Baking

I love to bake!
I have never been a big fan of cooking, but baking takes on a whole different experience. It is usually done with joy, and less out of necessity. I love that baking gives me a sense of accomplishment. I get to start something and see it finished all the way through. I also love to see other people find joy in what I serve. When someone smiles and says they like it... it validates me in a way that I crave during my daily clean-up of trains, messy plates, spills, and bed making. I cannot bake often or else it would ruin my kitchen and my work-out routines effectiveness. But, the bonus in baking is that I get to sleuth into blogs, books, and recipe boxes to find something that excites me. Once I have the urge, it is hard to stop me... and a friend of mine started a blog that completely inspires me to bake cupcakes! Lizzy is doing fantastic with her blog, and she told me to try out her Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes with Almond Buttercream. WOWIE! I may not be able to take the pictures that she does of her works of art, but I had to take a photo of it because I think I LOVE it!

I am trying to pass along my joy of baking to my kids, so we made some Father's Day cookies and I let them decorate them (most of them) and I think they were really enjoying it. I forgot to take pictures as they decorated, but here are their masterpieces.

Homemade

Who doesn't love warm rolls? I know I do, and the fact is that until this week, I could NEVER successfully make them. My yeast would never do that thing... where it bubbles. And what's up with the scalded milk? I can scald milk, I can mix, and I can follow recipes, but until my friend actually showed me how... I could never do all of those things together.

Look at what I did today! (you might notice in the picture where they are cooked, I couldn't wait to get the camera ready before I dove into them! )

And this is the boy that helps me eat them.

Grand Finale cake

This is the last cake for a little while. My class ended, and I'm not sure when or if I'll do another. I need a break! My oven needs a break! My mixer is begging for me to let it rest for bit. Nothing like a big bed of sugar flowers, butterflies and a classy basket-weave to feel like I've aged. My teacher is a few GENERATIONS older than us... so this is what we ended up with.

Drumroll please....

Thank you everyone for playing along with my cake giveaway.
Trenton was really excited about pulling names from his cowboy hat.

And the winner is....

Stay tuned for more great give aways.

A contest?

I LOVE MY CAKE CLASSES!!!!

I finished this mega cake last night. This was the grand finale to my course. I started another one though, so don't worry... my cakes won't end here. :D


After last night I ended up with this cake that tastes delicious and we've been pigging out on the bottom layer all day (and all night!) So heres the contest. You have 24 hours from right now to respond to this post. Tomorrow at this time (Thursday, May 7th), I will enter your names into a hat that Trenton will pull from, and you will have a cake delivered shortly thereafter. No strings... nothing. I just don't need two cakes.. and I thought this would be a fun way to give the cake away. :D

So, again... tomorrow at 4 o'clock we will have a drawing. All posts must be before that time. And... oh yeah, you can't live out of the state.

One last thing, the cake is a Sour Cream chocolate cake in 3 layers. It is covered and layered in a white chocolate butter cream (apparently made Italian style... appropriate huh?), and layered with a white fondant. It is the top layer to the pictured cake.

By the way, if you are privileged enough to win this great prize, don't look too close at the flaws... I'm still learning.

Good luck and thanks for playing along.

I tried!

So, I had a wild hair the other day to try to bake something I saw someone else do PERFECTLY! It required me to make fondant, which I've never worked with before, and it was supposed to turn out like this...
While it was fun to try, and I learned a lot. I managed to have a RAGING oven fire, cut my finger open, got red dye all over my tile counters and grout, destroyed the "truffles" into the melted chocolate... all while spending a small unnecessary fortune TRYING to make this.

At least I had fun...I have a few pictures to show... and I got to eat a little cake in the mean time.This is the bottom of ONE of the pans that got burned up in the fire.

Here is the heart cake... fondant on... no truffles though.

Baking...

I have not always been a fan of crafts and baking. I used to look at it as silly and somehow old fashioned. Like those 50's ads for Sears marketing the latest and greatest kitchen appliance. The women are usually in dresses, with their make-up on, hair up, aprons on... and basically not anything like me. Now, as I have come to love and value my role and job at home, I have come to find a inner satisfaction from a project accomplished. For example, sewing takes a bit of thought, precision, course of action, and eventually accomplishment. The outcome is usually what brings me the most happiness. To show off, even to myself, or this blog something that I did. Something that made me feel like I am of some value beyond my physical two hands and presence. Baking can also bring me this same sense of accomplishment. I love tasting something that has real flavor, something not really expected, but delicious. Most of all, I love knowing that I did it. That I found the time, the energy, and the ability to create some new masterpiece to be shared with someone, anyone really.

So, today, during a moment when I needed some savory compensation, I found Barefoot Contessa whispering sweet nothings in my ear. Out came my favorite kitchen toy ever.


All with the hope that this Pumpkin Roulade would turn out as divine as she is describing, and maybe give Pumpkin Pie a bit of competition. I can't wait for tonight, and for Thanksgiving. I have only barely tasted this, and plan on drizzling the top with caramel and a few toffee bits that I decided to add to the filling. The bad thing is, I don't want this in the house for long. I don't need it, but it sure does feel good to feel completely adequate for a few moments. I just hope that the boys (all 3 of mine) light up when this comes out after the main course of dried ol leftovers.

With all the joy this brought me today, really...these two make MY life have value and purpose beyond any cake, cookie, dinner, or craft ever created.