Baking and Caking and More

While I certainly didn’t mean to be gone from here for more than a month, I am keenly aware of exactly what has kept me away.  You’d think that getting the house back after school started back would free my time up significantly, but no that hasn’t been the case.  I’ve fallen behind everywhere.

The sequestration put a bit of a damper on my Daring Kitchen challenges, since our grocery budget had to be geared more towards dishes the family would actually eat.  Our house is not one that actively accepts unusual food experimentation, so substitutions couldn’t be made.

I did finish the second Wilton course, and then took a break and have just recently started the next course.  In the meantime, I’ve been practicing and testing my skills by making various cakes over the last month.

This was my final cake for my 2nd course:

I’ll write more about the 2nd class later.

I made a cupcake cake for the in-laws housewarming party:

I’ll have to post more details about that one later, too.

Then there was a cake I promised a friend for her birthday.  I used the basket weave technique I learned in class.

And I even got to pack it all up in a bakery box.  That was kind of fun in a weird way.

I think it turned out well.  The icing was blended white, purple (though it looks blue in the photos), and then a green for accents.

And finally, I made a Mario Kart cake for the Boy’s 11th birthday.  Definitely more about that one later.

All of the characters were homemade by me, and the banana was made by my mom.  Boy loved it, though we’ll be eating cake for years at this rate.

There’s also been soccer.  Lots and lots of soccer.  Like 6 hours of practice a week plus travel time, plus games/ tournaments/ scrimmages. And school.  And homework.  And the Girl who just read her first two words just last night “stop” and “fly” in her Clifford book, which is her new favorite.

We’ve also just entered the busy birthday-holiday marathon that we run every year.

Well.  More cakes to come.  All of what I’ve previewed here, and I have the wedding cake countdown…one month to go.    And the way this year is going, that month is going to fly by in the blink of an eye.