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