For the Love of Cake

Today is my Daddy's birthday.

We celebrated his birthday this weekend, on Sunday.  But on Friday, I made a cake.

With concentrated gel food dye.

Don't worry, I dropped my wedding rings off for a cleaning, check up and re-dipping.  I didn't lose them.

The concentrated gel did fun things to my fingers.  And my icing bag.  And my counter.  And my mixing bowl.

It turned them pink.  Everything is returning to it's normal color, but I've had pink tinged hands all weekend....  and I need to drink more water, my hands are so swollen!

I really wanted to make this cake, though.  My sketch turned out better than the actual cake, but, I still like it a lot.

And my Dad did, too.  Even though he called it a loser cake since the Wings got knocked out in the second round of the playoffs.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Love,
Your Little Girl

Happy Mother's Day!

For Momma's Day this year, I made cakes.

After what we've been through this year, we are extra, extra, extra thankful for our moms this year.  And all of our family, really.

So, to celebrate, I made cakes, one for each mom.

This is my Mom's cake:



Complete with my parents' crazy dog, TJ chasing a baseball!

And this is my Mother-in-Law's cake:



This got decorated really, really quickly, while everyone was at my apartment because the pan arrived at 12:15p or so on Saturday.  1 hr 45 min before everyone was due to arrive at our apartment.  Not enough time to bake, cool and decorate a cake properly.  But it turned out cute.  I was hoping to make the coloring the same as Shelton the Sheltie, but all shelties are colored differently, so this one would do.

Both cakes were a big hit.  I'm pretty happy with how they turned out :)

Happy Mother's Day to my Mom, my mother-in-law, Ellen, all of my grandmas and aunts - I love you all.  Also, to all of the mothers out there, especially the ones who are often forgotten on today.  Mothers who are of the foster, adoptive and any other variety than the conventional version, you deserve a happy, relaxing day too.

Now go hug your mom!

Happy Mother's Day!

Let Me Introduce You to Someone Awesome....

With Mother's Day coming up the day after graduation and both my Mommy and my Mommy-In-Law coming here for graduation, we decided to celebrate Momma's Day on Saturday as well as graduation.

Normally, we don't do cakes for Mother's Day, but with the insanity of the last 4 months, we felt that Mother's Day this year deserved a cake.  Or seven.  And I, of course, would make them, because I LOVE to bake things.

Now, we didn't decide to celebrate Mother's Day the same day as graduation until this past weekend.  Which meant, oh snap!  I can't give my Mom a cake and not my Mom-In-Law!  So I have to make 2 cakes.  By Saturday.

I only have one designed, what do I do!?

I did some quick thinking about my Mother-In-Law, what does she like? What are her favorite things?  Bingo.  I had a theme in mind.  I thought about free handing the design on a sheet cake, but with the short time frame, I'd probably end up throwing the cake out the window in frustration.

Then I had a stroke of PURE and UTTER GENIUS.

Special Pan.

Why didn't I think of it before?!

So, I went to my trusty stand-by, Joann.com.  But alas, despite their amazing baking supplies and other craftiness, they did not have the exact pan I need.  They had specialty pans that were close, and I could modify in a pinch, but I really wanted to try and find the type of pan I needed.

Enter: Google.

I search for what I need, finding pans in the right category, but not quite what I need.  I even found a cookie cutter that I almost fell off the couch in excitement when I saw it.  Until I realized it was a cookie cutter.  Cute, but useless in this case.

But finally, finally!  I find a website for a store in Philadelphia: Fante's.

They have the pan I need.

Alleluia!

They also have a bunch of other sweet baking stuff.  Go check it out!!!

I placed an order, asked for priority shipping and wrote a note saying I needed it by Friday in the notes section.  I also put my phone number in too, just to help speed up the process, if they need anything.

My phone rings two hours later.  It's Fante's.  They needed to clarify information, so I clarified what they needed and before we hung up, he told me that they saw my note about needing it by Friday and that they would ship it today so I would have it Friday.

I will reserve full judgement for later this week, but right now -

That's some customer service.

Jack of All Trades and the Master of None

I mentioned in a post a few days ago that I often feel I am a jack of all trades and the master of none. I have many talents and I love them all. But at the same time I am struggling with what direction I want my life to go in. I love so many things, how do I pick just one to do? I'm a very one track mind person when it comes to things like that, almost to the occlusion of everything else. I have phases that repeat on a cycle.

I want to bake cakes for a living.

No, I want to work in community theatre for a living.

No, I want to be an administrative assistant for a living.

No, I want to act.

No, I want to sing.

No, I want to do techie things.

No, I want to teach. (English and History)

It's endless!! The one thing that is always there under everything is my love for ASL and the Deaf community, my husband and my desire to be a mom. So you would think I could be a freelance interpreter and a housewife. But no, I don't want to lose all the things I'm interested in. I want to learn everything I can about every one of those things and I want to learn about all kinds of other things. I just feel that I know so many things and I want to be so many things that I feel like I'm still a kid who has seventy answers to "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

Another option would be to do them all in a circular basis, but I want stability. And I want flexibility. I am distracted so easily!

Oh, look! Something shiny!