That Darned Class So in our last episode I explained the evil Wilton ways, and vowed to revolt against mediocre ingredients. Well, this weekend I reluctantly but dutifully submitted and made said boxed cake mix and frosted it with said evil Crisco frosting – which we were supposed to color using, of course, Wilton icing coloring. (After doing so, I had bits of purple and green Crisco on almost every surface in my kitchen.) Then I packed it up, along with the 2 boxes of equipment we were told to bring, and schlepped it off (in the pouring rain, no less) to the next session. We proceeded to spend 7/8 of the class practicing decorating strokes with our piping bags on a board using various tips. We then spent 1/8 of the class decorating our cakes. Of course we did not finish before we were kicked out by the Joann folks (Store closes in 5 minutes). So now I have a semi-decorated cake, for which I have lost all enthusiasm. Here it is:
Now notice that the base frosting is not smooth. That's because I used the old paper towel trick our instructor told us about. You take a paper towel and put it on top of the iced cake and smooth it with your hand to make the frosting smooth out. What she failed to mention is that it you shouldn't use paper towels with any sort of pattern. *sigh*
Cyber-Fabulous Earlier this week I met with a guy at work who does website design work on the side. I showed him baking sites that appeal to me visually and gave him a storyboard (a technical term…ahem) with my ideas and sent him off to design me a website. I am aquiver with anticipation. After all, when you’re ‘on the web’ you’re somebody….. right?
Work with me Baby I have another co-worker who takes amazing photographs…so I enlisted his tutelage regarding my photography needs....because the cakes I feature on my website need to look fabulous, right? That's what will make people want to pay me money to have one. So he actually took the time to come up with a hand-out of tips for me, played with my camera to help me figure out how best to use it, and offered continuing consultation services!! Weeeeeeee! I’ll be baking for that man and his family…let me tellya! Whatever he wants. Now I just need to practice my photog skills and get a tripod. (Although Dave would say I already have one. Hee hee.)
Chocolate!! When you bake professionally you have to have supplies. You can’t run to the grocery store every time someone needs a cake. It just isn’t cost-effective. So, I’ve been doing a little research on suppliers and decided to order bulk chocolate over the internet. Alas, yesterday 50 lbs of Callebaut chocolate were delivered to my doorstep!! I ordered 3 kinds – bittersweet, unsweetened and white chocolate. I figured I saved about about 28% over supermarket cost by ordering in bulk....which is one benefit. The other major bene being that I now have the satisfaction of knowing that my PMS cravings can be sated with a quick jog to the basement!! (I have a mental image of Dave discovering a PMS-ravaged Lindi sitting on the floor in the dark in the basement with a 22 lb bag of chocolate spilled all over, a mouthful of chocolate pellets and melted chocolate goodness smeared all over my guilty face.)
So you see, I’ve been terribly busy trying to bring more structure and formality to this thing I call my little business. Believe me, I’ve felt guilty every night about not blogging more frequently. I promise to be better next week.
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