Wilton Cake Class #2

Yesterday was my second Wilton cake decorating class at Michael's here in Pearland. It is really quite convenient that the class is so close to home. I actually found out that there are a lot of places that host these classes. To find one near you head to Wilton.com!

OK, so like I said last week there are three courses, plus a fondant course that can be taken anytime after your first course is complete. The first course is all about learning how to basically ice a cake! Last week we learned how to "smooth ice" a round cake and this week we mostly concentrated on the star tip or #16 tip. Everyone was required to bring in a shaped cake already baked and prepared icing in the colors needed for the cake.

I chose to make a football, I really couldn't decide, but thought this would come in good use in the future! Wilton make all kinda of shaped cake pans and they include icing ideas (colors and amounts required). Little did anyone remember in the class that there are different consistencies of icing and we all made stiff consistency decorating icing...it didn't go over well. In less than five minutes every one's hand were aching so bad we all had to add water and remix our icing in class. This created a medium consistency icing which is much easier to decorate with.

I didn't exactly finish my cake in class so I had to come home (to an awesome homemade lasagna) and finish up. We took some pics and started eating :-)

If you can see from the pic, my brown icing seemed to have changed colors half-way through. I can't exactly figure out what happened! It may not seem like much, but it's my first cake of the class so hopefully we will see some improvement!

Next week we make a clown cake...hmmm I don't think anyone is too excited about this, but it will be a good lesson on smooth icing my cake, borders, and writing. I think this class may be a little formal and outdated, but the lessons give a good base and I can start using my right brain!

A little close up in my star action

My instructor, Mandi, started with the Wilton classes 5 years ago and is now teaching them and competes in cake competitions! She told me about one coming up in Austin the last weekend of February, they have cake competitions, celebrity demonstrations, and even a live challenge (beat that Food Network)! If your interested head to thattakesthecake.org, this year's theme is Science Fiction and Fantasy!

Cannolis in Sicily...day 9

Well after another day at sea, Debbie and I were ready for more exploring in Italy. Much had been anticipated for our visit to Sicily. My friend recalls Sicily as one of his favorite places to visit when he goes to see family in Italy.

Plus we got an incredible deal on our excursion due to my addiction to the Cruise Critic (cruisecritic.com) website and message boards. Months out of the cruise I started communicating with our fellow passengers with questions, advice, etc etc about the cruise, itinerary, and more! it's a great tool for anyone looking or planning on taking a cruise. In almost every stop members arrange excursions at lesser costs on their own. We took advantage here. The cruise version of our "Taormina on your own" was approaching $100 each. We did it for $20 each. Totally worth it...left more in the budget for cannolis!

We ventured to Taormina and went to the Greek Amphitheater on the mountainside. The town was okay...we were definitely disappointed. Call it spoiled but we were not feeling the rain, humidity and temperatures in the 60s. Plus the bugs...strange looking ones....

So what did we do, we had lunch! I had a GIGANTIC calzone (with gorgonzola and more inside) while Debbie went way out of her comfort zone and ordered a..........pizza! All was amazing, as usual.

Afterwards we strolled the shops more and I bought more liquor. It's a cinnamon liqour called Cannella. It tastes like Christmas in a bottle! This time I didn't buy one for home and one for the ship...just one for home. But we did bring back pastries for the ship!!! (You know they never have enough onboard anyways...)

It was an okay place, Sicily, perhaps we'll like it next time. It was a beautiful departure when the weather cleared some...

Smooth sailing ahead and off to Barcelona. Or were we? The suspense builds! (Or not, I'm sure you all know what happened next!)

Move over food, back to honeymoon recap! Day 8

So I lost the wind in my sails on getting the honeymoon recap out the door. I'm back and going to move on!!

After Dubrovnik, we had another day at sea. It can be summed up easliy, relaxation...

...and BINGO twice, in the lounge then by the pool.


Our ship was apparently taking advantage of the calm seas, making great time en route to Sicily, that the Captain decided to do some maneuvering and such. We woke up to the the following the next morning. Perhaps he was out a little too late the night before???

(Actually the crew was definitely visible at night...including our Cruise Director who was more than willing to have a good time!)

Next stop...Messina, Italy...on the Island of Sicily.

Wedding Beer wins gold!!!

As y'all probably remember from our previous posting (Our Wedding Brew), my dad made us a wedding brew and he just submitted it into one of the largest homebrew competitions in the country and it won GOLD!

It turned out to be a rather unique beer, not really in a specific category so it was entered in the specialty beer category at the Big Beer Festival in Vail, CO. I don't know how all this works, but I was told that the specialty category is the hardest category to win as you can enter in any beer!

A pic that my dad's friend, Greg, took of the winners posting

Besides winning gold at the Big Beer Festival, we all loved it at the Wedding, there was not a drop left in the place!

Thanks Dad and Congrats!

Kitchen Krazyness

So as some of you probably knew, I baked up a storm over this past holiday season and it will keep on going well into the New Year!

It all started with Thanksgiving, after we found out my sister was coming to visit we decided to make an actual menu, our first holiday with all our new cookware! We made turkey, green bean casserole, Kadlec famous stuffing, sweet potato casserole, and homemade bread.

Turkey, Turkey, Turkey

Then came the desserts...this was my first real excuse to bake since we got back from our wedding/honeymoon and oh boy did I miss it. I had been dying to make my first cheesecake, so I made a yummy New York chocolate chip cheesecake, NO cracks! I also decided to make Eli's famous rum cake for Terence, knowing he would love it, and in a last minute attempt to stay true to the season I baked up a pumpkin pie.

Cheesecake and Rum Cake...does it get any better

Post-thanksgiving we were in full baking swing. I decided, of course, to send cookies out for Christmas so I started baking cookies on the weekend and freezing them. This included my boss' recipe for cowboy cookies, chocolate dipped sugar cookies, peanut butter cookies, my new favorite red-velvet cake balls (which deserve their own blog), and coffee chocolate toffee.

Sugar cookies dipped in a white chocolate/mint chocolate chip mix and christmas sprinkles

PB cookies with dark chocolate chips (my favorite cookie)

Coffee Toffee (via Smitten Kitchen)

Cake Ball preview... :-)

Now, to start out the New Year, I decided to start taking the Wilton Cake Decorating Class at my local Michael's. There are three courses, plus a fondant course, that Wilton sponsors at local craft stores and bakeries. You have to start with Course I and my first class was last night, I definitely came home smiling! Last night we went over the the basics of all things icing, including how to smoooooooth ice a cake. Every week we bake a cake and prepare the Wilton buttercream icing at home then off to class to learn the different icing techniques. I cannot wait to blog about all my cakes, wish me luck!

Happy Baking!