Catching Up

Well, it's been a while since my last post. Work has been busy, we've been visiting with family, and life has just been kind of tiring lately!

We stayed in town for Easter again this year, and once again my husband and I did the Martha Stewart Silk Tie Eggs. I tried to be prepared this year, and instead of using ties straight out of the closet, I picked a few up at the PTA Thrift store for $1 each. Not bad. If you haven't tried this craft before, it really is a lot of fun.

We had dinner at Ben and Jason's again this year. I insisted on brining dessert so I could make myself practice the cake decorating skills. I used Martha's recipe for Meyer Lemon Anniversary Cake. Clearly, it was not tiered, but it was soaked with lemon simple syrup and was filled with homemade lemon curd. The frosting is Swiss meringue buttercream, which apparently doesn't take coloring very well. What was supposed to be buttercup ended up being peach....oh well. The bunny is in color flow, and was a generous gift from Laura D. The daisies are in royal icing.

A notable element of Easter dinner was the striking table decor. I'm not really sure where Ben found the time (or patience!) to weave yards upon yards of brightly colored ribbon on the table. I was flabbergasted. I will definitely be stealing this idea at some point.

My most recent cake was a birthday cake for my mother-in-law who happened to be in town visiting on her birthday, although we waited until the weekend to celebrate with cake. I had purchased teal icing color from Michael's and I was anxious to try it. I made a bunch of purple daisies a while back, so I wanted them to really contrast on the icing color. I basket-weaved around the sides as well. My penmenship needs some work, but other than that, I was pleased with how it came out.

Socks: Check!

Well, my first pair of socks is officially done! The sewn bind off is
definitely the way to go for these guys! Jay's socks are next...

Graduation Day

Today was the final class of Wilton Course II at Michael's. After 8 weeks of guidance from our instructor, I think that Laura D. and I can safely say that we are accomplished cake decorators. We're going to take a one month sabbatical before we go for Course III in May.

Here's Laura's lovely cake with juniper green basketweave, daisies, daffodils, and apple blossoms.

Here's my cake with white basketweave with mostly the same flowers, plus some pansies. I LOVED how the pansies came out. I'm thinking about doing some Gettysburg-themed orange and blue ones for something. Laura and I both decided that the 6" round is a good idea when doing basketweave...any more cake than that, and it's way too much energy!

Cake Recap

Well, I've been so enthralled with the concept of mobile blogging, I've convinced myself that taking pictures of my sock with my iPhone and posting it counts as a blog post. Not really. I realized that I haven't put up pictures from Wilton cake decorating since February, so here's what I have been up to in the medium of sugar and shortening.

Even though this isn't my work, I wanted to point out the AWESOME birthday cake that Laura D. made for me! Not only was a beautiful on the outside, it was filled with LOADS of peanut buttery goodness on the inside!

We had just learned drop flowers, so I decided to practice on some mini cupcakes that I baked for book club one weekend.

The grand finale of Wilton Course I at Michael's was learning how to do the rose. Apparently, there's a steep learning curve for this (at least for me!). I haven't had much chance to practice lately. Here's my cake with purple roses on top, and some sweet peas on the side: Here's Laura D.'s cake with pink roses:

At the first class of Course II, we learned a couple new things in buttercream, including the rose bud. I definitely didn't feel inspired to whip out a rose, so I "practiced" a lot of rosebuds on my cake. My work enjoyed eating it!

Aside from adventures in mini cupcakes, I felt like I haven't had any time recently to practice these new skills. My friend is participating in the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer this spring, and their team was having a big yard sale/bake sale today, so I decided I could contribute some goodies while practicing the new royal icing flowers I have learned.

Here's the pink ribbon cake I made. The rose buds and drop flowers (on the side) are done in royal icing. This was a cute little 6-incher! What a great size! I used the Joy of Cooking white cake recipe, and used Wilton colors to die the inside pink, too!

I also needed to get some apple blossoms and primroses ready for my final cake next week, so I did some cupcakes and decorated the tops with some extras.

First sock almost finished!

I'm very proud of myself, as I have nearly completed the first sock of
my first pair of socks! I just have a little bit of the ribbing to do
at the top, but overall, I'm very pleased with how they came out. Now
I just need to make another one....

MD Sheep and Wool Festival!

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Yay for socks!

Here's a little more progress on my sock! The foot is finished, and
I'm starting the heel!