So...I nearly crushed my finger...

We all know what a fishing story is, right? Well, if not, let me explain.
It's a story about someone having a small problem reeling in a medium/small
sized fish and then the story explodes exponentially with each telling and
by each person involved in the situation. That's what I kind of feel like
my story is going to be, lol.

The other night I was making a cake for a lady at my church. She needed a
relatively huge cake. It turned out about as big as the Construction Cake.
Anyway, I wanted to use a wooden cutting board I had stowed for such an
occasion. I could not find it and Andrew didn't know off the top of his
head where it was either. So, being the procrastinator I am, I didn't have
time for a wild goose chase. I decided I'd make the board out of some scrap
plywood in our shed. Oh, by the way, this was 8:30/9:00 the night before I
needed to get it delivered.

I found the plywood I needed, but it was all the way in the back and I
couldn't get it out easily. I had to open up the back door of the shed to
slide the plywood out the door and then back into the shed so I could cut it
in the light of the shed. (Remember, it's dark and the only light I have is
a solar light on the inside.) The shed has a barn-type door in the back
with a siding outside and studs on the inside. I wasn't paying attention to
where my hands were in comparison to where the door was. I made one good
tug at the plywood and this happened:

While they were on my finger. The only thing I can guess is that the ring
took all of the blow. The stone was up against the door stud and the
plywood hit the band. I came out with just a bruise, but I still finished
the cake! :D Well, finished it the next night. Andrew found the cutting
board right after this happened....

Here's the cake! :D

Cake Decorating Class

Isn't this awesome?!

And, no the cake itself is not hanging upside down, lol.

Can you believe this was done by a first time cake decorator and high school senior? I can't. Everybody was showing me up that night.

My church's youth group had a girls' night sleep over back in May, and they needed something to do. So, I volunteered to bring some cake and icing and "teach" some basic decorating techniques. It was a lot of fun. :) And, like I said earlier, everyone had an awesome cake! I couldn't believe the talent everyone already had. I was so proud.... *tear, sniff* :) Here are some more pictures.

These are the two senior girls that came. Congratulations Senior Class of 2009! :)

Birthday Cakes and Tasting Appointment Tonight

I know what you're thinking:

"Two posts in one day?!? Is this girl crazy or something?" Well, as I was writing this one, I remembered that I forgot to post one about the pies. Interesting wording, huh? Anyway, here's a very rare, second post for the day.

I’m so excited about tonight. A friend of mine is ordering a cake—a free cake, but it’s an order nonetheless—and is coming over for a taste test. It’ll be my first time making cake and icing for a customer to try and see which one they like. It was supposed to have happened last night, but the weather was horrible over here. Tornados, straight-line winds, and torrential down-pours lasted until about 9 or 10 o’clock last night, and a tornado watch was in effect until 2:00 AM this morning.

Anyway, her birthday was last week, but she didn’t get a cake. I felt so bad about going to her birthday shin-dig and not bringing a cake. Especially since she knows about Andrew’s and my business dream and has been spreading the word around. So, she called on Wednesday to order and tell me what she wants. She’s ordering a chocolate cake with butter cream or regular sugar icing. The icing is what she really wanted to taste test because I told her in the real cake world, there is a difference and that I prefer the real butter cream icing over the other on a chocolate cake. I didn’t tell her this, I’ll wait until tonight, but I’m also going to give her a choice of chocolate cake. I found some Chocolate Fudge cake mix when I went shopping and knew I just had to try it….umm….I mean my friend just had to try it. So, I got that and some devil’s food. [Thinking about what I just typed] I’ve always said it, but it’s really funny to type that flavor of cake. I guess because chocolate is “sinful,” it’s called devil’s food. Sorry for the tangent thought.

I had been thinking of how to make the cakes and also make her a sample of it without having to eat two whole cakes and buy another mix of the one she liked. It worked out perfectly that we are tasting tonight instead of last night so I can just make both cakes like I normally would, but reserve a little bit and put it in a ramekin for her own tiny cake. I was quite proud of myself for thinking of that. Then, whatever cake she likes the least will probably turn into cake pops like what Bakerella makes. I love those little things! And plus Andrew made some recently and they were SOOOO delicious. And, the cake pops will go with me sometime Saturday to our church where the “youts” are having a car wash.

The second birthday cake is for Andrew’s best man. His birthday was almost two weeks ago. Yes, we’re a little behind, but remember why we are---

I just love this house. The kitchen may be small, but it’s still a lot bigger than the apartment.

And, I love the investment we made in a steel worktop table from Sam’s. It’s one of the best $80’ish we’ve spent on a kitchen item. I got to find out just how much I loved it when I made fried apple pies. Those batches went SOOO much smoother at the house with room to work with than the apartment.

Well, I’ve already made this post a lot longer than what I had planned. So, I’ll post with updates soon—really this time. I know sometimes my soon means months, but seriously, I’m going to do better.

Procrastination Pays Off on Fried Apple Pies

I have a confession. After I posted about National Pie/Pi Day, I completely forgot about it. Here was a holiday that I could fix a pie, and I forgot! I was so sad and couldn’t believe I did. It wasn’t until the day was almost over or the next day that I had realized. So, I did what most procrastinators do best—I waited.

I had thought about making something for a co-worker’s birthday that was the week before. I didn’t know it was his birthday until it had past (he was working on location in Shelby County that week). Several days went by and I still didn’t make anything. The procrastinator in me was doing it again—waiting, I didn’t know what for, but I was waiting.

St. Patrick’s Day rolled around and I still didn’t do anything.

Then it dawned on me: Why not have all three celebrated at once? So, I waited again. lol. Since St. Patrick’s Day was on a Tuesday, I decided to wait until Friday to bring in my pies. But then I thought that wouldn’t work so well because Fridays are bagel/muffin days at work and I didn’t want to compete with that delicious treat. Thursday was just going to have to do, procrastination or not.

The next question was: What am I going to fix? I thought about making tiny apple pies in a tiny aluminum tin and I thought about fried pies. [drooling] I love fried pies…. So, that’s what I went with, apple, cherry FLAVORED cranberry, and apricot fried pies. Andrew’s reaction to my thinking about making fried pies also helped with that decision.


Let me explain why I made “flavored” all-caps. I went to the store to get dried apples, cherries, and one more fruit/berry. I wasn’t paying attention and only saw “cherry” on the bag, and did not see that it was an ocean-spray bag, which usually only sells cranberries…[face palm] I realized what I had done after I emptied the bag into the pot and actually read the print. lol. Needless to say, those cranberries got a TON of sugar to mellow out the tart flavor.




I invited a friend of ours over to taste test because he’s a huge fan of my fried pies. He loved the apple ones and almost would only eat that flavor, until that night. He ended up preferring the cherry flavored cranberries, which turned out to taste a lot like cherry. [sigh of relief]


I love to invite people over for taste testing. Except when the food turns out not as good as I thought it would, and then I feel really bad for having people eat it, even if they’re being polite.


With the exception of having to use toothpicks to identify which pie was which flavor, they turned out pretty good, and only two were left out of the 15 I brought to work for the 7 employees at work that day. This is including me. I had to have one. And, man, was it good, especially warmed up in the microwave. DELICIOUS! And, I made a cute little sign to go on top of the carrier, which said:

Happy Belated
Pie/Pi Day
St. Patrick’s Day
Birthday to CJ

Well, it was just a quick print out of that and how to tell which pies have what number of toothpicks in them on a grassy green piece of scrapbook paper. I liked it though.

Oh, I didn’t mention this. Andrew and I bought a brand new fryer to use for these pies. I hope we didn’t waste 80 bucks on something we’re not going to use that often. You, know since fried food is really kind of bad for you. I think you can steam vegetables in it, too. We’ve got to figure it all out. It’s nice though, since I’m used to old Fry Daddy bucket fryers. Those are dangerous. I would be very cautious and somewhat scared I was going to dump the grease all over me. But, this new one is a sturdy box of a fryer with cool-touch handles and a digital thermostat. This was obviously an Alton Brown inspired purchase on Andrew’s part. Oh! And there’s no plastic lid that you can melt. And, yes, I’m speaking from experience. Lol.



At this point, I think I need to start thinking of a catchy ending phrase. You know, like “You stay classy, San Diego. I'm Ron Burgundy?” Wow, that was a pretty random thought. lol.

Mmmm....Pies

I just found out from a favorite blog of mine, Cakespy, that Saturday, March 14, is National Pie Day. Well, it’s actually one of two, but she explains that in her post--Humble Pies. So, I’ve figured out what I’m going to do Saturday besides move.

Oh, yeah. I haven’t mentioned that yet. We’ve bought a house….. YEA!!! We are so excited to be out of our apartment and moving into a house. Here’s our “take a picture in front of the SOLD sign” picture right after signing on the dotted line.

Anyway, back to pie. I was thinking of making one in between moving trips, especially now that I have a bigger kitchen and a pantry and a NICE stove, oven, fridge, dishwasher, etc., etc. I kind of want to go with the traditional apple pie with a nice scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. Yum! But, I may try something off that list from Cakespy.

We’ll see what happens….

Oh, and be looking for me on Etsy.com in the next few weeks. I’m going to try to start putting up some stuff on there. I have a few ideas right now, but I don’t want to say anything yet. You’ll just have to be surprised.

A wrap up of this year--part 2.

(Spongebob voice) "Part 2?! Part 2, part 2, part 2.....!!" Yes, I am a Spongebob fan. But, before you start groaning, just remember how old Spongebob really is--10! Yes, Spongebob turns 10 this year! I was barely in high school when it first came out, and now I'm in my mid-twenties. And, yes, again, he has really been around for that long. I can't believe it either. The other day, Andrew and I sat down and turned the TV on to find out Powerpuff Girls was actually on CN. So, we were all like "Yes! Finally, some good, classic stuff." (At least, for us.) Then, CN just had to do it--they announced it was a 10th anniversary of the Powerpuff girls and was having a special "new" episode on next. We looked at each other saying "10 years?!?" No, that can't be. It's true, though. Just look it up on IMDB.com.

Anyway, I digress. On to cakes!

These are some really cute turkey cupcakes for Thanksgiving Day. The idea came from the book Hello Cupcake. It's an adorable book with the cutest cupcakes you have ever seen. So, I decided to make these for my family for Thanksgiving. My mom made some place cards with some Bible verses about thanks and giving thanks for last year and used them again this year. I had a whole lot of help with these cupcakes. Two of my little cousins, an older cousin, and a date of another one of my older cousins helped. Andrew just, well, I don't know where he went. He just kind of disappeared. Haha...


They were cute, but I couldn't find all the stuff to make them. The caramel frosting turned out to be more of a ganash instead of a frosting and the mini cupcake wouldn't stay on top of the big cupcake. So, I had to use a lot of toothpicks to get all the stuff to stay on. It was a little morbid to be poking toothpicks into the turkeys' forheads, but what else could I do. It was either a headless turkey or jab a toothpick into them. They were still delicious though.



This was pretty cool too, and heavy. I am a member of the Madison County Band here in Huntsville. It's a concert band and one of the officers found out I make cakes. Well, I may have helped a little with that. Anyway, Andrew and I were asked to make a cake for our Christmas concert reception. A cake that would feed 120-200 people! The biggest cake yet. So, we decided to make a gingerbread village cake. It turned out to be more of a town square, but it was still cute. Unfortuately, nobody touched the cake! Everyone was all "It's too pretty!" lol. So, I was told several times that I was going to have to cut it myself and eat some because nobody else would. I didn't want to because that cake was 4-11"x15" cakes with tons of plain/vanilla frosting and tons of gingerbread, etc, etc. I was tired of cake. Just thinking back now to that night is making me a little nausous. I ended up doing that anyway, and a few people ate some, but we were left over with a ton of cake. So, it got wrapped up and frozen for the next week for our Christmas party...still only three or four pieces were eaten. Ahh..oh well. It was a nice $200 center piece. lol.



These were delicious cupcakes that I made, also for work. They were my own (sort of) concoction peppermint cupcakes. Regular cake mix with peppermint extract and peppermint flavored frosting with crushed peppermint candies. I ended up, coincidentally, making them and giving them to everybody on National Cupcake Day. After that Monday had past, I found out about National Cupcake Day and was wishing that I had done something. Then, it hit me--I did! Yea! Yes, it's the little things. Especially when I am at work and staring at my computer screen all day. I think these went over better than the halloween cupcakes. My manger/boss guy kept saying all day, "I need another cupcake." It was funny. They were surprisingly refreshing, too. Most all cupcakes I've made and eaten needed a glass of milk or water to rinse it down. Not these, though. The peppermint left your mouth refreshed and actually wanting more...a lot more!



This was a simple little baby shower cake for the youth pastor's wife at my church. The ladies throwing her the party just wanted something simple and traditional. I wanted to put animals on the ark, but I decided to simplify things for myself.

Still more to come later.

A wrap up of this year--part 1.

Well, I am back. And I'm sorry for not posting for a really long time. Full-time day jobs seem to always get in the way. lol. Anyway, a lot has gone on since October and have a got a ton of pictures for you. I won't put it all in one post to save you some reading time. So, without further ado, here you go.

First off, this one was before my Mom's birthday flower pots. Here's a "chocolate bar" cake. A girl in our youth's Sunday School class that Andrew and I teach was having a birthday and she was talking about just wanting a huge chocolate bar for her birthday. It was actually a huge conversation and "you just had to be there" to get it. The cake is chocolate with chocolate fondant. It was fairly easy to make. There wasn't really any crazy stuff happening with this cake. Thank goodness.



These cupcakes were AWESOME. I loved them, anyway. I had made them mostly for work for some halloween goodies. They were regular white/vanilla cupcakes with a peanut butter frosting, chocolate molds with orange colored chocolate webbing, and a halloween pumpkin and fall leaves sprinkles for decoration. The difficulty with these were the chocolate molds. They just kept breaking and especially during handling and the kitchen was warm--all just not good conditions for setting up chocolate. So, I just ended up putting them all in halloween type cupcake cups and they turned out just fine. Everybody at work loved them, too.





Here's the last cake for this post--my first topsy turvey cake. I'll have to dedicate a whole post just for this cake. This was also for the family that we did the construction cake back in August. The girl liked soccer, music, shopping, and, since she was turning 15, driving. So, we incorporated all those themes into this cake with her favorite colors green, pink, and brown. The brown was the chocolate cake. Then, for the frosting/icing in the middle we used a cookies and creme frosting.




More to come later.