What I've Been Doing This Week... a Little Break. Yeah, I took a little "cake break" this week. Actually, it's not a little break - I've been deliberately slowing down, taking less orders, trying to focus on what's important and best for me right now.
That includes more time spent homeschooling and less time baking. More time cleaning house and decluttering, less time decorating cake. More time blogging, and less time out on deliveries! I still have the occasional busy weekend here and there, but more often than not - I'm getting some rest. (and keeping busy with more important things... keep reading to the bottom!)
Let's talk about cake! This week I only had one cake - and it was for a friend at church - for her baby shower. I was able to do any design I wanted and since I know the peeps at church really prefer buttercream (over fondant), I wanted to do something sweet, simple... and pink... and buttercream.
My daughter is selling Girl Scout Cookies! Wanna order? Click HERE! (if the link is not clickable, you can cut and paste this link: https://digitalcookie.girlscouts.org/scout/sarah486769)
I think I accomplished that, huh? The top tier was vanilla cake, the bottom was white sour cream cake (I'll tell ya why the 2 different flavors in a second). The tiers were 6" round and 8" round. I used a large petal tip to do the ruffles and the flowers were wafer paper (learned about wafer paper flowers in Craftsy classes!).
Since I had free reign on the baby shower cake, I could make any design I wanted and any flavor. To make the most of my resources, I made her cake the same flavors as some of my wedding cake tasting flavors and that way I had less waste! 🙂 It really worked out great!
Anyway... what else did I do this week? Well, my baby boy turned FIVE!! Whaaaat?!? He comes and snuggles with me in bed almost every morning and it's one of my most favorite things EVER. He also loves to take silly selfies 🙂
His cake? It was a Dairy Queen Ice Cream Cake. I didn't even get a pic. Don't judge.
Also, my hottie husband continued to work on our floors (he's moved into the dining room now), I decluttered a LOT more - yay!! I also pulled out my Valentine's socks, lived through a massive hail storm, had a huge breakfast one night for supper... and I shared our itty bitty puppies on Instagram!
That's about it for my week... what did YOU do this week? I'd love for you to leave me a comment and say HI!
I LOVE reading your blogs!
This week, I made a baby shower cake also!
It had a 6 inch layer and matching cupcakes. I attempted my FIRST pair of fondant baby shoes! Which actually turned out pretty darn good!
Unfortunately, the shower was cancelled due to the three feet of snow we got!
2 cakes for this coming weekend!
Have a great week!
Thank you Christine! I hate it that your shower was canceled - stay safe in all that snow!! Brrrrrrrr.....
Your blog is great Rose! I learn so much. Where do you sell the extras cupcakes that are not used do the wedding tastings? How much does a cake like this cost? Thanks Rose?
Thank you Aisha! I share lots of details in the post I linked to, but basically I have a local customer base that loves my cupcakes. I post them in a local group (how many I have, what flavor, and what time I'll be delivering) and people text or message me with which ones / how many they want!
Well I cooked, not baked several batches of "no bake cookies" which I crave every so often and even as a Celiac person (gluten sensitive), its one of my life time foods that I can STILL have. The list is HUGE of what I have had to give up or else try to figure out how to do them gluten free. Things like perogies, gnocchi, slippery pot pie (many of you will NOT know what that is, I'm sure), my mom's homemade noodles, basically anything that is considered dough. I can't even have "rivels" in my mom's chicken corn soup. PLEASE do a reply if you've ever heard of "rivels" in soup (tiny little dough blobs - they're not even nicely formed balls). I'm curious to know if any others know about these or are they strictly a regional thing in this area. I can't even have barley in vegetable soup. That's what makes it good, in my opinion. So anyway, if I want something fast that is at least a LITTLE healthy (all that oatmeal you know) and satisfies a primal, childhood yearning, I do these. I survived getting THREE FEET of snow, at least. Rose, if you got a hailstorm you must be WAY down south as my friends in North Carolina got snow. They're in Wilkes County, about an hour above Charlotte which I understand got ICE. I live about an hour northwest of Washington, DC (actually, I live 7 miles from Camp David if you know where that is, yes, THAT Camp David) and some of us here were saying just today we believe the "storm of the century" in 1993 was worst for us here (not in DC though) where we live as we hit 4 feet in that storm and the two back to back storms in 4 days in 2003 was worst than this one. However, considering I'm only 5'2" tall it's a very WEIRD experience to go out and have the snow as high as over half your body. I mostly worked on making "freezer food" for my niece and other family members from Ree Drummond's show and her Pioneer Woman website. I did Ina Garten's chicken stock and beef stock. I worked on my "basics" this weekend vs. doing a lot of baking. However, I am now headed home from my office (first time here since Thursday) to bake several thank-you apple pies, do some homemade breads to give and to work on a "care package" for my nephew at college. It never stops does it. I am NEVER caught up on all the baking I WANT to do. I did laundry and cleaning and kept a woodstove going through the storm as the officials worried about power outages and it just feels so darn good. I sent MY doggie, my 9 year old golden retriever to my parents/brother's farm because there she can go right out on ground level to "take care of business" whereas at my house she has to go down 10 steps off the back screened porch to get there. The snow was a foot higher than she was, there was NO WAY it would work and I also, at her age with arthritis, didn't want to end up with a broken hip. So she's had a 5 day holiday with her "memaw" and the place where she LOVES to be. (my dog has sleepovers with my mother, THAT is how attached this woman, who said "over my dead body" when I wanted a dog all my childhood life.) After she heard Lucy had fallen on my wooden staircase SHE paid to put carpet on them. She didn't do anything after I fell on them several times over the last 18 years, my dog slips once and there is carpet on them within a week. You see how I rate! Actually, I think it's all hysterical. Someone is coming tomorrow to help me get my back steps and some yard cleaned so Lucy can come home. My dad, not my mom, is ready for his "4 legged granddaughter" to go home now. Life is SO funny at times, isn't it!
Rose,
Please have your daughter tell her leaders she could have sold more cookies if the Girl Scouts had gluten free choices or else some of the most popular ones like the Thin Mints and a few others in a gluten free alternative. I like Girl Scout cookies even if I don't have a very high opinion of the Girl Scout organization itself. I have nothing against any of the children, it's the organization. Where I live and grew up the GS were a fiasco. The Boy Scouts have always been FAR better managed locally. I know personally the BS completely changed my brother's life. In a world during the 1970s and 1980s where a public school system failed him miserably many times (it ONLY took until the TWELFTH GRADE to diagnose he had a reading disability something like dyslexia which was inherited from my dad, who didn't know there was a diagnosis for him UNTIL my brother was diagnosed) and destroyed his self-esteem and self-image the Boy Scouts were his salvation. Between that and church activities he had pride in his life. My brother made Eagle Scout and was also "tapped out" into the Order of the Arrow. If you're a BS or you have a sibling who is, you'll know what that is and how big of a deal it is. The Girl Scouts in this area you NEVER hear anything about. You NEVER see them doing anything but selling cookies. The few years I was involved with the Brownies and then shortly the Girl Scouts in the later 1960s I thought they were laughable. In fact, the troop disbanded not long after I left and I think it was a few years till someone took it up again. It's one of those situations where it's always been "poor management" of it around here. It's a shame, it COULD do great things, just like the BS. The Girl Scouts REALLY need to become known for something other than "just selling cookies". There is SO MUCH potential in all of these girls.
Well I must say you are a truly unselfish, kind, caring and considerate. God bless you, .please ignore the haters, thwy are small narrow minded, lazy mean people