A Couple of Realizations....

There are two parts to the cake decorating I don't much care for, both of which have to do with traits of mine that could use some fine tuning: Patience and Procrastination (the latter I could afford to lose altogether). The baking/prepping is kind of tedious and takes (what feels like) FOR-EV-ER (Sandlot, anyone?). Then there's the cleanup part. Not my favorite... at all! But what comes in between... WORTH EVERY BIT! I always used to say making cards was almost therapeutic for me, and now it's the same with decorating cakes. In fact, cakes are basically the edible versions of my cards!

Anyways, hope you enjoy attempt #3! And thanks again for all input, advice, and constructive criticism you have to offer!

P.S. For those of you who don't know, this was supposed to be the "Goochland G" which looks a little something like this:

Gettin' there, right?! 

Fear Not!

I apologize for not blogging in a while, I've been in Iowa and Idaho and all the states in between (yes, we ventured through the floods of North Dakota, too)! I've also been waiting for some good pictures of my second attempt. I made two cakes for my dear friend Linda's retirement party! I was pretty proud of myself, but let me just tell you that lessons were still learned along the way, like...

1. More counter space IS awesome and necessary!

2. There are 8 letters in "congrats", not 6 (found that out the hard way of making the bubbles, then as I was filling them in and got to the second to last one, I noticed I was going to need a few more; therefore, I was going to need to start this lil top part over)!

3. I go through eggs like crazy, and feel quite wasteful when the recipe calls for only egg whites. Any suggestions as to what I could use the yolks for are greatly appreciated (p.s. I don't eat eggs).

4. Making frosting colors is fun! And, I now know why I've been keeping all those yogurt containers! 

5. Cake boxes are THE BEST, and they make my cakes look closer to professional. 

... there were many more lessons, but you get the gist for now! 

Today's task is to make a sheet cake for a friends birthday party! I was told he likes golf, fishing, and The Bulldogs. Since I'm still learning, I think I'm going to stick with a Bulldogs theme. Wish me luck! I'll be sharing soon!

As always, input is always welcomed and appreciated!!

First ATTEMPT...check!

Well, ya'll, I've officially made my first attempt at cake decorating! Now, I'm not going to say it was a success; HOWEVER, I'm also not going to say it was a fail... there were PLENTY of lessons learned, and I figure (watch out! Here comes the teacher in me), as long as I'm willing to learn, I'm makin' progress, right?! With a few pictures, and a laundry list of lessons, allow me to walk you through my first experience:

1. Follow directions EXACTLY, especially when first starting out! For example, if the icing recipe (named Buttercream icing) calls for butter, use butter, not margarine, or any other substitute. I had to add almost two more POUNDS of powdered sugar to get it stiff enough, and even then, it wasn't quite right.

2. AC on a 100 degree day is CRUCIAL when decorating cakes! Neither icing, nor your sweat glands appreciate it any other way. It makes icing a cake tough when you have to continually put the cake in the fridge to prevent the icing from running.

3. I'm going to need my friend, Mac's address after all. When I mentioned I was interested in decorating cakes, Mac wrote: just practice a lot. and all the ones that don't turn out as pretty as you want i'll eat. free of charge.
Here ya go, Mac! I'll keep practicing, and in the meantime,  my mistake = your reward!
P.S. The lesson learned here is to line the cake pan with shortening and flour, not cooking spray. Whoops!

4. Get an actual one piece, sturdy cardboard bottom rather than trying to "jimmy-rig" one last minute with pieces of a small box and duct tape (although, I must admit, this turned out to be one of my successes of the evening).

5. I need practice on mixing colors... to make the color of a softball, use yellow first, as the "base" then add green as necessary! Ugh!

My not-quite-right softball:

5. Find a way to make a "draft" or lines to trace to make it look right (the seams are lacking symmetry).

6. Patience... in SO MANY WAYS! I have to learn that, well, I'm learning! I'm not going to be perfect from the get-go (for those who don't know, that's a REALLY HARD concept for me to grasp... REALLY HARD!). Many things with this hobby take time, and I've got to be patient!

7. Oh, how I need a few more items... counter space, cooling rack, variety of pans, mixer... the list goes on! Hmmmm.... maybe I'll have to figure out some kind of way to get some help with this... ;-)

My "lack of counter space" before and after:

8. Don't let your frustrations get the best of you: 

This is my cracked plastic bowl... no big deal... on the plus, my new weight routine must be working, yeah?! 

9. Timing... allow yourself PLENTY of time! Shortness in time, means shortness in creativity and things don't turn out quite as well as you'd anticipated. 

The list goes on, and I know I'll think of more after I post this, but it's a good start--both the list, and the cake experience. The final products for Friday were two chocolate softballs and one "vanilla" (this means I'm still searching for a good vanilla sheet cake recipe, I wasn't too thoroughly impressed by the one I used) field cake.

As always, thanks for following, encouraging, constructively criticizing, and always supporting me! Also, I realize I need to get going on posting some card pics! I'm on it, don't you worry!

EXCITEMENT, worry, EXCITEMENT, worry... EXCITEMENT!

Well,  I did it! That's right, I went ahead and made my Amazon.com order (for those of you who know how indecisive I am, you should be very proud of me).

Speaking of indecisive, my emotions have been that way with the news: I have my first "cake order".  A friend is retiring, and asked if I'd make her cake for her party (um, YES PLEASE!). I'm not going to lie, I've gone through a string of emotions about this: excitement (I got my first order!), fear (I don't know what I'm doing), worry (what if I mess up), panic (what if my sizes are wrong... what if they don't like it... what if my fridge isn't big enough... what if....), EXCITEMENT (Courtney, this is what you want to do! This is a great opportunity! Let the ideas keep coming!)! I mean, there's only one true way to get better, right, and that's gain experience! And, here's the kicker, the retiree has pretty much given me free range except for the size, and has complete faith in me. I couldn't ask for a better "first".

Nonetheless, I decided to ease my anxiety just a bit more, and do a little practicing this weekend when I attend our end-of-the-season Softball Party.... and let me just tell you how the ideas are continuously flowing for this! I can't wait to post pics and let you all follow along on my endeavors, as I continue to move forward, one step at a time!

As always, I LOVE the comments you have to share... and feel free to share this site with friends and create more followers!

Thanks for all your continuous support!

You Have to Spend Money to Make Money???

Well, if you think about it, it's MOST OFTEN true... to teach, for example, I had to drop a few precious pennies (my mom just fell off her chair at my word choice) at the great institution known as Montana State University (Go Cats!)... So to continue with other passions, a few more precious pennies may need to be dropped, aye?! But the rewards WILL BE worth it... right??!

The first purchase was not made by me, rather a friend in the form of "Thank you" (and I was later told, in the form of an investment... thanks for having faith in me, Jess!)

Next, I made my first purchase, just to get me started...

 ... until I finish perusing Amazon.com (aka: get the guts to make the purchases of the items in my basket) IN THE MEANTIME, if you have suggestions of whether I should or shouldn't go ahead with it, please feel free to comment! As always, I'm "all ears" to your input!

In my Amazon basket right now:

1.
  
(they're the same thing, it's just what's in side the box)

2.


3.


4.


Thanks for following and sharing your input!

P.S. Pictures are courtesy of Amazon.com

Welcome... and What's to Come!

First let me start by explaining the title:


Courtney- my name ("Courtney's" is the possessive form of that--- and, yes, I am a smart allelic a lot of the time)


Cakes- I had the bright idea (like I have a lot of spare time), that I needed a new hobby. Decorating cakes struck my fancy, so I started a blog on it 1. To announce to many others of my plans/goals with it creating me to actually follow through with it and 2. So I can receive constructive criticism/advice from a variety of people as I learn this new skill 3. So I can have a "cheer group" from start to present as I post pics along the way (I thrive off of positive feedback, but find someone who isn't). 


Cards- It's a kind of therapy for me... I don't think I can duplicate any one, but I really enjoy putting them together and making them for people! 


So, wish me luck, and feel free to follow and add feedback as often as you'd like! Hopefully there will be pictures to follow soon!


Oh! And, if you notice me slacking on blogging, feel free to let me know of that, too. My goal is to post at least once a week... again, I'm announcing this so I will be held accountable, and then will have to follow through!