The Finale

Well here's my last cake of all! This fondant and gum paste class was definitely my toughest one, but I had so much fun! I'm, not sure if you can see the board the cake is sitting on, but it is covered with white fondant and I rolled in onto a stamp that had flowers and vines all over. Definitely want to get some of those stamp pads!

Here are the other two cakes of my classmates. They did a great job too! The one with brown lilies was not finished yet, but she let me snap a shot of it anyway. You can see better on the purple base the design that I did on mine. I loved her purple roses, she did a great job.

We all laughed and joked every class day and really enjoyed each other and always helped the one who was having an 'off' day.We all exchanged emails and numbers so we can keep in touch.

Happy Birthday Dustin!

Happy Birthday Dustin! We are now both the same age! I'm a cougar and he likes older women, so it all works out. Just kidding- I'm totally not a cougar....

I love birthdays, and I loved preparing for Dustin's this year. I love you Dustin, I'm so grateful that you are all mine and I am all yours!

We just sang happy birthday, and here's Dustin's reaction to his cake! I loved it!

I forgot to buy candles the day of the party, so all I had to offer were some tealights. They're kinda outdoors-y to go along with the cake theme, right?

I made a mexican feast for dinner- homemade enchiladas, lime rice, pico de gallo, and some spicy dip recipe with ranch mix and cilantro( a Cafe Rio recipe). It was so great! We had my parents, and Kyle and Keisha over to celebrate.

A few views of Dustin's birthday cake. This was my first attempt to cover a cake with fondant- we have not learned that yet in class- and boy was it difficult! The top tier looked so hideous and bumpy I put all the tootsie rolls around it to look like tree trunks. I tried so hard to make it look like camouflage, but that didn't really work out either! But in the end it came out pretty cute. It was chocolate cake with homemade dark chocolate frosting.

Mom helped me out with ideas of what camping scene I could make. She thought of the tootsie roll logs and making a fire. She got me thinking of what to do! I forgot I had a little bag of leaf shaped sprinkles that I happened to find at the last minute; they worked out perfect!

My favorite part are the gummy bears in the tent.

Here are the flowers I learned in class. I also learned how to make a bow, but my first one didn't really turn out very well, so I'm not showing it.

I'm so excited that I have learned so much in my classes. My last one is next week! I actually need to get my rear in gear and think of my final cake design. I hope I will be able to increase my talent in cake design and share it with others- that would be a nerve racking job I'm sure, but I think it will be great fun.

Happy Halloween

We bought our pumpkin two days before Halloween, not sure why, but we did. So on Halloween afternoon we decided to carve it! While I cut a top and started marking the outline of our design, Dustin made me a grass ring. aww...

Our scary werewolf!

We took turns carving and look how we did!! Awesome huh?!

We played a few rounds of Yahtzee while we waited for the treaters to come around ( I totally kicked Dustin's rear for three rounds!), made some burgers on the Foreman and laughed about past Halloween outfits and stories. Only 5 trick or treaters came to our house. So depressing! They said hardly anyone was out, and no one was giving out candy either. But all said they loved our pumpkin! Now we are stuck with a ton of candy...anyone want to do some late trick or treating?

Monster Mash 10K

Yesterday Dustin and I did the Monster Mash 10K race (6.2 miles) at the Sam Houston Race Park where they have horse and greyhound races. We've been wanting to go watch one of those races, but just haven't done so. Well we got our first peek of the raceway and the building with its many stations to place your 'wager'. Not bet. Wager. Sounds better I guess.

Anyways, we didn't race on the track; the start and finish line was right outside the front doors of the arena. We said good lucks and goodbyes as the race started and we both promised each other we would burn some rubber!

Well, we didn't burn rubber, we incinerated it!! I came first place at 47:13 in the Female 24-29 and Dustin came in second place at 40:53 in the Male 24-29!! Dustin's time was only 15 seconds off from the first place winner. He was so close! Both our finish times were some of the best we've ever had! I know mine was!

These are our Frankenstein awards!! They fit perfectly with our bobble-head Franken-soap dispenser.

Our pictures were taken during the race, and getting our awards, so when those are posted online I'll put them here.

Our Halloween scary faces.

It was a super fun morning, and believe it or not, that was our first race we've done together! Crazy!! We have never actually done one together due to one of us always being unable to race for whatever reason. We are definitely doing more races together! It was our perfect date we decided.

We ran our hardest and felt like puking after crossing the finish line, but it was oh so fun! The weather was cold, but the sun warmth came out after the race and warmed us up a tiny bit in time for the awards ceremony.

We are definitely doing this race next year again! You can dress up everyone and even run with your stroller. There were tons of little kids and adults in awesome costumes.

Final Cake #2

These are all the flowers I learned in this Flowers and Cake Design course. Today we also learned the basket weave technique..but I don't have anything to show with that right now.

Here is my final cake! I decided to make a cream cheese frosting to go with the red velvet cake, but the frosting did NOT want to smooth out, so I tried to cover as much as possible with flowers- hence the full sides. I told Dustin all the wrinkles made me think of an old person's bottom. Not that I look at old people's bottoms though....

Overall though I am pretty pleased with my apple blossom tree cake! I had to make 126 of those little flowers...my hand was killing me by the end of the couple-day-long process.

Monday I start my Fondant and Gum Paste class! More pictures then!

10 for Texas

Last Saturday I ran the 10 miler race in The Woodlands with my great friend Whitney. It was absolutely the funnest thing I've done in a long time!! I'm so glad I went, and that I had an awesome running partner that I got to train with and run with the whole race! My parents and Kyle and Keisha came and surprised me at the curve right before the finish line and cheered me through! I was so excited to see them, I think that's why I look a little goofy in the finish line pictures. I was so insanely excited that I finished in a great time (1:25:21 and I think like 114 out of 2000 in the race), that the race was done, that I felt great, and that I just saw my family. I'm still on a bit of a high from it all and am looking forward to the next race. Dustin signed us up for the Houston Monster Mash 5K and 10K. We'll do the 10K! After that, perhaps the half marathon in Galveston next month...

Keisha took some pictures of Whitney and I with my mom's phone, so as soon as we figure out if we can get those onto a computer, they will be here!

Home after it all

This was right at the last mile coming back.

Goofy finish line. I felt like a sunburst was about to go through my chest. I really couldn't help this silly laughing and excitement that came over me...

Who's up for a race?!

Les fleur

Today we learned rosebuds(which I have to practice on a ton!), Primrose- the bigger flowers, and cherry blossoms. All were difficult, but the more I practiced at home, the more I got the hang of it. Next week we'll be learning daffodils, lilies, and a different kind of rose since our first class. These are all done in royal icing- much better than the gross, greasy buttercream! I'm already needing to think of ideas for our final cake in 2 weeks! Any ideas?

First Flowers

Here they are! They are made out of a combination of gum paste and fondant. Pansy on the left Button Flower on the right. The Button flower I didn't do too hot on, cuz I was supposed to press down to get more of a pattern on the petals (you can see a few stripes and dots, but very lightly). I think those were supposed to be the easiest too! Haha. I am fond of my pansy though. I think it turned out pretty. It was actually more purple than blue when I made it, but the sun in my car faded the color a bit. We also learned how to make royal icing which will be used to make our flowers next week. I'm way excited that I'm learning about gum paste and fondant! I can do so many different moldings; the possibilities are endless. It's all super fun to do too.

I'm not sure what I will do with the talent when I'm finished with all three classes.... other than using it on my family and friends. It would be cool though to earn some moolah if the opportunity came along to design cakes in a bakery or out of my own home.