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Learn Cake Decorating From Home!

Wow! Check out these decorating classes from Craftsy!  If you've always wanted to learn cake decorating Craftsy is the place to learn!  And what's even better is you can learn in the privacy of your own home.  Get some ladies together and have a cake decorating party class!  Check them out and get busy learning what you've always wanted to learn!  Below, I've posted several links to the variety of classes they offer......

           

           

                 

Instant Cake In A Cup

I'm baaacckkk!  Sorry it's been so long since I've posted.  My life has taken several turns in the last year that has kept me busy and unfortunately for you, taken away from my blog time! I saw a post on Facebook this morning and thought you'd enjoy!

We all like cake but don't always want to bake then entire thing for risk of eating it all!  This idea is excellent for single servings of cake that is premixed and stored in an airtight container until ready to use.  All you'll need is two boxes of cake mix.  One will be any flavor you prefer and the other MUST be Angel Food cake mix.  Mix them together in a large bowl, then store them in any airtight container.

When you have that urge for a quick dessert, just drop 3 Tablespoons of the dry mixture into a large coffee mug and stir in 2 Tablespoons of water, mixing well. Put it in the Microwave for one minute and vwala!  You have your dessert ready to eat as it is, ice it or top it with your favorite icing, nuts, ice cream or fruit!  This idea is a really great children's project for those rainy days when they're stuck inside with nothing to do!

Nice idea, yeah?

Until next time..........happy baking!

Make It Festive To Set The Mood

It amazes me just how quickly the months roll by as I get older.  It seems like just last week we celebrated Independence Day and now Thanksgiving is upon us.  So I got to thinking about my past Thanksgivings with family and friends and how differently each of us decorate, cook and just enjoy each others company.

When I was young we always had a huge spread of food and all of the family got together.  If we went to my  "Mammaw Babus'" house we had one full table of food and one full table of dessert that she baked herself from scratch.  That was always my favorite table!  Thus this blog.....and my waist size! (smile).  But as I look back I think of all my friends who really went borderline-overboard with the decorations in order to make the spirit of the holiday that much more enjoyable.

We can see those traditions continuing and actually increasing amongst our younger generations.  And why not?  With all the new innovations and creative ideas popping from every corner of the world who wouldn't want to splurge to make things special?

When it comes to dessert it's always a plus to make sure the children have something sweet but also fun.  Cake pops are one idea that is relatively new with more and more people experimenting to come up with their own unique ideas.  One really neat idea I found for dessert are these Turkey Pops, found at Bakerella.com.  These little guys are simple to make and fun for the kids!

And another version using Oreo cookies was found at Cake Pops Galore.  These require a few more ingredients but I think they're worth it!  I mean who doesn't like Oreo's?  You can find other cake pop ideas for a slew of events at Cake Pops Galore.

A couple years ago I created a blog hosting some of my own creations for Thanksgiving, featuring my cupcake cakes.  I'm seeing more versions of my Turkey around the Net.  Awesome!  That means it's a great idea! (smile)  If you follow this link you can see some of those ideas Thanksgiving cake ideas.  Working for Walmart was great because they allowed me to do my own holiday cakes. These were selling as fast as I could make them!  How much fun is that; to see people grabbing something I designed myself!

In addition to dessert, table decor is very important to stir the excitement of the Day.  Creating a nice centerpiece is one way to set everyone in the mood!  And how 'bout this one?  I found the photo on kitchendaily.com but the link lead to no idea of how to make them!  My guess is they bought the pipe cleaners, eyes and colored foam from a craft store and glued them onto some miniature varieties of squash.  You can usually find hat patterns on the Internet.  Too cute!  And a great idea!

And this was so simple but really very elegant idea; lightly spray painting the squash.  I found the next two ideas at The Lady's Home Journal: 

And this next one is just glued/bonded together dried beans, lentils, etc and placed in the cornucopia.

Aren't these just so beautiful?  I love the ideas!  There are literally hundreds of websites where you can gather ideas that can cost little to nothing or if you prefer to spend some money you can find those ideas also!  Check out some of these sites for just a few great ideas for the upcoming holiday:

Good Housekeeping
Fashionably Southern
Digs Digs
Bravo Bride
Lady's Home Journal

Best of wishes from my family to yours!  Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Until next time........happy baking!

Learn from the pro's how to professionally decorate cakes using various methods and with very little cost to you following the links below!

             

Don't Forget One Key Ingredient!

My daughter is in the Air Force, (stationed in Dover, DE) and was coming with her husband for a two week visit.  She told me she wanted to entertain the kid in him by making him a Star Wars birthday cake for his 31st birthday.  "Sounds great" I said.  I haven't made any cakes in quite a while so I was up for the job.  

We bought all the ingredients and set to work making and coloring the icing, baking the cake, etc.  I decided to use the frozen buttercream transfer method to make the Star Wars emblem; so I put that in the freezer. This time I remembered to flip my emblem backwards so when I lay it on the cake it was the right way!  Something was strange though, I kept noticing the icing wasn't going as smoothly as it should have.  When icing the cake the icing rolled up as I spread it but I didn't worry because I knew it tasted fine but was just a little thick and I knew I could use a paper towel to smooth it down like fondant.

Well we got every thing made and decorated the cake and it was alright.  I wasn't really happy with it but like I said it tasted fine and looked acceptable.  Everybody loved the cake and bragged on it but I still couldn't figure out what went wrong.....until about 3am the next morning.  That's when I was going over the ingredients in my mind, as I slept and it hit me!  I didn't add the one ingredient that would have made this cake perfect.......you guessed it!  The milk/water!  OMG!  What was I thinking?  What amazes me even more is that only a tablespoon of this key ingredient would have made all the difference in the world!  The recipe calls for more but that's all it would have taken for the transfers!

So when you're in a rush and you think you have it all together, check and re-check your ingredients!  

Until next time.......Happy Baking!