Newberry Branch Library Demo

A few months ago, I was invited (through a recommendation from Debbie of Ms. Debbie's Sugar Art - thank you!) to do a demonstration at the Alachua County Newberry Library Branch. The description of the demo was "Need some fresh decorating ideas for your baked delights this holiday season? We have the perfect gift for you! A professional cake decorator will present ideas and techniques for creating wonderful delights sure to satisfy Santa and his elves." Professional! Wow, I definitely wouldn't go that far! haha!

Here I am in front of my demonstration table. It looks pretty good for not really planning much in advance, right? Haha! I found the cutest fabric at JoAnn's that had little cupcakes on it, but they didn't have enough of the fabric to cover a whole table so I had to buy brown to go underneath that. Actually, I think I prefer it this way compared to the whole table being covered in the pink cloth!

I made a "dummy" cake and a Christmas cookie bouquet to display during the presentation. The cake was an 8" square covered in blue fondant. I put a giant green and red ribbon on top and shaped 2 elves out of fondant using the instructions from a book about making things with clay.



The cookie bouquet was just 6 sugar cookies on sticks decorated with fondant. I bought a cheap container at Michael's and then filled it with Christmas candy and candy canes. These are super easy to make - just push a cookie stick into the cookie dough before you bake the cookies. When they are baked, the stick should be pretty secure. Then, put a piece of styrofam in the bottom of some kind of decorative container and shove the cookies in. Be sure to push them in to differing heights so that you can see the ones in the back. Containers with wider mouths than this one are better because you can get a more full bouquet. Go try one!



For the demonstration, I did something much easier. This you can definitely try! You need to start off with your favorite cake recipe. Bake two layers in 8" round pans. When the cakes are completely cooled, level them. Assemble the cake like always: place one layer on the cake board, apply a layer of filling or icing, lay the second layer on top, ice the whole cake. The icing on the cake doesn't have to be perfect NOR does it have to be crumb-free because you end up covering the whole thing later! Here's what you need to finish the cake:



You'll need your favorite chocolate frosting, 30-35 strawberries (trimmed to remove the green part so that all the strawberries are approximately the same height), 2 boxes of Pirouette cookies, your favorite Christmas ribbon, and appricot glaze (see recipe below). I trimmed the Piroutte cookies ahead of time so that they were all different lengths, but you could also trim them to the same length - be creative!

Apricot Glaze:
*You could also make a strawberry glaze for a cake like this. Use the same procedure, just substitute seedless strawberry jam/preserves for the apricot preserves.
2 1/2 cups apricot preserves
1/3 to 1/2 cup water
Combine the preserves and water in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil and immediately strain into a fresh bowl to remove any apricot chunks. Allow the glaze to cool completely before using. Store the glaze in the refrigerator if you make it ahead of time. The glaze should be runny when you use it so you may need to reheat it in the microwave or on the stove first.

How to decorate the cake:
Place the Pirouette cookies upright all the way around the edge of the cake. Use double-sided tape to attach your ribbon around the center of the Pirouette cookies. Place the strawberries on the top of the cake to completely cover it. I left most of the strawberries whole and filled spaces with strawberry halves. You could cut all the strawberries in half before placing them on the cake or you could slice them thinly and layer them on the caketop. However you do it, it's bound to be beautiful! After all the strawberries have been placed, brush them with a little apricot glaze. Don't go overboard here! The glaze just gives the strawberries a nice shine. If you add too much, you'll come back in an hour to find that the glaze has slipped to the bottom of the cake and your cake is now swimming in it! Anyway, here's the finished product:


See? This is totally something you can pull off and definitely impress all your guests this holiday season!

So how did the demonstration itself go you ask? Well, let's start by saying that this demo was scheduled on the same day of the SEC Championship game (Go Gators!). Gainesville and the surrounding area pretty much...not pretty much - definitely revolve around UF's football season so we didn't expect many people to show up at the demo. Adam went with me to help set-up since I had no idea what to expect when we got there. We put my table in the front of the classroom and a small semicircle of chairs in front of it. At 2pm, when the demo started, a 5th grade girl came in, pulled up a chair to MY side of the table, and started looking for something to do. I guess she's used to hands-on demos because she pretty much took over on this cake! I showed her how to put the cookies on the side and she took it from there! Then a mother and her daughter came in and she helped a bit too. Only one other lady came in during the demo. Yea, we got a whopping 4 audience members and none of them actually sat down! They all stood around the table! It was kind of odd that no one noticed the semicircle of chairs....whatever. So the little girls decorated the cake and everyone but the 5th-grader left. She stayed for the entire hour...lucky us! haha! She was very sweet though. I had brought some fondant with me so I let her play with it and take some home. Here she is making a flower with her fondant:


I came to the quick realization that I don't have much to talk about with a 5th grader, and Adam definitely wasn't much help! haha! Luckily, she seemed to like talking so it wasn't too bad.

The Newberry Library Branch Manager has already scheduled me to do an Easter-themed demo on March 28th. I'll definitely do something kid-friendly, hands-on, and easy! In any event, this demo was a lot of fun, and it was a good way for me to get more teaching experience. Thanks again to Debbie for recommending me in her place!

There she goes again!

Adam and I started to decorate our Christmas tree on Friday night. I say started because we got the lights and garland on and then realized we had no hooks for the ornaments. Needless to say, our tree still looks pretty bare. Anyway. we had joked about putting Nani in her Santa costume while we decorated the tree so when we started on Friday, I kind of tossed her outfit on the floor. She nosed at it for a while and even put her head in it a few times! We decided to put it on her and she seemed to like it! Maybe we're not imagining all this! She seems to really enjoy dress-up!

Here she is in her Santa costume eating the ends of the tree branches...



The bubble wrap around one of our ornaments really grabbed her attention too...check out that tongue!

Miss Personality!

Adam and I have always known that Nani, like lots of other dogs, is FULL of personality! This weekend, she was very quirky and I caught a few things on camera.

We gave her a Chew-Lotta bone on Sunday. She really likes these bones and I used to take them away when she was half finished because they're big bones for a little dog! I guess my motherly instinct didn't want her to spoil her dinner or get a tummy ache.
Anyway, not only does she not let me come near her when she's eating her bone, but she's developed a habit of hiding it when she's nearing the end. Usually we're outside so she tries to
hide it in every bush nearby. This Sunday, she suddenly disappeared upstairs to hide it. I tried to sneak up the stairs to spy on her, but they were too squeaky so she saw me coming.


After she hid her bone, she proceeded to sit at the top of the stairs so she could keep an eye on both us and her bone. She sat there for a long time! While she was there, she must have gotten bored because she did a lot of yawning. If you look closely, you can see the bone still stuck in her back teeth! Yummy!

Look, she's winking!

On Monday night, Adam & I bought our first Christmas tree! For those of you who've been in our house and recognize where we put the tree, don't worry, we're not leaving it there. We were trying to avoid rearranging furniture, but I really don't like the tree where it is now. Anyway, Nani was both intrigued by and scared of the big green prickly thing! But she seemed to get over it and helped Adam water it a little while later.



All that excitement must have really worn her out because she was just so sleepy that evening! Adam tucked her in with a blanket and she was snug as a bug in a rug! (Notice the little tongue peaking and paw peeking out. We did not pose her for this picture!)

I wonder if we give Nani too much credit or if she's really as smart as we think she is! A while ago, she was making these funny pirate "aye" sounds so I thought, "Maybe she wants to play dress-up!" I put her pirate costume on her and she seemed content!

This morning, she was trying her darndest to get her Gators sweater off the shelf. When I took it down and put it on the floor for her, she nosed at it for a long time. I finally asked if she wanted to put it on and she ran over to me. I put it on and she seemed appeased. Could it be?! Ok, I admit the pirate costume was a stretch but you should have seen her with the Gators sweater today!


This one is actually from a few weeks ago but it goes well with the theme of this blog post. One day, Adam and I were playing with Nani on the stairs. (She likes to fetch things up and down the stairs.) Anyway, I was sitting - kind of laying - on the stairs and she was fetching her "Squeaker" (yes, this was before she destroyed her 3rd "Squeaker"). After she fetched it, she'd run back over and "kiss" Adam and I like crazy. One time, however, she ran over and stood right on me! Look how happy she looks! It's like she sees nothing wrong with it! Like I was meant to be stood on! Hmph!

Congrats Jack & Jiejin!

My friends Jiejin and Jack got married this summer in China. Since it was literally on the other side of the globe, a lot of their friends from Gainesville couldn't go to the wedding. They decided to have a little party here this week with a traditional American wedding cake and a champagne toast. This was my first wedding cake!


The cake was 2 tiers and each teir was made up of 3 layers - chocolate, marble, and yellow cake with raspberry cream filling. The tiers were covered in white fondant and decorated with various shades of ivory. There were about 27 roses on top of the cake...and I can make about 6 roses in an hour so that was time consuming! I put a little sparkle dust on the pearls and bubbles around the cake and then wrote their names around the base of the cake board. Here's a few close-ups:





















I had a few "caketastrophies" with this weekend. First, my 10-inch chocolate layer decided to just crumble into pieces when I tried to ice so I had to completely re-bake it. Then, when I stacked all the layers, they were too heavy and pushed the raspberry filling right out! I guess I shouldn't be experimenting with the icing recipe while making an important cake! I had to scrape all the icing back off and remake it. When I iced the cakes a second time, it was a little better, but you can still see some bulges on the sides of the cake. I was really upset about it, but I always tell my students that part of becoming a "profesional" cake decorator is learning to cover your mistakes so I knew I had to keep working on it. I should have taken a before and after picture - the cake was so ugly it was making me sick to my stomach! I guess I did an OK job of covering up the problems, but you can still see them a little. In general, the cake was acceptable when viewed from 3 feet away and only from the front. haha!

Michael's Gingerbread House Demo

Today was very rainy and I was fortunate enough to be obligated to work at Michael's so I could watch the rain from inside rather than from under my poncho at a Gator game. It was a tough job, but someone had to do it! I had 2 hours to sit at the entrance of Michael's and decorate a gingerbread house. Yes, I got paid to play with a gingerbread house! Can it get any better???

Well, I must be an extremely slow gingerbread house decorator because when I looked at my watch an hour and a half into it, I thought "Whoa, I better get moving so I can finish this in the next 30 minutes!" I did manage to finish the house, but I had a LOT of candy leftover. I guess I was a bit too conservative... But look, you can see my little snow people! Fun!

Getting Ready for Christmas!

This weekend, I'm making a Christmas Gingerbread House at Michael's to be used as a store display for the rest of the holiday season. If you live in Gainesville and want to see the display, they usually put it on top of the end of an aisle near the cake decorating stuff. As soon as you enter Michael's, look to your left and up. It should be up there. :) I made these sugar snow people to put in the yard of the house I make. Aside from the gator and flamingo I made at the ICES conventions this summer, these are the first characters I've modeled from fondant and gum paste. I'll post pictures of the gingerbread house this weekend when it's completed.

Tulips!

I just love tulips! They are my all-time favorite flower. I think I especially their simplicity & clean lines and their large waxy leaves. Adam bought me some tulips this weekend and I just love looking at them! I'm designing a wedding cake around tulips for a competition in February - I hope I don't destroy the tulip's beauty when I attempt to make it out of sugar!

Triple Threat Throwdown - Round 1

Lourdes, one of my labmates, recently challenged me to a bake-off. Of course, I was up for the challenge - any excuse to bake! We put various categories into a "hat" and Jiejin, the official Throwdown Director, drew the category at random. Round 1 = A Delicious Simply Decorated Cake. To make it more interesting, I recruited a third competitor, Elise. And so it became the Triple Threat Throwdown!

Coincidentally, all 3 of us made a variation of a chocolate cake! Here's Lourdes' cake - Chocolate Decadence with Luscious Mocha Frosting (Cake 1).

Elise's cake was called Chocoholic's Dream Cake (Cake 3). I have to give a shout out to Elise who competed in the throwdown with a 5-month old baby at home AND the baby got sick the night of the throwdown! Talk about multitasking!


And my cake was Strawberry & Chocolate Delight (Cake 2):


Each person received a plate that looked like this:
Each person also received a ballot where they rated each cake up to 5 points in each of the following categories: Presentation, Texture, Taste, and Overall Balance. In all, there was a possible 20 points from each person and, since 13 people voted, a total possible value of 260 points.

And the results:
Third place = My cake with 213 points
Second place = Elise's cake with 222 points
First place = Lourdes' cake with 235.5 points

Congratulations Lourdes! Soon we'll be drawing for the category for Round 2. A new group of judges (ones that aren't so partial to Lourdes...all 13 voters knew Lourdes while only 4 knew Melanie and 1 knew Elise) will be invited and it will be held at either Melanie's or Elise's houses! Also, a special thanks goes out to Thomas and Jiejin! Jiejin did an awesome job preparing the ballots, creating the award certificate, counting the votes, and directing the throwdown! And Thomas was a terrific assistant director! In fact, here's a picture to show how seriously Thomas and Jiejin took their votes!


And last, but not least, here's a shot of the 3 competitors - Elise, Lourdes, and me.

Great Season Fusion!

This is my last season playing soccer. I know, you're thinking..."You've been playing since 5th grade, are you sure you can quit???" We all know I've tried to quit at least 2 other times in my life, and I always come back to it. But, this time is different. Life is much busier now and I have other things demanding my attention - especially cake-related things. Between labwork, teaching cake decorating classes, and decorating my own cakes, I just don't have time to make it to practices anymore. In any event, I made a cake this weekend to celebrate a great season with my teammates. We played the first game of the tournament on Sunday and lost, unfortunately, but I don't think that completely knocks us out of the tourney. I think the cake helped cheer everyone up - at least a little bit!

This cake is a yellow cake flavored with some orange zest so it has a hint of orange flavor. The buttercream was also flavored with Grand Marnier and orange juice concentrate. In between cake layers, I put a thick layer of bittersweet chocolate ganache. Next time I make this cake, I probably won't put the ganach in the center...I don't really enjoy a hard chocolate center. I like cakes with a soft, mousse-like center.

Adam had to guard the cake with his life during the game. It started raining midway through the first half so he had to run the cake to the car and then go back to get it when the game ended. He's my special assistant! Not only is he good at washing dishes and running to Publix for forgotten ingredients, but is also good at transporting cakes!

Dog Days Race

This weekend we took Nani to a 1-mile race that you run with your dog. There were all kinds of dogs there - from a dog that looked just like the one from Beverly Hills Chihuahua to large, powerful ones. Coming into the race, we knew they were going to give away prizes like "Most Likely to Pull Owner," "Dog-Owner Look-Alike," etc. Of course, we were hoping for a prize, but we really just wanted to have some fun with Nani and attempt to socialize our little scaredy cat!

She did really good in the race! We let the majority of the pack go ahead of us before we even started running. Nani is especially nervous when things are behind her. Once we started running, it worked out well because there was a little boy running right in front of us. Nani loves to chase kids so she was having a great time! We ended up passing the little boy and the pack spread out enough that no one was directly behind us anymore. By that point, Nani was really running in stride and she was doing awesome! Every once in a while, we'd pass a dog on a poopy pit-stop and we'd crack up laughing. We have no idea what place we came in, but we were proud of her for running the whole mile!

After the race, they started giving away the prizes. Our little Nani won the highly coveted prize of "Cutest Dog"! Here are a few pictures we took of her back at home after the race.