.

Friday April and Jeff came over to taste cupcakes for their wedding. I got to make 4 different types of cupcakes: chocolate, dark chocolate, yellow butter, and marble. I also made 4 kinds of icing: vanilla, almond, chocolate, and vanilla-almond. We now know what flavor combinations they want for the wedding :)

Also Friday evening we went to Boonville to celebrate Justin's grandparents' 61st anniversary.
We meet up with the family at Sander's Ridge, a local Vineyard and restaurant owned by some distant family members. Everything they use is either grown at the vineyard and farm or from the local farmer's market. I had the fillet Mignon which was really yummy. I also tried one of their sweet white wines. The wine smelled wonderful, but I didn't care too much for the taste of it.
For my baking experiment of the week (other than getting everything ready for the tasting) was the anniversary cake for Henry and Lou. The bottom layer was butter yellow, chocolate filling, chocolate second layer and the outside was covered in vanilla butter cream. The top was a dark chocolate butter cream with butter cream and royal icing flowers.


Thanks for reading!

Week 35: Wedding planner and lego experiment

This past week was a crazy busy week but a lot of fun as well.
For a few months now I have been helping Ashlee plan her wedding. We came up with ideas for center pieces, made them, bounced ideas for the wedding in general and this past weekend was the big day.
I have always enjoyed helping out with wedding stuff but this time was the first time it really felt like I could be a wedding planner/director. Friday night Abby and I had a lingerie party for Ashlee at Abby's house. It was a lot of fun to plan and I think everyone had a good time.

(The other pictures are not online appropriate lol)

Saturday morning Ashlee and I went to pick up the flowers and I got to make her and Abby's bouquets and the guys boutonnieres. I have done bouquets before but this was my first time working with Hydrangeas. I didn't have my camera but I am trying to find a good picture of how they turned out.

Saturday afternoon I got to run the rehearsal then we had the rehearsal dinner. The dinner was a lot of fun, I got the meet all the family and family friends, I think everyone had a great time.
Sunday morning was time to get all the last minute things figured out and everything set up for the wedding.

Sunday I did more running around (in 3 inch heels) than I have ever done before. I got to help set up, get whatever the photographer needed, help sit people, locate people, help the caters, anything that could fall to someone other than the bride or groom I was there to help with.
By the end of the weekend I was really worn out but it was fun to get to get to play wedding director.

This week was super busy so I didn't get to do much with baking. I did do a test trial for a lego cake coming up. I didn't have time to decorate it so I let the boys cover it in icing before they go tot eat it.


Thanks for reading!

Week 34: Drag bingo and minnie mouse

For a couple months now our bowling wiigue has talked about going to drag bingo and we were finally able to go this week!
In addition to your original bowling wiigue (Chris, Katie, Justin and I) our friend Angelique, and Megan, a friend of Chris's who was visiting from Boston, joined us for the event.
Drag bingo is a fund raising event that happens once a month at the Durham Armory, and the money goes to Aids Alliance of Carolinas. Each month the event has a different theme. This month's was Broadway.
I can't remember the last time I played bingo was. Between each game of bingo there was a performance by one of the Drag Queens.
No one at our table won a game, but it was still a lot of fun. We are planning on going back either for the nutcracker or the holiday theme events later this year.

This weeks baking experiment was another cake order.
This time they were for a Minnie mouse theme 2nd birthday party.

These were fun to make! They are chocolate cake with vanilla butter cream and fondant details.

Thanks for reading!