Busy, Busy, Busy

Oh my. Somehow it has been over two whole weeks since my last post! Sorry, dear readers, for giving you the short end of the stick. My excuses would be "wedding cake" and "garden".

Friends of ours were married last weekend, and needed a custom wedding cake (completely lactose free). I had made the wedding cakes for both of the groom's sisters, so even though I had "vowed and declared" I wasn't making any more wedding cakes, I didn't feel right turning this couple down (not to mention we love the groom's parents!).

I made and froze each cake (6 total) ahead of time, working here and there as I had a chunk of time. Then the weekend of I had to transport everything 2 1/2 hours away to assemble and decorate. My sister lives about 5 minutes from where the wedding was being held, and graciously allowed me to invade her kitchen and dining room for a couple days. I don't know if it was just experience or that this frosting had no butter in it, but the cake iced and decorated easily and beautifully.


The actual decorations on the cake were simple - (real) ribbon around the bottom of each tier with a bead border on the top and bottom. The white hydrangeas and roses with their green leaves finished it off. I think this is my favorite finished product yet. Simple yet so elegant. Even though I cut and put the flowers on the cake RIGHT before the wedding, they still wilted to about 1/2 their size by the time the reception started. The flowers originally FILLED the space between each tier. If I work with real hydrangeas again, I will get some of those little stem vases, I think, so they will hold their full look longer.


The weeks leading up to the wedding I had to let go of everything but the bare minimum in the garden. Weeds have grown into jungles that I still haven't gotten around to taming. The green beans were getting going good right before I left. Ugh, it was hard to need to pick and process green beans AND need to get everything packed and ready to go all in the same 24 hour period. I ended up not being able to do anything with the tomatoes, even though there were several ripe and ready. I picked them hurriedly right before I left and shoved them in the refrigerator. I did get a picture of a couple of them - they are gorgeous :)


If I remember right, these are the Big Beef variety. I grew them just because I found the seed packet marked down to $.25 and figured "why not". But I LOVE these tomatoes! They have a beautiful, round shape, they are nice in size (see that almost 4" tomato?!) and relatively meaty inside. I like a big tomato for sandwiches, but many of the "big" varieties are very juicy and end up all bulbous and weird shaped. I think this is a variety I will grow again. So far I have canned 5 pints of plain, diced tomato (peeled and seeded).

My first green bean picking after the wedding weekend yielded about 5 gallons of beans! It took me an entire morning to pick - and of course that included breaks for meeting Susannah's needs. I wasn't sure how I was going to get all of those beans done, and then my MIL offered to snap them for me Wednesday evening while we were at church! I was so very grateful for her help. Since then I've picked about 1 1/2 gal, the beans are winding down pretty quickly. If history repeats itself, though, they should produce a second round if I leave them in the ground. I would like to get more beans, so I'm hoping this will happen.

Susannah just woke up so I need to go get some breakfast for her. Hopefully I will post again before 2 weeks go past again.

Lesson Time!

I doubt many single women read my blog, but this could apply to any situation, really, and not just weddings.

I just found out today, Tuesday, that I am NOT supposed to make 100-ish cupcakes and a birthday cake for a girl's wedding on Saturday. Today is Tuesday, wedding is Saturday - that is a whole THREE days from now.

Matilda* called me back around the beginning of March and we talked and she wanted me to make about 100 cupcakes in 3 different flavors (30-some each flavor) for her wedding May 2nd. She also wanted me to make a small birthday cake for her nephew who's birthday is the same day. We figured out what 3 flavors she wanted, how to decorate the birthday cake, all that stuff. I got her phone number, she had mine, and that was all good.

The only other information we needed to exchange was the final count of cupcakes she needed, and I needed to give her a final total for the bill.

I was thinking... ok, final headcount should be in mid-April, she should be calling me soon. I kept this all in the back of my head the whole time we were getting ready to show our house but I really didn't have time to call her. The middle of last week I started calling the number she gave me. I only ever got an answering machine.

The first message was all nice and stuff "Hi, this is Miriam, I'm just calling about the cupcakes for your wedding, to get the final count and to let you know the price, call me back at XXXXXXX, thanks! :) ".

Two days go by and I haven't heard anything. I tried again. This time it was something like "Hi, I'm trying to get in touch with Matilda about the cupcakes for her wedding. I really need to talk to her, if she could please call me back at...."

Still zero in the "hearing from her department". Yesterday I called and really, really stated the importance of getting in touch with Matilda. (You guessed it, the answering machine was one with the prerecorded "We're sorry, but the person you have dialed is unavailable"... so I really didn't even have any clue who's answering machine this number was connected to!)

Today, I called and said "I MUST get in touch with Matilda as soon as possible....". Then I started trying other avenues. I called the place I used to work a long time ago, I thought this girl was the niece of a lady that used to work there. I got the lady's number and called her - she doesn't have a niece named Matilda and doesn't know anyone named Matilda. Great. Now what. I'm sitting her racking my brain, trying to decide what to do.

Do I make the 100 cupcakes and show up with them and charge double? Do I not make cupcakes and her wind up not having any cake for the guests? Do I not make the cupcakes and still charge double?

Then I remembered that Matilda had mentioned knowing Daniel's aunt in some round about fashion. So I call her and get her answering machine. I left probably the weirdest sounding message ever, out of desperation trying to get a phone number for someone I wasn't even sure she knew!

Then I called my Mother-in-law to see if she had another # for Daniel's aunt. She didn't, but she did give me the number for the man that owns the farm where the wedding is being held. I called there and left another crazy-sounding-person message.

Then Daniel's aunt called me back. She had no idea who Matilda might be and didn't even know anyone by that name. But she knew the niece of the man who owns the farm that had the rat that ate the cheese that was in the house that Jack built. (sorry, I had to find humor in here somewhere! :P ), so she was going to call her and see if she knew anything. Auntie called me back with the phone number of the lady catering all the other food.

FINALLY! I might be getting somewhere! I called the lady up and told her who I was and that I was trying to get in touch with Matilda about making the cupcakes. I promise you, I heard her jaw hit the floor, the blood rush to her face and her temperature rise! As it turns out, Matilda has been driving everyone crazy with lack of responsibility. Matilda's husband-to-be works for a local bakery that is supplying all the cake stuff for free. The caterer said she asked Matilda TWICE if she'd called to let me know that I didn't need to make anything, and Matilda assured her that she'd called and left a message for me.

I never got any message. Matilda never called to make sure I got the message. I never had any clue, idea, one iota of any hint, that Matilda cancelled the order. I assured the caterer that I hadn't bought anything (thus my frantic-ness trying to get ahold of Matilda so I could know how much stuff to buy!) and that I hadn't made anything, and that it was not a problem, but yes it would have been nice to know sooner. (The poor caterer was embarrassed out of her skin to have to tell me, frustrated at the bride for not having told me, and so on.)

So, lesson to anyone out there that orders anything:
-Leave correct phone numberS for where you can be reached. I don't know who's number I had, but it obviously wasn't one where Matilda was! (I'd called her other times at that number, so I don't know what the deal was.) Either that or she ignored my messages.
- If you call and leave a message cancelling your order, call back again until you speak with a live person to verify that your message was received.

Now all I have to do is figure out what I'm gonna do Thursday and Friday now that I won't be elbow deep in cupcakes and icing :) Yippeee!! Maybe I'll go hire on with The Wedding Crashers.

*name changed to prevent her from further embarrassment.

And PS: I have seen the cakes that the "local bakery" does - they look like something a 5 year old decorated, and I'm sure they taste even worse. Her guests would be happier eating mine, I know. And I'm not joking or puffing up the quality of my work. I'm being totally serious.

Picture Catch-Up

Here's a bunch of pictures that I've been wanting to share but didn't take the time. I decided tonight was a good night to post them since I didn't have anything else great and profound to share :)

Remember the 8" of snow we got the beginning of March? I was very glad to have these. Good ol' knee-high Tingly rubber boots.

Here is our 5th Wedding Anniversary Meal: Meatballs, Rolls and Chocolate Fondue :) We used the Hershey's Kiss fondue pot that Rachel gave me for my birthday last year. Let's see, clockwise from the fondue: Marshmallows & Banana, Rolls, Angel Food Cake (with blue sprinkles since our wedding color was blue), Meatballs, Strawberries & Pineapple. Yummy. And a belly-ache.

In my deep cleaning, I found this: A Tupperware sandwich container holding my precious Lego pieces. Click on the picture if you can't read all the warnings that I wrote on the lid in grease marker (anybody remember those? Do they still sell them?)

Here is one of the main reasons I have sworn off ever making another wedding cake. I was up till about 1:45 in the morning making the replacement for this cracked up dude. You may notice that I was using an oven rack as a cooling rack - compare the cake size to the oven rack. It was a big cake. It took lots of flour and sugar. It was not fun to have to mix up another one.

A day later, the finale of my wedding cake making. Lucy (my sister) has agreed to cherry pies instead of cake. Shew, at least 1 less sibling that I'll end up making or helping to make their wedding cake whenever they get married.

One of the reasons I DO like the spring time change. On normal days, we have to get up before the sun rises which means I got to see this one the other day. You can't see it very well in this small picture, but there was a huge sunbeam shooting straight up from the sun ball. This is what I see out my kitchen sink window :) If we end up moving to town or the city, I will miss this view.
Here's what happens to Murphy when he comes visiting. He gets drop-kicked off the back steps. Murphy tried to move in under the guise of our water heater springing a leak (thankfully not a huge one so nothing was damaged and we didn't have to replace it RIGHT NOW). Daniel, in all of his manly testosterone-ness, wanted to drop it off the steps - and wanted pictures to capture the moment :) Please pretend you don't see all the other stuff that has been drop-kicked off the back steps. It will be gone next time you see a picture of the back door. I promise. We are in the midst of remodelling. Have some mercy. Empty boxes and storm doors have to go somewhere!

Daniel had a birthday! He helped fry the Country Fried Steak. I like it when he wears that shirt ;) I like seeing his big, manly muscles ;) It makes me feel very mushy inside.

Here is our low, low, low cholesterol birthday dinner. Salads (sorry, the color is terrible), sausage gravy, country fried steak, corn muffins, biscuits, salad dressing, honey and butter. I had a stomach ache later that night from all the grease. I wonder why. I think it was worth it, though. It was SO good.
And yet another beautiful sunrise. This one was Wednesday morning. Daniel rolled over to turn off the alarm clock and said "Miriam, you've gotta see the sunrise!". I crawled over him and looked out the window, then ran to the kitchen to take this picture. I didn't even crawl back in bed after this. I wanted to but didn't. Aren't you proud of me? I had to stay up and figure out my grocery plan. It was very important. That and pay bills.

Goodnight :) Thanks for visiting. And all you gals that have been "lurking" for the past while and recently left me your first comments? Thanks for de-lurking:) I love getting to know my readers. Any of you that are still lurking? Please feel free to de-lurk and let me know what your thoughts are. I love comments!

Time for a break??

I dunno. I might just give up blogging for a day or two. I'm so tired.

I've gone somewhere EVERY.DAY.THIS.WEEK. Today I haven't been anywhere, thank goodness.

When I get back, I will show you why I'm giving up the wedding cake business.

It looks something like:
A cake that broke into 5 pieces while it was cooling.
Staying up till 1:45am to bake the replacement cake.
Not being awake enough to remember to let it cool a whole 10 minutes before dumping it out of the pan (maybe it was 5? I don't remember), and it started to break.
Dashing into the bedroom to roust Daniel from his very deep sleep so he could help me flip the cake back into the pan so hopefully it would "heal". ha ha.
Going to bed and falling asleep.
Hearing "clatter clatter" in my sleep and thinking "oh, the bread machine cut on".
Hearing more clattering, and realizing that I wasn't even MAKING BREAD.
Hearing clattering some more, and really waking up and knowing that we'd caught the mouse that decided to move in.
Waking Daniel up AGAIN so we (he) could dispose of the mouse before it ran off with the trap and died, got stuck under the frige or whatever. I'm not afraid of a dead mouse, but I don't care for a mouse that's caught and still alive.
Going back to sleep at 2:30 after disposing of the rodent. (Note: we have never had rodent troubles before in this house. This is not a regular occurrence!)
Working on the cake all day today - and it's going pretty well. I'm just completely shot. To the point that I'm tempted to skip the wedding if I'm still this tired tomorrow. I think the week has caught up with me.

I think I deserve a break. I'll see y'all sometime. I know I won't be able to stay away forever.

Cake

It is as done as it gets for tonight. Tomorrow morning (EARLY) ... well, this morning since it's after midnight, we get to carefully drive it to church and set it up, where I will put the finishing touches on it.

Everything went great after I got the new icing mixed up. Thanks for hangin' in there with me! LOL.

Now I must get a few more things done really quick before hauling off to bed, as we have a VERY busy day ahead of us tomorrow.

Venting:

Plug your ears if you don't want to hear this one.

WHY CAN'T MY CAKES EVER GO TOGETHER SMOOTHLY?

The cakes turned out fine. The icing smells wonderful, but just doesn't "feel" right, and wants to sag off the cake, almost like it's too soft. I'm about to the point of scraping the cakes off, throwing out that batch of frosting and making a new batch.

I'm seriously considering throwing in the towel with making cakes for people. This is a SIMPLE cake. It's even SMALL. Why, why, why, why why? I know I CAN do this, because I DO do this. Why can it never be right the first time? They taste great! But the process between the mixing/baking and the beautification is insane. Maybe I can just require everyone to wear blindfolds to the reception tomorrow so they don't see a dumpy looking cake, and only taste how absolutely DELISH I KNOW it is? Why do wedding cakes have to be perfect anyway?

I swan, next time I get married (ok, just kidding!!!!) I will have brownies, or cupcakes, or Krispie Kreme donuts... maybe even just chocolate chip cookies and ice cream. I think that is a splendid idea, don't you? (hint hint to anybody thinking about getting married out there!) There is no earthly way that you can pay me or anybody else what it is worth in time and stress to create a beautiful cake worthy of your wedding day. Ok, so maybe like a billion dollars might work.

Allright, I will go make a decision. And remember - you hired me to do this knowing that I was not a pro, so if you don't get pro-like results... well, at least it TASTES better than "pro".

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Update: Tada! Guess what? I decided to scrape the icing off and start over. Daniel called while he was in WalMart picking up a dowel rod (for the cake that I forgot I was out of), and he was able to pick up some more 10x sugar and shortening. As if everything else wasn't enough:

My beaters broke!!

Thankfully, I had a stand mixer in the cupboard that I never use b/c it doesn't have a turntable for the bowl to sit on. I was going to have to use it anyway. I got it out, went to use it, and lo and behold - the head DOES come off! Voila!! Now my NEW icing is all mixed up, a MUCH better texture - I'm still clueless about the other batch, it was not "like itself" at all. Oh well, now I have 5 batches of yummy, almond/vanilla flavored buttercream icing to freeze and figure out something to do with! Maybe we'll have lots of carry ins that I can take cupcakes to.

Now I'm hoping that this icing will go on super-duper smooth and easy and effortlessly like it's supposed to, and I can be done in another hour or so. Wish me luck!!

The Wedding Cake

I made the wedding cake for a good friend of Daniel's wedding this past Saturday. It was alot of hard work to begin with, and then it seemed nothing was going right.


My thought Friday while I was decorating the cake: I have never prayed over my own-made food as hard as I am now!


Thursday when I went to make the cakes I realized that I had loaned out my round cake pan set, and it was 2 hours away. I had the wrong Egg Beaters stuff for making the white cake. So Thursday I made 2 trips to 2 different stores to finally get my day going in the right direction.


Friday, I had to transport all 6 cakes to the reception hall 2 hours from my house. I had not put any of the cakes together, I was going to do it all there. One of the 8" cakes split into 3 pieces en route. When I was putting it together with the caramel filling, it kept wanting to slide apart. It took much doings to get it to stay together. THAT's when all the praying started!

Then I ran out of frosting. I was sure I'd made enough, but I obviously had NOT. I had 2 cakes done and a 3rd one waiting to be done. Thankfully my sister who lived in the area was able to bring me more ingredients to make more icing! I couldn't leave the reception place because the door would lock behind me and I wouldn't be able to get back in.


It all turned out beautifully, and here are a few pictures to show you :) I'm convinced that there were two invisible Hands holding the top layer together, because you would never know that it was broken in pieces from looking at the outside.

And just an up close of the details: