Baby Shower Cake

I've been looking forward to making this cake ever since I was asked to do it.

There are some really cute baby shower cakes out there and there was one in particular that I wanted to make, but unless you have a baby shower to make it for you're out of luck. So, I filed it away as something to try if the opportunity arose. Well, the opportunity presented itself!!

The cake was vanilla sponge with strawberry mousse filling and vanilla butter cream frosting. I thought it tasted pretty good and got the thumbs up from the party goers so I think it was a hit. Here's pictures of the finished product.

The base was three layers. I wanted to make sure there was enough cake for everyone to have a decent size piece. I was happy to be working with fondant again. It turned out pretty good this time. That was nice, no fighting with getting the cakes covered.



The pregnant belly wasn't filled with mousse because I was afraid to cut it, fill it and try to get it stacked back like it should be so I just covered it with strawberry butter cream.

This was such a fun cake to make, I did stay up pretty late Friday night to get most of it done, but that's because we are in the middle of baseball season and my Saturday's are pretty much booked until May. Short of leveling the cake, I did this one all by myself. I don't think Bob's too upset about missing out on the fun.

Next 90 Days

This morning's workout marked day 81 of my P90x program. Just 9 more days and I'll have finished my first time through. So far I've only missed three workouts. Next go around I don't plan to miss any. It's been a challenge with the traveling I do, but I've figured out how to adapt and make my workouts a priority.

So to the point of this post. What next? I want to go through another round of P90x before I try something different. I can't decide between P90x2 or Insanity but that's another post at a later date.

There are three options with the P90x system. Classic, which is what I'm doing now. Lean, which is mostly cardio with some muscle building and Doubles, which is a mix of muscle building with extra cardio. This is the workout I'm leaning towards but it would mean working out twice some days. (Explains the name) Most of the time I don't think it will be a problem because I get up early to exercise so I will have the evening to add the extra cardio. Traveling has me a little worried though. I could just skip the extra cardio but that defeats the purpose of doing the doubles option.

Of course I wait until the last minute to think about this. I have one more week of set workouts. I want to make a decision and get everything line out so I don't miss a day. I don't want to get out of my routine. I'm afraid if I stop I won't start again.

What to do, what to do?

Belated Pictures

I realized that there were several pictures I hadn't posted of projects I worked on between September and today.

This is a picture of some of the goodies I made for Christmas....

And the wedding cake we made for the Jackson's. It was vanilla sponge with mixed berry filling and cream cheese frosting.

And finally the birthday cake I made for my co-worker's daughter. This one was vanilla sponge to but with strawberry filling and vanilla buttercream frosting.





I made another cake but I didn't take any pictures of it because it wasn't covered in fondant, just frosted and I didn't like the way it looked so I didn't take pictures of it. It was lemon sponge with blueberry filling and lemon buttercream frosting. The taste was good, but I'm not a buttercream cake person. Give me fondant any day. I just couldn't get the buttercream smooth enough.

This weekend I'm making a baby shower cake. I'm pretty excited about the design. I'll post pictures when it's done. This one is vanilla sponge with strawberry mousse filling and vanilla buttercream.

I practiced using mousse this weekend. I made a chocolate sponge cake with peanut butter mousse on one half and oreo cookie mousse on the other half. I frosted the peanut butter side with peanut butter buttercream and the oreo half with chocolate buttercream. I over filled the cake with the mousse so it slid a little but I thought it tasted pretty good. I've added those recipes to my list of keepers.

Starting over

So it's been a while. Yes I know.

I don't like excuses so I'm not going to fill space with reasons why I haven't posted anything since September.

Today marks a new beginning. I've changed my blog some and I've decided to post more than just pictures of my baking projects. Those aren't going to stop though so don't worry.

(I'm pretty sure I heard some gasps, wait maybe that was me)

Over on my Facebook page I've been posting a lot about my exercise routine and the progress I'm making. I think that I'm going to start included those updates here in my blog since I have to exercise if I want to eat the stuff I bake.

I also need to be more consistent with my blog updates. So I'm putting it down in writing that I will update this blog no less than once a week. It's in print now so doesn't that make it gospel?

Join me on this baking/exercise journey. I'd love the company!!

I've been baking

I have been baking. Really I have I just haven't had much time to post lately.

We've been doing donuts on Saturday mornings for the football team. 4 dozen each week. We're getting better with the process. It takes us about 3 hours from start to finish. We end up with more than 4 dozen when it's all said and done, but we only have a set request from the football team so we share the rest with others. Others that live close, sorry for all you out of town friends. I wish we could share with you too.

I've also been making homemade pasta and pizza. I know it's not the same type of baking but I'm a big fan now of fresh pasta and my first attempt at pizza turned out pretty good. The crust was pretty thin so next time I'll double the recipe to get a thicker crust and fold over the edges after I put cheese in there. Next time I'll take a picture to share.

I made a batch of Kolatche's for a birthday here at work. They turned out really well. The dough was perfect. Bacon, Sausage, Egg and Cheese were the filling this time. I also made a peach cobbler. I tried a new recipe. It tasted OK but I didn't like the look. I will have to find a different recipe next time.

Last but not least we baked our third annual birthday cake in August. The pig and dog theme were used again. I think it was one of the better cakes we've done. Red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting. The idea for decorations came from Bob. I thought it was pretty clever and it was well received so I guess it was a good choice.

Where have you been?

No I did not fall off the face of the earth. I wish I had a good reason for not baking these last few months but really all I have is excuses.

"No one ever excused his way to success."~Dave Del Dotto

On that note, I want you to know that I will be baking again soon. I just got a new really cool book on bread baking.

Bread and I have a love/hate relationship. Sometimes my loaves of bread come out great, other times not so good. That will soon change. I plan to make bread until I figure it out. I'm not going to say that I'll be an expert, but I've come to realize that as you bake you start to notice things about your dough or batter that effect how your baked goods turn out. I want to gain that understanding with bread. At least then I'll know if my loaf is going to turn out the way I want it.

"When I was young, I observed that nine out of ten things I did were failures. So I did ten times more work." ~George Bernard Shaw

If I make ten times more bread there will be loaves to share. Keep an eye out, I might be sending some your way.

Sticking To It

"This one step - choosing a goal and sticking to it - changes everything." ~Scott Reed

I love goals.  I could set 100 goals no problem.  My struggle is sticking to it.  There have been many times during baking projects that I have wanted to give up on my goal to open a bakery.  In fact I'm pretty sure that while we were working on the wedding cake a couple of weeks ago I decided to quit baking. 

It was late and I was tired and things were not going well.  I remember thinking "why am I doing this?"  Of course I couldn't quit right then I had a cake that needed to be finished and delivered so I decided that after it was finished and delivered, I was done baking.  I even told Bob this was it, I'm done after this cake.  He just looked at me and said nothing.

He knows me all too well.  Once the cake was done and I had gotten some sleep, the idea of quitting was gone.  We've had a lot of challenges over the last couple of years as we've decorated cakes, learned about donuts and worked to learn the "tricks of the trade." 

We've gone from our first cake:

To our most recent:

The best part is that I feel we've made some improvement and while there's still lots to learn and overcome, I plan to stick with it.