This weekend I went to Jacksonville to hang out with Amy and her family. It was a really fun, relaxing trip.
It didn't start off so relaxing though. Amy always has great baking ambitions, and wouldn't you know, they would be even higher for her neice's 2nd birthday, which we were celebrating with her family on Saturday. Amy decided we were making Pupcakes.
Now, I don't even like decorating cookies. I don't even like icing things. My favorite cookies are oatmeal (no icing) and my favorite cake to make is a butterscotch one that has chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, and nuts on top - no icing! Icing just seems like a pain. And if you do it too quickly after the cake comes out of the oven, the cake crumbles and gets all stuck in the icing. And Lord knows, I am not one gifted with patience! ;) So icing in general = pain. Icing in designs, or writing, or intricate details seems like about the most stressful thing that could be done. I did not come from a family that decorated Christmas cookies or had icing on hand in the kitchen. I don't think I learned to make icing until I was about 24. I don't recall ever using food coloring growing up, yet we always seemed to have it in the pantry, so it must have been used at least once. Recently, I wrote simple words on some special-bachelorette-party-shaped cakes for a friend's bachelorette party and I had to have Amy help me and convince me that maybe, just maybe, I too could force the icing to do my bidding and come out of the special little v-shaped bag with the right thickness and speed.
Anyway, so back to Friday - Amy decided to make Pupcakes for her niece's birthday because her niece loves puppies. So there I am, hanging around the kitchen with Amy and her mom and they are hard at work on Pupcake #1 - a dalmation. Amy spends probably about 45 minutes on the thing, while her mom rolls out starbursts to make the tongue and helps out in some other ways. I'm nervously keeping my distance, anxiety rising over the thought of icing desserts. Amy completes the dalmation, and her mom is taking pictures - documenting the process, and now documenting the first completed work of art. I turn my attention for a second, and then I hear shrieking. I turn back to the kitchen, and the dalmation has died! Crashed to the floor during its photo shoot! Forty-five minutes and a perfect puppy tragically lost!
This is my EXACT fear with icing things - they are so fragile! Cut out cookies... seriously? Half of the damn things break when you pick them up to just start icing them!
After we all recovered from the tragic loss of puppy #1, the pupcake creation went on without a hitch. We ended up making 11 pupcakes (not counting the one that died), see picture above! They turned out to be very cute, and Amy's niece LOVED them. I even made 3 chihuahuas and 1 dachshund! They by far the easiest ones, which is why I mustered the courage to attempt them. And they turned out alright! I left the more complicated ones to Amy, but I think now my sense of icing adventures has been bolstered, and I might even attempt a cute, well-decorated baking project in the future!
The rest of the weekend was fortunately not as dramatic. ;) We enjoyed the awesome, sunny, warm Florida weather. We even got some color while not even being outside for too long (my left arm still resembles a lobster and is now under a wool sweater - not comfortable!). I got to meet Amy's brothers, which was really fun. After leaving at the end of the weekend, I felt like I'd known them a lot longer than just a couple of days. We also had lots of good food and good wine, pretty much my favorite things. :)
It didn't start off so relaxing though. Amy always has great baking ambitions, and wouldn't you know, they would be even higher for her neice's 2nd birthday, which we were celebrating with her family on Saturday. Amy decided we were making Pupcakes.
Now, I don't even like decorating cookies. I don't even like icing things. My favorite cookies are oatmeal (no icing) and my favorite cake to make is a butterscotch one that has chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, and nuts on top - no icing! Icing just seems like a pain. And if you do it too quickly after the cake comes out of the oven, the cake crumbles and gets all stuck in the icing. And Lord knows, I am not one gifted with patience! ;) So icing in general = pain. Icing in designs, or writing, or intricate details seems like about the most stressful thing that could be done. I did not come from a family that decorated Christmas cookies or had icing on hand in the kitchen. I don't think I learned to make icing until I was about 24. I don't recall ever using food coloring growing up, yet we always seemed to have it in the pantry, so it must have been used at least once. Recently, I wrote simple words on some special-bachelorette-party-shaped cakes for a friend's bachelorette party and I had to have Amy help me and convince me that maybe, just maybe, I too could force the icing to do my bidding and come out of the special little v-shaped bag with the right thickness and speed.
Anyway, so back to Friday - Amy decided to make Pupcakes for her niece's birthday because her niece loves puppies. So there I am, hanging around the kitchen with Amy and her mom and they are hard at work on Pupcake #1 - a dalmation. Amy spends probably about 45 minutes on the thing, while her mom rolls out starbursts to make the tongue and helps out in some other ways. I'm nervously keeping my distance, anxiety rising over the thought of icing desserts. Amy completes the dalmation, and her mom is taking pictures - documenting the process, and now documenting the first completed work of art. I turn my attention for a second, and then I hear shrieking. I turn back to the kitchen, and the dalmation has died! Crashed to the floor during its photo shoot! Forty-five minutes and a perfect puppy tragically lost!
This is my EXACT fear with icing things - they are so fragile! Cut out cookies... seriously? Half of the damn things break when you pick them up to just start icing them!
After we all recovered from the tragic loss of puppy #1, the pupcake creation went on without a hitch. We ended up making 11 pupcakes (not counting the one that died), see picture above! They turned out to be very cute, and Amy's niece LOVED them. I even made 3 chihuahuas and 1 dachshund! They by far the easiest ones, which is why I mustered the courage to attempt them. And they turned out alright! I left the more complicated ones to Amy, but I think now my sense of icing adventures has been bolstered, and I might even attempt a cute, well-decorated baking project in the future!
The rest of the weekend was fortunately not as dramatic. ;) We enjoyed the awesome, sunny, warm Florida weather. We even got some color while not even being outside for too long (my left arm still resembles a lobster and is now under a wool sweater - not comfortable!). I got to meet Amy's brothers, which was really fun. After leaving at the end of the weekend, I felt like I'd known them a lot longer than just a couple of days. We also had lots of good food and good wine, pretty much my favorite things. :)
2 comments:
"come out of the special little v-shaped bag" hahahah. Isn't it called a.... frosting bag thing? Aww, crap, I forgot - I'm a guy.
those look WAY too difficult! but way to go tera!
and yes adam - you're a guy, you definitely lose man points for knowing about frosting bags!
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