8 hour Eagle Scout Cake

Friday night was spent making an eagle scout cake for a young man in our Church.  I agreed to do the cake a few weeks ago and then managed to plan a trip to Portland the first two days of the week.  Not a problem except that I had to be in Portland Wednesday and Thursday as well.  I got home on Thursday afternoon exhausted which meant I only managed to make a few batches of fondant before falling into bed. 

That meant I had to make the cake, cool it, frost, cover and decorate it after work on Friday.

I left work just a bit early, went to the store and came home to get started.

The cake was red velvet and the frosting was cream cheese.  Very traditional.  The only problem is that traditional red velvet cake isn't as movable as a sponge cake.  Sponge gives some as you move it.  The red velvet did not.  It was a challenge.  Bob had to help me stack it and it was still pretty scary.  

But it worked.  

While the cakes were baking (I made three layers) I made two batches of the cream cheese frosting.  I figured I'd have a bunch left over but I didn't want to take any chances.  Good thing because I used it all.  It was a big cake.  Then I had to finish the fondant, roll it out and cut out the design. Bob helped make sure the design was scaled correctly and had the necessary details.  Nick helped as I rolled out the fondant to cover the cake.  It was a lot and it took all I had to get it rolled out.  

We finished up around 11:30 pm just in time to take it up to the Church so it would be there for the celebration on Saturday.  (There was a baseball game on Saturday and we had to leave town around 6:30 am so it had to be there before we left town).  Next time I will make sure I don't leave town the majority of the week I'm making a cake.  I didn't like the feeling of being rushed.

Side view before we added the border

 Not to bad for an 8 hour cake.

90 days complete...90 more to go

I never thought I would be able to say I completed 90 days of P90x but I did. We bought the DVD's last summer and I made it through maybe 30 days but I don't think it was that long. Away they went to the shelf where I sort of forgot about them. I did have a reminder though, a pull up bar in the doorway to my kitchen. Didn't motivate me to exercise, it was just there.

Fast forward to December. For some reason I decided I wanted to get into better shape. I think it was because my entire arm waved when I waved goodbye to someone. I'm not sure if that was really the reason, but I took the plunge and bought; yes paid money for, an app to track my P90x workouts. That became my big motivator. I wasn't going to spend money on an app and not use it. I really can't tell you why the dollars I spent on P90x wasn't enough to motivate me.

Last Saturday marked day 90. I only chose to workout 6 days a week and missed only 4 workouts over the 90 days. I take that as a good start. If I were a braver person I would post some pictures but I'm not so all you get are some words that describe my results.

I lost 6 pounds which isn't huge but since I didn't start this for weight loss I'm ok with it. I lost three inches in my waist and hips and two inches in my chest. My arm and leg measurements stayed the same but they are more toned than before so that's ok too.

Monday I began my second time through the system but this time I plan to follow the doubles workout plan. I've also started really watching the nutrition piece as well which I hope gives me better results than round one. Maybe then I'll be ready to post pictures.

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.