Pirate Ship Cake

To celebrate Michelle's birthday, we had a pirate party for which Jaime and I had the honor of making the cake.

Mom and I baked the cakes Thursday, then Jaime and I started assembling Friday morning.

 

First, we made the base out of chocolate cake.

 

Then, we added a wider layer of lemon cake and built it up in the front and back.

Once we had the basic ship assembled and frosted, we started working on details. Jaime added black details to the ship and I made the sea.

After I finished the water, it was time for me to go to work. So, I left Jaime to finish the black details and we took a break until I got back in the evening. 

Back to the cake, we added sails, cannon balls, and the treasure.

The end result was highly satisfactory.

It was a fun project and turned out just as good as I hoped it would!

Pie on Sundays

We decided to start having pie on Sundays after our family dinner. The Nickells gave me this pie book for Christmas a couple years ago and the majority of pies I have baked from it have been good, but there are so many more to try. So, we are starting to work on that. Right now we are sticking to the summer fruit section because that season is quickly ending and we want to get in some good summer fruit pies while we can. Tonight's selection was No Peel Nectarine-Lime pie with an easy press-in crust. The crust was similar in taste and consistency to shortbread and was good, but a little heavy when combined with the top crumb topping. The topping was also sweet, but added a crunchy texture.

 The nectarine-lime combination was great; the nectarines made for a great summer fruit pie and the lime added a zesty kick. I diced the fruit instead of slicing it, which made it easier to eat. Overall, it was a pleasant and different pie.

Fall Leaves

Happy first day of fall!

I have been looking forward to frosting fall leaf sugar cookies at work, they are my second favorite type of sugar cookie to frost, right after hearts.

Chandler Bakery

Mom and I did a lot of baking yesterday and today to get ready for the Alpha course kickoff dinner tonight. Our church is one of three that are putting the course on and they were expecting about 50 people for the dinner tonight, but wanted to be prepared for more.

So we made 4 German chocolate cakes and approximately 75 truffles, 48 of which were wrapped.

A Trip to See Art

Jaime and I took a trip north this week. There is an exhibit from an art museum in Paris at the de Young museum in San Francisco that we wanted to see, so we decided to make a trip of it and visit her sister in Sacramento too. We drove to Sacramento Monday, with a stop at In'n'Out for lunch.

During the afternoon, we got to make a tart with Jaime's nephew and niece.

  

They had a great time arranging the fruit.

 

The next day we drove to San Francisco. The exhibit we went to see was good, but very crowded so we didn't stay as long as we thought we would.

While exploring the rest of the museum, we were excited to discover a painting by Hopper. He is one of Jaime's favorite artists and this was the first time she had seen one of his pieces in person.

Another cool painting.

After the de Young, we headed over to Pier 39. We went to a restaurant there for a late lunch/early dinner. The raspberry lemonade spritzer was really good.

We got a great table in the corner with two windows overlooking the bay.

After walking around and checking out some shops, we got ice cream. It was good.

Then it got really messy, but was still good.

We returned to Sacramento to spend another night with Jaime's sister and family. Wednesday we hung out with them for awhile before driving back in the afternoon. The drive seemed like a perfect time to enjoy my complementary bottle of Coca-Cola from our tour of the World of Coca-Cola this summer.

We made one last stop on the drive home. In Turlock, we met up with my friend Marissa and had dinner at Red Robin.

"Mastering the Art and Craft: Baking & Pastry"

My friend and fellow baker, Jaime, recently bought a new baking cookbook that is full of tempting recipes. Michelle and I used the book first and made a zesty lime tart. Unfortunately, it was more of a flop than a treat. It wasn't attractive looking and tasted okay, but not great. Undaunted, I tried another recipe today, this time for spun sugar. It wasn't perfect either and would have been easier if I'd had a few more hands, but I'm happy with the results.

They turned out more abstract than I intended.

Since I didn't really have anything to do with them at home, I took them to work and put one on the lemon raspberry cake I frosted tonight.

I was happy with the results and everyone I work with freaked out, so it was a successful recipe attempt.