t on Tuesday. Was great to see someone who's been such a big part of our musical lives for so long and it was so nice meeting such a great kid and being able to spend some quality time with him before he headed back to NY and completely different weather for sure! Funny thing...he actually enjoyed t
he warmer weather while he was here and seemed just a little sad to leave our 'warm' Texas weather and return to the cooler temps of Syracuse, NY.
Steve and I spent the day with his son, Jesse, at Dinosaur State Park in mid-June. It was hot, hot, hot but we had a great day, did a lot of hiking, climbing up and down the rocks and even discovered our very own dinosaur track.
Ashley and I made this cake this morning at our cake club meeting, Cake Divas. Rather than doing 2 separate cakes which is usually what we do, we created this one together...2 creative minds, 2 sets of busy hands and the completed project produced a really cute and whimsical cake. The inside is pound cake and the outside is covered in Fond-X (a fondant that is delightfully e
asy to work with and tastes great). We had a great time working together on this cake and are already looking forward to next month's project.
The day Ashley, Blake and I prepared & planned for finally arrived yesterday. The event was the Open House to show their new home to family and friends. We'd designed and sent the invites, they'd worked on getting their house ready, we planned a menu that would last the day and feed plenty, we'd bought groceries and prepared food. It was a long but great day. They had lots of visitors, from both families and friends. Everybody loved their new house, had a good time and ate lots (glad for that as there weren't many leftovers!). Here's the link where you can visit Ashley's new home and ck out the menu too (http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=3ct7ivar.cmhhfz2r&x=0&y=d6yiry&localeid=en_US).
A little pair of 'First' birthday cakes for the young lady next door. Her mom asked me to make these cakes for her daughter's birthday and since Ashley and I've made cakes for some of her other children, of course it was a pleasure to make this one as well. She said she wanted a cherry chip cake shaped as a #1 as well as a 'smash' cake. Both are covered in buttercream icing flavored with a little bit of cherry extract.
Okay, here it is...finally. I've been waiting to add this entry so that I could put all these pictures into one post. These are the completed class projects from another set of cake classes that Ashley and I decided to take as well as the 'homework' that we were asked to present giving 5 of the concepts that we'd learned in the previous 4 classes (the last class, #5, was about cookies). Prior to this series of classes, all of the cake decorating classes we'd taken were from one source and even though we had discussed that we were interested in taking some more advanced classes, we hadn't yet made the commitment to do so. While on vacation recently, I read some posts from a fellow blogger, Stephanie of 
Frosted Garden http://frostedgarden.blogspot.com/. Via her blog, I learned that she was planning to teach a series of cake decorating classes. We emailed back and forth for a bit and finally, Ashley and I decided to sign up for and take her classes. We were looking foward to getting additional perspectives on how others go about decorating cakes, cookies, etc and to learning something new. We did both. Stephanie is a remarkable
young lady who has become very successful as a cake decorator (cupcakes and cookies, too) and is totally self taught which meant that she really was able to share a lot of information with Ashley and I about more than just technique; she was able to share a lot of the trials and tribulations that she'd experienced since beginning her career as a cake decorator. Stephanie's classes were very well attended and were a lot of work, for both her and her husband. And yes, her husband is much more than just 
an observer, he is a very big part of her completed projects. Rodney helped Stephanie with a couple of her classes by instructing us on how to do some of the things that he does when helping her design and make some of her beautiful cakes. I get the idea that he does a lot of the fondant 
work and I also hear that he can make some amazingly detailed cookie cutters (and sells them BTW). Stephanie (and Rodney) covered a lot of techniques in a short period of time and did it very well, especially given the time constraints. The end of each class found us all rushing to finish our project of the evening, but rest assured that each and every time we were able to take our completed project home to share with family and loved ones. Stephanie was great, Ashley and I both learned a lot and made a lot of new friends. Thank you Stephanie and Rodney.
Here's another Creme de la Creme http://www.cremedelacremecatering.com/ cake that Ashley decorated. She sent me these pictures with the comment, "Here's the latest cake that I did at work recently :-) This was one of my first BIG projects that I worked on by myself." I may be her mom, but I think it turned out really well. It looks pretty real and from the pictures she sent, I'd have to say, "If I didn't know it was a cake..." Wanna see more detail? Click on the individual pictures and you'll be able to 
see all the detail that went into this cake. I'm not sure about the flavor of this cake, but I do know it's buttercream icing with fondant & gum pas
te details.
First let me say, "I love making cakes! I love decorating cakes w/Ashley. And delivering cakes isn't so bad either when you get to participate!" We had another busy weekend. We made a 'basketball' cake for the boys who live next door to me. They both have birthdays on the 20th of the month, they are both on basketball teams and we needed to make a cake for our latest cake decorating class, so...it was a win/win situation. They totally loved the cake that we delivered to them and I had a picture of it but was unable to retrieve it at the time of this post. This particular cake is a 1/2 chocolate and 1/2 vanilla flavored cake with BC icing and fondant decorations.
When my old Char-Broil grill bit the dust from using it so often, I thought I'd be able to do without one, however, I've been missing my grill buddy ever since. So, this weekend I bought this little baby while on a shopping trip at Wal-Mart. My thinking is that this is the perfect way to determine if this little thing will do the the trick or do I actually grill enough to justify buying a bigger one. Once home, I opened the box up and OMG! there were a 'gillion' pieces! After my initial shock at seeing so many pieces, I 
began putting it together. Basically, the instructions stunk, but the pictures were fairly good and although I had to take a couple of things apart and then put them back together again after seeing the errors of my ways, I accomplished the task of being able to hook up the gas and am now grilling my first meal, using my Pampered Chef Grill Basket, on this little baby - a single turkey brat and veggies. She's little but she rocks!
back to and has been owned by the same family since 1916 beginning with Claude's aunt, then his mother and father and of course, most recently, Claude & Orlene. This lovely couple have decided it's time to hand it over to the next generation and enjoy retirement. You can read more about Herd's Hamburgers and Claude & Orlene in this article.
Woke up this morning with the thought that we should do something different for breakfast and the morning, so suggested that we go to the Rio Concho Cafe at Hicks Airfield http://www.hicksairport.com/index.htm and watch the planes take off and land. I thought that it might be the perfect weekend to go there given the weather and the fact that it is a holiday weekend. I was right as there was lots of activity including many take-offs, landings and the opportunity to check out a lot of interesting planes.
Honestly, the food at the cafe leaves a 'little to be desired', but the experience of being there and watching all the outside activity makes it worth the experience. As we sat in the little cafe, waiting and then eating our breakfast, we were witness to no less than 20 small aircraft taking off, landing, 
fueling up, etc. We've been here before, but never when there was so much activity in that there were lessons being conducted, multiple husband/wife flights, multiple fuelings, planes being 'pulled' from the fueling spot to their parking spots, an old 'warbird' taking off and then flying and more. You can also see that there are lots of hangers that have been converted to and are mult-purpose hangers, i.e., living quarters, offices, etc. It truly was a rare treat and one that we totally enjoyed. 
I made this beautiful, and very patriotic dish to take to work on the Wednesday prior to the 4th...my way of celebrating the 4th of July a little early and with the office since we'll be closed that day. Nobody even realized that it was totally fat-free or sugar-free! It was gobbled up so fast that I didn't get a chance to get any myself! This recipe is courtesy of the Kraft Foods website and I made it in my Pampered Chef trifle dish, which by the way is the terrific party dish in so many ways! I topped this work of art with a sprig of mint right out of my herb garden.
Ashley did 2 projects on her own, for Treasured Cakes, while she was off work for the week. The first was cupcakes and are the result of a recipe she came up with using peanut butter cups in the middle and peanut butter buttercream frosting on top of chocolate cupcakes…and 'just for fun' she added a piece of a peanut butter cup on top. VERY rich and VERY good were the apparent responses from her softball team which she'd made these for.
en a picture of what the customer wanted and was able to recreate it as a smaller cake. When presented to the b'day girl, the cake will have a princess tiara placed on top and a pink boa around the bottom of the cake. Ashley said she had a few challenges with this cake just as we always seem to do (fortunately we always manage to overcome those challenges and issues). She says she loved adding the edible pearls and some fondant details to this cake and personally, I think the bow was the perfect finishing touch.
We spent last week doing a little bit of sight seeing and a whole lot of kicking back and relaxing down in the Hill Country of Central Texas. We stayed in a very cute little place that we found at the last minute...literally - Country Sun B&B Cottages (http://www.country-sun.com/). We checked in on Sunday nite. We met Vera, one of the co-owners, on Monday morning. She did an exceptional job of taking care of us. She brought us a very nice 'European' style Continental breakfast every morning at 
precisely 8:30 a.m. (our request). It was always very well done w/the pastries warm and in a pretty basket, the OJ was poured into champagne glasses, it also included sliced meat/cheese, little boxes of cereal, assorted jellies and butter - more than enough to fill us up so we were always able to share with Abby of course. On Monday, we went into Wimberly and San Marcos and did a little bit of shopping. On Tuesday, we went into Gruene (http://www.gruenetexas.com/), toured historic Gruene Hall where we made it our job to sit in the bar and drink one of their Texas beers (a Shiner, of course), had lunch at the Gristmill (http://www.gristmillrestaurant.com/) and then more shopping before returning to the B&B. On 
Wednesday, we went to Shiner and toured the Shiner brewery (http://www.shiner.com/home.php). That was not only fun and very enlightening, but free! They also give out 4 tokens each for free tastings of their various brews. More shopping and free beer - who could ask for more? Our personal favorite was the Shiner Blonde. We weren't done yet though. On our 
trip back to the B&B, we drove thru Luling (http://www.lulingcc.org/4584868_37583.htm), once known as 'the toughest town in Texas', the home of not only some of the greatest BBQ I've ever eaten, the very best BBQ sauce I've ever eaten (which I plan to order lots of via their website), but also, the home of the big Watermelon Thump (http://www.lulingcc.org/4951471_37583.htm). Yes, you read that right - the Watermelon Thump. Apparently the biggest annual festival in Luling. They have a pageant where all the contestants post signs literally all over the town of Luling - and I do mean ALL OVER! They were setting up for the festival before and during our visit on Wednesday (the festival was to begin on Thursday - it's held the last weekend of June). During this 'big-time', much anticipated (for Luling) festival, this little south Texas town hosts local 
and not-so-local bigger name bands, beer gardens, a carnival, street dances, cook-offs, a giant parade, craft & food booths, and yes...watermelon eating and seed spitting contests and much, much more. While there, we ate at the previously mentioned BBQ joint, the Luling City Market (http://www.lulingcitymarket.com/) and it was as good as promised and better than anticipated. Very primitive, as their are no plates or utensils so to speak, but between the brown paper, the massive amounts of paper towels, we managed just fine. You get your meat (and pay for it BTW) directly from the smoker room in the back of this fine dining establishment and then move to the front of the restaurant where you can pick up the most awesome BBQ sauce I've ever tasted, any of their other menu items and a drink, directly out of an old cola box! After eating, we walk around town in an attempt to walk off some of the food we'd just eaten and took a few pictures. Before leaving, we discovered another set of unusual items that this 'sweet' town has to offer - their decorated oil well pump jacks, mostly located along and/or near the railroad tracks. You can see a few of these here (http://www.lulingcc.org/4951475_37583.htm
cc.org/4951475_37583.htm
.htm).
This cake was the result of a request for a cake for an end of the season baseball party from a good friend of ours. The only real prerequisites were that the cake feed a whole lot of hungry young men and their families. We thought this one would fit the bill. It's a white 1/2 sheet cake topped with a chocolate baseball glove shaped cake that is probably about the size of a 10"-12" round cake. The icing is a chocolate butter cream that tasted totally decadent...like fudge but was the hardest thing to work with that we've found to date. I found the recipe online and as good as the reviews were, it was really hard to work with. It didn't smooth well, but it did pipe and decorate well and as I've said already it was absolutely delicious. It's a miracle that Ashley & I did so well at WW's weigh-in the next morning, because I think we did more than the usual 'tastings' due to the fact that it was so incredibly yummy. We delivered it on Saturday morning and hopefully it was a hit at the party.
This was a very cool cake - our customer sent us a scan of the napkin she was using for the baby shower she was giving and I think we hit it dead on! This cake was a 2-tiered hexagon shaped cake (one of our favorite cake shapes thus far) with buttercream icing throughout (8" & 10" layers). We replicated everything all the 
way down to the butterflies and the caterpillars and in almost exactly the same colors as the napkin. It took a lot of time but was totally worth the effort! We loved it and so did our customer.
Recently attended my nephew's High School graduation and it was way cool for a lot of reasons....1) to get the opportunity to once again see what an incredible young man my brother & SIL raised, 2) to get the opportunity to spend a little extra time with my beloved family members and 3) to have the opportunity to realize that even though there are much larger graduating classes, a small graduating class can add so much to the event and the nite. Each one of those young ladies and men had the opportunity to speak for 1 minute and they each did a very eloquent job of thanking their loved ones, which included family, friends and those that helped each one of them get where they are. Thank you to my brother, SIL & nephew for allowing me to be a part of that terrific event and I totally love being an aunt to an amazing young man - my idea for the perfect son!
We're working on 2 cakes this weekend. The 1st is a cake for a 50th b'day. The request was pretty generic - white cake/choc icing that will serve approx 50 and not to much more direction and/or requests than that. We opted to do a 2-layer, 1/2 sheet cake carved in the shape of coffin as you can tell.
a picture with pretty detailed instrux. She wanted a marble cake with buttercream icing using 'boy' colors and a ducky on top. The little boy baby's name is to be Edon so rather than use the ABCD letters that were on the example cake, we opted to use the letters of the baby's name. 
My truck was the perfect vehicle to deliver this cake in as it's back seat is designed in a way as to give plenty of room but it was a little nerve-wracking to take an already stacked cake for that long of a ride...okay, it wouldn't have mattered how long the ride was, it would still have been nerve-wracking. Anyway, we got the cake there in perfect shape, did the set-up work to it that needed to be done, took a couple of pictures and then scooted out of there with nary a problem.
the town until tonite when Marie & Angie took Randall & I to the Flying Saucer (http://www.beerknurd.com/) and then to the Blues City Cafe (http://bluescitycafe.com/) where we had some amazingly good pork ribs. I took a few pictures inside the cafe and then when we left, right outside on Beale Street, we saw 
more motorcycles than I've ever seen in one place...and that includes the time RH and I went to Kerrville/Fredericksburg for the Honda Motorcycle Rally!!!!!! I am not kidding you...there were motorcycles all up and down the street and they
were still coming when we walked away. We walked and drove around for a little bit, exploring, kindof, and saw the Peabody (http://www.peabodymemphis.com/) and the Orpheum (http://www.orpheum-memphis.com/) as well as a few other historic places. It's been way fun and I would really love to come back and spend some time here w/RH doing some serious exploring. FYI - while here we've eaten at Lenny's (http://lennyssubshop.com/) and Sam's on Main - and both were definitely good eatin'. I'll be going on tomorrow having made some good friends and with a lot of useful information. Thank you to all who took their time and energy to spend with us - you were all great and very helpful.
Finished this class tonite and everyone's cakes turned out to be beautiful works of art as you can tell. Thank you Belinda - again we learned a lot from you and look forward to learning more and the opportunity to share even more tips and ideas in the future. You are a great teacher and this was, once again, a great class. The white cake with 
the pink and purple daisies is Ashley's final cake, the pink and coffee colored one with daisies is my final cake, the yellow and white cake is Sonia's and the pink and white cake is Veronica's. And, once again, we had fun and made some new friends. Good job by all!
After so many things happening between the last 'official' cake decorating class that Ashley and I took and now, we are finally able to take the final class that Wilton offers for cake decorating - 'Fondant and Gum Paste'. Lesson #1 was a quick replay of previous lessons after which we learned the process of covering a cake base with fondant. Lesson #2 was using that covered cake base, adding fondant to the cake we brought and using gum paste to make this drape and some simple flowers. This is the completed practice cake that I made for that class. I missed Lesson #3 in lieu of making the cupcake 'pops' for my Keno group (see 'A request for cupcakes' below), but Ashley assures me that I can catch up and be ready for Lesson #4. Stay tuned for our final graduation cake using all the techniques that this class has taught us.
Ashley sent me these pictures this evening after she'd spent the day delivering and setting up a cake designed to look 'exactly' like Kyle Field http://football.ballparks.com/NCAA/Big12/TexasA&M/index.htm at Texas A&M University. Her co-worker, Amber and her have spent weeks designing it and working on it. It was a Groom's cake for a reception held at the Fort Worth Club http://www.fortworthclub.com/. As you can tell it's huge so it took several trips from the bakery http://www.cremedelacremecatering.com/ and lots of work to get it completed in time for the reception but they pulled it off with only a little time to spare. I am a little jealous but ever so proud that she's finally doing what she really wants to do and is apparently pretty darned good at! 
...turned into an excuse to experiment with something new and different for Treasured Cakes to make. I was asked to make some 'Spring themed' cupcakes for my Keno group and was having a hard time deciding just what I could make that would 'impress'. While cruising the cyberspace highway, I read about and was intrigued by a blog on http://bakerella.blogspot.com/ about 'cupcake pops' and decided that this might be the perfect way to come up with something that would bring thoughts of Spring to mind and impress all at the 
same time. Fortunately, for me, it did both. And I took the extras to work the following day, in another flower pot, and they were equally delighted and impressed! Both groups claimed these cupcakes were totally decadent and a few even claimed they were the best they'd ever eaten!!!!!! Just for the record - these are made with red velvet cake mixed with cream cheese (on the inside) and then dipped in candy molds (shaped to look like the bottom of a cupcake) filled with melted chocolate. The tops are then dipped in pink tinted white chocolate. Each one has a candy/sucker stick stuck into the bottom and is individually wrapped and tied w/a green ribbon.
The family (mom, daughter/Ashley, brother/Gary & SIL/Debbie) and myself did the 5K 'Walk for the Cure' in Tyler on the Saturday prior to Mother's Day. It was lots of fun and a great event for an even better cause. In addition to losing my father this past year, my SIL lost her mother to breast cancer so it was doubly meaningful for all of us. We all found out that 5K (3.3 miles I think) was a little harder than we'd anticipated but mostly because it was mostly on brick streets that wound thru some of the neighborhoods of downtown Tyler - a beautiful area really. It was a great time and a good way to spend some special 'family' time together doing something that was important to us all.
on Saturday (the 3rd of May). Ashley, Aunt Margie and I 
drove to Edom to meet my Uncle Charlie, Aunt Frances & Mom for lunch at The Shed Cafe
http://www.theshedc
afe.com/. This place is crazy good and crazy popular (for motorcyclists and non-motorcyclists as well). The service is great, the food is great, the crowd is a total mixture of everything imaginable. I LOVE THIS PLACE and this tiny historic little town in E.Texas.
This weekend Ashley and I were able to redeem ourselves a little after the disastrous 'Tiffany Box' cake we attempted a few weeks ago. Because we are determined to improve upon our cake decorating skills, we decided we'd make another practice cake using fondant. And because we'd learned so much from the last one, we went after this one a little differently, in several aspects, and as a result, this one came out so much better. I was delighted to present it as a gift to the neighbors since the whole family is great (even the little boys rush to help me unload the truck when they see me come in with groceries and such). And 
they all gave a huge gasp and lots of smiles when I showed up with this one and once again, I totally ruled as the 'Cake Lady' next door!
...and another weekend over way too soon! I didn't help with this particular cake because Ashley 
had my #1 grandchild, Alexis there to help. She didn't but it wasn't her fault. Ashley had taken Alexis to the orthodontist on Friday to get some dental/braces work done, and bless her heart, she was in such pain, she wasn't able to help. Ashley did well despite that though. She even experimented with more new recipes that came out very well. This cake (design, flavor and icing) was made by special request for #3 grandchild, Damion Jr. He wanted a yellow cake w/chocolate frosting and wanted it to be in the same exact style as his big brother's cake that we'd made in February. 
This past Wednesday nite was Keno nite with the ladies and as always, we had a blast. What a great group of women to have as friends. We all get along so well and really enjoy our monthly get-togethers. This isn't the entire group, but it is the group that played this month. It was my turn to host (which for me means bring the food). It's a small group and we try to take turns having it at a different a member's house each month, but since I live so far away from the remainder of the group, it falls on one of the other girls to let me host it at their house. Lisa is always a very gracious hostess and I'm so grateful that she allows me to host at her house. 
Ashley and I created another really awesome cake. This one was for a baby shower, the first request we've had for one of these. We were hired by the new grandmom-to-be and I think she was very pleased when we delivered it today. The cake was a two-tiered, hexagon shaped cake using the classic Pooh colors in the icing. The bottom tier was white cake and the top was chocolate, as requested by her and was covered in buttercream icing with a strawberry glaze filling in both tiers. It was a fun one to make and involved a couple more 'firsts' for us.
Ashley and I decided to make a 'practice' cake last weekend with the idea that we'd try something we'd never tried before, have a fun learning experience, get some practice in and give the neighbors a sweet treat. Our plan was to make a 2-tier Tiffany gift box cake. Unfortunately, it didn't come out as perfectly as we'd hoped, but as anticipated, we did learn A LOT and the children next door loved it so much that they offered to wash my truck in return! Pretty good deal I'd say! We started out by making 2 3-layer cakes (6" & 8") and covering them w/fondant. Our trouble began with the fact that I used a different cake recipe than usual that was much too moist which made the cakes difficult to handle and even more difficult to ice. Our trouble continued when proceeded to roll our fondant too thin because we were afraid we wouldn't have enough and even though we've made bows before, this particular one didn't come out well at all and basically fell all apart when we tried to attach it to the top of the cake (hence the Christmas bow stuck on the top for the benefit of the little ones next door and picture taking, of course). All said, it was a good learning experience, the children next door think I'm the greatest neighbor they've ever had and the mother/daughter time together was, as always, fun.
old-style school desks with lots of memoirs on the surrounding walls. There is some extra seating on the outside in the form of picnic tables or you can do like we did and sit on the tailgate of your truck. 
small bag of chips. I had a cheeseburger and Russell had the double double. Take my word for it and go ahead and order the double double. It's worth the few extra calories because the single cheeseburger I'd ordered definitely left me wanting more. It was a bit of a cruise (approx 1 1/2 hr from home), but worth the trip if you want an outta-sight burger!
A little background and history of Herd's Hamburgers: http://www.roadfood.com/Forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=20897񌧷
In an effort to expand our cake decorating talents, Ashley and I created our first sugar paste (fondant) figures. We decided on teddy bears, however, I think mine looks more like a pig than a bear. We used leftover fondant from other projects and did it totally without instruction or directions. We decided for a first attempt, we did pretty darn good.
Russell & I went to the RV show today at the Ft Worth Convention Center. Wow! I can't begin to tell you how awesome some of those huge monsters were!!!!!!!!! There was every kind of RV (this picture is the inside of one of the RV's that we 'toured'), 5th wheel trailer, pop-up trailer, etc that you can possibly imagine with every possible amenity that you can imagine. We went thru so many and picked up so many brochures that it made our head's swim. After about 3 hours and 8,000+ steps (according to my pedometer), we felt like we were pretty 'full-up' on what RV's, etc had to offer and were ready to go (it didn't help that I'd totally worn the wrong kind of shoes to be climbing in and out of RV's!). Afterwards we made our way to the M&O Diner on Carroll St. in Ft. Worth (thanks to a recommendation from the Ft. Worth Weekly - http://www.fwweekly.com/content.asp?article=6601) where we had very tasty burgers and the opportunity to stroll thru the very interesting Leonard’s Department Store Museum (I think you can ck out the history of Leonard's Dept Store via this link and if not, it's certainly worth Googling). Even if the burgers hadn't been incredibly good, discovering this very unique museum would have made seeking out this little 50's style diner totally worth the trip. And according to the sign outside the diner/museum, it also plans on being the future home of one of the old subway cars from subway that the Leonards built in downtown Ft. Worth back in the day.
Another Treasured Cake creation for your viewing pleasure and our customer's eating pleasure. This particular cake is a chocolate and red velvet flavored cake (top tier is red velvet and the bottom is chocolate) with marshmallow fondant textured and colored to appear as if it were black leather with pink asymetrical circles and pink satin ribbons (Ashley was able to find this tastier version of fondant via the many message boards that she frequents) . This customer (and our most recent) loved it and claimed that it was the perfect cake for her 16 year old daughter's b'day.
