Its Blooming Cookies!!!

I tried my first attempt at a cookie bouquet this weekend. I used the same cookie recipe I always use (thanks Darlene) but experimented with royal frosting and flooding. I think I still prefer my old icing recipe but I enjoyed using the new flooding technique...looks like I will have to make some more cookies to experiment with :)

Celebrations

Well...finally had a minute to relax tonight and get my (last) weekend documented. Last weekend was busy, I had Friday and Monday off but filled it with plenty of events and running around. Saturday with Joe's Birthday and we went over to Dave and Amy's and grilled out with the family. Joe is not much of a cake person, so I made a apple crumb pie and got some vanilla ice cream, YUM. Then we were off to Owen's last BamBam Ball game.

Sunday was my family reunion/Grandma's 92nd and John's 98th Birthday!!! I made the Birthday cake and am proud to say, it was my best one yet :) It was not lopsided and it was actually round! I did lemon with lemon buttercream and raspberry preserves. I also picked up some of my favorite cupcakes from Carefree Patisserie.

See pics all pics here.

Monday I spent studying for my INS 22 exam, which I am happy to say I PASSED, whew... So for a short week, it was a long week with plenty of making up work and meetings.

Happy Birthday Miss Molly!

Joe and I went to Molly's 2nd Birthday party on Saturday. It was a great morning/afternoon spent with family. Click here to view all the pics from that day.

Sweet Endings..

I had my last class from Wilton Course #1 on Tuesday night :( We learned how to do the "Wilton" rose. This time I did chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream in the middle, with vanilla buttercream on the outside. I know it might seem like A LOT of frosting in the middle...but it actually was the perfect amount. I was very proud because I finally got a tall looking cake. It was still a little lopsided...but tasted great anyways!!

I think I will enroll in the next class, everyone at work is disappointed because although its a 4 week class I only make one cake for my final.

I am really EXCITED to use my new Giant Cupcake pan. I am going to make a practice cake this weekend with it and then make one for real for my G'ma Birthday.

Long weekend...nice

Yay...I love long weekends!!!

Marsh gives their employees half days before holidays so I left work around 12ish on Friday and went to Aimee's to help her make some cookies for her niece's graduation. My cookie job had gotten cancelled so we thought we would work on her cookies on Friday instead of Saturday. It took us almost 5 hours but the cookies turned out really cute!

Saturday I made cupcakes for Chommany's Birthday dinner that night. I have been really wanting to try to make Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes. I thought a Birthday celebration would be the perfect occasion. I also made chocolate buttercream for some of them.

I only have one more cake class left from my Wilton Course #1. My second cake was a white cake, that I filled with my grandma's homemade strawberry rubarb preserves. We also learned how to make these clowns. Me being a huge fan of clowns (not) didn't put any on my cake but I did practice them.

My First Cake

Here is my first cake from Wilton Course #1! It's lemon with lemon buttercream filled with raspberry preserves. Can't wait to have a piece!

May??...Already!!!

I finally got to planting my flowers this weekend. I keep several pots on my deck during the summer. I didn't do my upside-down tomato plant grower this year or herbs. Those didn't go so well last year so I thought I would forget about it. Maybe again sometime...Oh and don't ask me what any of these flowers are...because I don't know.

Considering that I had no plans this weekend I was pretty busy! The weather has been great...so I have been running around playing outside (golf, tennis and dog park). I made it to the Des Moines Farmers Market today, got some beautiful Lilacs, my favorite breakfast burrito and an eggroll.


I started my golf lessons at Willow Creek on Monday, May 4th. They were great fun and I really learned a lot. Unfortunately, I must have forgotten all of it because today I didn't golf so well. Good thing I have more lessons to come!

I also started my Wilton cake decorating class on Tuesday, May 4th. We didn't get to start decorating yet, but we will be this coming Tuesday. I have to make a cake, frost it and bring it to class to play with. It will be my first time using buttercream and smoothing out the frosting like a professional cake! I can't wait to see how it goes. Everyone at work was excited to hear I was taking the class because that means they get a cake every Wednesday!! Oh and PS: After reading the buttercream recipe, I have decided that buttercream = bad for you, but tastes soooo good.

Whats new with me?

• I just noticed that my new hobby golf really leaves me with some horrible ugly tan lines...booo
• My friend Sherry and I got our first PAYING baking job. We are making 10 dozen cookies for a graduation at the end of May. I did a wedding a few years back, but it was my wedding gift to the bride, so not sure if that counts for not.
• I am going to try to keep my deck plants alive past August this year...I will just need to remember to water them.