Cakey goodness

A cake made for a friend's 30th pirate-themed surprise birthday party. Her 30th birthday party, I mean, not the 30th party she had that was pirate-themed and a surprise. That I know of. *sigh* Anyway, the cake turned out better than I expected, what with the bottom layer breaking in half while I was putting it together and refusing to go back into a square and all. I also had some issues with the frosting and making it the right temperature so that I could actually decorate with it - the first bag was waay too soft and so some of the stars don't have definition at all. So I put it in the freezer and the second bag was perfect, but then I left it in so the third bag was too stiff. The skull and crossbones was pretty much the crowning achievement of the cake, considering I wasn't really expecting it to look like anything even approaching a skull and crossbones. Overall, it was very yummy.

This was my first cake using my brand new Kitchen-aid 9 speed mixer courtesy of my parents!! Yay. I used this recipe, with this frosting recipe. The frosting was AMAZING. It was cream cheese, but also buttercream. Highly recommended. The vanilla (it was supposed to be lemon but I made it vanilla, using 1 1/2 Tbsp vanilla instead of the 3 of lemon) was more cream cheesey than the chocolate, so it helped to balance out the cocoaness of the chocolate. I also made the cappuccino-fudge cheesecake. I made the ganache without Kahlua this time, because Kahlua is expensive and because there were little kids at the party. I did, however, attempt the lattice on top, which I usually don't.

Friday!

So the sock .... I'm finished with the cuff and ready to start on the actual leg pattern. If I ever pick it up again, I'll know where I am!

I've been working on a couple of little guys from Creepy Cute Crochet - another grim reaper, a cthuhlu, and a "Day of the Dead" guy, requested by my best-friend-since-6th-grade. I'm actually almost done - I have to do eyes, a scythe, and a jacket for the DotD guy. Yay, I might actually finish something!

I found a pattern for a really neat hoodie last night. The link is saved on my home computer and I'm at work, and I don't remember what it's called or the name of the yarn used, so I can't post it here. But it's really neat! It has bell sleeves, with the trim and a vertical "stripe" up the middle of the sweater done in seed stitch. I'm thinking it would be awesome in Knitpicks Wool of the Andes, navy or oregano. And my husband was totally cool with me spending $50 on yarn, provided I actually finish the sweater. Therein lies the rub ......

In non-knitting news, I finally gave in and read the Twilight "saga," (is it really a saga if the whole thing takes place in the span of 2 1/2 years?) known in our house as the Teen Vampire Mormon Porn (because romance novels are porn for women). In about 3 days. The plot is ludicrous and gets more and more so the farther your progress in the books, and the dialogue is terrible, but I was obsessed anyway. I suppose it could be argued that the plot to Harry Potter is pretty ludicrous, too, though maybe executed a bit better. But ... I was obsessed anyway. My only regret is that when I let my brother-in-law's girlfriend borrow the books, I didn't have a brown paper bag on hand to wrap them in.

** Edit**
Here's the linky to the sweater!

Slight re-working

The second sock so far:

I'm all done with the cuff pattern, and getting ready to do the ribbing. Yay!

It's not a huge deal, and nobody probably even noticed, but I went through my list of books and changed the links to go to the publisher's websites instead of amazon.com. I couldn't find 1000 Sweaters or The World of Knitted Toys, but other than that, the sites should be there.

I got Creepy Cute Crochet yesterday, and I've already made a little Grim Reaper! The pattern suggested making his scythe out of polymer clay, something I've never worked with, so I went to Michael's and picked up a little beginner's Sculpey kit. I was supposed to make a knight, a dragon, and a wizard. Instead, I made the scythe. Twice. The first one was too short, so I decided to try again. When I made the second one I added three little holes before I baked it, so that I could sew it onto little Grimmy (the book suggested glue). And here he is:

I seem to have an aversion to faces on my little toys. His hood was a lot bigger than the one in the book - perfect for obscuring the head underneath. I thought the mouth in the book was cute, but I didn't have any black felt for the eyes and didn't feel like going back to the craft store. Besides, you aren't really supposed to be able to see his face, right? That's kind of the whole point of the hood. For the head I used Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool, and for the hood/body I used TLC Amore, which is really soft and velvety-looking. Who says Death can't have a little luxury in his life?

The sock revisited

So last night I frogged what I had of the second sock, because I didn't remember where I was on the silly little pattern, and started over again. I'm excited about finishing it, even though I know I have a loong way to go. I had a dream about the socks last night, that I finished the second one in like, a day. But then when I put it on it only went up to my ankle, not my knee like it was supposed to.

I broke my cheesecake ban in a spectacular fashion, by making two cheesecakes this weekend, a toffee caramel crunch that I've made before, and a chai cheesecake with ginger crust that I have not made before. The toffee one turned out really well, and was mostly eaten Sunday at dinner (we also had something slightly more nutritious). I haven't tried the chai one yet .... we'll either eat it tonight or on the 4th. Based on my um taste tests of the unfinished product, it should taste really yummy.

Someday soon, I will sit down and compile a list of all the cheesecakes I've made so far!

Yikes

I've been neglecting my blog. I wonder if I've been kicked out of the Midwest Knitter's blogring yet ........

I really haven't been knitting or baking or much of anything lately. I did make the fabulous chocolate Irish cream cake and it was very, very good. I wasn't able to beat the cake mix to the desired fluffiness, so after two failed attempts I went to the store and bought a Betty Crocker chocolate cake mix instead. My mom is theoretically buying me a KitchenAid hand mixer, though, so I'm going to try it again .... right after it stops costing me $45 to fill up my gas tank (yes, I realize that $45 isn't really all that much compared to what some people have to pay - and to you I say, well, you were the genius who decided to buy that Suburban, weren't you?).

I am taking a break from cheesecakes as well, because of the cost. My husband pointed out to me last week that I could make two cheesecakes, or I could buy Lego Indiana Jones. Or I could start charging my friends and family for the privilege of eating my baked goods ..... The last cheesecake that I made was a huge hit, though. I made a Mai Tai cheesecake for my friend's bridal shower. One girl ate THREE pieces, saying that it was so good that she couldn't resist, all the while clutching her stomach and groaning. Pain in the name of cheesecake! If that doesn't boost the old ego, I don't know what does.

I got a Wii! Yay. I went to Phoenix for my niece's high school graduation, and made my brother take me to Wal-Mart before he dropped me off at the airport. I bought Super Mario Galaxy, which is awesome and fun and cute, and my hubby and I downloaded a bunch of Nintendo, Super Nintendo, and N64 games. Mario has taken over my knitting time. :-( But I am going to make this for my brother-in-law's girlfriend. It'll be great!

Library

New books that have appeared in my library in the past month:

The Happy Hooker by Debbie Stoller
Amigurumi World, Seriously Cute Crochet by Ana Paula Rimoli
500 Chocolate Delights by Lauren Floodgate
How Baking Works by Paula Figoni
The Simple Art of Japanese Papercrafts by Mari Ono

We went on a really great vacation to Denver over Easter weekend. My main goal was to purchase a Wii, but that didn't happen so we went to the Tattered Cover and spent a little money there instead.

A baking goal:
My friend Amanda successfully defended her dissertation on Thursday and is going to be getting a Ph.D. in Math in May. We went to a local restaurant called The Spitfire to celebrate, and she ordered this incredible chocolate cake soaked in Irish cream. I went to epicurious.com and discovered if not the exact recipe, then one that's pretty darn close. I will bake it this summer, I will!

I also recently persuaded my mom to give me her extensive collection of cake decorating stuff, collected over about 30 years of decorating cakes for people. She has pretty much every size of pan imaginable, as well as dozens of sugar molds, all the fancy tips, and tons of decorations and cake toppers.

Today, I'm going to make some champagne truffles from the 500 Chocolate Delights book. I might even remember to take pictures and post them! I'll be experimenting a little bit, because my mother-in-law, brother-in-law and b-i-l's girlfriend don't/can't drink because of medications and such. So some of the truffles will just have vanilla extract in them for flavoring. I hope it works ......

As for my goal of losing weight, I have lost about 5 pounds. An unexpected problem: I had to try on the dress for the wedding in January. So, I tried it on again recently to make sure that my undergarments would work with it, and now it's almost too loose. So if I lose any more weight between now and June .... We'll be trying the dresses on again in a week or so to figure out what alterations need to be done, so maybe they can take it in a little and then it will work with whatever weight I manage to lose between now and then.

Cake

I made a cake! It's my very own Katamari Damacy cake, although I think the inspiration for the colors might have actually come from We ♥ Katamari. But no matter. Here it is!



I used a "sports ball" cake pan and 10 mini muffins. On a side note, did you know that they no longer sell the liquid food coloring made by McCormick that we all grew up with? Man, that stuff lasted forever. I suspect that McCormick finally ran out of the original batch that they made back in 1956.

Anyway.

Lessons that I learned:
1. I need a lazy susan
2. Don't decorate a round cake on a plate that has curved edges, unless you don't mind if there are huge spaces at the bottom of the cake that don't have frosting on them
3. Start from the bottom, not the top
4. Spend a little more time thinking about how much frosting you will need of each color (for example, why did I make a huge batch of "lightest blue," and a tiny batch of yellow, when I clearly needed more of the yellow?)
5. Spend a little more time placing the knobbies so that they're even

Other than that, I'm quite pleased. I love the colors, especially the dark blue.

The Culinary Arts

Several months ago, I had a conversation with some friends about Life Goals. One of our friends had three goals that he wished to achieve in his life and not only were they all ridiculously easy, but he is 29 and has already achieved two of the three - he has managed to not achieve the third through simple lack of effort. I poked some good-natured fun at him, but at the same time was well aware of the fact that I didn't have a Life Goal. At one point, my Life Goal consisted of NOT marrying a pastor; once I got married to a non-pastor, the LG became obsolete and I never replaced it with anything.

I made the decision yesterday that someday I want to go to school to be a pastry chef. Unfortunately, we'll either have to move or have a lot of extra money to spend so that I can live in a different city. There are two schools within commuting distance that offer culinary classes, one in Moorhead, a mile east, and one in Wahpeton, 45 miles south. Both of these are full Culinary Arts degrees, but I would really prefer to focus just on baking. My main motiviation for this is that I HATE onions and I currently refuse to cook with them. On the other hand, I wouldn't grow fatter sampling dishes that had onions in them, so maybe I could cook exclusively with onions and be skinny. Ha! Seriously, I prefer baking to cooking, and not just because Wookie Cookies are so yummy. There's just something so great about eating a meal with friends and then being able to say, "And we have Bananas Foster Cheesecake for dessert!"

There are several books out there for people who want to take baking to the next level, but the vast majority of them have the word "Professional" in the title, which means that I would have to know what the hell I was doing. The book I have (mostly) settled on as a good introduction is "How Baking Works" by Paula I. Figoni. This book has the quality of being comprehensive without being incomprehensible, as well as the added bonus of not costing $100. I'm mostly attracted by the chapters that deal with oven cooking temps and substitutions; the concept of measuring by weight instead of volume is also very intriguing. The discussion questions and worksheets at the end of each chapter also sound really helpful, but maybe I'm just a geek.

I realize that I have a long way to go in terms of just following the freakin' recipe already, but I'm willing to give it a shot!

Yarn and Cheesecake

It's been a while! I'm back. I got my new yarn in due course .... the yarn for the purse looks awful together, so I'll have to make something else with it. The beautiful green yarn is currently being made into a wimple, just because I hate trying to keep track of a stocking cap when I'm temporarily somewhere that I don't need to wear one, such as the grocery store. I'm not quite halfway done with it.

In other news, I'm on a quest to lose some weight. My friend Amanda, who has lost 30 pounds in the past 6 months, gave me a spreadsheet she made up that is loosely based on Weight Watchers' point system (Amanda is nearly finished with a Ph.D. in Mathematics, btw). I also signed up at thedailyplate.com, which is a pretty spiffy little site. It has pretty much every food that you could think of, and all of the nutrition information for it. The coolest part, though, is the feature where you can enter in a recipe, ingredient by ingredient, and it will figure out the nutrition info for the finished product. Going by both Amanda's modified point system and my daily caloric goal at thedailyplate.com, I have been doing pretty good ... umm ... yesterday and today. But now, the weekend is here, and I know that I lose a lot of ground on the weekends. I've been walking on our treadmill nearly every (erm week) day for the past 3 weeks, with a day or two of "Accelerated Body Sculpting" pilates thrown in. But I already walked on the treadmill today, which is better than I've done the past 2 Fridays, so I have hope!

Now, I'm off to enter the recipe for the bananas foster cheesecake I plan on making tomorrow, so that I can prove how terrible I am at diets.

Around the world in 80 days

The following is the actual itinerary that either the United States Postal Service or knitpicks.com picked for the yarn that I ordered:

January 3, 2008 Pickup GROVE CITY, OH
January 5, 2008 Sortation Center Departure GROVE CITY, OH
January 5, 2008 Sortation Center Departure LOS ANGELES, CA
January 7, 2008 Sortation Center Arrival DALLAS, TX
January 8, 2008 Sortation Center Arrival BROOKLYN PARK, MN
January 9, 2008 Sortation Center Departure DALLAS, TX
January 10, 2008 Sortation Center Arrival NEW BERLIN, WI
January 11, 2008 Sortation Center Departure NEW BERLIN, WI
January 11, 2008 USPS Electronically Notified FARGO,ND
January 11, 2008 Sortation Center Departure BROOKLYN PARK, MN
January 11, 2008 Electronic Shipping Info Received FARGO, ND *

WHAT???? I was a little confused when I tracked its progress on the 5th and it told me my yarn was in Los Angeles, but hey, the shipping was free. Who am I to tell the postal service how to do its job? A few days later it was in Brooklyn Park, which is like, 4 hours away. I figured it would be here the next day. But the next day it was in .... Dallas?!?! WTF. I still don't have actual proof that it's in Fargo. As far as I can tell, the post office in Fargo knows it's coming. It wouldn't surprise me in the least to track it tomorrow and find that it's in Dallas again. Or gods forbid London ........

The good news is that since I wasn't distracted by new yarn, I had no choice but to cast on my second sock!