A Gift for My Person

If you watch Grey's Anatomy, you know what having a "person" means.  It's that one friend in your life who is basically family and knows far more about you than anyone really should. Not only does that person know you better than anyone, they know the good AND the bad and they even accept the bad! You can tell them anything because they have either already done/thought it themselves or completely agree with your logic when you reveal whatever is on your mind. You may have known that person for your entire life or just met them in the past few years but it doesn't matter because that person is now your person forever.

For me, Amy is my person.  We met over four years ago when we were both living in San Diego and she has been one of my greatest support systems ever since. After I was transferred from San Diego to Norfolk, VA she even picked up her belongings and moved across the country to live a few miles down the street from me. While I'd like think this move was solely for me ;) I know it was also because her then boyfriend, now fiance, was also transferring to Norfolk.  Kevin was a classmate of mine from the Academy and an amazing friend/equally necessary support system to have at my first unit. So really, what could be better than having a best friend like Kevin and Amy-my-person move across the country with me?! The answer is not a whole lot!

As one of my bridesmaids, Amy was my sounding board for all of my good and bad ideas and stress outlet at our weekly date nights, almost always including wine. With only a few short months to go before my wedding, Kevin popped the question and Amy and I were quickly on the wedding planning journey together.

As Amy's wedding was drawing nearer, I struggled to come up with what I felt would be a gift that showed both Kevin and Amy just how much they mean to me. They are family to me and that shiny toaster oven on their registry just wasn't going to send that message. For some reason, this idea took way too long to come to me but with five months to go before their big day, it hit me that making a quilt was a unique and personal way for me to use my growing skills to show them how much I love them.

The making of this post has actually been in the works for months and posting it couldn't come any sooner. As I mentioned a few days ago, my husband has been reminding me that we are seeing a whole lot'a sweets on this thing and not too many seams. I swear it is not because I am only consumed with mounds of cake batter and icing and clutching onto my KitchenAid. Keeping this project a secret for months has actually been very difficult and I am so happy I decided to give it to them a few weeks early.

The first step to this project was picking out the right fabrics I felt matched their decorating style (more so Amy's style because without Amy, Kevin still wouldn't have it. Sorry Kevin). Picking out fabric is never a quick process for me. I walk into Joann's and spend an hour carrying as many rolls of fabric as my mind can creatively piece together. After an hour, this is what I ended up with...

I love the contrasting patterns but also the way the colors compliment each pattern so well and decided to use the same striped pattern as a blanket I have posted before. As always, my sewing machine, cutting mat, and fabric cutter are the go-to tools for any sewing project.

After drawing out my plan for the blanket and cutting up all of the fabric strips, I slowly started piecing together my project. One of the important parts of assembling this blanket is to iron down the seams. As you can see below, the fabric won't lay flat once you have sewn together two strips. The solution is to flip the fabric over, pull it taught and steam press the seam flat. It will make a huge difference in handling the blanket as it grows in size and enables you to better see how the end result might look. I would like to think that I thought of this step myself, and maybe I eventually would have, but a very nice older lady at Joann's looked like she knew what she was doing far more than I did and I started asking her for some tips. This little secret happened to be one of them and I am so glad!

After assembling the strips and border, this is how the front of the quilt looked.

Once the front was assembled and I made sure the blanket's sides and ends matched each other in size, the next step was to cut out a piece for the backing, also purchased from Joann's. The nice thing about this fabric is that it already comes quilted; the downside is the price and the fact that it doesn't allow you to quilt your own design into it. There are companies you can send off the front of your quilt to and they will do the actual quilting for you. I will definitely be using them in the future but it meant a lot to me to complete this whole blanket myself.

After cutting the quilted backing down to the right size, I folded the edges over twice to create the seam and pinned it down. For this blanket, I took more time to measure the size of the seam as I was pinning it to keep it as straight and even as possible. While still not perfect, the seams turned out better than my first quilt and I was pleased enough to not scrap the whole thing and start over.

The other downside to using the quilted backing is that unless you sew more lines into the back (which may make the pattern look odd) the front fabric is not connected to the backing with the exception of the seams. So I needed to find a way to connect the two pieces in a cute manner. What was the solution?

Buttons! I sewed three buttons in the middle of each flower-patterned strip of fabric and loved the end result.  It was a subtle addition but helped to pull the whole thing together for that last finishing touch. 

Finally, after four months the blanket was finished. Mostly. The blanket would of course not be complete without a personal note, so I used my embossing gun and scrap-booking supplies to create a beautiful, color-coordinated tag. After neatly folding up the blanket, I "wrapped" it in a personalized L.L. Bean canvas tote (matching blue of course) and sent it off to their new home in Maine.

Kevin and Amy are truly amazing people and I am so lucky to have them in my life and call them friends. It made me so happy to make something like this for them and I hope it means as much to them as it did me.  Now onto the wedding festivities, drinking, and dancing!

Spring Bouquet

I loved how the flowers on the top of my last cake turned out and wanted to practice, but I can't keep stuffing more cake in my fridge expecting my husband to eat it all, so cupcakes for co-workers it was!

I also realize it's about time I actually introduce that wonderful husband of mine. Meet James! Isn't he gorgeous?! I am very lucky he can handle the truckloads of sugar I force him to eat. I, unfortunately, wouldn't manage that kind of diet quite so gracefully.

Anyway, back to the sweets. These are fudge-filled chocolate cupcakes with a strawberry icing; a perfect combination for those chocolate cravings!

After filling the cupcake liners 1/3 of the way with chocolate batter, I put one teaspoon of fudge in the center and filled the rest of the liner with batter, making sure the fudge stayed in the middle and didn't touch the sides of the liners.

After baking for thirty minutes at 350, the cupcakes were done and I let them cool overnight before frosting.

Then came the fun part... decorating! Again, I used my 1M icing tip and filled a piping bag with strawberry flavored icing. Yes, I cheated and used store bought icing. Between a full work day and a dog that requires too many hours of entertainment, cutting corners means I can get the practice I was looking for without filling hours I sometimes don't have. I know, it's just a dog. How much time can that take? But this isn't just any dog. This is the never-ending, bouncing off walls, energizer bunny of dogs. I used to think it was just puppy energy, but now that she's over a year old I'm beginning to think I was very naive. Today alone required a 30-minute run and two sessions of fetch on top of the normal entertainment to get her to play ball with herself long enough to let me type this. 

Starting from the middle, I place a dollop of icing in the center as the flower bud and work in a clockwise direction from the middle out, holding the tip at a 90 degree angle to the cupcake.  Holding the tip at this angle helps to give more of a 'petal' shape.

I couldn't take these to work without taste testing first and it turns out, they are absolutely amazing! The fudge combined with chocolate cake made the strawberry flavor burst even more than I thought it would.  This may have even become my new favorite combination. Next up, the same chocolate and fudge mix with lemon icing.

I realize there have been a lot of sweets posts lately, but don't you worry, I have a big seams project coming your way!!!

Happy Monday!

Last One for This Cake... I Promise

Since I built up the surprise-inside cake so much, it is probably only fair that you actually get to see the inside of it. I have to warn you, the "surprise" isn't all that exciting. As this was my first cake of this sort, I started out with something simple to build my confidence for something cooler next time. On a side note, there wasn't a whole lot of wine drinking during this production. The notion of completely changing the way I make cakes was enough to intimidate me into hydrating instead.  I will have to up my intake for the next one. 

We cut open the cake this weekend and I have to say, it was pretty darn good. Keeping the cake in the freezer until we were ready to cut it kept the inside very moist.  A warning though, keeping the cake in the freezer after cutting it may start to dry it out. Hope you enjoy! 

Project Surprise Phase II

Spring is in the air in Hampton Roads! One week it's sleeting and the next it's 70 and sunny. We have now had three straight days of sunshine and warmth and if you ask me, the saying "April showers bring May flowers" can hold off as long as it wants to. The blank canvas of a cake from yesterday and the beautiful weather inspired me to make a cake that was as equally cheerful as the day outside. What says spring more than sun and flowers? Not a whole lot so that's what I decided to stick to decorate this cake. 

After making the icing the perfect shade of sunny yellow, I filled my piping bag and with a 1M piping tip started on the top of the cake making the flowers.  This was definitely the first time I have attempted making flowers from icing so I did take a few practice attempts off the cake first. Starting in the middle of the cake and working outwards, I made each flower by placing the tip of the piping bag on a spot to create the bud of the flower, and moved outwards in a circle to create the petal effect. Since this was my first attempt at doing this, I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome.

Once the top of the cake was decorated, I moved on the sides. My initial goal was to make as smooth of a surface as possible to contrast with the top, but after a few minutes of icing the sides I realized I really liked the rustic look of imperfection alongside the flowers and decided to stick with it. It took about fifteen minutes of rotating the cake on the stand to even out the icing layer but once I was done I was very happy with the end result. 

Stepping back from the cake, I realized something was still missing. I didn't want to overdo the cake and just wanted something that would enhance its look.  I still had some leftover white fondant from one of my last baking projects and decided to make a bow for the side. 

Making a bow like this requires only two strips of fondant: one approximately 5"x 8" (or larger if you want a bigger bow) and one about 2" x 5". Taking the larger strip, I place it flat on my working surface and fold the two ends to meet in the middle, rubbing a little bit of water on the fondant to activate the sugars and make the ends stick. This creates the back of the bow. Then I flip the bow over, like the first picture above, and use two rolled up paper towels to help form the loops of the bow. These paper towels stay in the bow until it has hardened enough to keep its shape by itself.  Next, I pinch the middle of the bow in towards the center and use the other strip of fondant to wrap around the middle and secure the whole thing in place.  One of my next baking blogs will be a better tutorial on making these kinds of bows, but hopefully you can get the gist. After letting the bow sit for about an hour to harden, it was time to finish the cake. 

Taking two days to properly let the cake cool and the crumb coat freeze overnight made the decorating process so much easier. I will no longer be giving myself only one evening to finish a cake.  It just takes too long and by the time I get to the decorating part, my favorite part, I'm pretty tired and not putting enough effort into it. 

Check back in later for a peak of the inside of the cake. I so badly wanted to cut it open to take pictures but am holding off until my husband can eat it all for me this weekend. I hope the weather is treating you as well as it is me this week and getting you inspired. Until next time... Happy Baking!!!

Project Surprise Phase I

I must start by saying that buying Surprise-Inside Cakes is one of the best purchases I have ever made. Not only is Amanda Rettke a baking genius who is willing to share her greatest secrets, she also reveals solutions to the issues I haven't figured out for myself.

One of the biggest lessons learned so far is that having the right equipment is an absolute must. I would say that before last week, I had about half of what I needed to properly decorate a cake, but I was still fighting crumbs mixing in with icing and finding it impossible to have a smooth cake.

There were three tools the book recommended having that I was still missing: a rotating cake stand, a cake leveler, and bake-even strips. Luckily, I already had the baker's blade (great for lifting up cake layers and moving cakes from one surface to another), and the offset icing spatula.  The Wilton brand continues to be the most affordable option for amateurs like myself and Amazon never fails to have everything I need under Prime two-day shipping.

After a solid week of studying my new baking bible, I geared up for my first surprise cake project and decided to go with a chocolate/vanilla cake combo. To prevent myself from choosing the hardest cake in the book because "it looks so pretty," I decided to cut out simple circles from each level and alternate the color of cake. If that didn't make sense, it will later on.

After baking both of my cakes using the bake-even strips soaked in water and wrapped around the pans (this prevents "doming" on the top), I used my new leveler to slice the cakes in half horizontally. Once I had my layers cut, I used a large round cookie cutter to cut out a circle from the center of each layer. To create the "surprise inside," I placed the opposite color cake circle into the larger rings.

I used a buttercream icing in between the layers and continue to stack them, alternating the colors. Lining up the layers was pretty important to meet my end goal of a smooth looking cake, but whatever imperfections I couldn't fix would be blended with the icing.

Now to the point of this project: the icing. The Amazing Amanda taught me the importance of the crumb coat. When making cakes before, I would do basically the same steps as above, slap some icing on the thing,  and attempt to smooth it all out. Without fail, crumbs would mix in with the icing and the whole thing looked like my three-year old nephew made it. The rotating cake stand is without a doubt the secret to preventing "crumbing." After placing a large amount of icing on top, I held the spatula just above the surface and held it in place while slowly spinning the cake stand. The leftover icing spilled over the side while doing this which leads me to the next step. Once the top layer of icing was level, I repeated the same steps and placed the spatula along the side of the cake and again slowly spun the cake stand. After going back and forth from the top to the side, I finally had the finished product I was looking for: a mostly evenly-iced cake with little to no crumbs mixed in with the icing. Since this is only the crumb coat, the cake goes into the freezer overnight until I am ready to decorate tomorrow evening. Freezing the iced cake gives it a much easier surface to decorate tomorrow.

So until then, buy Surprise-Inside Cakes and start to get inspired by your own creativity! I am excited to see how this cake turns out!