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.