741.642 (Children's Books)

UW-Madison hosts an annual Edible Book Festival where groups or individuals make representations of books out of edible materials. A few of my colleagues at Memorial were directly responsible for putting the festival together and I decided that I should probably create an entry for the festival.

I had a tricky time choosing a book to work with - I was torn between two different books - but my students at the elementary schools where I work and my fellow SLIS grads helped me decide to go with my favorite picture book of all time: "We Are In a Book!" by Mo Willems.

I decided to go a little punny with my cake and change the phrase "We Are In a Book" that is shouted by Elephant and Piggie to "We Are On a Cake" and my little punny turn-o'-phrase ended up winning me a prize! I won the "Funniest/Punniest Cake" award and took 2nd place in the People's Choice vote!

My cake also became famous, getting coverage on Eating in Madison A to Z and I was quoted in a UW Library News & Events article written by a fellow SLISer! Oooh, and a Flickr set of all the entries! Without further ado, the cake!

779 (Photographic images)

So, this isn't a post about cake (there'll be one this week yet, promise), but it is about my kitchen, or more specifically, about my refrigerator  Like many fridges, mine has collected a plethora of magnets, photos, save the dates, and other various pieces of paper. It looked something like this:

Before

Now it looks something like this:

After

After seeing this post from A Diamond in the Stuff on Pinterest, I thought I should try a fridge photo gallery of my own.

I went to the Dollar Store and bought 7 dollars worth of picture frames and a dollar worth of glue.

4x6 frames without glass and back

I removed the glass from the frames and the stands from the cardboard backer.

"Leg" removed from backer

 I then gave the picture frames a spray coat of plastic primer, and then a coat of spray paint.

Primer coat

Spray painted frames

Once the frames were dry, I put the glass back into the frames and mounted pictures. Once the pictures were firmly inside the frames, I glued magnets onto the backs of the picture frames.

Magnets added

I then put the pictures back on the fridge:

After

In my opinion, a THOUSAND times better - the frames look nice on the fridge and will make it easy for me to switch out photos when I want to put up new ones. Leaving a little bit of space blank let me rotate out new pictures of my nephew and other updates, such as new save the dates and appointment reminders.

745.926 (Three-dimensional arrangements for special occasions)

My brother-in-law is a Marine and he and his lovely bride were supposed to be married this July, but being a part of the Corps, my brother-in-law found out that he'll likely be shipping out sometime in September. This meant that the wedding that was supposed to happen in July had to happen sooner... and the two of them went from having 5 months to plan to having 5 weeks to plan and I suddenly became a florist!

I figured I'd post pictures of the bouquets and centerpieces. The bride ordered the flowers from Costco and had them delivered to my door the Wednesday before the wedding. They arrived in boxes that looked like this:

I had to de-thorn and de-leaf all of the roses (300 stems) and make sure that they were placed in water. With so many different stems, they went in 5 gallon pails and coolers to get transported to the bride's parents' house to be made into bouquets. 

It was the coldest 4.5 hour car trip the hubs and I have EVER had. The flowers had to be kept cool in order to keep them fresh and in good shape for the wedding. Looking back now, we should have had all the stems delivered Thursday, but we weren't sure on the time it would take for the flowers to fully open.

An afternoon was spent making 3 bridesmaid bouquets, the bride's bouquet, and 6 small table centerpieces. We picked up baby's breath the morning of making the bouquets before all the ladies (myself included) went to have our nails done. The bride and I then hit up JoAnn Fabrics to pick up ribbon and bouquet 'bling'.

While I'm not a professional florist (a professional florist would probably give me shit about my bouquet making skills), the flowers looked great for the day of the wedding and met all of the bride's expectations! Whoot! Here are the pictures of the flowers the day of the wedding. The professional photographers captured them much better, but I'm just glad they held up for the day.

I know it's not cake, but enjoy!

Bride's Bouquet

Bouquet 'Bling'

Bridesmaid's Bouqets (black centered gerbs for maid of honor)

Bride and Groom (as seen through centerpiece)

Table Centerpieces

641.568 (Cooking for special occasions)

A SUPER special occasion just happened - and that would be my husband's 30th birthday! My parents stopped down to celebrate with us and in order to better celebrate his birthday, I baked a cake and decorated it with my FAVORITE, SUPER SIMPLE type of decoration - the rosette!

6" layer cake (white) with buttercream icing

Having seen the technique a thousand and a half times on Pinterest, I decided it was time to try the all rosette cake cover for myself.

Ombre technique inside and out the cake

To stack, frost, and completely cover the 6" cake in rosettes took about 10-15 minutes and produces a BEAUTIFUL cake. I used the ombre technique in green (since it's my husband's favorite color) to make the inside just as pretty as the out. There's a thin layer of buttercream between each of the cake layers as well.

Green ombre using buttercream

I am completely in love with this cake technique and will DEFINITELY be using it again in the future!

635.3 (Edible leaves, flowers, stems)

So this post might not be about actual edible flowers, but it is about flowers piped with frosting, which is edible.

Royal Icing "Primroses"

The types of flowers I make most often are those made out of royal icing. The beauty of royal icing is that, like a well preserved book, the icing flower will last forever if stored properly. Royal icing flowers harden up and since they are made of only water, meringue powder, and powdered sugar, if kept in an airtight container in a cool place, they will last for years.

Royal Icing Violets, Roses, Lilies, and Daffodils

One batch of royal icing will make dozens of flowers. My Wilton instructor suggests making more flowers than you need for your project and simply store the rest for "quick cakes", and I'm apt to agree. Having a container of pre-made flowers in the cupboard is nice when you have to suddenly decorate cupcakes or need a "special" piece for a cake.

The down-side to royal icing flowers (if there is one) is that they are a little "crunchy" if not placed on buttercream long enough for them to soften. I personally like the crunch of royal icing, but not everyone does. Many royal icing flowers can be make with a stiff buttercream icing as well.

Petal technique on cupcake in buttercream icing

Petals made with a LARGE petal tip and a slightly stiff buttercream can cover a cupcake, giving it a very feminine appearance. Large "Wilton" roses can be piped onto a cupcake using the same petal tip, as seen at center bottom below:

Petal technique on cupcakes, including a buttercream rose.

I use a Wilton tip# 125 to cover cupcakes with petals, and a Wilton tip# 104 for my more "normal" sized roses and petaled flowers.

Piped flowers are only one type of floral technique I use on cakes and cupcakes. More types of flowers to come soon... perhaps even an ode to my favorite "floral" technique, the simple and under appreciated rosette.

641.86539 (Cake decoration)

Happy Wednesday!

It all began Summer 2012, when I took a Wilton cake decorating course at the Michael's Arts and Crafts near my home. There, I learned the decadent ways of cake and buttercream, learned to sculpt frosting into flowers, roll and press fondant, and wield a bag of royal icing with a supple dexterity... okay, maybe that's a bit of a stretch.

For my very first post, I decided to show the world where I started - in class! Having a day job as an educator and a librarian, I have quite a bit of love for learning just about anything, so knowing that I love cake like a fat kid loves...well...cake, I thought that a Wilton class was right up my alley.

Sculpted gumpaste flowers

Like everything that takes practice and determination, I spent a good part of my summer (approximately 8 weeks) feeding my "practice" to summer camp colleagues at Wednesday morning meetings (hence the "Happy Wednesday" cake above). They provided feedback on my cake/frosting combinations and saved me from having to either eat all the cake myself, or, god forbid, trash it.

Rosette swirl with buttercream

The goal of this blog is to simply write and post and get into the habit of actually documenting my habit because unlike my sewing habit and crafting habit, the products of a baking habit don't stick around - they get eaten. Talk about a "transient beauty"!

Final cake for Wilton II. Vanilla cake and frosting with royal icing flowers.

So here is to the "foundations" of my education -- the first products of my cake decorating classes -- the good, the bad, and the sometimes ugly (why I used this startling green, pink, orange, yellow, and violet color combination on this cake, I will never know). Blog posts from here on out will either be themed or educational, with a good smattering of library/education posts here and there. Posts will be here and there (as I'm working on my MLS - Masters of Library Science), but I continue to bake, so posts will continue to happen. Let's bake!

Basket weave piping technique on side of cake.