Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Ginger Bread House!


My boyfriend and I made a Ginger Bread house for the first time. I used a piping bag with a tip and he used his fingers. So you can easily tell who did which sides =P It was a lot of fun. I think more of the candy decorationg pieces ended up in my boyfriends tummy than on the house. It turned out ok but then when I went to move it from the table to the counter, it caved in on itself. lol It was still fun to make and it's not like anyone was going to be eating it or anything. One of my cats would probably have knocked it over anyway. Hope everyone has a Great Christmas! Don't get any coal.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Christmas Cookies


I am so behind on Christmas baking. I have been in the kitchen almost none stop for the past couple days. I wish I had more time, now my presents won't even get to where they need to go by Christmas =/ But oh well, treats still taste good a couple days after. I have made a bunch of different kinds of cookies and also some butterscotch caramels. I had a few cookies that I didn't know what to do with so I decided to try out piping for the first time. I think they turned out pretty good. For my first time at least =) I have to make roles and Christmas dinner dessert. I'll probably end up making cupcakes or something since my brother is picky. They have some really cute desserts on Martha Stewart's website. I love her stuff but some of it is kind of hard to make, especially the crafts. I finally found a cake decorating book that I liked. I'm going to attempt to use fondant soon. I'm kind of scared, I've read a lot of mixed reviews on it. Some people tell me I shouldn't buy the pre-made store stuff and others say it's fine. I've also heard that it's very sensitive to make and if you don't really know what you're doing it's easy to mess up. So if anyone has any suggestions I'd take them gladly. I am getting money for Christmas that I am going to use to buy some cake decorating and fondant tools. I might get some fondant at Michael's just to experiment with.
I am going to go see The Tale of Despereaux today. It looks really good and I hope it isn't full of little kids. I am all done Christmas shopping and am pretty much done baking as well. Now it's time to relax =) I hope everyone else is finished too. Other wise you are either very brave or very dumb to wait this long to shop, it's going to be crazy. Hope everyone has a good rest of the weekend!

Sunday, December 14, 2008

NC has no love for bakers

I am finally free! I just finished all my exams Friday and can start to unwind. I did not do quite as well as I would have liked but with everything I've had going on this semester, I was happy to pass with the grades I received. I plan to do better next semester not only because I need to but also because I think I will actually be enjoying what I am doing. I start taking my Hospitality Management classes so I'll be learning about something I can actually use in life and care about. I can't wait to start baking presents! ^.^ I can't believe it's only 11 more days till Christmas. If anyone has any kewl cookie ideas or decorating tips, I would love to hear them =)
Drastic subject change but I want some people's opinions. I have been looking at the only Arts school near me and they really don't seem to offer what I want. I really want to go into cake decorating but there are no baking/decorating schools anywhere near me. I think the closest thing is about 8 states away. I didn't know if maybe I could just work for someone and learn from them or if I really need that degree or some form of school. The place here does offer beginning pastry baking or something like that. For any cake decorators/bakers out there, what did you do? Did you just buy some books and learn on your own, friend teach you, went to school? I would really appreciate some helpful feed back.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Finals -_-

I have a love/hate relationship with the end of each semester. I am so ready to get out but I hate tests. One more week and I am done! I really want to just go straight to the Arts school but I guess these days it's really better to have something to fall back on. At least I'll be cooking in some of my classes next semester ^.^ I have been coming home a lot of weekends and cooking a lot of lefts overs lol I made this soup the other day out of all the left over veggies and some turkey. It was amazing! Of course my boyfriend (aka taste tester) and my family gobbled it up really fast. I also made another loaf of that bread and it turned out even better than the first. My favorite thing to make are sweets but I don't want to give everyone diabetes so I think I'm going to wait till closer to Christmas. I'm glad I like baking because I have no money to go out and buy everyone presents.
My friends dragged me to the Twilight movie. I had mixed feelings about it. I LOVE the books and everything Stephenie Meyer but the movie...I'm not sure. A lot of people who had not read to books liked the movie. But most of the people who had read the books thought it was just alright. My friends loved both so I guess if you haven't read the books, you'll probably like the movies. You had better go read the books afterwords! They are amazing. A must see on DVD is WALL-E. Anyone who has not seen it, I don't care how old you are, rent it now! You will love it, promise =)
If anyone is reading this, you should really go check out ShamsD and IcingDreams' blogs and flickrs. They are both amazing. I hope to one day be as good as they are. Take care!