The retirement cake

Okay so it has been a couple months since I made my chiefs retirement cake. But her it is. It was a full sheet cake, half strawberry and half cannoli cake. The writing is very child like and well my rice cereal treat molds were much better than when I first tried to make it. I am not super proud of the final product but I was happy with it, I am a little hard on myself only because it does not look as professional as a normal retirement cake. I am happy because the family was happy. Because of this cake I am surely making plans to take the 2 week Wilton decorating school and get a diploma in Pastries at the Art institute of Virginia Beach.

I made a "dixie cap" with the name of his first ship and tried to make a chief's cover. Around the edge of the cake I used Ghirardelli Dark Cocoa chips. Once again I thank Mr. Hickman and his family for allowing me to make a cake for such a momentous occasion.

Something new....Something small....Something easy??!

So have you ever seen something so cute? These are the new fad "Cake Pops". They are bite size cake in many shapes and colors. The one above is a wonderful creation from "Bakerella", she has been seen on Martha Stewart for her tasty and sight entising cake pops. More of her edible art can be seen on http://www.bakerella.com/ . Anyway I searched to find an easy recipe to try and trust me there were many to choose from, so the decision was a little harder than I had presumed. I eventually decided to just use the Wilton videos from Youtube and put my own twist to it. I decided to make chocolate pops. I started with my own homemade cake batter and used Nutella instead of frosting to form the shapes. I must say when I first shaped them they didn't look very appealing.

But I kept working on them I know in the end they were going to be one of two things, tasty or beautiful, and well by the looks of things I sure hope tasty! Well I have learned if you don't follow the instructions, everything they tell you it may NOT end well. My first mistake was the type of stick I used to make the pops. I did not take the time to purchase lollipop sticks, instead I decided to maintain my frugal-ness and use skewers. Well they don't hold up very well, the cake rounds just kinda slipped down the stick. It seemed that that was the begining of my issues. I had noting to hold up the pops after inserting the stick so that I could decorate them. Next mistake is marshmallo fluff! Well I did know that fluff doesn't harden like regular marshmallow. That was a mess trying to dip and watching it drip.

As you can see I tried to use a deep fryer pan to hold up the pops, this is when I learned the fall off the sticks for being too long. So I chopped down the sticks and dipped them in chocolate, my oh my did they look much better.I was afraid that the chocolate was not going to harden like I wanted them to but alas it looked much better, by the time I finished dipping the last pop the first one had already began to harden. This time I used some styrofoam that came from my new laptop box. Worked wonders for me. 

Well I got my icing, tried a couple different tips to decorate and went to work. I have to work on maintaing a steady hand but I guess I will learn that when I finally take a decorating class. Until then I will keep playing around to perfect my home made recipes. But I hope you like the photos below. I must say I knew they were tasty, shucks, pretty much anything made with Nutella is going to be good. But I am glad they came out just as beautiful.

In the end the recipe was quite easy but you must always follow directions and much easier if I had the correct tools.

Crafts

Well thanks to allfreesewing.com I am learing to sew(a little) and have been abke to do minor crafts through hand stitching. I currently own a Janome sewing machine and have been practicing the very basics. I leared how to break the machine down and clean it. I have learned how to properly thread it and can some what sew a straight line. The peddle is still a little tricky and I have to adjust the pressure of my foot depending on the type of shoe I am wearing at that time.
Now because i struggle with it and waiting to get into an evening or weekend sewing class to learn I am sticking with hand sewing. All Free Sewing has so man tutorials, patterns ideas, and ebooks for me to learn from. One of the videos I watched was very basic, it taught how to thread a needle, an easy way to knot the ends, I learned two basic hand stitches all with out a condesending tone from the teachers. I do not plan to be a clothing designer or anything, but i would like to be able to create from patterns, for my children. Or make a couple things for myself!

So the first thing I have tried was a fabric flower. I can use it as a brooch, a hair accessory or just simply add it to pretty much anything to add flair. They were extremely easy to make and can be any size for any project. Check out the photo, and tell me what you think.

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Retirement ceremony

Much appreciation to my, now retired, ITC Hickman for allowing me to be a part of one of the most honorable ceremonies of Navy traditions.

I was blessed to showcase my beggining baking skills and baked a delicious sheet cake. It was half strawberry and have cannoli cake, just like his farewell party. I sculpted to Navy covets, the dixie cap and the chief cover, and placed it on top the cake. I have only heard good reviews on my cake and aspire to only get better.

I was also given the honor of being a presenter during the ceremony. Althought it may not sound important, to me it is an honor to sit in the same area as the guest speaker, the retiree and the presiding officer. My job was simple hand the presiding officer and the command master chief the honors being awarded to either Chief or to his family.

It was also a great privilidge to meet his family and not be limited to small talk. Once again Chief if you are reading this thank you for all that you have done for me to keep my head above water and the maintain the joy of soon becoming a professional baker. You have a wonderful family and hope to work with you in the civilian world.

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Rice Krispies?

So this past weekend I decided to practice making and shaping Rice Krispies treats(RKT), for two reasons, I saw a cool R.K treat Easter egg and I thought my boys would love that and I need to know hold to scuplt for an important cake. Let first start by saying, before this weekend I had NEVER made a RKT, or had a home made one. I followed the directions, but it seemed way to sticky, so I added more cereal...still too sticky. I left it in the fridge thinking "oh it will be less sticky when it 'settles'! What was I thinking? When what settles? Its rice cereal, melted marshmallow and a tad bit of butter, there's nothibg to settle! So any way later that day I decided let me try to sculpt this hat. I am trying to scuplt two Navy covers, a dixie cup (the all white navy hat that the men wear ) and a Chiefs' cover. I never made it to the Chiefs' cover but I did learn that I need the treats to be a little sticky to shape and mold by hand. So I did what I could, dirty iced it and covered it with my homemade fondant. The picture is shown above, you tell me how bad it looks! Time to make it again this weekend! PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT (or at least better!) This picture was taken a day after it was made. By the way I learned my kids will eat anything because they ate the leftover RK with no hesitation.

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Farewell!!

This in not my good bye but a story of some one else whom has moved on in life. This is not a sad story, quite the contrary, but a wonderful story of a fun person. Since June of 2010, I have had the pleasure of working with R. Hickman, he was my supervisor, up until recently when he decided to retire from the Armed forces. He was an adventurous man with an abundance of wisdom, witty comments and loads of service stories. Through out my time working with him, I began to learn more about myself, as odd as that may sound. He helped me figure out what I really enjoyed in life and pushed me to start setting goals for my future. This includes my fickleness and all my joys, with all of this being said, I had decided to bake a cake for him and two others who were leaving my command. I decided to start simple, a strawberry cake, I figured every likes a little strawberry cake. Then I decided to think how can I show my appreciation for him and incorporate something different that he may like. I began to think of all the different places he had travelled to and the foods he said he liked. So I then decided to create a Cannoli Cake. Because I am not a professional baker I had to think how to make it look less like a home made cake and more presentable. In my mind I went over every picture i had seen of cakes and all the food network shows. Alas, thanks to Cake Boss, I decided to try and construct a 3 tier cake. When I finished I was so excited that it was completed but extremely nervous on the comments I would receive from my co-workers. To make it worse, every one is cutting back on sweets due to our semi annual fitness exam, so no one wanted to be the first to taste the cake. Finally someone decided to try it and once they said it taste great everyone else wanted a piece. I had also feared that I would have to take some back home but needless to say, left over cake was sparse. I am extremely proud to have made them (the persons leaving the command) happy and more so Mr. Hickman. I can't wait to take some classes and some go to culinary school. Check out the photos of the cake in my gallery.

What to make?

Because I enjoy making new food items, I am planning to make something for my office. Mostly everyone drinks coffee so i was thinking of baking a bread that pairs well with coffee but then I began thinking how can I make it my own. So currently I am planning to create cupcake with maybe a coffee cream cheese icing. If you have any ideas let me know. If you decide to do the same, take a picture and add it to the comments sections, make sure to add the name of the creation.

idea of icing came from:   http://www.crazyaboutcupckes.com/

First of Many

I am so excited to have created this blog. I enjoy doing so many things and love sharing it with others yet have no one to enjoy it with. I am a Sailor, a wife, a mother and well a hobbyist. I am not 'great' at any of the hobbies I start but intend to get better. Currently I dabble in the following:
-Card making
-Sewing (horrible at this, my own grandmother laughed because I could not sew a straight line for a pillow)
-Baking (desserts, not so much dinner, although I love to eat)
-Dancing
-Photography
-Modeling (I am creating a portfolio, I would love to be in a show)
and I own a motorcycle.

I must say my husband is a very loving and patient man, although he knows sometime I may not stick with a hobby he still lets me try it, like knitting.
I will be writing about any new recipes I try, new photos I take and display any new creations I make.