I finished up my last class the other night. Here is a picture of my final cake.

My cake was a hit, those that had a piece were impressed. It was a cherry/chocolate checkerboard cake covered in butter cream and chocolate fondant.

A part of me is a little sad that the classes are over, I suppose I’ll have to do a little research to see if there is another class/course I can take to keep from getting rusty. Maybe even look into becoming a Wilton Instructor and doing that part time.

After much thought and consideration, I think I will have to revamp this website/blog.  The name itself no longer suits me, as it was derived from an avitar I played in an online game I no longer play. Well the express part seems to fit, but I am not sure if I will continue to use that in the new name or domain name. I also want to create another website just to showcase the custom cakes that I make, and to help promote my future business.

So far nothing is set in stone, names have not been decided. Right now it’s a work in progress. But as soon as I come up with a few ideas and decide on the final product, I will come back and share that with you.

Speaking of this website… I have been tracking the stats for this site for almost 2 years now. According to those stats, the top 3 countries that visit my blog are the USA, Canada, and China… The most uploaded picture is this one shown here————->

This is probably the shortest entry to date… But I have to start prepping for my Cake Decorating class for tomorrow, that’s what happens when you procrastinate.

I would like to take a moment and share another recipe with you. Without any further delay, here is the recipe for homemade Marshmallow Fondant.

Ingredients Needed:

1 pound of mini marshmallows, 2 pounds of icing sugar, 1/2 cup of vegetable shortning, and 2-5 Tbl spoons of water.

Directions:

Melt marshmallows and 2Tbl spoons of water in a microwave or double boiler… Put the bowl in the microwave for 30 seconds then take out and stir…Place back in the microwave for 30 seconds, take out and stir…Continue doing this until mixture is completely melted…This usually takes about 2 1/2 minutes.

Place 3/4 of icing sugar on top of the melted marshmallow mix

Generously grease your hands, (the back, the front, and between your fingers) with the shortning… Heavily grease your work surface, (counter top or table)…Take the mixture out of the bowl and place in the middle of your work surface. Cover what is left in the bowl with a damp cloth.

Start kneading the marshmallow/sugar mixture as you would knead bread dough. The mixture will be very sticky at this point, just keep kneading… Re-grease your hands and work surface as needed and add the remaining mixture if there is any and continue to knead that with the rest of the mixture.

Now if you find that the mixture is tearing easily, it is too dry so add 1/2 Tbl spoon of water at a time and knead it in. It may take about 8 minutes to get a smooth ball that will stretch with out tearing when you apply it to your cake.

If there are bits of icy dry sugar, add a few drops of water and knead… Otherwise double wrap your fondant in plastic wrap and it will be ready to use the next day. However, your fondant can be used immediately.

This can be stored for several weeks in the fridge as long as it is greased before it is wrapped in plastic wrap. Feel free to add color to your fondant.

While we are on the topic of Fondant, I have a few tips to share with you. First, the Wilton Fondant will save you the 8 minutes of kneading, but on the other hand it tastes terrible. Duff’s Fondant comes already colored and has a nice taste to it as well, and you’ll pay a little extra for those perks. But this home made Marshmallow Fondant tastes the best and is price friendlier that Wilton’s or Duff’s.

I just thought I’d take a moment to share a few pictures of the cake I decorated the other night.  A definite improvement from the last few cakes that I decorated.

I apologize for the poor quality of these pictures, they were taken with my cell phone.

In any case, I signed myself up for the final course of the Wilton Cake Decorating classes. I’ll be finished by September, and I was even thinking about becoming an Instructor. It’s worth inquiring and having as a back up plan in case the day job doesn’t work out.

One thing I have to improve on, is getting the right consistency for my icing. I can make the butter cream icing and royal icing just fine, it’s a matter of finding the happy medium between too stiff and medium/thin. All in good time I guess. It’s just a little frustrating to make all of this icing, pack it all up and take to class, just to not be able to work with it.

As I make and decorate more cakes, I’ll post them here to share with all of you

To Be Continued……

First off, I would like to say Happy Canada Day to my friends and family up here in Canada. Happy Birthday to me, and Happy 4th of July to all of my friends and family back home.

As much as people say that age is just a number, and that it’s not how old you are, but how old you feel.. So with that said, as each year passes and each birthday goes whizzing by, many of us stop to reflect where we are in life. We think about how far we’ve come, what we left behind, and we often compare ourselves to other people our age.

Mentally I feel like I’m in my mid 20’s. Physically I feel the same, although some days I feel my age and then some. As far as my career goes, I would say that it rates above average. My health is well above average. The quality of life is better than it was one year ago. So really, I can’t complain.

I often think about the fact that when my mother was my age ( 32 tomorrow), I was already 9 years old and my brother was 7 years old, she was married and divorced twice and we never lived anywhere for longer than 3 years.

On the other hand, I don’t have any children, my second marriage is 100 times better than the first. I have travelled all over the East coast and made a career for myself, and I am taking classes to assist in a possible career change that will allow me to be creative. I also started my life over in Canada, having moved 2500 miles northwest to Alberta.

In the end, it would seem that on a sub-conscience level I have avoided the one thing I feared…  Turning out like my mother. Not that she is a horrible person, as I know she had good intentions. Then again, everything happens for a reason. I truly feel that I am where I am suppose to be at this point of my life.

I will admit that I am secretly hoping that my husband has something special planned for my birthday.  As far as I know our plans for tomorrow consist of us going to the movies and watching the new Twilight movie, and then going over to a co-workers’ for a BBQ.  Typically my birthdays would consist of a Friendly’s ice cream cake, and heading over to Stanley Park and Westfield High to watch the fireworks display. I guess a Dairy Queen ice cream cake will have to do, and no fireworks on July 3rd in Canada…

Now that I have had the chance to spout off,  I think the point of all of this is that I need to stop dwelling on the fact that I am getting older. But rather focus on the accomplishments, reflect on all that I have going for me like my health and my loving husband.

Horseback Riding at the Beach in El Zonte

Video 1 from El Salvador

Video 2 from El Salvador

There is just too many pictures and video to post, so I narrowed it down a bit.

As I mentioned earlier, I have signed myself up to take the first course of  Wilton’s Cake Decorating classes. I have gone through this course about 5 years ago and had a great time participating. I thought that it may be a good idea to take it again, since my skills having been used that much in those 5 years. So a refresher class, going over the basics was a great idea. Now that this class is coming to an end, I signed myself up for Course 2 that starts in July. What’s great is that I have two friends/co-workers that are exciting about taking this class with me!

As promised here are a few pictures of the cakes and cupcakes that I have made in the last month.

For more information about cake decorating, Wilton classes in your area, and decorating ideas for your next cake, Check out these websites!

http://www.michaels.com/art/online/static?page=wilton_cake_decorating

http://www.wilton.com/

In this blog entry, I would like to share a few tips and tricks on how to bake Fat Free desserts. I know many people are trying to lose weight and many of those people have a sweet tooth. Well now you don’t have to feel guilty and you can still treat yourself to your favorite home made baked goods.

Baked goods such as cakes, cookies, and brownies are a contributing factor to the excess dietary fat that are in most people’s diets. Traditionally, fat has been used to add moistness and tenderness to these treats. In this blog entry, I will share with you a handful of ways to dramatically reduce and in some cases eliminate the Fat content of your favorite desserts.

* Reduced Fat Margarine/ Light Butter… You can’t always believe what you hear, as you can use Reduced Fat Margarine/ Light Butter for baking. By doing so, you will have cut the Fat in cookies, scones, cakes, muffins, brownies, quick breads, pie crusts and crumb topping by HALF.

* Dairy Fat Substitutes… Buttermilk and Nonfat Yogurt can eliminate the fat in muffins, cakes, scones, biscuits, quick breads and brownies. The fat in cookies will be reduced to half.

* Sweet Fat Substitutes… Honey, Molasses, Corn Syrup, Jam, and Chocolate Syrup are known as Liquid Sweeteners. These Liquid Sweeteners can replace all of the fat in cakes, scones, muffins,brownies, biscuits, quick breads, cookies and crumb topping.

* Fruity Fat Substitutes… Fruit Juices, Fruit Purees and Applesauce can eliminate the fat from cakes, muffins, scones, quick breads and brownies, and at least half of the fat in cookies.

* Sweet Potato and Squash… Sweet Potatoes, Mashed Pumpkin, and other mashed squashes can replace all of the fat in cakes, scones, quick breads, muffins, brownies and biscuits, and at least half of the fat in cookies.

* Prunes… Prune Puree and easy to make Prune Butter can be used to replace the fat from cakes, cookies, scones, biscuits, quick breads, muffins, pie crusts, brownies and sweet crumb crusts.

To make Prune Butter, simply measure out 8 ounces ( 1 and 1/3 cups) of pitted prunes and 6 Tablespoons of water or fruit juice, then place ingredients into a Food Processor and process at High speed until the mixture is a smooth paste. Please note that this mixture is too thick to be made in a blender.  Once the prune butter has been made, use immediately or place in an air tight container and store for up to 3 weeks in the refrigerator. This batch will yield 1 cup of prune butter.

For those of you that think “Fat Free” means it must be good for you, that is not always the case. Many Fat Free baked goods that are made with Refined White Flour actually provide very few nutrients. Whole Grains on the other hand contain many nutrients and vitamins including: B12, B6, E, Chromium, Iron, Magnesium, Potassium, and Zinc. By far using whole wheat flour is a much healthier substitute for those recipes that use refined white flour.

Fat Free Fudge Brownies:

Ingredients;  3/4 cup unbleached flour, 1/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons cocoa powder, 1 cup sugar, 1/4 teaspoon salt(optional), 3 egg whites, 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional).

Step 1:  Combine the flour, cocoa, sugar and salt if desired and stir mixture well. Stir in the applesauce, egg whites and vanilla extract. Then fold in the chopped walnuts if desired.

Step 2:  Coat an 8 inch square pan with nonstick cooking spray ( I prefer Wilton Cake Release ), then spread the batter evenly in the pan. Bake at 325F for 23-25 minutes, or just until the edges are firm and the center is almost set.

Step 3:  Cool to room temperature, cut into squares and serve.  This batch will yield about 16 servings depending on how large the serving sizes are cut.

Nutritional Facts per serving about this recipe:

Calories: 80

Fat: 0.4 grams

Protein: 1.6 grams

Cholesterol: 0 milligrams

Sodium: 25 milligrams

Fiber: 0.8 grams

Calcium: 4 milligrams

Potassium: 32 milligrams

Iron: 0.5 milligrams

I will be posting more Fat Free baking recipes, just so that all of you CAN have your cake and eat it too

I thought I would take the time to share a few recipes with you. The first is an Easy Cajun Recipe.

This recipe will make enough for 2 people, so double it to make enough for 3-4 people and so on.

Ingredients:   2 celery ribs, 1 onion, 1 green pepper, 1 can (14 oz/398 ml) diced tomato, 3 Tablespoons of flour, 3 Tablespoons of cooking oil, and Cajun spice.

First Step…  After washing the vegetables, cut/dice the celery, green pepper and 1/2 of the onion.

Next… Saute the diced celery, onion, and green pepper in the cooking oil until they are 1/2 cooked ( about 5 minutes).

Next… stir in the flour and diced tomato and cook for 10 minutes.

Next… Add the Cajun Spice to the mix, suit to your taste and serve over….. Your choice, chicken, fish, rice, steak tips… Don’t be afraid to be creative.

I have made this dinner twice, first with chicken, then with basa fish fillets and both served with rice. I will have to remember to take a picture of the final result and post it here.  I also added a little garlic powder and a dash of pepper to my dish. Feel free to add other spices to suit your taste.

I realize that it has been one month since my last entry… There has been a few changes since then and I will use this time to blog about those events.

Since the last entry, I have come back from El Salvador and have also been relieved of my “Supervisor” duties at work. A part of me feels relieved and the other part feels like I wasn’t given a fair shot. But in either case, it’s no longer my problem.

There is still a bit of drama in the cash office… We have one associate that is stirring the pot and bringing down the morale. She has set her sights on the younger associate, making false accusations, making comments that are uncalled for, and just acting childish.  As far as I know, a replacement is in the works and hopefully the associates will work well together, without the drama. Well enough about that…

Next topic for discussion, Our New Condo!

Yes that’s right, James and I finally have our own place!  We came across an amazing deal that we just couldn’t pass up.  We are renting a condo in a great location, we are on the top floor so we don’t have to worry about drunken neighbors upstairs. It’s a one bedroom with a den that we made into an office for James. The building has a fitness room that we have full access too including a sauna. We also have two parking spaces in the underground parking garage, so I no longer have to clean off my car from the snow. Last but not least, our suite includes a washer and dryer! No more spending time at the laundry mat, BONUS!

My nephew, Ayden has finally come to terms with using the potty. I can imagine the excitement that my brother and his wife are feeling. They will be facing the same challenge in 3 years when Noah is ready to make the transition.

James and I are planning a trip back to the US. There are a lot of things that I, well we miss  being in Calgary. Places like Sakura Buffet, Cajun Cafe at the Mall, Dunkin Donuts, The Summer House, Six Flags and the Big E. Naturally I miss my brother and his family, and the friends I have back home.

So, as for now… Our plan consists of saving at least $3000.00 minimum between now and September. That should be enough to cover the round trip cost of the flight from Calgary to Ottawa and a rental car to drive from Ottawa to Massachusetts and back, and to pay for lodging for a week and to pay for any leisurely activities.

On another note, I have signed myself up to take the first class of 4  of the Wilton Cake Decorating Classes. I had taken this class a while back, and figured I it would be worth while to take it again before I take the next class. I am very eager to get back into baking and sharpen my creative decorating skills.

Other than that, that is all of the news for now. Hopefully the next entry won’t take a whole month to be posted. In fact, I am sure that it will not. With the new classes starting in June, I can post a few pictures of the cakes I will have decorated

To Be Continued….