Tidings of Great Joy...and Frosting

One of the best things about vacations is the time they afford you (if you take advantage of it) to do the things you really love and rarely have enough time for. Today that means finally getting to update my blog...yay! It has been an incredibly busy season of holiday preparations and festivities, Nutcracker rehearsals and performances, and time with family and friends. You know what? I wouldn't trade a minute of it.

The season afforded me three great opportunities to fine-tune my new passion for cake baking/decorating, and I would have made a fourth cake this year if head colds and winter "yuck" hadn't gripped my household for a few days. But early in December, I made this 3-layer chocolate and vanilla cake for a family gathering. I dove into the hithertofore unexplored world of sculpting with fondant and came up with the Santa cake you see at the left. Santa is snuggled in his bed (with his chubby feet sticking out of the covers), and his naughty-'n-nice list is rolling off his night stand and on to the floor.

The second cake I made during the holiday season was a 6-inch, two-layer buttermilk white cake for my best friend, Kristin. This cake was hands-down the most moist, delicious cake I've made yet. Kristin and I gave a slice to the waiter we had at Cheesecake Factory, and he came back out from the kitchen to rave about how good it was. Surrounded by amazing cheesecakes, that's saying something! The buttercream frosting and strawberries layered in the middle were amazing! And the design on top was a quick, easy, beautiful way to top a holiday cake. The "berries" are pink fondant rolled in red sugar.

After this cake, I made a 9-inch New York cheesecake for Madison's 11th birthday party, but I forgot to take any pictures (yes, I'm smacking myself). It was topped with a strawberries, white chocolate ganache and a layer of buttermilk white cake. The entire cake was frosted in buttercream and had a pair of ballet shoes, molded in pink modeling chocolate, on the top of the cake. While this was a decadant, over-the-top cake that was a big hit with 11-year-old girls, I have to say that the New York cheesecake alone would have been as big a hit. I have found a no-fail recipe for cheesecake that I plan to make for many years to come.

If you're a baker and would like any of these recipes, let me know, and I'll post them. :)

I am so looking forward to 2010 and all it has in store for me, my family, my career, and my ministry. God is an amazing God, isn't He? I am excited about the 21 days of Prayer and Fasting that are coming up in January. After a season of feasting, nothing could be better timed, both physically and spiritually, for me and my household. I won't be baking cakes in the month of January (unless they're for someone else), but I'll be posting for the next few weeks about fasting and what God reveals in the weeks ahead.

Love you all!! Happy 2010!

Two Tiers - No Tears

Those who know me well know that I am a woman of many interests. My mother has always joked about the fact that I always have a new hobby. I don't know whether to attribute this to an undiagnosed attention-deficit disorder or the fact that I have an insatiable desire to learn new things. But there are a few interests that never seem to change in my life, and certainly one of those is good food. More often than not if you were to visit my home you will find my television tuned in to TLC, We, Food Network, or whatever channel Martha Stewart reruns are on (this is during whatever hours of the day that Sesame Street, Barney, and Thomas the Train are not on the TV).



After months of awed fascination with shows like Ace of Cakes, Cake Boss, and Wedding Cake Wars, I finally decided to jump into the trendy world of baking and creative cake decorating. The early results received mixed reviews, like this pumpkin cake I made on Halloween, constructed with two Bundt cakes (one chocolate, one vanilla), where one cake is inverted on top of the other, frosted with buttercream frosting, and covered in rolled fondant icing, which I made from scratch with marshmallows and boatload of 10X sugar. The chocolate layer was moist and delicious, but the vanilla layer was dense and dry. So I determined to find a better recipe. Afterall, no matter how cute the pumpkin looks, it still has to taste good, right?


I found a great book called The Well Decorated Cake by renowned master baker Toba Garrett. I found a heavenly recipe for vanilla cake in this amazing book of craft, technique, and expert recipes. So I ventured out with these new skills in hand, to make a two-tiered creation, again of chocolate and vanilla cake, for Mildred Carter's 87th birthday. Ms. Mildred is my husband's grandmother who celebrated this milestone on Thanksgiving day this year. It is becoming somewhat of a tradition that I bake her birthday cake on Thanksgiving. So I gave her this two-tiered confection, each tier composed of a layer of chocolate cake and a layer of vanilla cake, separated by thick buttercream and fresh strawberries. This cake was moist, delicious, and beautiful. It was received with rave reviews. :)


I have plans for three holiday cakes and a birthday cake before this month is over and will post those pics as I go.

I'm Back in the Saddle Again...

After dumping my rather costly personal website a year or so ago, I've decided to jump back into blogging here at Blogger both because it so beautifully imports via Networked Blogs to my FB profile page but more importantly because I missed it! If God has deposited the fiery gift to write and communicate into your soul, even a short season of not using it can be detrimental to one's mental and emotional health. It's rather like a faucet that has been turned off.

So I've decided to settle for a simple blog site where I can journal and share on a variety of life issues, not the least of which is my new passion for baking! I recognize that this is antithetical to my need for healthier living and weight loss, but I've come to understand that at least for me, happy living is going to mean striking a balance between health and joy. And cooking and baking brings me joy; therefore, I must follow my bliss. It just might mean that I may have to decline my own creations and serve them up to others instead. :)

And I wish to use this space to continue to explore God's call on my life to teach and minister to women, wherever and however He may create an opportunity to do that.