Showers, dust, and kiddos

This was a weekend of celebrations all around. First up on Saturday was the shower for my friend, Rachel, in Tucson. I'm her matron of honor, and the bridesmaids and I spent the last 6 weeks planning and organizing. It was actually really great how everyone kind of took on a task and ran with it. Two girls took on food and decor. The bridesmaid in NY handled the favors and had them shipped out since she couldn't attend. Another bridesmaid took care of the games and prizes. I did the cake and some keep-sake type stuff, along with the odds and ends that didn't fall into any other category. And it all went just beautifully.

Rachel's wedding color (or the color of our dresses, anyway) is latte. We went with a blue, cream, and latte colored palette to stay within her taste but add some color and make it distinct from the wedding. The cake was made to match the invite. One of the bridesmaids managed to find latte colored roses, the same flowers that Rachel is incorporating into the bouquets. Here are some pics of the spread (mmmm, Costco chicken and cranberry salad sandwiches) and decor.






After cleaning up after the shower, I hung out with my parents for a bit, then headed home and had the lovely privilege of driving through a dust storm. Funny thing, the news people have been calling them "haboobs." Apparently, it's an Arabic word for these giant rolling dust storms. I've lived in Arizona my whole life, and not once have I ever heard them called a haboob before this summer. Weird. But anyway, it was so dusty, I couldn't see more than about 40 feet ahead, if that. The car in front of me took his foot off the brake and literally disappeared. Thankfully, it didn't last long, but it was a stressful 10 minutes as I drove through it.

I finally got home and got to hang out on the NEW COUCH! Yay! I didn't take pictures, because it looks completely jammed in our living room right now. We haven't decided if our old couch will be sold or donated, so we have both in the living room right now, including the chaise lounge part of the new couch that's supposed to reside in our living room. We have stadium seating, people. Paisley parked herself on the old couch, demonstrating once again that I think she'd be perfectly happy living in a house all her own, so long as she gets fed on the regular. Once the new couch is placed properly in the room, I think it's going to be fabulous.

Yesterday was our friends' daughter's 2nd birthday party. I can hardly believe our little Princess Kadence is a two-year-old. She's just so much fun, and so adorable. She was all jazzed up yesterday at her party and talking non-stop. She just adores Dan, and always says "hi, Dan" in her tiny voice whenever he walks by her or she notices he's in the room. She got a ton of toys and had a blast playing with them, though her favorite gift by far was none other than Disney Princess Chap Stick. Our wedding photographer's wife and children were also there, and their 9-year-old son and 7-year-old daughter had a blast playing with Dan (and his iPhone apps). It happened to be the 9-year-old's birthday yesterday (which we didn't know until we got there), and after we left, Dan decided he wanted to go get him a gift. This kid has the most awesome sense of humor, so Dan did a great job picking out the perfect card and gift bag for him. It was really sweet.

Here's a picture of our piggy-tailed little lady enjoying her cake and ice cream. It's amazing how big she looks. I just can't wait to watch her grow up into a (feisty) little girl.


How was your weekend? Any celebrations?

It finally happened...

... I made a cake, and nothing went wrong! And awesomely enough, it was for another big boss in the building, so I'm so glad it went well. The only thing was that the birthday boy requested a Betty Crocker vanilla cake (they're very specific about their cakes in that group) with chocolate frosting. My coworker asked for chocolate butter cream. Only problem, I don't like chocolate butter cream. So I really had no idea what it should taste like when it's good, because it just doesn't taste good to me. I got it to where I think it's supposed to be and went with it. It smoothed nicely, didn't pick up any crumbs, and everything went great. I didn't get a picture, but just imagine the most awesome chocolate frosted cake you've ever seen with "Happy Birthday" written on it.

In other cake news, I ordered our anniversary tier from our baker today. I am so excited! That was darn good cake, and I'm excited to celebrate our anniversary and Dan's birthday with our friends, Scott and Melissa. We were going to head up north for a night and have dinner and go out. Unfortunately, as I started looking at hotels, I discovered that the university up there is having its Family Weekend that weekend. Everything will be crowded and hotels are way overpriced. Boohiss. Dan decided he'd rather save the cost and just do dinner and something fun here, instead. He doesn't know I ordered the cake though, so it'll be a fun surprise. Now I just have to figure out what to get my husband for our first anniversary and for his birthday. Hmmm...

In dog news, Clover went to the vet yesterday for her semi-annual bordatella shot and I was talking with the doc about her house-breaking issues. Something about the frequency of how often she's relieving herself triggered some concern for him, and he suggested an ultra-sound and urinalysis. The last time we'd talked about it, she was almost 6 months old and within the normal range for house-breaking, and he didn't think it was an infection since she wasn't having accidents in her crate (a truly bad infection would have over-ridden her natural instinct to mess in her crate). The ultra-sound came back normal, which was a relief, but he said she may have a low-grade infection and prescribed antibiotics. While I feel awful that it's possible she's had this little infection looming for quite a while, I'm happy that we may have an answer to why house-breaking has been so difficult with her. I just hope this may be the start of a new beginning for us.

As far as this weekend goes, it's a blank canvas, just like I like my weekends. I think we're going to see my parents, and Dan's on call, but other than that, everything is wide open.

Does anyone else have any fun weekend plans? How did you celebrate your first anniversary? What should I get my husband?

Pranky pranky, Chef Jeffrey Adam "Duff" Goldman

Dear Chef Jeffrey Adam "Duff" Goldman,

May I call you Duff? Chef Duff? Anycake, I adore you. I hope you know that. I loved you on Cupcake Wars, Chef Duff. I love you and your lovely whisk tattoo, Duff Goldman. I love your show, Ace of Cakes, on the Food Network, Duff. The way you and your friends at Charm City Cakes create cakes and make them into amazing things like old cars, spinning exorcist cakes, and even a giant spaeztl cake.

I'm dying to try your new Chef Duff cake decorating supplies. You even made Chef Duff cake tattoos. It's about time you gave that other cake supply company who will not be named a run for its money in the market for ready made fondant, Duff Goldman.

I don't Twitter, Chef Duff, but I hope that we can still be friends. Maybe we can meet up on Facebook, Duff Goldman? If nothing else, I promise to religious watch your show.

Until we meet (which I'm sure will be never, because Charm City Cakes is on super lock-down), all my love and adoration,

Brooke

P.S. I'd be honored to battle you in kitchen stadium should you ever make another appearance on Iron Chef, Duff Goldman. Rock on, Ace of Cakes.


Want to know what the F is going on and why I'm ranting and raving about the great Chef Jeffrey Adam "Duff" Goldman? Go here. I'm just trying to prank my favorite culinarian, Chef Duff into more fame than he's got going for him now. He deserves it.

Prank on, Merry Pranksters!


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Check this out! My little known blog... yeah, it's #3 when you Google search for Jeffrey Adam "Duff" Goldman.



"Facebook Duff Goldman" is #2, second only to his actual facebook page.

My work here is done.

Giant Reese's cups!

I'm sure everyone has that one person at their job. That one intimidating boss that you avoid. That one that when they show up at your desk, you know something is horribly terribly wrong. For me, that's the controller. He's really not that scary as a person. He's a big, kinda goofy looking, most-likely-gay, corn-fed Midwestern boy with a vampire laugh. He's hilarious and out-going at happy hours, but he is a hard ass at the office. Of course, he's the controller. It's to be expected. But man, oh man, he intimidates me. And today was his birthday, and I was hired to make his cupcakes. Cue me shaking in my ballet flats.

Now, if you've seen pictures of most of my other cakes and cupcakes, they're all pretty girly. They're pink and have sprinkles (even if it's bacon) that coordinate with their cute cupcake liners. So my first thought was how I was going to make cupcakes look manly (even if the birthday boy isn't a typical manly man). Once again, Mrs. ESPN (she really should just be my business partner!) stepped in with a brilliant idea: chocolate peanut butter cupcakes. My coworker's birthday cake was such a big hit, I figured cupcake sized confections would go over really well. So I used the same recipe and.... voila!

I wanted to whip the ganache and fill the cupcakes with it (like the filling I used for the wedding cake), but I think the peanut butter and corn syrup may have worked to prevent the ganache from getting fluffy. It got partway there, but not enough that I was confident it wouldn't make the cake soggy. So I drizzled it on top, instead. Dan said they were just like giant Reese's cups. It's a good thing I bought manly gold foil cups to put them in. Everyone said they were delish, but I haven't heard from the birthday boy yet. I suppose that would be the only thing I'd want to see him at my desk for :)

Crumby cake

Just once, I'd like to get an order for a cake and be excited to make it and know that nothing will go wrong. Does that happen? Because it seems like more often than not, I have some sort of problem that, at some point, has me (a.) in tears or (b.) saying, "I can't DO this."

I made the cakes for my coworker's surprise baby shower cake last night. I had planned to leave the office early and get a head start, and of course that didn't happen. Thankfully, nothing went wrong with the baking. Score one for me. Since it was late and I wanted to get a good frozen crumb layer (a thin layer of icing to pick up cake crumbs intentionally), I decided to freeze it over night and finish the top layer and decorating this morning. Great plan! I mixed my gum paste colors and washed and set out everything I'd need this morning.

Unfortunately, my great plan got derailed when my nice fluffy soft frosting top layer picked up and mixed in with crumbs from the crumb layer, creating a super-thick crumb layer using almost a whole batch of frosting. Oops. Poor Dan came into the kitchen to find me in tears saying I couldn't possibly take money for this cake and I'd have to go buy one. He told me not to give up and it would be okay, that I'd promised a cake and I was going to deliver (sound familiar?). I frantically IMed Mrs. ESPN at work, who told me to put it back in the freezer and try again in a bit. Thankfully, the newly frozen layer didn't pull up when I added new frosting and I got most of the crumbage out. I moved on to decorating and that went smoothly as well.

All in all, I'm happy with how it came out. There are still some visible crumbs, but the rational part of me knows I'm looking at it and scrutinizing more than anyone else is. The buyer was happy with it, and that's what matters, right?

If nothing else, that sucker is delicious with a layer each of chocolate fudge cake and white cake with Oreo crumbles. Yum!!

And once again, I'd like to thank Dan for not letting me give up. It's nice to know he's got faith in me when I don't.

Kadence Smaaaaash!

Yesterday, we celebrated our friends' daughter's 1st birthday. It's hard to believe it's been a whole year, and even harder to believe how much she's changed since she was just a newborn at our wedding. She's got the sunshiniest little personality, and she just adores Dan lately. She always reaches for him, and hes happy to oblige. I think she likes that he's big and feels comfy in his arms - like an oversized chair or something.

I spent all day Saturday working on her cakes. In true Brooke form, we had some cake breakage, resulting in another trip to the store for more supplies. But in the end, her cakes came out great, in my humble opinion. I was very proud of them. Here are some low-quality BlackBerry pics of Kadence's cakes... before and after the carnage. She did start out quite daintily - just sticking a finger or two in the frosting and licking it off. And then she caught on to the fact that we were all encouraging her to go all "Hulk Smash!" on her personal cake and went to town.

Spectator Cake

Smash Cake

Mmmmm, squishy fingers!

"I love cake!"

Strawberry cake facials are so glamorous

All done!

I was the only one brave enough to pull the sugary little mess out of her high chair and carry her to the bath, and for good reason. I had cake all over the front and back of my top, but it was well worth it. She was on a complete sugar high the rest of the afternoon, which was pretty amusing to watch. She definitely seems to like this whole birthday cake thing.

Happy Birthday, Kadence! Can't wait to see all the wonderful things you learn and do in the coming year.

Peanut Butter and Guava

Last week, a girl in another department approached me to make a birthday cake for one of their people, a girl who is actually a work buddy of mine. I was very excited to do it and started looking for recipes for the birthday girl's request: a peanut butter chocolate cake. I found a recipe for a chocolate cake with a peanut butter cream cheese frosting and a chocolate peanut butter ganache topping. I know, I said I wasn't ever doing ganache again after the wedding cake, but it just sounded way too good.

I opted for boxed cake, since I'm lazy like that and no one is picky anyway. I made the PB frosting and iced the cake Thursday night. For some reason (okay, it was because I fell asleep on the couch and ran out of time) I did the ganache Friday morning. Even though I know how to make ganache by boiling the cream and pouring it over the chocolate, stupid me decided to follow the recipe's instructions to melt the chocolate first and then add the cream. Of course, I burned the chocolate, and then of course, I had only bought one package so I had to rush to the store to get more. When will I learn to buy extra? In the end, the ganache came out great, the cake was delicious, and my coworker was very happy with her birthday treat. I don't have a picture here at work, but this is what the cake looked like on the recipe website. Mine was entirely covered in ganache because the cake crumbed into the PB cream cheese frosting. I'll post some of the actual cake when I get home later and final download the 200 pictures that have been sitting on my camera.


On Saturday, Dan had to work a job pretty much all day and I made myself a nice little to-do list that I got about 1/4 of the way through before I gave up and watched a Keeping Up With the Kardashians marathon. I did make cookies for our friend's daughter's 1st birthday cake next week. I know, that seems confusing, but I want to do a 2-tier cake with cookie pops coming out the top. I'm super excited about it and hope it turns out the way it looks in my head.

Yesterday, Dan and I took it easy were lazy until my parents and sister came up. Megan was flying out of Phoenix, so my parents came up early so we could spend time together. Megan wanted to go look at bridesmaids dresses so we met at David's Bridal. She's chosen a bright corally pink color called Guava. I'm so happy that I found my dress! I had seen it in the catalogue but we didn't find it in the store until after I'd tried on quite a few others and had gotten back into my own clothes. I absolutely loved it on - it's got a satin skirt and a pleated chiffon bodice with a flower detail. Unfortunately, I can't post a pic here, but here's a link to the dress. Super cute, right? The other bridesmaids will choose from other satin Guava gowns and we'll all look just fab.

How was your weekend?

Wedding cake: check

Holy crazy weekend, Batman! It was a fun one though, as expected. Friday night, Dan and I went out with David and Alex and Dan's parents to the guys' favorite neighborhood bar to kick off the weekend.

In the morning, I went home (we stayed over) and packed up cake stuff, dog stuff, and my stuff. I headed over to Mrs. ESPN's house and finished the cake while Dan and his brother went and picked up the dogs and their accessories. Honestly, Mrs. ESPN saved my butt. The ganache was a mess and she helped me fix it. I really don't know if things would have gone over very well without her help. The drive to deliver the cake was the most nerve-racking 10 minutes of my life, but I got it there in one piece and the bride was very pleased. I think I'm done with melted chocolate products for a while though. Here it is all set for it's trip to the church.

We spent Saturday and Sunday swimming in the pool, eating good food, visiting with great friends, and drinking yummy beer. My parents came up Saturday night and it was really nice to see them. I'm really glad they came and had a chance to get to know my parents-in-law better and meet all the friends we talk about. Now it's back to the grind and I'm not quite prepared for the work week. Today is my dentist appointment to get my first of what will probably be 4 crowns and I'm feeling really anxious. I just hope it's not as bad as it is in my head.

How was your weekend?

Cake, cake, cake... cake balls!

It's like Duck Duck Goose. Get it? Oh, nevermind. Anyway, I had a very busy night baking last night. I baked the layers for the wedding cake tomorrow, along with extras in each size just in case and had a request at work for cake balls. Funfetti cake balls. The guy who requested them would get along very well with my husband. I also tried out Wilton Bake Even Strips. You soak them in cold water and wrap them around the cake pan before baking. They keep cakes from raising too much, which causes a lot of loss when you level them. Therefore, they also produce denser, sturdier cakes. I'd heard about them but hadn't tried them and I'm glad I did. I'm a huge fan.

Tomorrow begins a weekend of family fun. First, I've got to assemble and deliver the wedding cake. Mrs. ESPN is graciously letting me borrow her kitchen for the assembly and decoration. I was so nervous about driving someone's wedding cake from one end of town to the other, and she only lives about 10 minutes from the wedding. I'm so thankful for her taking that worry off my shoulders! After the cake is taken care of, the fun begins. My brother-in-law arrived yesterday and tomorrow there will be a BBQ at my in-law's house. Many of the guys' friends will come by throughout the day and we'll have all sorts of yummy food. My mother-in-law invited my parents to come up, too. It'll be nice, as the parents haven't had many opportunities to get to know each other.

What is everyone else up to this weekend?

Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

This week, the admin whose birthday cake I made last week asked me to make a cake for the admin who ordered her cake. Oy, confusing. In talking about what she wanted, she decided that she thought cupcakes would be fun instead. The birthday girl has been talking about how she's craving lemon cookies, so we decided on lemon cupcakes and I liked the idea of pink lemonade a a summery treat. So I made these:

I got to use my cute pink cupcake tower again. That thing is going to get a lot of use. I love the sugar pearl sprinkles. They remind me of bubbles, which goes well with the pink lemonade inspriation. All these babies are missing are an umbrella and a straw. In other news, there are about 32-67 sugar pearls under my oven. Oops.

So this is random, but it struck me as odd this morning. Does it amaze anyone else that there are still payphones in 2010? Anyone? I pulled in to get gas this morning and there was a woman using a payphone. It had me kind of surprised. I realize that not everyone in the world has a cell phone, but a payphone in 2010 is akin to an original Nintendo game console in my mind. The last time I used one, my sister and I were at the zoo with our babysitter. Our sitter called her dad collect to come get us. She must have spent all her money on Sno Cones or something. Mom, did you know about that? Anyway, I think it's very strange that they still exist, much less get used. Or maybe I'm just too Generation Y.

Is there something that the mere continued existence of baffles you?

And again with the spacing. Sorry folks.

Cupcakes and cat doors

As I said in my last post, Dan was working on making me some cupcakes Sunday evening. It was very sweet of him. He was inspired by the Food Network's Cupcake Wars episode where contestants had to use a savory and a sweet ingredient. Someone made a maple cupcake with maple cream cheese frosting and bacon on top. He found the recipe, went shopping for the ingredients we didn't have, and made them from scratch. He fried the bacon and sprinkled it on top of the icing (he bought canned) along with brown sugar. They were so delicious! He used some of my adorable Bake It Pretty cupcake liners and they looked really cute in my new cupcake tower.

Despite the adorable display, some people at work were a little freaked out by them, but the people who did have one loved them. Dan had made a list of who was allowed to have them - mostly people he's actually met. He awarded his favorites 2 cupcakes and explicitly said that some other people could have none. I told him it couldn't quite work that way, but his list was hilarious. I definitely realized who I talk about most at home and saw that Dan has his favorites.

My coworkers took me to lunch at my favorite Mexican restaurant, and it was really nice to hang out with the girls. I'm so fortunate to have a great group of coworkers here. In the afternoon, they presented me with not one, but two desserts: a delicious cherry chip cake and a yummy layered pudding dessert. It wasn't the most productive day ever, but it was definitely special.

In the afternoon, I got an email from my mom about my sister's dog, Meadow. Megan had been out sunbathing and playing with Meadow when she took off running. Megan ran after her and searched for about an hour before calling her fiance and asking him to come join the search. They looked everywhere around their neighborhood and the nearby lake, asked people if they'd seen her, and gave their number. Not knowing where else to look, they headed home. Megan passed by the house across the street and saw this:

Megan figured out that Meadow had run after the neighbor's cat and followed it inside the house through the cat door, which you can see she is sitting only inches away from. Because Meadow doesn't have a cat or doggie door of her own, she couldn't figure out how to get back out of the house. The neighbors weren't home, and Meadow was scratching at the door to be let out. After Megan was unsuccessful in coaxing or pulling Meadow out the door, Daniel had to come and bribe her with treats. We're all glad she's safe and we have a funny story out of it, but she gave us a good scare for an hour. Oy, Meadow :)

Last night, we took it easy. Dan met me at the grocery store after work and bought ingredients for dinner. He made me a delicious pasta with Italian sausage and bell peppers. He bought me a nice bottle of wine, and we curled up on the couch and watched Last Comic Standing and Intervention (season premier! trainwreck!). It was a really awesome birthday, and I'm so thankful for all my wonderful friends and family for making it a great day!

Disaster Averted

Earlier this week, one of the admins at the office asked me to make a birthday cake for another admin. I was happy to be asked and easily agreed, then asked about what she had in mind. I should have known the trouble ahead when she essentially asked me for a remake of this disaster from my cake decorating class:

I baked the cakes Wednesday night so that I could chill them, which makes them easier to level and creates less crumbing. Stupid me, though, I decided to let them chill in their pans. I don't know if it's because I didn't grease my pan well enough or because of the temperature itself, but one broke when I tried to take it out of the pan. I tried to save, it, really I did. I wasted a bunch of buttercream frosting attempting to patch it up, but it just so obviously wasn't going to work.

Dan came to the rescue and went to the store to get new cake mixes and I started over again at 7:30 in the evening. He told me I promised a pink cherry chip cake, and I was going to deliver a pink cherry chip cake. It wasn't until almost 8:30 that I was able to take them out of the pans and let them cool before leveling and decorating. The lady at work has asked for pink icing with yellow borders (no garland, thank goodness) and yellow roses. I, however, overestimated how much icing I'd need to cover the cake and didn't set aside enough for roses. I was pretty flustered about my icing shortage and realizing that I'd have to write on a cake, but Dan was so sweet and encouraging. So the end product is this:

Not entirely awful, but I admit I'm a little disappointed that the roses didn't make it to the party. Still, I think the birthday girl will be excited to have a homemade cake baked and decorated just for her. And to lighten the mood in the midst of the cake breaking and the icing FAIL, my funny knottie friend wrote me the following song, to the tune of "I Kissed A Girl" by Katy Perry:

"I broke a cake and I liiiiiiked iiiiittt, the taste of it's cherry chip-stick.

I broke a cake, just to try iiiiittt, I hope I can recreate iiiittt...

It broke so wrong , I have to do it right. Don't think I'm gonna sleep toooooniiiight"

And speaking of of birthdays, it's my birthday weekend!! My wonderful friend Rachel is coming up from Tucson to celebrate with me. We're going shopping and for pedicures tomorrow, just having a nice relaxing girls' day. Tomorrow night, a few friends are joining us for dinner at a Brazilian BBQ place I've been wanting to try. My parents are going to come Sunday to spend time with me. It'll be an awesome weekend, and I'm very excited.

Does anyone else have fun weekend plans?

Sweet Weekend

We had such a great weekend! friday night at my friend's house was a lot of fun. We went over for dinner and to celebrate little Eli's 10 days on Earth. Fariba's one of 8 children - 6 girls and 2 boys. All but one of her sisters made the trip along with her mom. So it was a house full of people, especially since her husband's mother and his brother's family (with 4 more kids) were there. The food was amazing. Dan and I were both a little worried since we're not what you'd call adventerous with foreign cuisine, but it was all awesome. Apparently, the ladies were cooking for some 9 hours. We had saffron chicken, lamb, spinach, eggplant, spicy potatoes, rice, and then a bunch of sauces to accompany it all. Dan cleaned his plate and went back for more. For desert, we had delicious apple pie, a chocolate cake, and my cookies.

On Saturday, I woke up to a text from a friend asking if I wanted to go to the dog park. So I packed up my Girls and hopped in the car. We were going to a huge dog park about 20 minutes away. Of course, I got lost. The website I looked up for directions was way off. I drove around trying to find the place. Of course, my friend hadn't brought her phone, so I was hopelessly lost. The dogs were whining in the car. Finally, I gave up and decided to turn around and go back home. About a minute later, I drove right past it. Yes, folks, I managed to pass by this... twice:

Doh!! So, an hour after getting the text, I finally showed up. My friend was about to leave, but decided to stay. About a half hour later, I got a text from Dan: "do you have my keys?" Double doh! Turns out, when we went to Fariba's the night before, we shuffled cars around, and Dan's keys were left in my car. So we had to go back home so Dan could go work at a customer's house. And then, the worst part: I went to use the little ladies' facilities, and my phone slipped out of my pocket and into the toilet. Triple doh! After that, I wasn't very happy.

I started working on the Tinkerbell cake for Fariba's nieces, worried that the events that had transpired by 9am would be indicative of my day. Dan got home and we headed to the Verizon store, where the guy made cut me some slack and allowed me to upgrade with new contract prices 42 days early. I'm now the proud owner of a Blackberry. When we got home, I made fondant for the first time for the cake and began assembling and decorating. Here's the finished Tinkerbell cake:

The bowl cake ended up being very dense and not looking too big, so I did some chocolate cupcakes on the side. The petals are fondant and the pink frosting is raspberry butter cream. I was very happy with how it all came out, and the birthday girls were ecstatic.

Yesterday, we went to lunch with friends. Well, it was meant to be lunch. We got to the Dubliner at 2 and left at... oh, 7:15. Yeah, looooong lunch. And then I had to make Philadelphia Eagles cookies. They came out really cute, too I think. The wings on the helmets are a little cartoony, but the recipient loved them:

And yes, I am (now) aware that #5, Donovan McNabb, no longer plays for the Eagles. Ooops. Good words about my cookies have been spread, and someone who used to work at our site emailed me today asking if I can do an order for her brother's graduation - very exciting!

All in all, we had a lovely weekend. I got a new phone, went through 6 pounds of powdered sugar, dyed my fingers green permanently, and got to have a great time with friends. How was your weekend?

Cookie weekend

It's a cookie weekend. I had three "orders" for cookies this week. And a cake order. Eek! And I call them orders because I'm actually being paid. Cool! I made these sweet baby cookies for Eli's 10th day party. I'm really excited to go and see Fariba & Eli, meet Fariba's Afghani family, and find out what this 10th day tradition is all about (I can't even find a name for it). I made blue, yellow, and white onesies, bibs and E's. They're pretty much my favorite cookies that I've ever made, and they're far cuter in person.

I also made dollar signs for a finance group here at the office. My coworker handed me money a couple weeks ago and said "here, make us something." Alrighty then. Finance people... hmm, dollar signs! Dan had chosen the cookie cutter months ago and it was my first chance to use it.

I still have some Philadelphia Eagles cookies to make by Monday. A coworker has been out on sick leave for a while and is returning on Monday. His admin asked me to make him cookies for his return. I'm going to do footballs, jerseys, and helmets. Hopefully they come out half as good as my inspiration from A Dozen Eggs:

I also have to do a cake for Fariba (Eli's mom). Her nieces are turning 2 and 3 and she requested a Tinkerbell cake similar to this one from Coolest Birthday Cakes . Only she specified there must be pink, so I'll be putting it in place of the yellow on this inspriration cake. I'm also thinking of using fondant for the petals of the skirt to avoid the pain-in-the-ass that is so much butter cream once it starts to melt.

So that's what I've got going on this weekend: A LOT of baking and decorating. What will you be up to?

__________________________________________________________________

And now, a Dan Funny. I woke up with a headache. No, not a hangover. Like a pressure headache, supper annoying. Also, he calls me Henry to his coworkers. They ask about Henry, not Brooke. As in "what are you and Henry doing this weekend?"

So I told him my head felt awful and asked if he'd stuffed cotton candy in my noggin while I was sleeping. His response: "No, I would have eaten cotton candy if I had it. Henry, you know better than that." I thought it was funny, mostly because it's true. Dan would not have wasted good cotton candy on my head.

Monkey Cake

Today is my coworker's shower, and I'm super excited about her monkey cake. It took me a little longer than expected and I had a couple glitches, but I'm very happy with how it turned out and I have to remember that no one will be scrutinizing it the way I am.

I don't want to be a Braggy McBraggerson, but I can't believe I turned these...

into this...

My poor kitchen looked like it'd been hit by an automic bomb. If I were on Food Network Challenge and Carrie Vincent were judging, she would not be pleased with my work space. She'd scowl at me with her little headband and make squinty eyes in her talking head. Bad news bears.
I just had a couple minutes to post the before and after. I'll come back later and fill in the holes. Have a sweet day!

Cake Class 4: The Monkey Cake

Isn't he cute? I'm mostly happy with it as a first try. My cake didn't come out of the pan nicely so it was hard to see the definition of the hands and feet. In contrast, one of my classmates also did the monkey and she could tell exactly where each finger and toe was. So I need to work on making sure my pan works for me. I have enough icing left over to have another go at it this weekend. I'm going to use a smaller tip for the outline and tweak the color and consistency. I'm sure Dan won't mind me making another cake :)

It has been another long week, and I'm so happy to see Friday. It's an exciting day - I have a haircut appointment, my parents' party invites are here, and I should be getting the shirt Dan ordered me as a gift. I love the Johnny Cupcakes shop and the story behind the business. Basically, the designer started making and wearing shirts with cupcakes as kind of a joke and they caught on. 9 years later, he's developed somewhat of a cult following and has spoofed various logos and designs by adding or substituting a cupcake. There are a ton of designs, all of them exclusive to the website and Johnny Cupcakes stores, and there also limited edition, hand numbered designs. Dan got me the classic Johnny Cupcakes insignia tee:

We've also got a fun weekend ahead. Tomorrow is the Walk for Wishes 5K, I still need to check and see what time we have to be there. I also have my coworker's family baby shower in the afternoon, and then we're meeting up with Scott & Melissa and their kids to play putt-putt golf and get sushi. On Sunday, I hope to get some St. Patrick's Day cookies done and give the monkey another try. If I have time (it doesn't seem like it though), I also want to work on my daisy painting. There will be no lack of activity in our home this weekend, that's for sure.

Do you have fun weekend plans?

Cake Class 3: Feliz Cumpleanos, Abuelita!

Last night we had to make a birthday cake with our new found talent for Wilton roses. Ha, talent! My poor roses. Actually, my poor cake. It was slowly falling apart, making cracks along the top and making the sides look saggy. It's actually kinda wonky and reminds me of the Mad Hatter's hat from Alice in Wonderland. Pretty entertaining. After struggling with roses for a while, I finally got 6 that were fit for the top of a cake. Then came the shells... again. And more garlands on the sides, like on the Happy Friday cake. I'm not sure what Gloria's obsession with these garlands is all about, but I'm not liking them. They make my cake look like it came from Safeway.

After the shells and garlands came the mini rose buds and sweet peas. I could have done without these too. Less is more, sometimes, Gloria. She did actually have an interesting technique for the rose buds. We cut Jelly Bellys (gluten free!) in half and stuck a toothpick in the cut end. Then we made a tiny rose using the jelly belly as the base. Then we stuck the toothpick into the cake at the intersection of each garland. Sweet peas and swirl flowers went on top of the shells at the base of the cake, alternating at the center under each garland.

If this all sounds like a lot for one cake, that's because it is. The thing is a monstrosity, er a piece of art I like to call "Feliz Cumpleanos, Abuelita" because it looks like a grandma's birthday cake and we were all speaking our compliments in Spanish last night: "oooh, que bonita!!"

Without further ado, I give you... the cake:

I'll replace these pics with better ones at home, but I couldn't post without pics and you get the idea. Poor cake.

Cake Class 2: Clowning Around

Did you know Jelly Bellys are gluten free? Now you do.

Cake decorating class today was fun, as expected. I baked and stacked my cakes last night, and got the frosting pretty smooth for my first shot. We started by painting three different colored stripes in a pastry bag. Once it was filled with icing and squeezed, the frosting came out with ribbons of color. Pretty cool. So what do we do with ribbony icing? Make creepy clowns of course. We were supposed to put them on our cakes and make a birthday cake, but I opted not to. I used my ribbony icing to work on my shells and write "Happy Friday" on my cake (you're welcome coworkers).


Gluten Free is socially oblivious, I've decided. She kept interrupting when people were talking and piping in (ha, puns are fun!) with various foods that are gluten free. Like gluten-free boxed cakes and Jelly Bellys. And that's... that's about it. She's like the Bubba of gluten-free foods. Sprinkles, on the contrary, have gluten, FYI.

I came home to Stuffed Peppers a la Dan, a bottle of pinot noir, and The Office. Oh em gee, it's the baby episode!! What more can a girl ask for?