Is this still on?

Well kids, I’ve really let you down this week, haven’t I?  I guess that’s the price I pay for having some actual business!  I had an order for a cheesecake (New York style) for Valentines day.  Cheesecakes are great because they are relatively easy to make.  It’s the decorating that takes a while.  I decorated this one on Monday night while my niece Amanda was here visiting.  She and I talked while I piped whipped cream and made white chocolate hearts.  I strategically placed a strawberry on top of every whipped cream spiral.  She then had the dubious honor of witnessing the final decorating fete – where I attempted to insert a delicate white chocolate heart into the top of each of the strawberries.  After some salty language and a few failed attempts, I mastered the technique, to rousing applause (which was completely in my mind).

The gentleman at work who ordered it reported in that his wife and everyone in his family loved it.  Success!

Last night I was busy making a cake for a baby shower we held at work today.  I didn’t take a photo of it because I’m not promoting the fact that I sometimes break down and do something ‘theme-like’.  More on that in a minute.  This cake was constructed of golden butter cake and strawberry mousse filling with fresh strawberries ,and was crowned with white chocolate buttercream frosting.  (I’ll confess that I’m not a big white chocolate fan, but it’s not too bad when you mix it with cream cheese and butter! Ha!)

The frosting was a bit ivory in color so I used that as my base color.  I tinted (cringe) some frosting to pink and blue and used that to write the inscriptions. We have 3 babies coming into the lives of folks in our department – one woman is having a girl and one of the guys’ wives is having twins – boy and girl.  So I used tinted icing sparingly – just enough to get the message across that this is a baby shower cake.  I really do need to work on how I might satisfy that request should I receive one again.  I guess I should just tell people that I’m very minimalist when it comes to decorations.  Quel dilemma.

So that’s it for now.  Well – that’s not it, completely.  I’m still working behind the scenes to get the administrative side of the business going, but that kind of stuff is boring. (As if this stuff I’ve just typed isn’t boring!)  One exciting thing – I got word from the state of Ohio that I have dibs on the business name “Buttercream” for the next 10 years!  Hah!