Okay, now that I have managed to get the computer and camera to transfer photos, here are the cakes I did for Kim's graduation party. Kim is finishing up her associates in Mortuary Science, so that gave me all sorts of possibilities for her graduation cake. However, the more I thought about it, I started having serious concerns about doing a theme cake. I am a bit superstitious and something just told me not to tempt fate. So I found a mortuary science symbol and used that instead.
The cake is chocolate with vanilla icing. I now see that one of the T's in congratulations did not get crossed, and I do not know if it is a situation where I just missed it or if I did it and the icing did not stick and went somewhere else.Lately Kim and some of her classmates have taken to saying they want to go work in the basement. I guess it is a mortuary science thing, but I thought it was fitting for her cake.Kim also is in the process of getting divorced and wanted a divorce cake. Well, I thought about getting really creative with that, but I decided not to do it. Instead I opted for tasteful.
I decided to do Corneil lace on the sides, but silly me, I did not thin out the icing enough, so my hand was kind of tired by the time I was done.
It is a four layer chocolate cake with chocolate icing. I baked two layers, then leveled and torted (split) them. It turned out really well--the cake was very moist. The decorative icing is vanilla.Both cakes were a big hit and were pretty much demolished.
My friend Lynn recently purchased a house with her fiancee, and they had their housewarming a few days after their respective birthdays. Lynn had asked me about doing the cake, and since she helped me move into my house, I was more than happy to do so. She indicated she wanted a My Little Pony cake. As she talked about it more, she said she wanted either Pinkie Pie or Rainbow Dash.Well, I found a decent picture of Rainbow Dash, so I opted for that.
It is white cake with vanilla frosting.Now to start thinking about Kim's graduation cake. She is getting her Associates in Mortuary Science.
A few weeks ago I participated in The Little Yarn Shop Hop on the Prairie. Well, yesterday while I was at lunch my cell phone rang. Jennifer, the owner of Settlers Farm, called and told me that I had won the grand prize--The Great American Afghan Kit, a bottle of Soak, and some needles.
My friends Karen, Merry, Reaona, and Stepheny also won prizes. Karen won a bag of Cascade Lana D'Oro, Stepheny won a shawl kit, and Merry won some teal Cascade, and I am not sure what Reaona won.
I looked over the pattern for the Great American Afghan, and I am not really interested in making it. However, I now have 23 skeins of Cascade 220 Wool Heathers in my yarn stash.
I am not quite sure what I will do with all of it, but who knows, maybe I will find a good use for it.
This year my niece wanted a Kung Fu Panda themed cake. I have found that pattern transfer works pretty well for most cakes, especially if I use a black gel on the parchment paper instead of the piping gel I was taught to use. I have not had good luck with the piping gel transfering over, especially if the icing is not setting up due to high humidity. Besides, using the black gel skips a step--at least that way I do not have to go outline it with the black gel.I backed a white cake on Thursday evening and then iced it Friday morning before going to work. I had previously printed out an coloring page from the Kung Fu Panda website. I printed out two versions--one the way it was on the site, and the other was a mirror image. I finally decided which way I wanted the picture to appear on the cake, and I ended up tracing the mirror image one on to the parchment paper. Since the parchment paper gets flipped over, it then looked like it did on the original one I printed out.I made all the icing except for the black icing. Black icing is difficult to make, and it is just easier to go buy a tube of Wilton black icing. I pulled up the Kung Fu Panda website so I could color Po in the way he is supposed to be. I think I did not have his outfit beige enough, but it still worked.
The Little Yarn Shop Hop on the Prairie consisted of nine stores stretching from Overland Park, Kansas to Lindsborg, Kansas and Minneapolis, Kansas.I started in the Kansas City area Friday morning since I was already in the area anyway. I actually went to The Studio in Kansas City, Missouri first. It was not on the hop, but it was on the way from the hotel I had stayed at the night before. I had been told they had some stuff on sale, and I like to go there when I am in the area. They did have some sock yarn on sale for 75% off, so I picked up some Opal and Regia that was 75% off, and a hank of Cascade Heritage in teal green. It was not on sale, but I have been wanting to increase my stash of solid color sock yarn.
Next I went to Yarn Shop and More in Overland Park, to officially start the hop. I get the impression that I was the first "hopper" to visit their store, because when I mentioned it to the person working there, there was no real response. It was not until someone else (maybe the owner?) came in that I got my passport, and they had to print that out while I was there. Some of my other friends had similar issues there. I picked up a hank of a lovely merino-alpaca blend by Isager. I have no idea if they were offering any specials or were giving away any free stuff.
I then journeyed on to Knit Wit in Olathe. It was a bit crowded when I got there, but there was a good selection of sock yarns. They offered a 20% discount on yarn. I picked up a couple of hanks of Claudia Handpaint sock yarn in a white, black, and teal colorway.
After that I went to The Yarn Barn in Lawrence. They were offering a 15% discount on needles and yarn, and I received a free pattern for baby booties. The lady who helped me showed me that they had received some new sock yarn, a tweed yarn produced in Missouri (it's name escapes me now). I did not see any sock yarn that struck my fancy, but I did get 3 skeins of Zaol Camelon, which is a blend of camel and merino (20% camel, 80% camel).
I had not been home since Thursday afternoon, but I drove from Lawrence to Manhattan. Wildflower had some new stuff, including Cookie A's Sock Innovations. Kennita told me if I had been there earlier I would have missed it. Ironically, I had missed it at The Yarn Barn. She was offering double stamps, but I already had a full card and used it for a discount on the book.I ended Friday's part of the hop at Settlers Farm in Wamego. Jennifer had me draw to see what kind of discount I would get, and I ended up with a 30% discount off my purchase. She had received some new yarns, including some solid color sock yarns by Jojoland. I picked up a couple of hanks of Louet Gem's fingering weight in black for a project I have in mind and a couple of balls for Jojoland Ballad in Bay Blue.
The next morning my friend Stepheny picked me up at 7:15 a.m. We headed to a local coffee shop to meet up for the westward leg of the hop. Merry and Stepheny had hit the stores in Overland Park, Olathe, and Lawrence, so we traveled together. Driving west the roads were scary. The first stop we had planned was in Lindsborg, but we decided to go wherever we were at 10:00 a.m. The other car of people who had started out with us made it to Abilene, Kansas and then turned back east, but we made it to Salina. Unfortunately, Yarns Sold and Told was closed. I called Jennifer at Settler's Farm to see if she had known that the store in Salina was closed. She had not heard anything from them by that point. We took a picture to show we had been there, and we got to count it. We did find out later that the store had sent an email saying they would be closed this weekend, but by the time we sent it, we were almost there.We stopped at a truck stop and asked about the roads. We were told they were not so good to the south but they were okay to the north. Stepheny decided to head to Lindsborg next, which turned out to be a good call even though the roads were not so good. Laura May's Cottage had a drawing for prizes, but all three of us ended up drawing things that said "Sorry better luck next time." I had heard she had done something like that at another yarn shop hop, but it really did not bother me that much. She had a bargain bin that had skeins of Brown Sheep Company Lambs Pride Superwash for $2.55 a skein, and I picked up 12 skeins of teal. I also picked up a skein of Patons Classic Merino in a nice blue for less than it would have been at Michael's or JoAnn. We also received a free pattern for clog socks.
As we drove north, be saw blue skies. Our pushing through the nasty weather earlier meant that we would not be going through it when we started heading back east. I tried calling Yarns Sold and Told again, but there was no answer. We headed to the Yarn Peddler in Minneapolis, Kansas next. I picked up another pair of 40 inch size 1 Addi Turbo knitting needles and a couple of skeins of Laines Du Nord in a teal and white colorway. We received a free pattern for a lacy scarf, and our discount depended on a roll of a dice. Once you were ready to pay for your purchases, you rolled four dice. I rolled two sixes, a three, and a four for a total of 19, so I ended up with a 19% discount.
Once we left Minneapolis, it was on to The Shivering Sheep in Abilene. They offered a 10% discount on regularly priced items, and they had some great deals in the bargain basement. I was very pleased to see they had some Regia Galaxy, because I had been looking for some of that for almost a year now. I picked up two skeins. I also got a little kit with two bulbs for grape hyacinths and a reusable shopping bag. If I understood correctly, each time you return to The Shivering Sheep, you can get the attached card punched, and after 10 uses, you get a $5.00 discount.
Stepheny and Merry had not been to Wildflower or Settlers Farm yet, so we headed to Manhattan next and ended in Wamego.
My friend Patrick turned 22 a few weeks ago, and he had been talking about having me do a cake. Well, not long before his birthday, he decided he wanted an Irish flag with a leprechaun on it.
The cake is chocolate and the frosting is vanilla. It was a fairly big hit at the pub.
