How to Properly Cut a Cake ... (Read this: You'll Learn Something)

You're probably not sleeping well at night wondering how bakers decide on servings per cake... 

Well, actually you probably never really cared unless you were the unlucky relative who got stuck cutting and serving the cake. C'mon you know what I mean...  You start freaking out (just a bit): How big do i cut the slices? If I cut them too small then people will make me stand here longer holding a knife.  If i cut them to big, then big Aunt Bertha might not get a piece and, well, we just won't go there...

Beauty and the Beast Castle Cake

 Have no fear! Your humble baker is here! 


Step 1:  Get a Cake (I will demonstrate on my Beauty and the Beast Cake)

Step 2: Find the Dowel Rod

Step 3: Pull it out

Step 4a: Remove the top tier of the cake by placing your knife under the cardboard base

Step 4b: The trick is to gingerly slide your knife along the base and lift up so that you keep the bottom cake's fondant intact.  (So far so good!  Phew!!)

Step 4c: Don't drop it as you are putting it on a different serving platter!  

At this point, however, you might want to get your knife ready because, "The Beast really won't like what you did to his castle".

Step 4d: Decide which flavor cake you want to eat first, now that you did all that hard work.  (In this case it was vanilla with banana buttercream on the top tier and lemon with vanilla buttercream on the bottom.  Both flavors picked by my 4 and 2 year olds and both flavors were awesome!)

Step 5: Remove the dowel rods that were holding up the upper tier

Step 6: Cut a circle inside of the cake roughly where the top tier had been sitting

Step 7: Cut a slice about an inch or so thick, from the outer edge of the cake to where you made the circle cut.  (Meaning, leave the circle in the middle for more servings later.)

Step 8: Now you can have your cake and eat it, too!!  (And if you are thinking that this looks like a small piece; trust me, it will be a lot more than you think!)

 Step 9: Cut the top tier the same way.  (Or, since it is small, you could always cut triangular slices, but cutting it the same way as above will ensure that all the pieces will be uniform.)

Here is a picture of both kinds of cakes on a plate.  The slices don't look so small now, do they?  (I actually ate all that, and I'm so stuffed, I don't even know how to describe it!)

April has been a busy, busy month!!

Well, as the title says, April has been a busy month!  And there is still one week left.  Let's recap shall we?

There were two shows where I showcased my Ruff Apparel items.  The hot items were large male collars, anything skulls, character kids' belts, and my pet placemats.  (And of course since it is Syracuse, all my orange and black basketball collars sold out as soon as the show started!)

I've also been steadily fulfilling cake pop orders for the "Out of the Darkness" cause for sucide prevention.  All red velvet and strawberry cake pop sales for the month of April are going right to this important cause.  So far, I made $85 in pops and had a $25 direct donation.  If you are still interested, I can ship them ASAP (even in time to fill Easter baskets), and you will be making a difference!!  (email: sweetchemistrycakes@gmail.com).

My 4 year old Monster and his cake!

Then my eldest son, Rory, turned 4!!!  We had a little party with friends and family at my in-laws' house, and he had a blast!  He's so OLD now!  Here is a picture of his monster cake.  It was also my brother-in-law's birthday, so I made him a surprise beer cake since he brews all his own beer.

Beer Mug Cake

Then I came home just in time to make a ton of kids' belts for Easter basket orders, before I had surgery on my right wrist.  And seeing that I am right handed, this wasn't easy.  I finally got the cast off today, but the pain is actually worse now!  And of course I have the itch to sew and bake, but I think my whole family will kill me!

Now it's time to get ready for Easter.  I have some adorable chick cupcakes to make for a customer, as well as one of my famous Toll House pies and an Easter bunny cake for another customer.  Next week I am making cowboy cupcakes for a school birthday party, and then cake pop favors for a party on May 1st.

Like I said: Busy, Busy Month!  But honestly, I love it.  Keep sending me your orders for cakes and collars, harness, kids belts, and pet placemats!  Also, email me for a full list of unique and delicious cake pop flavors!  Remember I ship anywhere!!

If you want to continue to see my lastest cake creations, make sure you "like" my Sweet Chemistry page on facebook!



Support the Out of the Darkness Cause with Cake Pops!!!

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention is an amazing cause which provides prevention programs, research, education, and survior support.  One of the main ways they receive their funding is the "Out of the Darkness" walks.  On June 4th through the 5th, they will be hosting this walk in New York City.  My wonderful friend Candice has decided to fight this cause by walking.  She needs to raise at least $1000, and I know with everyone's help we can make this happen!! 

To directly sponsor Candice please click this caption

Please help me with this cause by buying my special cake pops during the month of April for this cause. 100% of the proceeds will go directly to Candice's goal. They come in either red velvet with white buttercream icing or white cake with strawberry buttercream covered in white chocolate . They are $1.50 or $15 for a dozen and I can ship them anywhere.

Suicide takes the lives of nearly 30,000 Americans every year.   Depression is the leading cause of suicide.  Many who attempt suicide never seek professonal care, however, 80% of people that seek treatment for depression are treated successfully.  There are twice as many deaths due to suicide than HIV/AIDS.  For young people 15-24 years old, suicide is the third leading cause of death.


Please email me at: sweetchemistrycakes@gmail.com or visit me on my facebook page: Sweet Chemistry.

New Sweet Chemistry Page!

So I finally have my facebook page up and running for Sweet Chemistry.  The only problem is that there must be a bug in their new page system because I sent out page suggestions to "like" the Sweet Chemistry page, and they never showed up!  (I know this because I logged onto my husband's account and there was nothing.)  I figure if nothing more than curiosity, and out of loyalty ;-) everyone who is a fan of Ruff Apparel will become fans of Sweet Chemistry.  And tell all your friends!!!!! :-) 

Please follow this link go to my page and click the "like" button!! :-)

Slowly but surely I am getting more customers and with each job is a new challenge.  It's rather exciting!  I've been told that people have been wishing for years that there was a good specialty cake business in Danbury (apparently there is none), so I hope word starts to get around.  I'm also prepared and willing to start making cakes in the Marcellus/Syracuse areas, too.  It's a good reason for the in-laws to see the grandkids more.

I will be in the Marcellus area from April 1st 'til the 10th, at two different craft shows for Ruff Apparel.  The first one is on April 2nd, at Elbridge Elementary School, Elbridge, NY from 9am-4pm.  The second is a two day show at the Immanuel Luthern Church in Camillus.  This one is Friday, April 8th, from 4pm-8pm and then Saturday, April 9th, from 10am-4pm.  Make sure to come by and say hello!!!  I'll be bringing my cake portfolio if anyone's interested.  I may even have some sample cakes to try (if I have time!).

My Ladybug Cake Had Babies!!!

Apparently ladybugs must be all the rage this year for baby showers.  A friend of mine showed one of her new co-workers some pictures of my cakes and cupcakes, and the ladybug cake/cupcakes were just what she was looking for. 

I decided to add a bit extra to the order, (because I'm crazy and love giving myself extra work for no good reason).  So I took the extra red velvet batter and cream cheese frosting and made four babies.  I figured it would be extra cute since it was a BABY shower. 

I hope she liked it....(What do you guys think?)

The Secret Society of the VW Beetle...

It's been awhile since I've blogged....I've been busy helping out my Aunt with her coffee shop among other things while she deals with the pain of a possibly fractured clavical and torn shoulder.  Let me tell you, running a coffee shop and doing catering and cake jobs at the same time is no easy feat.  I give her tons of credit!  I was completely fried after one day.  Although I will say delivering catering, even though I had no idea what I was doing, was a real payoff!  I got a $10 tip for driving 10 mins and putting out a lunch spread.  Not a bad gig.  Don't worry, friends and family, I will not be starting a catering business as well.  I can't forget the mayhem of cranking out all of those sandwiches and accoutrements in the wee hours of the morning.  Wait...maybe I WILL offer lunch catering with my cake orders...LOL.



Punch Buggy Cream!!!

The coffee shop (and my Aunt) are 3 hours away, so of course Helmut (my Beetle) and I had a lot of interstate driving to do.  As I was driving, I suddenly realized that I was singularly responsible for possibly 100's of "dead arms" in the passing cars.  You know, "Punch Buggy, Cream!!!"  **Punch**.   And if that's not yet another reason to be jealous of my car, apparently Beetles and truckers must be in a secret society of honking that I was inducted into.  As I drove past a couple of 18 wheelers, I recieved the "honk, honk-honk-honk-honk"  and I guess I am supposed to finish it with a big "honk, honk".  Awesome.
One last thing that came to my mind while I was out and about is the topic of the Smart Car.  Can I get an "Amen" to the fact that they are ridiculous looking death traps.  If you look at the crash ratings, they were rated one of the WORST.  My car looks like a limousine compared to them. Strap a desperate biker to the front of it and it looks like one of those NYC rickshaws.  I hated them with my first experience of the "Smart Car" in Italy, and I hate them even more now.  They really should call them the the "Stupid Car", but that's just me. 

Non-Slip Pet Placemats

A new product idea was given to me by the illustrious Colleen Dean: Pet Placemats!  I was so excited for a fresh idea, I dragged the kids out right before their bed time to get some fabric for a prototype.  The only problem is, I'm like a kid in a candy store when it comes to fabric.  I usually hate Joann Fabric and their horrible monopoly on the suburban fabric supply, like a hippy in the 60s hated the "Man", but they actualy had some good stuff!  I couldn't decide on what to get.  I still can't.  This is why I need help....

Anyway, here are the prototypes.  The fish was a disaster (in my opinnion).  I need to either scrap the fish or totally redesign it.  The fabric is a heavy weight cotton home decor material, with a non-slip backing. 

Bone Mats Measure (at largest parts) 25" x 15"

I don't know about you, but I can't stand my dog bowls don't fit on a placemat or other ugly piece of plastic or fabric.  And even if you do get them to fit, the mat is always sliding around.  Problem solved.  Tests still have to be done on machine washability.  I'm 80% sure they will be able to be thrown in the washer on a cold setting.  I'll let you know.

What do you guys think?  What colors/patterns would you like to see?

Thanks!  And keep the good ideas coming!!!!

Easy and Healthy Muffin Recipe

It's Saturday and the kids got me up before 5am.  Hurray!  So I decided, why not make some muffins?  They were so good and easy, I thought I would share them with you...

I doubled the recipe and made 6 extra large muffins.  Yummy!!

Banana Corn Muffins (courtesy of my Cooking Light Cookbook)

Preheat oven to 350.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup ripe mashed banana (1 med)
1/2 cup 2% milk
1 box of Jiffy corn muffin mix

Directions:
Mix in everything in a bowl, and pour cupcake pan with liners.
Cook for 20 minutes or until done.
(Makes 6 cupcake sized muffins)
Calories: 199, Fat: 5.4g, Protein: 3.7g, Carb: 34.2g, Fiber: 3.2g, Chol: 2mg

American Flag Cake

Well, the flag cake was a success.  Although, I'm not used to smoothing buttercream (especially on a square cake), so it took me just under forever to smooth it.  I hate how you watch Buddy on Cake Boss and he smooths an 8--tiered cake in about 5 mins and it's perfect.  The flag was fun to make, though.

Of course Rory is devasted that Matt took the cake away and has deluded himself into thinking that any second now Matt is going to come home from work and present him with this and a large fork.

Anyway, have a great weekend, everyone.  A special shout out goes to my Mother-In-Law who's birthday is tomorrow.  "Happy Birthday!"

Ideas Needed for the Spring and Summer!!

I finally got another cake gig!  (And a repeat customer to boot! - That should say something to all those dumb people from the past month or two!)  Anyway, it's going to be a small cake with an American flag draped over it.  It should be pretty cool looking!  I'll post some picture after I make it.


Don't forget to buy a St. Patty's Day Collar!


Anyway, let's switch subjects to the actual REAL reason I started this blog: Ruff Apparel.  I think I've been in denial that I have to start sewing again.  After the fall/holiday season, I get a little partied out when it comes to sewing and doggie stuff.  I think I even look at Noodles with a bit of contempt.  I just looked at the calendar and I have less than a month and a half before I have two back-to-back spring shows.  And so it begins...

Unfortunately, it's a lot harder to make sales in the spring/summer.  No one needs a warm winter jacket, a cute winter collar, or a Christmas present for that crazy cat lady in their lives.  I'm looking for new ideas.  I have finally decided to admit that I may need a bit of guidance.

Please, please, please give me your ideas of what you think! 

What Voodoo Can I Do?

Well, it's been a week now, and everyone is just starting to feel better.  To be honest, though, I wasn't surprised that we got sick.  For you see, I think I must be cursed.  Every time there is a holiday, I seem to get sick.  Here are some examples: Christmas - stomach bug which lasted 1 week.  Our anniversary/New Years Eve Matt got sick.  For my birthday, I became extremely ill on the last two days of my Aruba vacation.  And now we are just getting over this awful stomach virus over Valentine's Day.  I'm getting nervous, because this is President's Day Weekend.  What's next?  A broken bone?  I hope I didn't just jinx myself!

But looking back, for the past 6 birthdays, I've been either in the hospital, hospitalized, or extremely sick.  Why?  That is the question of the day.  Everyone is probably ready to give me the "This is what happens when you have kids." answer, but this began way before my boys, Matt, or Noodles were around.  I'm not into all this mumbo jumbo voodoo stuff, but I'm open to options.  Anyone have some crazy method of getting rid of this "curse".  Matt thinks he should start looking for a bubble that I can live in like Bubble Boy on Seinfeld.  I'm not entirely opposed to it.

No Time to Bake a Cake When There’s Puke to Be Cleaned Up

With all the “free time” I’ve had lately (considering no new cake jobs), I thought I would put my itch to make a cake to good use.  Practice, Practice, Practice – right?!?  Since I am completely self taught, I figured it was time for some homework.  So, putting the new company name, Sweet Chemistry, to good use, I decided to do some experiments.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t feeling that well, therefore not thinking clearly, and created too many variables and had no real experimental control.  Then both dogs and kids started to barf….  Chaos ensued.

Matt wanted a really “rich” cake, so we decided to go with dark chocolate mocha.  Of course I never made this before, and the cake turned out extra moist for some unknown reason.   (I must break out the chemistry textbook.)   Anyway, I decided to save time and make all of my cake layers the same day I decorated the cake.  Usually you would wait a day to allow any excess moisture and air to settle out of the cake, but at this point I felt like passing out, and the kids and the dog were getting sick.  Basically, I just wanted to get this over with.  This error in judgment, however, was the beginning of the end of my cake.

Everything that could go wrong did.  My homemade red fondant wouldn’t get red enough.  I had to go back out to the store to buy a second vial of dye.  My buttercream was a chocolate hazelnut (which tasted awesome!!) but was too runny, and my cakes were way too moist.  Of course I didn’t realize these were problems until after my cake started bulging in the middle.  I decided to continue anyway – after all, this was just a practice cake – but as I put the fondant on the first layer, it ripped.  I guess I over kneaded my fondant because of all the extra dye added.   I think I must have been loopy from the Lysol fumes from my “clean-up” duties, because none of this seemed to get to me.  I just kept going.  Normally I would have been like Buddy (Cake Boss) and thrown the cake across the room.

So I doweled and stacked my cakes without any hiccups, put on my deep purple ribbon, and stepped back.  Hideous!  I was hopeful that my scrollwork would cover the imperfections, so I started to make royal icing.  I didn’t realize that I didn’t have the right ingredients and had to do some “chemistry” research to find substitutions.  (Don't worry, I'm going to write a ”Cake Lingo For Dummies” blog, for the baking impaired.)  Considering I never did scrollwork before, and not having depth perception gave me a considerable handicap, but I guess it could have turned out worse?!?

Anyway, I wanted to start giving cake away, so we took off the top layer.  As we removed it, we noticed that the cake had settled so much that the dowels were exposed almost ¼” between layers.  Honestly, I haven’t even tried tasting it yet.  I haven’t exactly been in the mood after all the puking – as you can imagine.  I hope it as least TASTES good!

“I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward” – Thomas Edison

So I got rejected on another cake offer again.  I'm feeling defeated here.  What people don't realize is that I spend about 1/2 - 1 hour preparing for the quotes I give.  So, I do all this research and then get excited about the project, therefore setting myself up for dissapointment.  Then I wait a couple of days until I get an email back (if they are polite) to tell me they are going with another baker.  Do they contact me just to see that they are getting a fair shake from their own baker?  They lady didn't give me her budget  or even give me the chance to see if I had any wiggle room on price, which sounds a bit fishy to me.



Here's a picture of the cake.  First off, I am absolutely IN LOVE with this cake!  This cake was featured in an international cake magazine as the top 10 rated cakes.  AND I know I can recreate it, edible gum paste flowers and all! I gave her a a price of $3.50 a slice.  I CHALLENGE anyone to get a better price for this wedding cake, let alone an international top 10 rated cake.   Click here to view the all the pics from the magazine  (To be honest, I would have gone way lower on the price -- even though I shouldn't--just so that I had an excuse to do it!)

Does anyone know someone who would love this cake and would trust me to make it?  I promise it would turn out amazing!!!!!  Tell your friends.

Super Bowl

This Super Bowl went as predicted.  We ate junk food, half watched the game, and lost interest about 4 minutes in.  I will admit that this game was better than most, since it wasn't the usual one team staring at their shoes as the other team scores about 15 touchdowns.  

Now let's move on to the half-time show.  I love the fact that The Black Eyed Peas can stay popular and can actually get a Super Bowl gig based on a hackneyed (yet admittedly catchy) song “I got a feeling” that came out in 2009.  It's 2011, people!  Oh wait, that’s because there is no good music out there.  Unless of course you count Willow Smith’s “Whip my Hair”.  Clearly a Grammy winner there.  PS  The Black Eyed Peas sucked.   The Usher jump and split maneuver was interesting, at least.

So let us now talk about the upcoming movies:

Thor, Cowboys vs Aliens (Dainel Craig and Harrison Ford), Transformers 3, Fast Five….really??  I mean, do I really need to elaborate?  Super 8, Captian America—maybe.  And sooooo tired of Pirates of the Caribbean movies.  Ugg.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oU1jra7RKCQ

Commercials kinda stunk, but I will say they were better than last year.  (Not that, that’s saying much)  I mean, there were some funny ones, but  whatever happened to Terry Tate: Office Linebacker??!!?  

Kristy's Commercial Commentary (funny vs retarded):

• Passat commercial with little kid Darth Vadar: kinda funny
• Doritos commercial about bringng things back to life (aka: grandpa): funny
• Bud Light product placement: Funny
• Aliens, Mayans (or whatever), and such keep stealing the "new" Kia Spectra: retarded - As far as I'm concerned, they can keep it.
• Why is Derek Jeter sponsoring Ford and why is it New York?  I don’t get it.  Aren’t’ we watching a football game…in Texas? -- retarded
• Pepsi Max ad where lady throws a can at her husband and hits the hot runner girl instead: funny
• All Coke commercials: retarded -- They should fire their staff
• Snickers Rosanne being hit by log: hilarious b/c it’s Rosanne
• Here's a winner: Chevy Cruze with their new facebook status update feature- I should just trade in my Beetle, right now, so I can hear a robot tell me some random high school person’s horoscope.  -retarded

One of the best quotes (Best Buy ad) "What's a Bieber?  I don't know, it kinda looks like a girl."

Considering I don’t care about either team, and everything else was subpar, this game was a waste of time…expect for the fact that I got to eat a whole slew of amazing junk food.  My kids felt the same way.  Apparently Rory wanted the TV off so badly that he was hoping for a flood.

But if you got nothing else out of the Super bowl experience than this: “Remember whatever you do in bed, Sealy supports it.”

Sweet Chemistry -- Am I priced out of my leauge???

Ok, here's the deal.  I'm trying to start up my own specialty cake business.  I'm calling it "Sweet Chemistry", because I'm a chemical engineer and I'm making sweets.  Cute right?  Until I get another website up and running you can check out my cakes at: http://www.ruffapparel.com/id72.html

So yesterday I received an inquiry for a 50th wedding anniversary cake that is actually doubling as the couple's REAL and ONLY wedding cake.  This woman had a local artist make a custom made gold lovebird cake topper, ordered special ribbon from France, and it's at a fancy restaurant in Manhattan.  Does this set the tone for you? 

I sent her my cake pictures; she loved them and asked me what my quote would be for a two-tiered mocha cake with vanilla buttercream on the bottom and vanilla cake with dolce de leche filling on the top -- all covered in a shimmery ivory fondant. All the intricate scroll work needs to be in gold filigree.  Here is a picture she wants me to model the cake after.

Sooooooooo end of the day I give her a quote of $175, plus delivery fee (if applicable).  I know it sounds high, but this is for a very specialized wedding cake!!  When you think about it in those terms, who gets a friggin intricate gold scrolled wedding cake for under $200??  And all said and done I'm only walking away with $100 for a full 8 hours worth of work...  (Btw, she needs the cake less then 2 weeks away.)

Part of me wanted to only charge her $100 for the exposure, and the chance to make a whopping $40, but I can't keep doing this for people!

Please tell me your honest opinions about this!!!

Love,
Your Frusturated Baker

Cans of Beans, Power parking, and Grrrrrrr

I told myself I wasn't going to blog all the time...especially about the snow, but the retardedness of the people in the New York Metro Area needs to be addressed.  (Present followers excluded, of course!)  At the site of one snowflake, there is a mad "slowness" to the local Supermarket.  I would use the correct term of "mad rush", but apparently it must be state mandated that you have to drive 5 miles an hour in your all wheel drive vehicles.  Anyway, back to the supermarket.  I have literally seen lines from the checkouts all the way to the back of the store.  Of course all carts are filled to the top with bottled water, cheese in a can, crackers, cans of beans...you know, the essentials of Armageddon.  Reallly, people???  I wish i had my camera to show you all this phenomenon.

Then today.  Two days after the last snow.  There is virtually no parking because of all the power parking being done across two spots.  I guess they don't want their doors hitting a little bit of soft frozen water?  Again, I really wish I had my camera. You know, people mocked me for getting a Beetle, but this thing goes places where no one (in CT, at least) has gone before...in a parking spot half covered in snow.  It's actually quite awesome because I keep getting front row spots.  They should think of calling the Beetle an ATV.

I really don't know what else to add other than...Grrrrrrrr!  I'm sure there will have to be another blog where I rant about how rude these people are around here.  But that's for another time and another mindset.

Does anyone else have these problems or other ones?  I know we have some NC and FL people representing.  I hope not, though!  I have high hopes that there are places where the parking is plentiful and the speed limit is followed....

Um...This is getting ridiculous!



Update!!!



Well, another 16" in NYC, and there is a vicious rumor that we got more like 20" of snow here in Danbury!  I guess we're housebound again.  My whole plan was go shovel my way out of this mess and go visit my favorite haunts (Michael’s and Joann), but my lovely husband, Matt, won't let me.  Grrr.  I have what they call "crafters thumb/wrist"  which sounds like a ridiculous excuse to get out of work, but it just makes me angry.  I would try and force my way out of the 20" in the driveway, except Helmut (my VW Beetle convertible) is about 3 inches off the ground.  But, hey, if it worked, I could make some extra money plowing the neighbor's driveways!  LOL.



Helmut after Matt dug him out at 3am!



Then there is my crazy neighbor...He has been up since 3am, painstakingly shoveling and re-shoveling his driveway about every 20 minutes "to stay on top of it".  He's the same one that mows his yard 4 times to make sure he gets "every blade of grass" -- again, another direct quote.

 

I'd throw the kids outside and start coming up with my spring line of doggie coats, collars, and pet beds, but their little legs can't get through the snow!  They just kinda fall over like cows being tipped, and then just lay there.  Besides, Cooper, my 18 month old, looks like Ralphie from A Christmas Story.  It's kinda hilarious, though.

Well, once again I bid you adieu, with visions of tropical islands and beautiful palm trees swaying in the breeze!

Snow, Snow, and More Snow!!

Well, I woke up this morning to even more snow.  Once again the weather man was WRONG!  We are getting so much snow in Connecticut, that we are all getting cabin fever.  I don't know about you, but we are about one snowstorm away from turning into Jack Nicholson in the Shinning.  (Btw, if you haven't seen that movie--you HAVE to!) 

My dog, Noodles, is no exception!  He's wearing his silly sweater I knited him, and he still won't go outside until I put on one of my jackets, too.  I've been up early shoveling a

 path in our yard just so he can make a beeline out to quickly do his business.  It's a shame I don't know how to work with leather (yet, lol), because he acts as if he needs some boots, too.  Of course, Noodles doesn't actually realize that he's a dog.  He thinks he's king of the household, and we are his servants.

Well, it's time to clean a path for my mailman.  Gotta make sure I get my Netflix DVD! 

 Happy Shoveling!