Sugar Cookie Experiment

I still had some royal icing left over from my course two Wilton class and since i used the leftover pink for flowers, i decided to experiment and use the left over purple to make sugar cookies. I had never made sugar cookies from scratch so i had no idea how this would turn out. Well, the dough was a little tough to work with because it was mushy and not as stiff as i would have liked but oh well maybe it was too hot in my house. The icing was not as runny as it needed to be but i was pressed for time because i was late for a girl's night out! They were really good though, at least as good as sugar cookies can get. I'm not a big fan of sugar cookies but they were good nonetheless. I went to Party Time yesterday and bought some stuff for something for next week so while i was there, why not buy everything else i don't need!?!? Just kidding, but i did buy a bucket of cookie cutters. I guess now i know what theme i will have on my Christmas list! I want, oh i mean i NEED, everything!

Elyjah Baby Announcement

I became an aunt in May and offered to do the baby announcements for my new nephew. I absolutely love to design these types of things so it was my pleasure. These are my first baby announcements though but i think they turned out pretty cute!

Our First Job.... A Baby Shower!

Hope and I did our first baby shower baking today. We made two dozen chocolate chip cupcakes and two dozen white chocolate cupcakes all with blue, green, and yellow pastel baby items on top. We are so happy with them, they came out SO cute!

Intermediate Class.... Mission Accomplished!

Today was our last day in the intermediate decorating class. This class was only three classes long because the teacher couldn't do the fourth class so we came early on a few days. Hope was on a teaching conference in Boston (jealous) for the week to come back today so i baked and dirty iced both of our cakes and this was the best cake i have ever made!! It was oh sweet and moist.... YUM! We learned basketweaving today and covered our cakes in it. We had to put the flowers we made on our cakes along with the dreaded birds but i'm still proud nonetheless. We also learned the rope technique which was pretty easy and i loved it. Unfortunately these classes don't give us a lot of room for creativity because we follow along through the book to create the cakes using what we have learned. I absolutely CANNOT wait for the advanced decorating class so we can touch on fondant and i am further taking the fondant and gumpaste class. I may just fall over from excitement, but i must wait for those until September. I am so glad i started doing this!

Friends, Food, and Fun

We had a get together at our house last night and had a bunch of friends over. We barbecued hot dogs and hamburgers and we had chips and dip and some monogrammed cupcakes. I also made a taco dip and deviled eggs. I have never made deviled eggs, but they were so good, that was the first thing to go! The vanilla cupcakes are filled with a vanilla cream cheese filling and topped with buttercream and the chocolate chip ones are filled with mousse and topped with chocolate buttercream. I hand drew the monograms with chocolate and topped them with sugar crystals.

Flower Garden

Yesterday we made daisies, violets, pansies, daffodils, and apple blossoms. It was so much fun! The daffodil to the right looks funny because we made it out of the wrong colors because half of our class didn't show up for some reason. We also made color flow birds. My bottom one got a little crushed while i was packing it up. We will finish these by adding the beaks next week too. The best thing about these is that they last forever. I can make a ton ahead of time and use them for a project next month if i want. This is getting easier and easier, i guess i'm getting the hang of it!

Candy Making

Yesterday was chocolate making class and it was so fun! We made peanut butter cups, cordial cherries, turtles, chocolate rice crunch, and yummy tiger butter. We had a ton of candy all over our tables and we came home with a box full. I of course brought it to work and only ate one piece, the tiger butter. I made the chocolate rice crunch and Hope made the turtles. Yum! The cutest part was this little mouse that we made. Justin posed him by the cheese for extra affect! Is it just me or does his butt look huge!?!? :-) You can't see real good but his ears are slivers of almond. Too cute...

Practice Run

In an effort to prepare for our get together next weekend at our house, i decided to make a practice run of the chocolate and white cupcakes i wanted to serve. The chocolate cupcakes have chocolate mousse filling and chocolate buttercream icing and the white cupcakes are amaretto cake cupcakes with bavarian cream filling and buttercream icing. They were so good but oh so very rich. The mouse came out SO good. That's the first time i made any kind of mousse.

I made way too much for a tasting but i forgot i was making half a batch and put the full batch of eggs so i had to double everything else i had already done! Oh well. The more the merrier, right? The people at work will love me... I ended up making about 40 cupcakes. Yum! Here are the cupcakes with the filling showing placed on my magnificant appetizer plates.

Intermediate, Schmitermediate

Last night was the first class of the intermediate cake decorating class and it was fabulous! We touched back on shells but learned rosettes, reverse shells, rosebuds, and made chrysanthemums. I can't wait to make all the beautiful flowers. The only thing about the class was that there were numerous people that had not taken the first set of classes so instead of moving right along, our teacher had to reteach many things. Why would you not take the beginner's class before taking the intermediate class? Anyway, i finally got the buttercream thing down! This class will only be three classes because our teacher has to go out of town for a teaching conference but it looks like it is going to be a busy three weeks! On a separate note, i got my ice cream maker attachment for my kitchenaid mixer! I was so surprised when it came in as a wedding present. Nothing better than free gifts, right? I can't wait to make the ice cream!

Recipes

If anyone has any yummy baking recipes they would be willing to share, please do. If you would like, email to shannonlharvey at aol dot com. I am especially interested in moist cake, filling, and buttercream frosting/icing recipes so that i can expand my recipe box of options to choose from. I would share mine but i don't have any yet! Also, what is your secret to a moist cake? I have seen a ton of add-ins discussed online. I know i will come across a tried and true recipe i like but i am being very experimental right now!

The Red, White, and Blue

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend, i know i did. I just got back from a weekend at the beach and wanted to post Thursday's cake for you. It was our last class of our beginner's class. We even got a certificate!!! So cute..

Hope and I of course made our cakes festive so we could enjoy them along with all the great food we ate. I left my cake at work for them to enjoy and we brought Hope's to Florida. We decided to make some stars on top of our cakes and insert a few scattered jumbo start sprinkles i bought a little while back. We also sprinkled the top with red, white, and blue non-pareils. The cake was red velvet. We didn't have enough food coloring so we used half of what the recipe called for. The cakes were okay but there is another recipe i want to try for a better outcome. The icing started to melt off the sides but it was delicious!

My Cake

Hope's Cake

The Inside

One down, a bunch to go!

I also decided to make some cheesecake balls to bring to work for Monday. They were so good and fun to make!

Graphic Love

I love personalized stationery especially address labels. Here are some that i made for myself. Can you tell i like pink? I love to personalize things and i love monograms. I also love graphic design. I have learned a lot over the years but still have no formal training, only self teaching. I will eventually go to get my graphic design degree because i am fascinated with all the capabilities these programs have. I am really excited to do that but i must master baking first! Once i do that, I'll move onto custom invites, stationery, and maybe even monogramming. I am so lucky to be able to do the things i want when i want with the support of my wonderful husband and our jobs to fund it!

Practice arrangement

I have needed to get flowers for my urn i got from my personal trainer for one of my wedding presents. Well, i finally went to my local Hobby Lobby (only because i had a coupon for 40% off all Wilton products). While walking in, i saw the HUGE selection of flowers they had. I chose dark red and ivory. The colors go well in our bedroom. I'm proud of how it came out! Now i can't stop looking for things to spruce up and decorate.

Sprinkles!

I have started a small sprinkle collection recently too. It started with wanting the giant confetti sprinkles, then Crate and Barrel had a sale on bake stuff, then i had a coupon to Party Time, then it all went downhill from there. I bought these cute little glass containers too. The better to see them with my dear. So cute! I will be using the red, white, and blue non-pareils for the 4th of July baked goods.

Fabrics and Canvas Love

My favorite type of art is stretched canvas so, I decided to cover some stretched canvas with fabric for art in two of my rooms in my house. The black, white, and pink fabric i will use in my workout room and the blue, green, and brown fabrics will go in my guest bedroom. I love colorful patterns. They came out much better than i thought they would. Now if i can hang them on the wall!

My new obsession...

I have been looking online at all the cool baking accessories and have come across and purchased a lovely selection of baking cups. I love baking cups! Look how cute some of these are especially the pink and black zebra ones and of course the polka dot ones. I am sure i will find a use for all of these some time in the future right? If only i could find a baking cup holder of sorts. They are just in a box right now in my house and i want them to be more organized than that. They are also made out of greaseproof paper so the color won't change while baking due to the grease in the batter. How awesome is that? I'm in love...

Flowers, shells and figure piping oh my!

Today was the third class of the Wilton beginners basic course. We had to bring 8 iced cupcakes to class to practice decorating on. Hope and I made the cupcakes last night and couldn't stop talking about how good they were. Seriously, these were the best cupcakes i have ever tasted in my life. They are white chocolate cupcakes with white chocolate buttercream icing and Bavarian cream filling. Yum! The icing was a little different from the classic icing we have been making but much better tasting. Not good to decorate with, but great to just ice and eat!

I have bought a ton of books with various cake recipes so i want to experiment on the flavors of each one to add to our offering. This is where i got the white chocolate cupcake and icing recipe. One book i bought has a ton of cupcake recipes and another section with a ton of icing recipes and even a chart for which icing tastes good with what flavor cupcakes. The options are endless!

Well, i got my wedding dress cleaned and had to go pick it up so i put the cupcakes in my trunk for just about 15 minutes. That was too long and the icing started to melt, not to mention to carrier I used didn't exactly hold onto them tight so the cupcakes toppled over and smudged on the side of the carrier. Oh well, i know now to use my other carrier with deep cups so they can't move next time.

In class we learned the beginnings of the rose, some drop flowers, shells, and the startings of figure piping. I am not good at shells or figure piping but will practice because the results are so cute. I have included pictures below but only if you promise not to laugh. They are horrible! The icing was way too runny and was not cooperating. The classroom is so hot that the icing starts to melt. I included a separate of my favorite: the caterpillar. I was using the grass tip and figured a caterpillar would be so easy! You can't go wrong with the dot tips.

Decorators-in-training and our polka dot aprons


Hope's Cupcakes - look at the baby carriage!

My group - the flowers kept sticking the people look spooky! (we had limited colors to use)

The cutest one i had - the caterpillar

Ok, now you can stop laughing!

Father's Day Sweets

Today we had a family get together for father's day and i was designated the dessert lady. Because not everyone loves chocolate, i decided to make a berry trifle (strawberry, blueberry, and blackberry) with cream cheese whip cream filling and a chocolate truffle cake. The chocolate truffle cake was my first ever made from scratch cake and it wasn't hard to do at all. I thought both desserts came out gorgeous! It took forever but i loved the end result. I was going to make cheesecake balls too but i figured that was overkill for only 14 people. The chocolate truffle alone serves 16.

The desserts were a hit. The truffle cake was so rich so we could only eat a small piece but the trifle was so delicious. I can't wait for the next event so i can experiment more!

And so it begins...

I have decided that i want to learn how to decorate cakes. I am taking every class that Wilton offers at my local party store. My first class, the cupcake class, was last Tuesday. The class opened my eyes to so much! Really, i didn't even know that confectioner's sugar was powdered sugar. Yes, dumb i know! Anyway, the class was awesome. We learned how to fill and decorate cupcakes. My next class, the beginner's course started that Thursday and my friend Hope took it with me. It's a four day class that is every Thursday for a month. We had so much fun. We learned about each of the tools in our kits we bought that were so expensive. We had to bring a baked and iced cake to class the following Thursday. I also took a cookie bouquet class that next Tuesday.

Well, Hope and i got together at my house because i bought a new Kitchenaid artisan mixer so we mixed and baked and iced at my house. Our cakes came out okay but nothing like the book looked! I couldn't get the icing to spread right because it was too stiff but i wasn't sure what to do. Well, now i know that i should have added a little more milk so it would thin up and be easier to spread. Practice makes perfect so i will do that next time. We transferred a pattern onto our cake so that we could practice decorating the cake with different tips. Well, of course we ran out of time and had to finish at home where i ran out of my colors and really did not feel like making more so i just used what i had made.

Without further ado, here is my very first baked, torted, filled, iced, and now decorated cake! The beginning of my new path into baked yummy goodness.






Ta-da! Not too bad for a first cake i guess. I brought it to work and everyone acted like they liked it. The filling was way to gel-ly for my taste so i will try something different next time. Well, just from this cake and everyone knowing that this was my first time, i had three events booked for parties. CRAZY! It will be fun though because i will get to practice. I am so excited to see what my next creations will be. Hmm, HodgePodge Creations... What a great name that just popped into my head!

Well, off to celebrate my Mom's birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

Background

I have so many things going on that i cannot help but to share them with you! So, here goes a quick background to get you on track.

I just got married three weeks ago tomorrow and I already have a busier schedule than i had prior. I work out two days a week and now have started going to cake decorating classes two days a week as well. I am and have always been on the go and have always wanted to do just about everything. I have always been very driven but not necessarily hobby oriented but when i got engaged, i acquired a creative side to me that i did not know existed. So, I'm running with it!

I am still going to school to finish my Marketing degree and will be done September 21st. I want to get my graphic design degree because i just loving using Adobe Creative Suite to create things (monograms, address labels, and anything else that is aesthetically pleasing to my eyes) and there is still so much that i do not know. I want to get my Human Resources certification because i am a nerd. I want to decorate cakes because... well, i have no idea! I would like to add quilting to my know how because i LOVE patterns and fabrics. My mother-in-law quilts and she has made me things that we gorgeous, which is where my interest came from. I want to know and do everything!

This blog was born out of my new creative side that I'm not sure how to approach. I want to cook and bake and decorate and oh my goodness, i think i am being domesticated! What an interesting journey this will be...