Cake!

Also, while watching the game I had a cake order to make. As usual about 1/2 way through I decided to sell my cake supplies on eBay. Then by the time I delivered it, and saw how happy the family was I thought "Well that wasn't that bad....." But really, if I never make another cake again, I'll be o.k. But it really wasn't that bad......

P.S.- In the goofy picture of me my shirt says "My Heart is in Happy Valley" Appropriate since my heart was in Happy Valley that day..... Awe, I luv you Chad!

Mission Accomplished.

My first MAJOR cake project is complete. Everyone breath a sigh of relief with me.....Ahhhh......

It was one of my co-worker's daughter's 16th birthday and I was hired to make the cake. A GIANT cake. I worked last night from the minute I got home until 12:30 in the morning. Then I had to finish up some final touches this morning, but it was actually fun today. I decided that making cakes is fun if you are only doing the baking or the decorating. NOT both at the same time. That's why on cake shows they just pull these giant cakes out of the fridge and they just unwrap them and go to town with the decorations. They have sense. I do not. Well- I just wanted to share my latest accomplishment with you! It may be a LONG time before I post another cake picture!

Weird!

O.K. I don't know what's up with blogger. You may have noticed two things. One- the post I made last night ended up looking like binary code. I'm not sure about what happened there. The now deleted post basically said my second weird point you observant/obsessed (like me) types may have noticed:

Our blog counter jumped from 9,000 hits to close to 12,000 hits almost overnight. Two possible but unlikely explanations for this conundrum:

One: You like me, you really, really like me.

Two: I used some hot catch word (Julie and Julia? Fall? Autumn? Comfort Sport Car seat? that started popping up on Google searches

Three: The little mouse that runs around the wheel to make the ticker tick worked overtime and kept running....and running....and running.

Four: Chad said he put an update in our church bulletin with our blog address on it. But 3,000 hits in less than 24 hours? Hmmm....

I think we'll file this one under "mystery" But hello! If I've made 3,000 new friends!

This weekend was insano. I made a ton of cake squares for Frances' Wedding Shower today- thought you might want to see them, so I'll attach a picture. It was almost a cake disaster- the cake I made (buttermilk spice cake with cinnamon butter cream frosting) sure did taste good, but started a revolt when being cut into squares. It was super moist (almost gooey) it was crumbly too. At some point I was standing in my kitchen in my pajamas (because I didn't want to get cake/icing on the clothes I wore to church and had to put back on to go to the shower) It was 12:15. I had to leave the house in 20 minutes. I had icing everywhere. Alex was standing under my feet having an all you can eat buffet at the crumbs falling on the floor. I was literally talking myself up- "O.K. Sarah you can do this. But these look BAD. We need to think of a better way to do this. You need to just relax a little and take your time" If someone walked in my house they would have had me committed. I made it to the shower- 10 minutes late but with cake squares as promised. Next time I am making cupcakes. Something that is BAKED in the container it comes in. It was just unnatural to get pieces of cake in a paper and iced and then placed in a box. Too much to ask.

Well, you live and learn I suppose. And I KNOW next weekend I will be making everything on Friday night for the sweet 16 cake for Saturday. Novice cake decorating and pressure DO NOT MIX.

September is National Cake Month (not really)

How can it be September already? For those of you keeping track at home- Christmas is only 115 days away. I will be 30 years old in one month and 22 days. Yikes.

Here is my final cake. I had these illusions of grandeur about how the cake would be- I really wanted to do two tiers, but I tore the fondant on the top tier, I rolled it too thin. I could have salvaged it, but I think one tier turned out just fine (yes the flowers are edible and yes I made them!). I was crunched for time in class anyway so I had to complete it at home. Then I made a dozen cookies for Deetzsie’s Treatsies. Then I had a diabetic episode for consuming more sugar than one human should ever consume in a single day. Actually, then I got started on a new book “just to wind down” and it was so good I couldn’t put it down. Before I knew it, it was after midnight. Tonight we ate dinner out because I couldn't bear to even set foot in the kitchen.

So I’ve been laying the ground work for our financial course of action. I don’t know how I am going to fit anything else- but here are how the events unfolded. I sent an e-mail to our Pastor, he has graciously allowed us to but another blurb in the church newsletter about where we are in the process and how much more $ we need. He has also given the green light for an event in the Fellowship Hall. Now I need to get on the ball with food donations and perhaps a few items to auction (anybody know anybody?) I was thinking like a relaxation basket (maybe with a massage gift card) and some other fun stuff. I might bid on that basket. That would totally defeat the purpose, no? So…. Stay tuned on my latest scheme.

Next- I brought my cake into work and sent an e-mail talking about “Baby Cakes”. I got 3 orders today! Plus I already had one lined up from church, so that makes 4. So far I get to flex my baking/decorating muscle. I have booked everything but a Wedding cake (thank goodness, that’s too much pressure right now!) I have a sweet 16, a birthday, a baby shower, and a wedding shower (Even though it’s in the “wedding family” that’s much less pressure, I just want to stay away from Bridezillas on their “big day”. Showers are o.k.) Anyway- I am really excited to do these cakes, decorating has allowed me to be creative, something that I adore, but rarely get an opportunity to partake in. In case you're wondering about the fondant birdy I made, I still have him, but he just didn't look right on this cake.

Adoption update- All of our additional paperwork that needed to go to Pskov has been sent. The only thing I couldn't do was a"Letter of Recommendation" from our Home Study Agency. After a short debate, I persuaded our agency that they could do the letter, not our actual social worker (contracted through CWA) Since it has to be on CWA letterhead anyway, that will save us a few weeks and keeps things nice and simple! I need to follow up with them to make sure it's been done since our regular case manager is on vacation until mid-September, but they are really good at doing what they say they will do, so I'm not terribly worried.

Now...if you'll excuse me, my book and my pajamas are calling my name!

Fondant makes you crazy.

My first Fondant class was last night.

Let me just tell you that Fondant is harder than it looks. Where as decorating with icing and piping bags is more of a "precision" art, fondant is more of a manual labor art. You knead the dough, pull the dough, roll the dough, incorporate gum paste (to make it more elastic and durable, and then stretch and cut, stretch and cut, smoothing it every step of the way. By the end of class I was in a full sweat! Who knew cake decorating could be an aerobic workout? This cake was to learn more "technique" than to be pretty- so it's a little bland. I ended up taking off a lot of the other elements and making it a little more appealing because I wanted to bring it into the office to share. So I added the flowers and the draped ribbon. Oh and I took off the giant thing that looked like a washcloth. I just couldn't bring myself to share an ugly cake. The inner Martha came out a little bit. I decided that even if you aren't OCD, cake decorating could make you that way. Every little bump and nick makes you crazy. You keep trying to smooth it out over and over again. I had finally come to grips with the tiny pin holes in the fondant where the ribbons didn't match up by the time I got home. Chad really was impressed with the cake, but then he said "Is it suppose to have the tiny holes in the top?" I gave him the look. You know the one.

Adoption news: Yesterday we sent everything we had to redo after the switch to Pskov to Columbia to be Apostilled. As soon as we get it back we'll send it back to the agency and then on to Russia. We've been getting a lot of questions about this.....WE ARE fully registered in Pskov, what we sent to St. Pete was sufficient for Pskov. BUT before we receive a referral we needed to do some papers specific to the new region. We still haven't heard anything and I really don't expect to anytime soon. But I could be surprised.... who knows! That's just the thing- we just don't know. I am feeling November. But I have a sinking feeling it's going to be next year. But I guess it could be tomorrow too. It's like cake. You just can't dwell on the little nicks and bumps or you'll go crazy.

Ta-Da!

Tonight was my "final exam" night in cake class, course II. Yes, this was as much work as it looks like. But it sure is pretty. I knew it was a major accomplishment when Chad took a picture of the cake with his phone. Then to top it all off I made three dozen cookies for my little side business at the firm- Deetzie's Treatsies is officially in sugar shock tonight. I am going to go brush my teeth (and floss) ;0)

News, but not "the" news....

On the Adoption news front: Today in the mail we were copied on a letter from SC Department of Social Services to USCIS offices. The director of human services, Patricia J. Cokley, sent a letter to the District Adjudications Officer, Diane Zedde, of USCIS enclosing a copy of our home study and verifying that "the study has been read and approved in fulfillment of SC Statute (Children's Code, Sec. 63-9-520, SC Code of Laws, 1976, amended. The letter was dated June 30th, so all of our USCIS pieces are coming together nicely. As for our Dossier, I am taking the stance that no news is good news. I am assuming now 1 month post translation of documents there were no problems. Since I don't anticipate any news any time soon, I am thinking about two options for future blog posts. Stay tuned. Mom- I promise I'll get more regular posting. It has been insano on the home front (1 dinner at home this week!)

On the global news front: No fall out between Russian and American relations with President Obama's visit to Moscow. El' President is now in Italy as I understand. I had a few news stories posted, but I didn't want to bore you, so I deleted them. That, and the fact that all reports are such a mix between very positive and very negative ones. I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle and we have a ways to go "bridging the gap" between our cultures. I read somewhere that a "reset" button between the US and Russia has been set, but there is no "easy button". Our relationship is fragile and needs to be nurtured with mutual respect for each others global perspectives. They seems enamoured with Ms. Obama (as everyone seems to be) as she visited orphanages and traded gardening tips. I think she read my blog and tried a more domestic approach to winning over the Russian people. :0)

On the Deetz news front: I have bamboozled my sister into taking Course II of cake decorating. Our first class was this last Monday- we only make one cake in this class so I won't have anymore cake pics until July 28th. But I learned how to make mums and rosebuds. Oh joy!
Police have killed the serial killer living in the next county over. What a relief. This last week was eerie and made everyone rethink the "small town=safe" mentality. The murders of 5 Cherokee County folks was just heartbreaking and frightening.
This is not my mum, but I made some just like it. My mum lives in Florida.
TTFN. I love you Baby Deetz!

Cake Masters!

Here are the pictures from our final night of Course One, the rose night! To the left is my cake, Brittany's is the other yellow rosed one, Michele's is pink. Shani was sick :0(

Every week we've learned a different part of the rose, leading up to this Monday night where we learned how to put the petals on. It was a lot harder than one would think. I think I am the only person of our group of four that is entertaining the thought of taking the next group of courses, level II. The roses almost did me in though....So I'm still thinking about it. The bad thing is that there is no break, the next level of classes starts next Monday night.


After class we had dinner with our dear friends, Mark and Dale, and I was talking with Mark about the adoption, of course, and we were talking about the waiting. We are 5 months into the process, less than a month into the "official" wait with our Dossier in St. Petersburg. I think the key to waiting is to stay as busy as possible and go about life as usual, which for us is 100 miles a minute. I think it's a good thing that when I grocery shop, I count the number of meals we will be eating at home per week, and it usually amounts to three or less. Time honestly flies by. I can't believe the 4th of July is this weekend! Mark brought up a great point. He pointed to his oldest son, who is about 5 years younger than we are, and said "By the time your son/daughter is his age, you won't remember the waiting or whether or not they came in October, November, or February." In the grand scheme of things, a year goes by in the blink of an eye.

Ace of Cakes (Night Three)

Here are our masterpieces from tonight..... Michele is on vacation, so it was just us three tonight. Mine obviously says "Chad" since he loves clowns so much, Shani's is the one with the two toned icing and the lounging clown and Britt's, well, says "Britt"!

Cakes!

Here is my cake from class Monday night..... One is fun photo shopped cartoon image, the other is the real thing. It says BUMS because I gave it to our youth praise band (Bethel United Methodist Students) because the last thing we need is a whole cake to eat at our house.

Here is Britt's cake. As you can see, her colors are much darker than mine, our instructor gave us creative liberty when choosing color. Britt had some issues with the purple. She happen to be wearing a purple shirt, so her purple fingers weren't quite so noticeable. However, her purple tongue from "sampling" was a dead giveaway.

Here is Shani's cake.....And Michele's picture from my phone is M.I.A. I promise it was beautiful though and she survived cake night #1. Maybe I didn't save it because she tried to cut her finger off with the wax paper and I got distracted. As you can imagine, it was a very fun night. Next week.... clowns. Who thinks of this stuff?

Cake Decorating....One down, three to go

Brittany and I decided to take a Wilton cake decorating class at our local craft store. I also roped Shani into it, because I thought we could have regular girls night out during the month of June. I then mentioned it to Michele and she wanted to join in. So we show up to class tonight all chipper and excited. Tonight was the "basics" class. We didn't touch a cake, icing, or piping bag. We....just....sat....and.....listened. At some point it was like watching paint dry, literally. We had to wait for the cake to, I forget the word she used, but basically get a crust on it so that she could show us how to smooth the icing with a little plastic trowel.

By the end, I had the glazed donut face. She was talking about having to have a dime to make a circle, but if we didn't have a dime we could use....IDK, something else round like a dime. WHAT? It didn't help that there was music over the loud speaker in the class room. I was humming along to "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" and "Buttercup" while waiting for the "cake to crust" Thank the Lord Michele, Brittany and Shani were there to crack me up. Britt doesn't own a cake pan. This could be very interesting for her. Michele hadn't had dinner and wanted to lick the icing so badly I think I actually saw some drool. (It did smell really good!) Shani had just left work at a summer camp and still had that "I just entertained 25 kids all day long" look on her face. We were a sad "girls night out". Next week we have to bring a cake, already iced, with four different colors of icing. We are going to make a rainbow cake. Hmmm.....

Here's what it's suppose to look like. We'll see about all that. I can't wait to take pictures of what kinda rainbows are produced by the fantastic four. I think next week will be a lot better, when we are actually doing something! My goal is to make Baby Deetz his/her birthday cakes- maybe something nice and round, like a balloon, or maybe a happy face. Not this.