Just a Few Memories

Just some images I took in the 2004 sailing season on Gone with the Wind.

A Gift Just For Me

Sometimes, my sweet kitties will leave me presents to find when I get home from work. It could be a dead, half-eaten spider on the dining table, or a chewed-up plastic ring from a milk jug, or just a toy mouse under a rug for me to step on. A couple months ago, it was 1000 origami cranes in a nest of broken glass on my hearth.

Yesterday, I came home to this.


No, that's not blood. It's wine! The really funny thing is that I don't even remember opening this bottle of wine. It was a bottle of Black Swan Rouge from Far Eastern Shore Winery, a very tasty blackberry Cabernet. Since reds don't need to be chilled, it just got corked and put back on the wine rack. Since I don't remember when Jack and I opened this bottle, I don't know how much was in there, but I don't think more than a glass or two had been consumed from it.

I believe Phantom was the culprit. He had been acting like he wanted to get under or behind the wine rack for a few weeks, like his favorite toy was back there, and I have known him to play with corks. Somehow, I think he found this convenient cork just sticking out and gave it a tug with his teeth. That puddle in the upper middle of the above picture is where the cork ended up.

What resulted was not only the wine pouring out directly into Miss Luna's food dish (the one to the right of the green fish, full of wine) but a spray akin to contents under pressure. No reason for a previously opened bottle of wine to be under pressure, but it spewed forth nonetheless.

The bottle in question is in the right column. From the top, there's a box port, then a bottle of Mayan honey wine, and then the open bottle of Cabernet.

Here is some of the spray on the clothes dryer opposite. Really, I'm baffled as to how it got that far! And the splatter spread out from there. It's even on top of the chest freezer that's directly to the left of the dryer.

Now, since the wine sprayed out like it did, it does make me wonder how much of it got on the unsuspecting cat - and how much he had to lick off!

There seems to be about two glasses left in the bottle, pretty much whatever didn't hit the mouth when the bottle was horizontal. Lesson learned. Open bottles of wine do not get put back on the wine rack! And it was the perfect opportunity to have a glass with my dinner.

I got this wine from one of the wine tasting festivals that Jack and I went to this summer. Everything from this winery was really good. There are a few liquor stores in Maryland that carry it in stock. I might have to send my mother out for another bottle of it! At least there was no glass to leave tiny cuts in my hands this time.

UPDATE! It has been brought to my attention that the cork may have just given up the ghost on its own. I thought I saw little teeth marks on the cork, but it is cork and hard to tell. After I had cleaned the mess, Phantom tried to chew on one of the other bottles too (completely sealed, so I'm not worried this one will burst). Still, I might be blaming the cats for nothing.

His Gift

Jack's birthday was yesterday. Since I've been crazy about baking, I decided to make him a cake. I decided this about a month ago, but I had gotten his favorite kind of cake out of him before that. Do you remember this post where I talked about messing with gum paste? It's time to put that little castle to use!

Jack told me his favorite cake is red velvet. This presented several problems: I've never made a red velvet cake, not even from a box, and that's not usually the kind of cake you find decorated. Jack dresses like a hippie every year for Halloween, so at first I thought I could do a tie-dye cake like this. But, red velvet to me is a more elegant cake, and I think finding it under something crazy like tie-dye icing would be a shock. Don't worry, I'll come back to the tie-dye cake.

So, I had to come up with something elegant to top a red velvet cake, and still be fitting for the person and occasion. Taking inspiration from one of my favorite blogs by an Etsy friend, I decided to play with gum paste. Jack had been talking about going to the beach a couple times this summer, and we had a lovely time in Cancun, so a beachy themed cake seemed appropriate. As you know, I made the sandcastle topper about a month ago. To keep it elegant, I didn't make a huge topper - it's about three inches across.

Onward to the cake!

Box cakes are fine, but I felt this would be more special if I made it from scratch. I found this recipe and went out Friday morning to get the ingredients I needed (minus the pecans because Jack is allergic and I've got my own decorating in mind). I wanted to make three layers (also something I've never done before) but I only had two cake pans, so I picked up another at the store as well. I hit the first problem. Shoppers was completely out of red food coloring. I did manage to find it at Walmart (and they're renovating and stuff was all over in no logical order, it's amazing I found it at all!). When I got home I realized I had picked up only half of the cream cheese I needed. Back to the store!

Mixing Batter

Now with three cake pans and all ingredients, I got started on the cake. I only have whole wheat flour; this is important for later on. It bakes just like regular flour, but I can taste the difference.

Adding Red Dye

The red food coloring in the mix was quite the thing! I kept thinking of the "bleeding armadillo cake" from Steel Magnolias. I evenly measured the batter and the three pans went into the oven.

Perfect Cake

Doesn't that look splendid? I was so proud of my pretty cake. Then I took the other two out of the pans.

Disaster!

PANIC! (Is this always going to happen when I'm baking? Can I make a cake without a moment of panic? PLEASE????) My two older pans did not release the cake, even though they were greased and floured just like the new pan. They came out from the middle, and the sides and bottom had to be scraped off. The cake was delicious! But, I only had one layer and that was not going to work! Because I had gotten started so late and I didn't have enough ingredients to whip up another batch (namely, the red food coloring was out), I ran out to the store again and grabbed a box mix and another new pan.

Take Two

I split the box into two layers so I'd still have a three-layer cake. I mostly did this because I didn't trust my old pans. I could have added more layers fine, but I didn't need another cake crisis.

Mixing the Icing

While the cake round two was in the oven, I mixed up the icing. It's pretty much cream cheese and sugar with a touch of vanilla. This is also my recipe for fondant but in different portions (more sugar, less cream cheese). I had to 'test' the icing with my crumbly bits of cake. Cook's prerogative!

Drippy

My two box cake layers came out just fine so I leveled them (tested that bit too) and stacked them. The icing at room temperature was a little drippy, so I put the whole thing, cake and bowl of icing, into the fridge for 15 minutes. I then finished icing the cake while it was cool but not firm.

Iced and Lined

In trying to keep the elegant look of the cake, I made some shell-shaped chocolates to line the base. There's really nothing fancy about this kind of chocolate making. I used Wilton's Candy Melts that I bought at Micheal's in white and dark chocolate with a shell mold. Just melt, pour, and let harden. I froze them to speed up the cooling process and because they're very melty when being handled.

Shell Chocolates

I think Jack was most impressed that I made the chocolates. At first he thought I had bought them.

Castle Topper

So, I placed my little gum paste castle on top. I added a red gum paste bucket that I filled with brown sugar "sand" to complete the look. I then sprinkled the top with brown sugar, gold cupcake gems (tiny little flakes of golden sugar), and little candy pearls.

Completed Sand Castle Cake

Ta-da! The Completed Sand Castle Cake! The whole baking and constructing of the cake took a good seven hours. It would have been much less if it wasn't for the pan fail! Jack could tell that the middle layer was my from-scratch cake because it was a brighter shade of red than the other two. He also said it tasted better. Yay! That was the first time I made red velvet cake so I'm glad it turned out yummy. I thought that the whole wheat flour was obvious, but if that's what gave it a better flavor to Jack, I'll happily use it again.

We met some of his friends at his favorite Burmese place for dinner on Saturday and then saw Harry Potter. He and I spent Sunday, his actual birthday anniversary, lounging around watching old episodes of NYPD Blue. We also managed to get in a little True Blood (I think I'm one ep behind now) and A Game of Thrones (I'm way behind here, I've only seen 5 eps). I felt bad because we really didn't do anything for his birthday, but he said it was a perfect way to spend the day. If he's happy, I'm happy!

Next cake: Butterflies for my grandmother! Her 93rd birthday is Thursday.

For My Love

Happy Birthday, Jack!

Public Service Announcement

DO NOT sign up for a "risk free trial" from http://yourfacekit.com or http://auravie.com/. They say you have 10 days to review the product before they will start automatically charging you nearly $100 every 45 days. They did not give me 10 days, they gave me 6. But they said the thing was delivered two weeks ago. I can't account for that. My mailbox locks with a key and the package did not show up until last Thursday.

The "risk free trial" is bullshit. Don't waste your time, don't waste your money.

I'm allergic to the product as it is, so if anyone wants a true risk free trial, contact me and I will give you a 25 day supply. But stay far far away from this company!

Burn Scars

I think I removed one of my favorite freckles.

I had a line of three on my right forearm that reminded me (and everyone) of Orion's Belt. Orion is my favorite constellation because it was the first one I could recognize and I always knew where to find it (and the three freckles that reflected the 3 brightest stars in the constellation on my arm. How many people have a star pattern on their skin that wasn’t a tattoo?).

But I burned my arm reaching into my oven on Saturday, right across that line of freckles. The last one got the worst of it. I don't think it's going to come back after the burn heals. *cry*

Chevron Seven Locked

It was LDS's birthday last week. Her partner, who I will call Bonnie, decided to throw a surprise party for her. I had two important tasks: 1 - keep LDS occupied on Saturday morning while Bonnie decorates and cooks and 2 - make the cake.

The first task was easy. LDS and I have been trying to plan a big Guild Wars gaming day for a couple months. We would make plans and cancel them for various reasons. Bonnie and I told her it was going to be Saturday and she was not allowed to back out. Easy.

Since we were talking about the Stargate cake, as seen on this post at CakeWrecks I decided it would be the perfect time to make the Stargate cake.

I decided to make a fondant topper so that I could have the gate part made days in advance and didn't ruin the whole cake if my sculpting skills proved to be inadequate. I just used Wilton's ready-made fondant, because it's easier. Few people actually eat the fondant anyway. I cut a paper template measuring with the bottom of my cake pan, rolled out some white fondant, and cut a circle.

Next I used black gel coloring to get a gray color out of a ball of fondant and rolled and shaped and rolled to get the outer ring. I placed that a little inside the edges of my white base and textured it with a shell tool.

Carving Glyphs

I used black and blue gel coloring to get a bluish gray for the glyph ring. I mapped out and carved 39 mostly equal little squares for the glyphs and used an image from the Wikipedia page for reference to carve the glyphs. I then added another ring of the first gray color and added some texture.

Finished Gate

The chevrons were made with the same bluish gray and then the whole thing was dusted with silver pearl dust to make it look more metallic. Then the whole thing went in a Ziploc bag and waited. I want the cake to be as fresh as possible and not sit forever holding the heavy fondant top.

Dirty Iced Cake

I made the cake on Thursday. It was a simple box chocolate mix, no bells and whistles there. I then layered and iced my cake with a white buttercream. You can see some crumbs in there. I was sure my choice of color would cover them up, so I wasn't worried about that.

Spray Color Fail

I wanted to use a silver/gray spray Duff brand icing color. I got about five seconds of spray, maybe 1/4 of the side of my cake, before the crappy product gave up the ghost. PANIC!! I was counting on this silver color, and it was exactly the silver color I wanted! It was 2130! There was no Micheal's that I could get to (assuming they close at 2200, and it may be earlier) for more spray! Bonnie was picking up the cake Friday morning! It HAD to be done! I hit the Internet to see if anyone had any tips for unclogging this particular brand of spray color, as I tried hot water and pins and everything I could think of and nothing worked. I found a cake decorating forum where a whole bunch of people indicated that the silver color in particular consistently didn't work. Someone even mentioned that the company knew it was a faulty product and would hopefully fix it with the next production run. Pull your bad product off the shelves, morons! I want to like Duff brand, I really do, but creating a cake crisis like this has me telling everyone not to waste their time (and possibly cost their business) with any of it. You hear that, Duff brand? I'm telling people not to buy your crap! You left me in a hellova pinch and I will never give you another opportunity to do it again. I may not be a professional, but someone ordered this cake from me and expected it done. You fail. And yes, I returned that can to the store on Friday.

It Looks Like Snot

I had bought two cans of Wilton's decorator icing to use for this project and another one. I was almost certain I didn't have enough icing to cover my cake, when I was counting on that spray. I had to try, though, because there was no alternative. I added some black gel color and mixed it up. It looked just like snot.

Iced Cake

It turned into almost the exact shade of gray that I used for part of the gate! And there was exactly enough to cover the cake! Wilton's to the rescue!

Painting the Event Horizon

While the icing was resting and stiffening up, I worked on the event horizon on the gate. Using blue gel color and a bit of vodka, I painted blue on the white fondant field inside the Stargate ring and left the very center white.

Painted Event Horizon

If you watch the show or look at pictures, you can see the pool of the wormhole has this gradual color effect going on. I wasn’t sure about painting the blue detail at first, having never worked with piping gel that would be the pool of the wormhole. But, I figured if it didn't work, the piping gel might cover it.

Topper in Place

The next step was to put my topper on top. It fit perfectly, and I had enough icing to cover the edges of the white fondant base.

Gel Event Horizon

It's time for the final details! I mixed a bit of blue with the clear piping gel and slathered that in the middle of the gate, poking with a ball tool for texture. The painted color underneath created just the effect I was going for. I then mixed up some red piping gel and used that to color the lights on the chevrons and used the rest of that as a boarder on the bottom.

The Completed Stargate Cake

Ta-da! My completed Stargate cake! Everyone said it was amazing and delicious. It hope so, I worked hard on that thing! Constructing the Stargate alone took about three hours (mostly from carving all those glyphs). And the cake color problem added a couple hours of headache that I didn't need. LDS ended up cutting it because I couldn't bring myself to do it. All that work, and then they ate it! But at least I know it was appreciated and enjoyed.

And LDS had no clue Bonnie and I had been planning her surprise party for a month. Jack and I even managed to beat her there so we could warn everyone her arrival was imminent. It was a great party!

Happy Birthday, LDS!

Bloodletting

I donated blood today.

When was the last time you donated?

I Just Noticed

Remember this post where I told you about the outfit I made for the VA Renaissance Faire? I mentioned the shoes that I made that were not pictured. I actually made two pairs of shoes, one in blue polyester and a later pair in black wool. I'm wearing the first pair of shoes in this picture as seen on the post about my house party.

They're a Mary Jane style, fully lined in unbleached muslin with a foam insole. The sole is a soft, rubbery material a lot like a slipper. The pattern and sole material came from Shoeology on Etsy. Walking in them feels a lot like my Vibram FiveFingers- where you feel everything you step on but there is still some cushion going on.

Making my own shoes makes me a cordwainer! I want to make another pair in patchwork leather. I've had a few friends tell me that want to order a pair of my homemade shoes. Nifty!

Not Just Like Clay

About a year ago, I got this crazy idea in my head that I could make beautiful cakes. I enjoy baking immensely, even more so now that I have my own kitchen to explode in. My first attempt was the house cake I made last year for my house warming party. The cake was a mold and the icing was crumby but it was cute. I then made a cake completely covered in inedible fondant and decorated with fondant cut-out leaves. That actually turned out very well as my first attempt at smoothing a cake with fondant. My elaborate baking dreams have mostly been a vague inclination since.

That being said, the cake I made for my 1-year house party turned out really good. The icing wasn't as crumby, and even though I ran out of the color I wanted to use for the roof, I had enough of a complimentary color to finish it off. This house was quite a bit more elaborate than the last one (with shingles instead of flat icing for the roof, and yellow gel in the windows instead of just colored icing). Jack said it was impressive.

While browsing through Cake Wrecks one day, I came across a cake that was made to look like a Stargate! It was awesome! LDS and I have dreams of making that cake some day. We're going to have a Stargate party. I already know what I need: fondant for the gate, piping gel for the event horizon, and something to make it look like metal. Maybe pearl dust will do. I'll have to come back to the Stargate cake later.

A new idea hit me yesterday. I recently learned of a decorating compound called gum paste (yes, I was mostly "how the heck do they do that?!" when it came to cake decorations). One of my Etsy friends (she has the MOST AWESOME blog in the world. Seriously, her recipes are unbelievable) wrote about the birthday cake she made for her mother that was decorated with gum paste butterflies. I need to make these butterflies! But I also needed to learn about gum paste, having only worked with fondant for my cake sculpting before (and lots of people really don't like fondant, even if it's made to taste good).

Most of my research said that shaping gum paste is a lot like shaping clay. I've worked a lot with clay in the past, and I can say that gum paste is nothing like clay! But that's not going to stop me.

So, I won't tell you what this idea is for just yet, but here's a little gum paste sand castle to get you thinking! The dusty "sand" is brown sugar, and I plan to apply more when the thing actually gets on a cake (and it will, you'll see!).