Dinner, Drinks, Comedy, More Drinks...and I Spy

Today is a rare day...a day completely off! Free to mould people, dogs, and bunny butts out of gumpaste! Chris is going to play around with some sculpting tonight...we are making dinner....yesterday was devoted to working from 7-4 and then having dinner at Asiana House (sooo yummy!). We got the usual pink lady and volcano maki and also tried the super bowl maki which is a flash fried veggie spring roll rolled inside topped with crab salad and i think lightly torched tuna? Wow! Way too much food...i must warn you: do NOT order the Fire Mountain cocktail....ever. Unless you want to get your ass kicked in under 15 minutes by a $10 drink. I couldn't even drink it...first I tried a mango martini, which was strong (& only slightly sweet!) but maintained low levels of intimidation....however, the fire mountain came literally on fire as a bacardi gold shot inside a margherita glass full of cuervo and what they said was pineapple juice, midori, and lime juice. It definately was bright green. I took a couple sips after dumping the shot into the rest of the emeraldy concoction, but it was straight alcohol! nothing to cut the foul tequila...and I should have known better than to go with cuervo, but our table was near the door and it sounded warm...
We went to see the comedy battle last night after dinner at Higher Ground...it was great! The winner Kevin had me in tears...literally: lines of mascara down the face funny. We had more drinks there and then drinks and the best nachos of all time (california nachos, sans the chicken) at daily planet. After which Chris dropped me off at home and I went online and chatted with some friends. Oh, yeah and I DRUNKENLY I-SPIED THE GUY I'VE HAD A CLOSET CRUSH ON FOR LIKE EVER WHO COMES INTO SNEAKERS SOMETIMES AND WORKS SECURITY AT HIGHER GROUND AND HE WAS THERE LAST NIGHT AND I BUMP INTO HIM EVERYWHERE AND HE LOOKS LIKE A HUNKY VERSION OF MICHAEL CERA AND I THINK HE'S MY SOUL MATE (ON THE DAYS THAT I BELIEVE IN THAT). oh shudder, gasp, sputter, cough...god let me choke on my own saliva and drop dead now so I will not have to live that one down. I actually had the audacity to say in said I SPY that I work at sneakers. Now, hmmmn. Who could have written that one, guys. Could it be the only single girl @ Sneakers?

Seriously, why can't you drop dead from embarassment?!

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Sparkles & Color...the best part?

This morning I gathered up all of my food dye and edible luster dust to decorate my sculpted pieces, which will be my project for the next two days, since I have them off!!! Nothing but cake and cooking for two whole days! Can I get a "woohoo"?

So, for decorating, I use Wilton food dyes and luster dust. Unfortunately, that's all I can find around Burlington...there's really no shop for cake decorators around here. I really need to get some online shopping done, since I'm quickly running out of resources for my ever-expanding techniques: it's great to try to teach yourself, but you can hit a wall when you can't find what you need anywhere in this state. I still haven't gotten an airbrush kit...I'm hoping we'll play with them at school so I can see if it's something I really want. Not having one, I color everything by hand. It's not bad and I've heard many people say that airbrushing should be reserved for car paint and not cakes...

Now, not to talk Wilton down or anything (it's great for the betty crocker based home cook) but they're too simple...too directiony...made for people who spontaneously say "I want to make some rockin' cupcakes with minimal effort." Sorry, I really have no problem with that or with Wilton but I feel like it's too cutesy for taking cake making seriously. Not to mention, they're very limited with sparkly dusts and colors...and cutters, and other assorted tools.

There are these crystal colors that you can find online that are pretty expensive, but they are like superconcentrated powdered color that contains shimmer and a little sparkle and I really want them...maybe I will get them for my going away present to myself!

Shown in the picture are my tools: paintbrushes for administering sparkle and shine, cutters (in the form of letters, numbers, circles, leaves, butterfly, star), paste colors, gum paste mix (for sculpting pieces), shimmer powder, and sparkle-luster dust in every color I could find...it's easiest to knead color into the gumpaste or sugarpaste before it's molded and then go over it with shimmer powder...I like everything to shine and sparkle! The hardest part of the process is waiting for things to dry. Gumpaste can take a couple days...I hate waiting!!!

Anyway, I'm saving the sculpting and coloring fun for tomorrow and tuesday, because tonight after work I'm going to Asiana with Chris for sushi dinner and then the comedy club at higher ground...yay for sunday night plans!

Oh, Robert...and MORE...

So, unfortunately there will be no baking discussed today for two reasons: #1 being I did no baking this morning, and #2, I am way to pissed to talk about cake. I just want to get this out there: if you are a guy and you like a girl then do NOT be a flakehead douche bag to her. Know why? She will get annoyed and then confused and then pissed and her self esteem will teter and then she will realize that she was crazy to spend time being emotionally well, ANYTHING at you anyway since you're not worth a dirty old french fry stuck on the bottom of her payless nonslip work clogs. SO there. Oh, and when you say you're going to call someone, THAT DAY might be a good time. The rest of the world is not awake at all hours of the evening, and just because I wake up at 3 am does NOT mean that I am still awake at 11, 12, or 1 so STOP CALLING ME AT NIGHT!

wow, I feel better. sorry, dating sucks. i'm over it. I just want to marry Edward from Twilight and live happily ever after in vampire ecstasy. goddamn reality, you suck too...

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Oatmeal Coconut Heath Cookies

This morning I'm making some oatmeal cookies with toasted coconut and heath bar bits thrown in. Oatmeal cookies are so versatile and I feel like as long as there's a little cinnamon and enough brown sugar you can really add anything else at all. I've never had an oatmeal variation that I haven't loved...

Still haven't gotten too far with the cakey-type stuff...but I really gotta get on that...so these cookies are going with me to work today...and then after work I get to do more sculpting!!!

See the cookie deliciousness happenin' here?!? I actually wanted to make some cuppies this morning, but I was a little short on time and the cookies seem to be a safer bet for sales anyway...

GIANT GINGER COOKIES!

Hoorah for giant ginger cookies! I finally went to the store and bought butter, flour, eggs, milk, 10x sugar...well, just about everything since I was out of everything...and now my house smells of ginger, spice and everything nice about cookies! (As a bonus, the oven is also making it much warmer in here :) )

I also bought crushed up heath bars to make oatmeal coconut toffee cookies! And next on the menu (for tomorrow morning) is a batch of buttermilk cupcakes with (what else...since I have a handle of it) Bailey's buttercream! I'm opening up the restaurant tomorrow so they will be nice and fresh for work!

Here's a picture of the finished cookies I just made...makes you want one, huh? YUMMMMMM!!!

Gingersnaps...to make or NOT to make....

So I woke up this morning yearning to fill the house with the spicy earthy scent of gingersnap cookies and I got everything ready and realized that I have no ginger. It's only 4 in the morning so I will not be going to the grocery store.
I then decided on coconut cookies, which are another deeply comforting cookie...they smell tropical and they are buttery and melt in your mouth and have a crisp outer edge so you get a little of everything. Then I realized that in fact, I have no butter. So there will be no cookies. I forgot about the cookie bonanza the other day that I came home to after work...Dad and Jo and Colin were home all day baking assorted cookies. And that's where my butter went. You know, for someone whose passion is baking and cooking...I haven't been doing very much of either lately.
Lucky for me I'll be doing nothing else for the next couple years and then hopefully, my lifetime. So, I guess it's ok to take a little break now! Sorry guys...

Playing With Your Food

So mission handmade cake toppers was, um, NOT a great success. I didn't take any photos because no one should be subjected to that. Really. We're talking brightly colored blobs of what looked suspiciously like dog poop rather than miniature people. Hmmm...not to worry! I have just under a month to get that under my belt. and I will do it! Ben & Ruby, Chris, and the drag ball with have the kickassiest cakes....MORE LATER!

Modeling Clay vs. Sugarpaste vs. Marzipan

Today's project is figure modeling!!! I have a couple cakes coming up that will have miniature sculpted figures and assorted small objects hand sculpted out of sugar, so today is a practice run.

What I'm trying to decide before I begin is which medium to use. I've done a little sculpting before (snowman on gingerbread house) and for that I used marzipan...however, many people recommended using modeling clay. That is candy melts melted down and mixed with corn syrup to form a sort of "chocolate" clay, which then dries and can be painted (white chocolate). It's not difficult to make but I've never really worked with it.

Sugarpaste is simple and pliable and I like making it because you get to stick your hands into a huge bowl of 10x sugar (that's powdered sugar) and squish it up with warm corn syrup and gelatin...I don't know about you but I like having sugar up to my elbows!
Marzipan tends to be not as pliable, but it definately beats the others in taste...It's drier and doesn't take to paint as well, so coloring the pieces in advance by kneading in color paste is the best idea...

The other project for today will be mixing gumpaste! Gumpaste is sugarpaste with things added to make it dry quicker and harder. I will use this to make the wheels and trucks for the skateboard cake...

Check out these cakes that I posted...the flowers snowman and "ribbon roses" are all handmade. The snowman is marzipan, the flowers and roses are sugarpaste (fondant).

Down the Rabbit Hole...

So this morning I am sketching designs for an Alice in Wonderland Tea Party themed cake...I looked at some really neat pics of cakes on Flickr and got some really great ideas. Chris Valyou said I should begin with the cake very plain on the top tier, with just a rabbit's back end, going down the rabbit hole...and then make the cake crazier as you go down the next layers...which I think sounds like a good idea...

Still haven't officially baked anything really noteworthy...I've actually been a little under the weather the past couple of days...and I don't want to touch food in between hacking up my lungs and fighting the urge to shoot neon boogers everywhere. Gross.

I'm in the middle of trying to plan a few good projects...Abby is having a super bowl party, so I'm making some cupcakes for that and Chris' 17th birthday is February 19th...I'm going to make him an upside-down skateboard painted to look like the underside of his board...complete with sculpted gumpaste trucks and wheels...sweet!

Aside from those, I'm making Ben Sarle's birthday cake, also for February and I want to make a last kick ass Sneakers cake for my going away party, which Mike and I decided is going to be huge and ridiculous...maybe at the monkey? Not a private party or anything...I just want to get my partying out before school starts. It's going to be intense and I can't afford distractions like that...so more to follow later in the day....unless I get completely ambushed by aforementioned neon boogers...which is entirely possible...I feel better but still like poop...

Cookies and Cupcakes and Cakes...Oh My!

Today there will actually be some baking done! It will be a little later in the day than normal for me, but I'm starting some prep in the kitchen this morning so I have to be at work by 5:30, where I would have actually had today off...

I made some cookies at work on Thursday...yeah...it was that slow...and for the recipe I took a basic Mrs. Fields Oatmeal cookie recipe: tripled the batch, added chocolate chips, coconut, candied walnuts and a splash of Kahlua for some of the vanilla....they were so delicious!!! We ran out yesterday and people were still asking for them off the specials, saying they sounded so good! I had two requests for making them again....maybe later today...

However, I really haven't made cupcakes in awhile...since Christmas I think...so I believe I will be making devils food cupcakes with either marshmallow frosting or creamsicle buttercream...and some marzipan decor...for FUN!!! More to follow after work when the baking begins!!!

3 AM Blues...

So this is the first post for the coming Oven Adventures...unfortunately this morning is devoted to writing scholarship essays, instead of baking...however, tomorrow baking will ensue...

For those of you who don't know, I'm going to the CIA in April (that's Culinary School of America) for Baking/Pastry Arts. In the meantime, I'm teaching myself baking science and decorating styles/techniques. Which is awesome and great fun and pretty hilarious actually. I've photodocumented some of the cakes I've made thus far, though, due to an unfortunate incident involving a disposable camera and me trying to flaunt my nonexistent photography skills, many of the other pics didn't come out...

I tend to ramble, this is nothing new to my friends, but I promise at the end of it all there's a point, and usually, a really cool cake.

So, everyone: stick with me on my learning and caking adventures!!! You're in for a sweet treat...!