But before that, the rest of last week *grins*

Not that I actually did a whole lot, I was mostly lazy. I made it to four miles cycling which made me happy. And on Friday I made a whole new cookie. I had found a recipe for ‘Cowboy Cookies’ cookies with pecans, oats and chocolate chips. The site I found it on also suggested using coconut too. So I decided to give them a try. I ended up using peanuts (home roasted) and almonds in place of the pecans as that was what we had. Where it said chocolate chips I used a mix of white, milk, semi-sweet and swirls with bittersweet and white.. Mixing it together I also added raisins. So it became a mix of oatmeal-raisin, chocolate chip, peanut butter and macaroon cookies *grins* all in one!

Saturday, with some help, we got the vegetable bed built in the garden, and planted out the peas, beans and garlic. The peanuts will have to go out soon, they’re doing really well.. They probably could have been planted straight out there. It’s looking good, and we’re all excited now! We put the extra stones around one of the trees to see how it looked as our eventual plan is to do that around all the trees.

Once everything was done and I was taking photos I decided to play about with the macro settings on my camera for a bit, just to get more practice at getting good photos with it!

Sunday evening we went to the Alamo, as one of their ‘Big Screen Classics’ they were showing Princess Mononoke. I’m not a big anime person, I don’t go crazy over it. However I do really enjoy the work of Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli. To date I had seen four of his films (this made the fifth). Spirited Away remains the most visually stunning, and Howl’s Moving Castle is still my favourite. But it was good to see some of his earlier work, billed as his ‘epic masterpiece’ I thoroughly enjoyed the film.

Monday it was back to class. We were finishing off our gingerbread houses, presenting them yesterday. We made these in pairs, and my partner and I decided to make a Starbucks, so it’s more of a gingerbread establishment *grins8 We had good fun with it, and I’m pleased with it, we lost points on tidyness, it didn’t fit together amazingly well, warping with the shape of the tray it was baked on, but we put lots of details in and we did well on it.

Now, and for the rest of this week and next, we start on our wedding cakes. Three tiers, 12, 9 and 6 inches. Today we have the loong lecture on it, and our ‘consults’ we’ll also have to cost it out, and we’ll hold a tasting next week for our ‘clients’ (both Chef instructors). I’m excited, I’m allowed to do a mad-hatter cake, so it’s going to be a challenge, but it will be fun!

I have a week off, and it is wonderful! *grins*

First I better fill you in on last week, the week started with ‘Mass Production.’ Basically some of the employers that are in contact with the school commented that students finished the course having only ever made single items, having never baked in bulk which is how it’s done in the industry. So now, we spend a day making 50-something cakes and 50lbs of buttercream ready for use on our sculpted cakes. It was interesting, mostly not much difference between that and making a single cake, just using a much bigger mixer (one that you have to get your arm in to scrape out).

Tuesday saw the start of our sculpted cakes. I will be honest, and say I was totally uninspired by our theme – food other than cake, I had voted for our theme to be Jim Henson but the less said about my thoughts on that the better! As I said in my previous post I settled on a cake of tea and biscuits. Though it’s undecided whether it looks like tea, coffee or hot chocolate.. it’s a hot beverage in a mug with biscuits!

I was pretty happy with it, it was different to everyone else in the class who had made one large item sculpted, I made each biscuit individually and covered them all separately so they could all be picked up and moved around. Useful in hiding the fondant flaws on the mugs. I made a wood-like fondant for the board and stuck it on in strips rather than trying to do it all in one piece so it looked like a table, though most of it was covered anyway. I scored 98/100 for it which made me happy, losing those two points for the fondant on the board being dusty, but the rest was fantastic, and the gingerbread men made my Chef’s laugh loudly.. a little disconcerting to hear when you know they’re grading you, but funny.

These are a selection of the cakes from the rest of my class -

Thursday we had a speed drill. Preparing us for work in mostly grocery store type bakeries. We had made the cakes and buttercream in advance and then after being given the details had 30 minutes to prepare (bringing the buttercream back after being refrigerated – it was Italian buttercream so it sets solid, colouring it appropriately, setting up all our piping bags etc). Then 30 minutes to decorate, that includes splitting the cake into 3 layers, filling and covering, then piping a top and bottom border, appropriate flowers and the message on top.

I was done in 20 minutes.. it’s not the best cake I’ve decorated, but given the time scale I’m mostly happy with it, the only part that really bugs me is the last line of the writing going off on a different angle! It’s good to see my writing getting better, and my shell border too.

Friday we finished the week with another day of mass production, this time making the gingerbread for the houses we’ll be making in groups of two when we get back. We got out early so a group of us ended the week with a visit to a Chinese restaurant which was gorgeous. DmentD and I split the duck fried rice as we weren’t overly hungry but it was nice to be social, and it was delicious! I think we both have a new favourite Chinese!

Saturday we had a busy busy day, starting with a cake delivery, a silhouette cake of a beaver. We then had friends round for brunch, they were visiting from Houston. Moving swiftly we had a puppy birthday party in the afternoon which was good fun. I had made some puppy safe cup cakes (from here on out called pup cakes) which went down very well indeed. Even the picky eaters finished them off!

We left there and went to the Bass Concert Hall (part of the university) to see Spamalot. The show was fantastic, I really enjoyed it, nicely put together and highly funny. Aside from the woman next to me who decided on the seats between me and her was the perfect place for her abnormally huge handbag that she felt the need to rummage through at regular intervals, there was nothing to bug me during the show.

The annoyance was before the show started. We got there and they were scanning the tickets at the door, except ours wouldn’t scan. They took us to the will-call booth and we were told we had been moved. Now aside from the fact that they were insisting that they tried to contact us when phone records and emails deny that point, and that we had no say in where we were moved to, it seemed fair enough, there were visibility problems with the seats in questions after a recent renovation and they were moving people who had already been sold those seats, and not selling them any more until it could be sold. So a little disgruntled but understanding we went to our new seats. Only to sit there and see people sat in our original seats. The theatre have now received an email complaining, we’re waiting to see how that turns out!

I would however recommend the show to anyone who appreciates the Monty Python sense of humour.

Sunday I was beating myself up again! Apparently discontent that my big toe was mostly healed with just a light bruise and no pain, I shut the bedroom door on my other big toe, bending the nail back, causing some blood and much pain! It’s not as bad as it could be, I’ve seen worse, I’m just back to limping again!

We had friends round and the tree stumps were removed from the back of the house, we were intending to leave them for a bit longer but the peas and the sprouts shot up, the peas literally a few inches in one night, so we really need to get the bed made this weekend and get them outside.

Yesterday and today DmentD took off work so we could spend some time together which has been very nice. We went and got me a new bike saddle, the one on his bike wasn’t exactly suited for the female form, and now my rides are getting longer I’m noticing it more. I’m building up to be able to do the 8 mile ride round town lake, that would be nice.

We went and had Indian for lunch today and got a bin for in the kitchen for the composter, so we don’t have to make a trip outside with every single item. The composter is now set up and we’ve gotten it started, and the rainbarrels are in place, just in time for the heavy rain we had mid week, they filled in one night. We marked out the bed ready so we know where to build it.

I have no plans for the rest of the week really. I need to finalise my details for the gingerbread house, and come up with my design for my wedding cake for class. Just taking it easy and enjoying the time off

We were at it again this weekend, up at silly o’clock for a Saturday morning and heading to Home Depot to rent an aerator.

We got to the store before 9 and they were already out (it is the season!), luckily the guy rang up another store and got them to hold one for us. So we drove across there and loading the thing into the car.

Getting back I drew stone duty, wandering round the garden picking up sticks and stones, while DmentD got the fun job of working the aerator, a tiring, frustrating job by all accounts.

Loading it back into the car we had a bit of a mishap, the machine, heavy enough on it’s own, had two 50lb weights attached to the front.. loading it into the car I went to get in the back so I could hook the handle over the seats and walked into one of them.. Making it fall, quite nicely, onto the big toe of my other foot.

There were lots of ‘what ifs’ and ‘should have dones’ but it basically boiled down to I didn’t look where I was going, as I kept telling DmentD while he felt bad. Still, there was no time, I grabbed our ice bag and changed my shoes to my school boots with the reinforced toes. And I sat for the journey back to Home Depot with one shoe off and the ice pack on it.

We got help unloading the machine so I didn’t have to, but the shoe had to go on and we had to go shopping. We bought a lot! Seeds for the vegetable planting, bamboo ready to support the beans and peas and tomatoes, planters (aka big buckets) for the tomatoes, pots for the herbs, plants to adorn De Jockamo in the garden and an asspot of soil!

We got back and DmentD fertilised the lawn ready to plant new grass seed while I iced my toe some more!

Finally (at three in the afternoon) we got lunch, at Central Market while we were there to pick up garlic and peanuts. Back at the house DmentD sorted out the tree fertiliser and some other bits and pieces (like filling in holes in the ground!) while I filled the buckets with soil and planted the garlic in them. They needed starting now, and with the bed(s) not ready yet we used the buckets the tomatoes will eventually get put in.

I then planted the seeds we’re starting now indoors so they can germinate. The peas (sugar snap) and beans (the closest to runner we could find), the bell peppers and jalapenos, Brussels sprouts and peanuts.. Yes, we’re going to attempt to grow peanuts, it sounded fun and we have the climate for it.

Later in the year (at the appropriate seasons) we also plan to grow tomatoes, onions, broccoli, and jack-o-lantern pumpkins.

The herbs are doing well, we have all bar one (the spearmint) sprouting, it’s all very exciting. It seems a little strange at how excited we get, getting home each evening and seeing how they’re doing and what’s grown!

De Jockamo looks good with his plants either side of him (I kind of want to paint tiki gods on the pots), eventually we want to surround him with bright colours and exotic looking (but hopefully easy to keep) plants. And we finally bought a little plant to go in Persephone so we’ll see how that does.

We finished the day by going to see Watchmen. A late night showing at half 10 (though they had later!). We were both excited to see it and both thoroughly enjoyed it. I don’t want to say too much for anyone who wants to go see it, but it was awesome, they completely nailed Rorschach.

And at the end of the day, this is what my toe looked like!

This week at school has been fun, we’ve spent the whole week working on the same cake! It involved a lot of skills and a lot of new things and wasn’t really everyone’s cup of tea, but I liked it.

It was a two tiered white cake, covered in rolled fondant that we had made ourselves. We made a topper from pastillage (that we had made) and two sprays of gumpaste flowers, we had to have a certain number of flowers and foliage. Again it was with gumpaste that we had made ourselves.

We made royal icing and piped cornelli lace on the front, and some filigrees that were stuck along the border of the lace. We then stuck some gumpaste ‘holders’ to the side of the cake, and piped extension work all the way round. This means that the icing only touches the cake at each end, the middle is suspended.

I took a lot of photos of this cake, you’ll need to go to the gallery to see all of them, but here’s a few to get you started

I did alright, I’m happy with the final product. You could see the sugar I had stuck the pastillage together with and my gumpast flowers had some rough edges. My lace was too square, it needed to be more rounded and flowing, I managed to avoid sharp corners but just couldn’t get it rounded, so it looks a little Aztec-y. My extensions drooped a little so my icing wasn’t stiff enough and my bead borders were a little inconsistant though they are getting better, at least all the beads looked good this time!

This week we’ll be making our sculpted cakes. Sadly with the theme of Food, I was rooting for Jim Henson but never mind. I’m going to do tea and biscuits. A mug of tea with a plate containing several biscuits, including some cannibalistic gingerbread men.

At the start of last week we finished off our poured fondant cake. We covered it in marzipan then glazed it with poured fondant, made some marzipan roses and a marzipan border along the sides. Finishing it by tempering some chocolate piping a double pass border and writing Happy Anniversary. It was a white cake, a surprisingly nice one, not too dry though it would benefit from some syrup.

We then moved onto a chocolate cake. A devils food cake (so very tasty) with ganache. Covered in chocolate fondant. We then made our own pastillage to make a plaque and stand and painted them with cocoa powder and cocoa butter, modeling some figures out of modeling chocolate to go with the picture. I chose to do GIR from Invader Zim, in his ‘I saw a squirrel’ pose. So I modeled a squirrel to go with it, and a cupcake and a piggy.. which will make no sense to anyone who hasn’t seen it.. but it makes sense really.. honest! *grins*

Thursday we moved onto gumpaste. We made our own and spent the rest of the day, and Friday making gumpaste flowers. It’s for a cake we’ll finish at the end of this week, two tiers covered in fondant we’ll make ourselves. Decorated with a spray of gumpaste flowers, lots of intricate piping work, and a pastillage topper.

I’ve been really enjoying the gumpaste flowers, the intricacies, it’s delicate, and frustrating at times. A lot of the class are getting bored and fed up with it bit I’m finding it fascinating.

DmentD and I had a very productive weekend attacking the yard. I dug up all the old landscaping timbers and random bits of annoying plastic used to separate the beds. By the end I was ready to meet whoever had put them there and beat them with the bits of plastic! DmentD cleared out the gutters ready to get rainbarrels soon, and we attacked the box hedge at the front of the house cutting it back down drastically, I don’t think it had been in a while. We mulched down the drifts of dead leaves (mostly not from our garden) and cut down the trees that were right next to the house ready to dig the roots out in a week or two.

We bought some herb seeds and have gotten them started, and next week we plan to get some vegetable seeds to do the same. The eventual plan is three vegetable beds along the back of the house though this year there will probably only be one finished in time. Later in the year to plan to grow some pumpkins down the far end of the garden.

DmentD was a star, and got for me the most awesome bandana! After the temperatures on Thursday and Friday I was unsure as to whether I would last a whole day outside gardening so he got me one. It’s sewn in a tube and is filled with crystals that (once it has been soaked) will hold water, slowly putting a sheen on your neck to evaporate off, helping to keep cool. I soaked it in icy water in the fridge so it felt fantastic, even though we had a slight cold front so it only hit the 60s (F, about 15C), I was working hard which made me warmer. It became my new best friend for anything outdoors.

Last night I made a “cheats” coq au vin. It only really needs to be marinaded for days on end and cooks low and slow for hours and hours and hours when it’s a tough old hen, which is what the dish was designed for. But we got some chicken thighs and breasts and with some onion and garlic, red wine and tomatoes and a nice selection of veg (carrots, mushrooms and celery), cooked for about an hour and a half, it made a very delicious, much quicker version! We had it with rice and baked potato and we invited people round to enjoy it.

Today I have a day off. I had a wonderfully relaxing lay in and then made it out cycling, I made it to 3 miles for the second time, with less short breaks (to let my heart rate drop back down to where it should be) and quicker than the first time. I’ve been using DmentD’s heart rate monitor which has helped me keep a good pace and make sure I’m doing some good and not pushing myself too hard which I was doing. I’ve made the devils food cake for DmentD to try, I think it’ll be good to use for sculpted cakes as it’s fairly dense, and in my opinion better than the chocolate cake we have been using.

I’m looking up puppy cakes for the pup’s birthday party in a couple of weeks, and getting all those little bits and pieces I’ve had laying about done.