Hobby Gone Wild

I've just been baking cakes...  Here's some pictures to bring you up to speed

                                                                Icy has his hat on! 
                                White cake with butter cream icing & marshmallow fondant "coal"

My Mom said "don't make petit fours they are a ROYAL PAIN"  As usual I have to do everything my Mom tells me not to do and learn the hard way...

                          golden vanilla cake with raspberry jam filling, raspberry flavored poured 
                                               fondant & royal icing holly & berries

They came out beautiful but... as usual, Mom was right.

My dearest friend & her husband are celebrating their 28th Anniversary so hubby and I surprised them with the Fred Flintstone "Happy Anniversary" song and an anniversary cake... I must say I think we took them by total surprise.

             Dark chocolate fudge cake with chocolate fudge filling covered in white butter cream icing.

My son TJ needed a desert to bring to a dinner at work so he suckered his Momma into making a cake for him...

Golden vanilla almond cake with butter cream icing, berries & snow.  The cardinal and lettering is marshmallow fondant.  The snowflakes are raspberry flavored royal icing and dusted with pearl dust.  The branches are hand painted with food color & vanilla.

Needless to say I think it looks pretty good despite a few minor bumps in the road.  I hope it "passes' inspection and hopefully someone will take my number from TJ and order a cake sometime.  I seriously need to start supporting this hobby!

So Thankful!

Every day is Thanksgiving day... I just wished I was better at expressing thanks for my blessing (including trials) on a daily basis.  Despite the daily grind we all go through and the interruptions to our concept of a peaceful life (Life happens) we, ALL of us have so much to be thankful for.  When life smacks us with a trial it's so easy to forget what we DO have.  I am going to try harder to have an attitude of thankfulness all of the time.  I am grateful to my Heavenly Father for the blessings he has given me all my life through the rough spots and the smooth ones for bringing me this far.  There's no way I could do anything on my own (anything good anyway).  He deserves all the credit.  I am sorry I don't always remember to thank Him for the gifts i enjoy.  The family I've been blessed to be a part of, food, shelter, clothing, indoor plumbing, electricity, and so much more... for the very air I'm given to breathe.  Without Him I am lost and have nothing.

Today I was able to spend time with family.  I don't always get to see my oldest son and his family on holidays as they live a distance from us but it is always wonderful to see them.  It's a wonderful blessing to be able to share a table with parents, children, grandchildren, in-laws, and of course my husband.  I missed the ones that couldn't be there but was happy to hear from them and see their pictures (I'm thankful for technology).  Yes, I have much to be thankful for.

Since my last post my son and daughter-in-law have moved in and I now have a 'partner in crime' while the guys do whatever it is guys do.  Finally I have a female in the house to balance the testosterone around here!  She helped me this week work on some fondant decorations for our Thanksgiving Day cake.  She went with me to do some Christmas shopping (yep... I'm done, it's wrapped and everything!).  It's nice to have her with us.

I've done a couple of cakes since my last post (are you surprised?).  When I don't have a special occasion to do a cake I try to make one a week anyway and try new things and brush up on my skills.  Dear husband gets tired of cake sometimes I'm sure but he doesn't complain, especially when he has a fork in his hand.  He is the guinea pig to all my experimentation... hope he doesn't mind sharing a bit with the kids now!

                                                        "Practice" wedding cake

                                                   Close up of roses and scroll work

The next one is the cake I made for my family for Thanksgiving.  I call it "Evil Chocolate Cake".  It has two layers of chocolate-chocolate chip cake with a layer of fudge brownie in between, and chocolate fudge butter cream icing.  The decorations are marshmallow fondant.  I need to give credit to my daughter-in-law for her help - she made the sweet little pears, apples and grapes.  The cutest little pears I think I've ever seen too.

                                         You have to admit those little pears are darling.

                 This is my "Evil Chocolate Cake" and my first attempt doing 'basket weave' decorations.

I think it came out pretty good.  I know it tasted downright evil!  Anything that yummy has to be evil!!!  Anyway it went well with the pies as the end of out Thanksgiving feast.  I'm sure thankful too because it was a lot of work.  It's satisfying to serve up something yummy and pretty too.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.  I hope we will all do better (me especially) at remembering to be thankful all of the time.

Happy Thanksgiving!


                                    

Chest Pains or Cake? I'll Take Cake!

Last weekend was a busy one.  I did three cakes.  One for a baby shower, a birthday and one for my Dad's birthday.  All came out pretty good... not perfect (I'm my own worst enemy), but they pass, and they went off pretty good to those involved.  I love to see people smile when they eat my cakes!

                                  This is the cake I did for the baby shower.  2 layer 8" round  
                                     vanilla-almond sour cream cake with vanilla-almond icing.

                 This is my Dad's birthday cake.  Chocolate cake with chocolate fudge icing - the cab 
                   & decorations are chocolate marshmallow fondant and the trailer is covered with
                                                    regular marshmallow fondant.

                              This is a birthday cake too.  It is 3 layers of fudge cake with hazelnut
                               fudge filling and icing.  The flowers are just like the ones I did on the 
                                                  flower pot cake - marshmallow fondant.

Among making the cakes I also got to see my family doctor.  I've been having some alarming symptoms (chest pains, etc.) on and off for a while now and my family history isn't so great so I also got to see a cardiologist. Friday I get to have the pleasure of a stress test.  Yay me.  NOT.  I'm hoping for the best and know that Heavenly Father is in charge and He is good to me all the time.  In the mean time I'll keep praying & keep tinkering with cakes... practice, practice, practice. 

Cake Crisis!

I've spent several days this week working on a cake for my Mom's 65th birthday.  I thought it was gonna be a fairly easy cake to do but darn if the cake itself would cooperate!  The flowers turned out awesome but the rest....  Actually I took pictures right away "just in case" and I think I'm going to be very glad I did.  As the cake is settling it is leaning more and more to one side.  Not sure what that's about because it has plenty of supports to keep it stable.  I suppose it's like me - unstable despite support!  Anyway, I'm pleased with how the flowers came out.  I have preformed a "surgical intervention" on the cake since the pictures were taken and I'm crossing my fingers and saying a prayer that the cake will make it... at least till she sees it in person.  This may not sound like a crisis to anyone else but to me it's a disaster in progress.  Please pray for my cake - and that my Mom will enjoy it if it makes it to her house in one piece!

                                        This is my first attempt at fondant/gum paste flowers. 
                                     I don't think they turned out too bad for being self-taught.

                                                  Oreo "dirt" isn't too bad either!

                                            The leaning flowerpot (before it started leaning)

Just a quick description - The cake is five layers of chocolate cake, with chocolate icing tinted to look like terracotta.  the dirt is Oreo crumbs and the flowers/leaves are marshmallow fondant.

Happy Halloween!

I've done a couple of cakes for Halloween and I'm very pleased with the results on both.  One was also my very first sale!!!  Both made it to cakecentral.com "Favorite Cakes Today" - That's four times now!!!  I am starting to figure out fondant.  The tendonitis and arthritis in my hands rears it's ugly head once in a while but I'm loving what I'm doing... now just to make enough $$$ to break even!  Ugh.  I've got a facebook page for my cakes now and in two weeks time I've picked up enough "likes" to have my page available in the search on facebook.  All progress but am way, way far away from ever breaking even.  Hobbies can be expensive.  I'd just LOVE to support my habit!  Anyway... here are the latest cakes. 

This is my first sale.  I call it "Crunching Leaves".  The little spook is a four layer chocolate cake with chocolate butter cream icing covered with marshmallow fondant.  The shoes, trick or treat  bag and the hand painted leaves are also marshmallow fondant.  A little candy corn was added for effect.

  This cake was my contribution to our church's 'Trunk or Treat' and chili cook-off night last weekend.  This cake is white almond sour cream.  the spook is 4 layers with vanilla-almond butter cream between layers covered in marshmallow fondant.  The shoes are fondant too.  The sheet cake is also white almond sour cream and is decorated with vanilla-almond butter cream and some royal icing.  He was a big hit too!

I've got 3 family members with birthdays in November and I'm already scheming up some ideas for those.  If any of them turn out as well as these I'll be more than pleased.

Happy Halloween!

Two In a Row

Yesterday dear husband and I made a trip to Huntsville and hit a couple craft store to buy cake supplies for my growing hobby.  Glad to have his support but I think it comes more from him liking to eat cake than anything else.  At any rate, we had a good day. 

I've made a couple cake s this week.  One just for us to munch on this week and the other I made for an open house at Church.  I was very pleased with how both f them came out, especially since I'm venturing into the unknown with shaped cakes and fondant.  Apparently even though I've been pleased with them they have caught a little bit of attention on cakecentral.com where BOTH of them made the "Favorite Cake's Today" list!

Here's a look:

This is my Bird Cage cake.  Fur layers of white almond sour cream cake with vanilla-almond butter cream icing & leaves, and marshmallow fondant trimmings, flowers and bird.  Yes... it was yummy!

Here is The Great Pumpkin.  The pumpkin is a pumpkin cake with cream cheese icing covered with marshmallow fondant and the bottom layer (green) is a vanilla cake with vanilla-almond butter cream. It serves 100 people.

Charlie Brown and Linus might be wasting their time this Halloween waiting... this cake was devoured at the open house, and I got some good reviews.

Not sure why I decided to do my first fondant covered cake with a bumpy pumpkin instead of a regular cake but somehow I pulled it off.  YAY ME!

Now, if I could just sell a few of my cakes and recoup some of the expense of my 'hobby'....  Next, try to decide what my next cake adventure should be.

Elbows Deep in Butter Cream

I've been spending a good bit of time brushing up on my cake decorating skills, scouting yard sales for cake pans and equipment, searching out recipes and lots of research.  I've made a few more cakes and cupcakes and am feeling more confident in all of this.  Hubby has thrown in his seal of approval and I ordered some business cards.  Today I started a facebook page just for cakes to show my work at https://www.facebook.com/SweetCakesByPat  Within a short time there were 18 like on my page!  And tonight I took my very 1st order (although not due until December).  I'M STOKED!!!  I just hope i have the physical capacity for this.  So far so good but there is a lot to do.  Fortunately a good bit can be done while sitting so it's all good.  Here are a few pics...

                                                    My first business cards

                                      Did this one between sessions of General Conference

                                   Did this for my Mom while she's convalescing from an injury

                         Did these cupcakes for a congrats to my friend who just got a new house

                                Wanted to do something besides flowers for this birthday cake

I'm really looking forward to the possibilities and hope I'll be blessed with the skills, patience and management of my health to follow this.  I've got high hopes despite myself.  God is so good to me.

God IS Good ALL the Time

I know it’s been quite a while since I posted anything.  Much has been happening and I finally feel like maybe, just maybe I can slow down and take a deep breath again.  

I was planning a big Birthday blow-out for my hubby’s 60^th Birthday.  The invitations had been mailed.  The food bought and I had the cake figured out and baked, the frosting made.  Then… we got a phone call saying my husband’s best friend in all the world had passed away unexpectedly.  Although he lived nearby his family all lived out of state and decided to have his funeral in North East Tennessee about 4 hours away.  They also decided to have it on the same day as the scheduled birthday party.  Of course we canceled the party and went to Tennessee to the funeral.

This was the 3^rd death in our family – my husband’s family (yes, I include our friend in our family) since the end of May.  Hopefully we are done with this cycle for a good while.  It has been quite difficult for our family however.

Many blessings have come our way though.  We were able to do a little genealogy side trip on the way home from the funeral and found the cemetery where the first Knowles to America in my husband’s family tree was.  Nearly every family name in the cemetery was somehow related to our family.  It was a pretty neat thing to finally be able to do and I don’t know if circumstances would have ever permitted such a trip otherwise.

                                           Hubby & the headstone of John Wesley Knowles 

                      The 1st Knowles in America in his family tree - he fought in the Revolutionary War

Another hour or so south of this pit stop is where my oldest son Jack and his family live.  We planned on stopping in for a little while to see them.  We have a new grand-daughter we hadn’t seen in several months and she was 5 months old already!   Also there was a hope of seeing our grandson play football.

We were able to make the stop and were pleasantly surprised to find our middle son Robbie and his family at Jack’s.  They live at Fort Campbell and it was great to have all 3 grandchildren together at one time!  Kellen screamed bloody murder every time I tried to hold her.   She was teething and ‘Granny Pat’ was someone she wasn’t used to.  Little Jack saw me and wanted to go to my park.  We have playthings in our yard for the grandkids and he calls them a park.  I love that kid! We were able to go to Cole’s football game.  He’s 9 and the smallest kid in his league by at least 1 foot and 20 pounds.  I’d never gotten to see Jack or Robbie play football so this was a special treat.  Don’t let his size fool you.  Cole’s like a Mack truck on the football field and plows over anything in his path no matter the size.  He means business on the field.  He made the play of the game too.  He was able to make a tackle, nock the player out of bounds and recover the fumble all in one play.  Who knew?!  We had a great time being with them all.  I love them so much!

                                                   Colton just before his football game

The following weekend we had to go through my Mother-in-law’s estate and the family divided up the things they wanted.  We inherited a great deal of her things.  There were 2 ½ pick-up loads of furniture and things.

More blessing came by way of dear husband’s “garbage picking”.  One day he had stopped to pick up a brass chandelier and stumbled upon 2 boxes of goodies at the same time.  One box held a bunch of outside solar lights to go along the sidewalk and a whole box of baking pans – good quality baking pans – Wilton, Kitchenaid and stainless steel pans!  Just what I needed for doing cakes!

As if that wasn’t awesome in and of itself… a couple weeks later hubby again was driving along and saw a pile of stuff by the roadside.  He stopped and got a pick-up load of things.  I rolled my eyes and thought “great, more crap to get rid of… why does he do this?” when he pulled into the driveway.  He pulled the truck up near the back porch and said “Come see”.  Of course even with the prospect of a bunch of stuff for our own junk pile curiosity gets the best of me so I scrambled down to see exactly what  kind of junk he drug home this time.  

SURPRISE!!!

This truckload had MY name written all over it!!!

There were all sorts of craft items, storage containers – the nice ones that are like drawers (to mention a few), and what do ya know?!  Wilton cake pans and all sorts of cake decorating stuff!  PAYDAY!!!  It was like the person throwing this stuff out KNEW ME and what I needed!!!

I can only attribute these finds to paying our tithing and trying (failing miserably at times) to keep the commandments and do the right things.  Only God could pour out these kinds of blessings.

Anyway, about 80% of this truckload of stuff was keepers for me – the rest was good stuff but I didn’t need it so it went in the yard sale stuff.  At this point it was deemed NECESSARY to have a yard sale… so we did.  We got rained on one day and the turn out wasn’t the best we’ve had by far but… we got rid of some junk and made a couple bucks.

THEN…

After packing up the remainder of the yard sale hubby and I decided to split the money 50/50 and he wanted to run down to a couple of yard sales he knew about if they were still open (yard sales usually end around noon on Saturdays).  The phone rang and it was Robbie.  The first thing out of his mouth was “Do you still got a sewing machine?”  I’ve had one for about 20 years but 4 years ago mine just sort of locked up and I couldn’t do anything with it.  I intended to get it fixed and had put it off for a long time.  I finally called a few weeks ago about getting it fixed and it was only gonna cost $89.00!!!  NOT.  I could buy a new one for that!  Anyway, for some reason I kept it.  He went on with the reason for his call and we visited a few minutes (he never did say why he wanted to know about the sewing machine).  It was about 2:30 but when we jumped in the truck to see if these yard sales were still open.

The first one we looked for was closed but the second one was still open even though they were packing it up.  It was an estate sale.  Everything was %50 off the marked prices.  I scavenged through a bunch of stuff and found a couple things.  Then…   3 sewing machines!  The one was the old pedal type and had a good bit of rust.  Another one was in a sewing table and then a portable Singer machine.  It had a lot more features than mine did and was obviously a lot nicer machine.  It worked and had $50 on it but I got it for $20!  Now I could tell Robbie I had a sewing machine… whatever it was he wanted to know for.  But that’s not all!  I got it home and started fiddling with it.  The light bulb was burned out so I dug out my old one since it was the same brand.  I plugged it in and tried the old one out I don’t know why, but IT WORKED!  I called Robbie to find out why he asked about my having a sewing machine.  He said Sarah was looking for one.  So for $20 Sarah and I both got a sewing machine.  

So.. 2 garbage picking hauls, and sewing machines and all the things from my Mother-in-law’s estate…

The Lord promised that he’d pour out a blessing you’d not have room to receive in Malachi 10:10.

PAY YOUR TITHING!!!

With all of these blessings we’ve done a bit of ‘celebrating’… well I’ve had new stuff to work with so I’ve made a couple of cakes.  I need practice of course!

                                       This is a 'practice' cake... We practiced eating it too!

        This was for TJ & Jessi's 6 month Anniversary since they didn't get a cake when they got married.

Dear husband and I had talked about me taking some Wilton cake decorating classes and I called to see about them.  We decided I could go ahead and sign up but I needed to pay for it ahead of time.  So yesterday on the way to Madison our car started to overheat.  We turned around and headed  back home stopping about every ½ mile to let the car cool down.  It took a bit of time but we were able to get it home.  Now we are in limbo about getting it fixed.  First in finding someone to fix it because our mechanic was almost finished with his Naturalization but his sponsor  passed away before the process could be completed and he was deported to start the process all over again.  And… we are kind of on hold financially now waiting to see about the repair costs.  For some reason however I’m not upset about it.  We still have something to drive and we will be okay.  God is good ALL the time.

Drug Induced Insomnia can Be Productive...

It’s almost time to get up… but I haven’t been to bed yet!  I’m not even tired and I am being “technically” productive (if you count various computer activities).  It seems my pain meds keep me wide-eyed and bushy-tailed.  This has been going on for a while now and sleeping meds don’t seem to make a difference one way or the other.  I know one day I’ll be too tired to move but in the meantime… 

 I’ve been trying to be somewhat productive doing some indexing and arbitrating on FamilySearch.org.  I got to digging around on the website and took a look at the new 1940 Census and found some neat stuff like finding my grandparents (teenagers then) and my Dad was on there too (16 months old).  It’s pretty cool to find documents like that with people you actually KNOW, not just names in your family tree. 

 I’ve done some educational things too like look up tutorials on some things I’ve recently become interested or re-interested) in.  I’ve been inspired to pick up my frosting bag and do a couple of cakes recently.  I did them years ago and just got away from it, but I’m able to do it in small doses thanks to a handy bar-stool dear husband rescued from his ‘garbage picking’.   (His trash picking needs to be a post of its own). Anyway,  I don’t have to be on my feet the entire time and good ol’ Swag bucks allowed me to get a turntable to make decorating easier.  

I made TJ a hamburger for his birthday…

 It was time consuming and required a few breaks but it didn't turn out as well as I had hoped, but it didn't turn out too bad either.  It’s only the 2^nd cake I’ve decorated in at least 10 years.  AND… it was YUMMY!  (The sesame seeds are rice crispies BTW)

I forgot I enjoyed doing stuff like that.  It seems that Pintrest has awakened a beast.  I like being able to ‘hoard’ online and have developed quite a collection of ideas and such on Pinterest. 

My “Swagging” as slowed somewhat due to the indexing, digging up stuff on FamilySearch and doing little things I see on Pinterest  that I’m able to do.  I may not get up and dance, but I am doing some things of value, or at least I feel like I am.  At least I've gotten away from playing computer games 24/7 as a sanity keeper.  Now if I’d just keep up with this blog!