Book Must-Haves!

 picklewart.blogspot.com

I recently decided to invest some of my "caking" money in a couple of book purchases.  From the advice of a very trusted friend, I decided to purchase a new book to assist us with our Advent celebrations.  A Family Advent - Keeping the Savior in the Season  I found a free pdf dowload (through December 2011) for it and was using it until my hard copy arrived.  ... and beautiful it is!  I'm loving the layout of this book!!  It's well written and not so lengthy that a family with young children can't get through it.  It has an opening section for each week's theme, individual day sections, activities/facts, and a closing prayer for each day.  We have greatly enjoyed it so far... and now, I too, highly recommend this book (thanks Christin!).

Another investment I went with was also a recommendation from a good friend.  Get Wisdom!:  23 Lessons for Children About Living for Jesus  I am LOVING this book as well.  The layout is absolutely PERFECT for younger kids (I'd say preK through about 2nd grade or so).  It has pages for traits that children need to learn to grow in Christ... and they're well-written, not too lengthy, and full of interactive introspective questions.  Big G really listened when we did this... WOW!  That's saying a lot friends.  Seriously.  ;-)  Anyway, this is definitely another recommendation to pass along to all of you as well.  (thanks Kara!).

My friends (and their book recommendations) rock.  :-)

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November is Flying By!

The land of homeschooling, caking, and IT work has been busy here!  Big G has been working hard on her 3 R's, and we're seeing some real progress so far in her Kindergarten year!  She's getting much better at cutting more complicated patterns too.

Our first month of the Book It! program through Pizza Hut had us reading our BOB books in a fury!  She earned her first free pizza certificate last month!  Little G is still trying to figure out how to get one of those as well.

 

We also have enjoyed using a new site a friend recommended for our handwriting practice.  WorksheetWorks.com.  They have TONS of worksheets for almost every subject!  We've used several including my favorite, the handwriting worksheets where you can enter the text you want your child to either trace or copy, and then it creates a pdf file for you to save or print.  This has been AWESOME!  We've used it to reinforce our AWANA memory verses for church, theme sentences to go along with our Five-in-a-Row books, and unit studies.  We just finished "In fourteen hundred and ninety-two Columbus sailed the ocean blue."  A very handy tool!

We also spent some time in Kansas City at Children's Mercy taking care of some minor things, and decided to have some fun while we were up there!  Cabela's is great - like a mini Bass Pro.  

And T Rex Cafe is... AWESOME! 

 

 

I've been working on my own set of skills as well.  I had the opportunity to do my friend's son's first birthday cake.  And what fun it was!   For the larger half sheet cake with "one", we did a double layer classic almond white wedding cake with buttercream icing.  The smaller 1 was baby J's smash cake and was also a classic almond white wedding cake in one layer.  We added some touches of owls to tie into the rest of the theme.  I think they turned out nice.  Oh, and a thank you to Kara Guffey Photography for the great pictures of the cake!

 

And last but not least, with Thanksgiving so close, I'm also gearing up for the onset of Advent. Last year, we kind of muddled through our first year as a family to observe it. I had found some online resources to print out, but my friend recommended this book as a very nice, comprehensive Advent book - perfect for a family like ours!  I look forward to getting this for our family to use this year!

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What's it Gonna BEE?

picklewart.blogspot.com

After quite a hiatus, I'm back to blogging... awhile back I had the honor of doing a gender-reveal cake for a friend.
This one was tough. I KNEW her little girl oh so desperately wanted a little sister! She already has a herd of brothers... could she handle another?!
Sooooo, when I recieved the sealed envelope with the ultrasound picture inside, I didn't need a label on it to tell me this little baby was going to be a BOY! So, the brain storming began... what could we do to make this cake fun on the outside and have a few special things on the inside? After deciding on the bee theme, I also decided to include a special message to the family. This was a fun cake to do, and I look forward to getting to do more of them in the future!!

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How To Make Home-Made Butter

picklewart.blogspot.com

My friend Sarah over at Faded Country shared with me how to make butter using a mixer. Well, bless her heart, she did it with a hand held mixer, but I was lucky enough to have a stand mixer... and it worked GREAT! So, here's how it goes:

Get some real cream, I prefer to use the cream off a raw whole milk if I'm lucky enough to have a "fatty" batch! Pour the cream (maybe after carefully scooping if off the settled milk) into your mixing bowl. Closer to room temperature is preferred and will cut down on your "churning" time. I think fired up the ol' Kitchenaid to almost high using the whisk attachment.

It whisked and whisked and whisked for probably 20 minutes before it finally began to separate. The curdles are what will be the butter and the clearer liquid is what is considered buttermilk. You'll keep both parts to use - don't toss out that fabulous buttermilk!!

Once your mixture has separated, pour off the buttermilk, and begin squeezing the solid butter to help it release more of the liquid in it. Continue to squeeze it to get water out as best you can. This will help it to "keep" better.

Once you're done squeezing, you can wrap it and store it in the fridge or freezer. I just kept mine in a lidded container in the fridge. If you used a raw milk from a good farm with healthy cows, you now have some great butter free of anything extra you might not want in there!!

Happy Cooking!

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Graduation Cakes Galore!

picklewart.blogspot.com

Graduation is the name of the game around here and is the determiner of all things caking. I've been busy making a LOT of green and white icing as well as a little ocean water-blue icing. AND, it's all been fun!

For a few of our local graduating seniors, some of these went out the door.

And for one VERY special lady, one of these went out the door. She's a die-hard Elvis fan, but more importantly, she's completed her collegiate studies and now has a ticket to make money, er, uh, I mean, a college diploma, in her hands. :-) Love ya Kathy!

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Gray Hair

picklewart.blogspot.com

So, the other day, I said something on FB about shaving my legs and coloring my hair for Easter Sunday since I'd be wearing a dress and all... well, I came through... the legs are still smooth, and the hair is all now a nice auburn again. It's sad, I know. I'm 35 and graying and have been since I was about 27!

All that to say: Today I completed a birthday cake for a man turning 50.
I can only hope that his hair is grayer than mine.

Happy Caking!

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Sweet Pink Ruffled Baby Shower Cake

picklewart.blogspot.com

I am so thankful for family and friends that have supported me in my endeavor of learning how to do some caking. I have many family and friends that have been my guinea pigs on new cake recipes, learning to stack tiers, trying out marshmallow fondant, doing new buttercream icings, new icing techniques... and the list goes on. You may be thinking, "I don't think being a cake tasting guinea pig would be that bad!", but let's face it. Some concoctions are just BAAAAAD. So, for their willingness and their brave taste buds, I am thankful!

BUT, every now and then a cake comes out just the way you had envisioned it... both in sight and taste!
So, here's my last cake job: The Ultra Feminine Sweet-as-Can-Be Pink Ruffled Baby Shower Cake
(and a shout-out and BIG thank you to my very special and ENORMOUSLY talented friend Kara Guffey with Kara Guffey Photography (on FB too!) for her help with taking the pictures!
I had the honor of making this for a set of good friends; one hosting the shower and the other whom the shower was for. They're both such a blessing in my life. I'm so glad the cake turned out well for the special day.

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Benefits of Raw Milk

picklewart.blogspot.com

RAW MILK

I've started getting some raw milk from a local around here, and you know what I've discovered? This stuff is really good!

Now, I know there are some people that get a little freaked out by unpasteurized milk, but I think that may be due to simply not knowing all the facts.

Did you know that they used to use grass-fed cow milk as a medicine in the last century? You might call it a stem cell kind of food concept. Well, it was regularly used to heal many serious illnesses. It's loaded with vitamins and minerals!

And enzymes... whoa nelly! There are tons of good ones in there... but you can say goodbye to those if you pasteurize your milk. There are also good bacteria in there that also get the boot when the milk is pasteurized.

Now, I know some of you are concerned about the fat and calories, but before we hydrogenated our fats and pasteurized everything, heart disease wasn't as common. I'm not an expert in this by any means, and this isn't meant to fully inform anyone on all the facts of raw milk, but I do hope that if you've never considered it, I hope you will... at least look into it!

P.S. It made up the best waffles I've ever had in my life the other night too!!

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A Hunka Hunka Burnin' Cake

picklewart.blogspot.com

It seems as though all my posts lately have revolved around cakes and other confections... I guess because people love sweets and when you live in an area that's not populated with a lot of bakeries, people want cakes - and hey, I love to make them!

In May, one of my dearest friends will graduate from college. It's been a long time coming, and I am so proud of her. She has been my mentor and friend for many years now even when she had no idea of it. When she asked me about a graduation cake, I knew what was coming before it ever came out of her mouth... Elvis... and even better is a Blue Hawaii Elvis. Nothing says "Kathy" more than the two. Seriously. Nothing.

So, here's the initial design phase of the Blue Hawaii Elvis graduation cake:

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Practice Proves to be a New Creation

picklewart.blogspot.com

I had a new ruffle technique I was really wanting to try out... so today was the day. I whipped out the flours, sugars, eggs, butters... and created a lemon chiffon cake - complete with the frilliest ruffles you have ever seen!

After trying out the lemon chiffon and the ruffles, I wanted to get in some buttercream rose and rosebud practice. So my lemon chiffon cake now looks like it's ready for a tea party!

Happy Caking!

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The Caking Process | My Ideas Collage

picklewart.blogspot.com

Sometimes I feel like my head is going to overflow with ideas when I first find out about an upcoming cake. It's like brain puke everywhere, and most of the ideas don't go together, but they all seem so cute, and picking just one theme is so hard, and... you get my drift.

So, I've decided to use my computer-programmer-logical side of my brain and create a process... or an algorithm in geek terms.

The first step in my caking process is to gather ideas, possibly sketch them in a paint program, and/or create a photo collage.

The upcoming baby shower cake for a sweet little baby girl and her mommy needs to be super duper uber feminine... so here's Step 1 of the process... a photo collage of my idea of a 2 tier cake to serve around 30 or so that I have spinning around in my head:

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A Cake Story | A Toy Story Completed

picklewart.blogspot.com

After hours of love and work, the Toy Story birthday cake for my friend's son is completed. And I am pleased with the results. It's not perfect, but I still like what I see.

Enjoy, and Happy Caking!

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A Cake Story | A Toy Story

picklewart.blogspot.com

Caking is fun... a bit time consuming but fun. A friend of mine asked me if I would do her son's 2nd birthday cake. I said YES! So, it was a toss up between John Deere tractors or Toy Story... Toy Story won. She went and purchased Woody and Buzz Lightyear and so the creating began. Sketches, searches, scale... it all began to build into a cake for this special little boy. I have discovered that caking is a 3 day process in a perfect world.

Day 1: Bake.
Day 2: Dirty coat, build details like fondant critters, choc coated structures, etc.
Day 3: Coat and decorate base cake and assemble and add more detail.

Today was Day 2 of the build. I thought I'd share a sneak peek of what was accomplished today. Also, perhaps I should note here, this is my FIRST time building small character critters with fondant... so be gentle. :-)






HAPPY CAKING!

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