Parting of the Red Sea Cake

This past weekend I delivered my third and last cake for the month (and probably for a little while- I need a little cake break).  This one was in honor of a friend's son's 1st birthday.  His name is Moses, so, appropriately enough, I made the parting of the Red Sea!

This was probably the most fun cake I have gotten to make so far. It was the most relaxing because I made sure to give myself more than enough time- no rushing and no late nights!  I also felt like I was able to get the most creative and just kind of have fun.  They gave me no specifications so I really just got to run with it.

I made pretty much everything out of fondant.  For the signs I added in some Gum-Tex (also known as Tylose) powder to help stiffen them and make them stronger.  For the ground in between the walls of water I made a mix of brown sugar and cocoa powder (yum!).  To finish it off I made white caps with royal icing and then brushed the whole thing down with glucose to give the whole thing a wet look.

I can't get over how much I love using my BOSCH Universal Plus Mixer for making cakes (aside from fondant- which I will never make again!).  I love how easy it is to add ingredients through the top of the lid since there is no over-hanging component as there is with most other mixers.  It is also so easy to be able to see what exactly is happening within the bowl.  Plus, the lid also definitely helps cut back on the amount of powdered ingredients that puff up out of the bowl- which is nice for clean-up!

Remember- this is the time to buy a BOSCH mixer from Marmee's Bread Market because from now to the end of the year she is offering the food processor attachment for only $30 with the purchase of a mixer.  That is a total steal!  Christmas is coming- it would be a great gift to ask for this year!

Be sure to visit my sponsor- Marmee's Bread Market- for recipes and everything else you need to easily make fresh baked goods for your family!

The SIlent Governess- Review

So, sometime last week I decided that I better finally buckle down and finish reading a few of the books I have had on my shelf for quite sometime, just waiting to be reviewed.  I'm not sure why it took me so long to finally get around to it.  Under normal circumstances I am an avid reader and find much enjoyment in it.  But, as many of you know, the last, oh I don't know, year, has not been normal.

Anyhow- once I actually started reading The Silent Governess I absolutely fell in love!  Wow- this book was beyond lovely!  Filled with suspense and the ever-growing possibility of romance, I was captivated.  I couldn't put it down!  I would be lying if I said that I didn't sneakily stay up until the wee hour of 2:00am last night to finish the last hundred pages or so!  I could easily see this book being turned into a movie, a very good movie, and I don't think that about every book I read.

Julie Klassen did such an amazing job of capturing the essence of the Victorian era and researching the historical details that I almost felt like I was learning something too... but that's not the point- it was just great fiction!  Even the language presented a new challenge being very accurately akin to what would have actually been spoken in 1800s England.

Can you tell I liked it?

Go get it!  You'll like it too!

You can purchase The Silent Governess right here.

This book was provided to me for honest review by Bethany House publishers.  All opinions are entirely my own.

Be sure to visit my sponsor- Marmee's Bread Market- for recipes and everything else you need to easily make fresh baked goods for your family!

CAKES!

For my BOSCH Universal Plus Mixer feature post this week I thought I would show you all a couple "little" cakes I have recently made.

First of all, you may recall my referring to the near-death experience my mixer encountered at the hands of a dreadful fondant recipe I attempted making for these cakes.  Well, I am happy to report that after we took the bowl apart and I (sheepishly) laid hands on my mixer today, praying, "Dear Lord, Please let this baby work!!"- my beautiful mixer is working without a hiccup!  Hallelujah!  Praise the Lord!!

On to the cakes!  The first one I made a few weeks ago was a Bridal Shower cake with a Price is Right Theme.  I decided to make a shrunken version of the set of the original show and I changed the logo to "Their Love is Right" (as requested).

Front View

Top View

Side View

Back View w/logo

So, I was actually not happy with this cake.  It was the first one I had done in quite a while and it was incredibly complex!  The fondant wasn't as smooth as I wanted it to be and there were lots of little cracks and smudges that just didn't live up to my expectations.  I just couldn't see past the flaws.  I was secretly hoping that the client's (she is also a good friend) husband would drop the cake on the way into the building, but as luck would have it, he did not.  They loved and said it was great, but I still just wish it could have been better.

All in all this cake took me somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 hours, start to finish.  There was more than one 4:00am bedtime during the process of this cake!  Yikes!

The following weekend I made a 10/10/10 cake for a friend's son who was turning... 10!  (What are the odds?!)  I was much happier with how this cake turned out.  Things just all-in-all went more smoothly and quicker as well (only about 15 hours!).  This cake was much more fun to make because I felt more confident and things went so much easier.  the most time consuming part was cutting out all of the fondant pieces (the yellow ones were also painted in gold luster dust).  There were a couple late nights associated with this cake but nothing like before.

To top off this experience, the clients have really enjoyed the taste of the cake!  Yeah!  Considering that I am not a huge fan of cake myself, this was something I was really worried about, so I am glad they liked it!

One more cake to go this coming weekend, which I will be sharing with you soon!  So thankful for my BOSCH Mixer to make the baking process go off quickly and easily!

Be sure to visit my sponsor- Marmee's Bread Market- for recipes and everything else you need to easily make fresh baked goods for your family!

A little Mother Culture!

As some of you may recall, over the summer I reviewed the book Pocketful of Pinecones by Karen Andreola, and the gist of it was that I was completely in love with the book and couldn't wait to read the sequel, Lessons at Blackberry Inn.

Well, shortly after my review I came across Karen's blog, Moments with Mother Culture, which I was positively thrilled about, and shared with her that I had reviewed her book.  Imagine my surprise and complete gratitude when she not only visited my blog and commented but also sent me the sweetest email in which she offered to send me a free copy of Lessons at Blackberry Inn out of appreciation for my review!  I was shocked and beyond delighted!  It is always a humbling thing to have an author or speaker that you have reviewed actually read your work, but then to offer to also send me her book was thrilling, especially since I have been dying to read it!

Just to add to my excitement when the package arrived it had not one but TWO of her books inside- Lessons at Blackberry Inn (which she signed!  Eeeeek!) AND Story Starters (which I will be discussing more on my homeschool blog, The World According to Them, very soon)!  And get this- she even wrapped each book in tissue paper!  It was the sweetest gift and I am so honored to have received it!

I wasn't going to start reading until I had finished the other books that I have been working on... but I couldn't resist!  So, I have stashed it in a spot that I can fairly regularly sneak off to for a few minutes alone and I try to read a couple of pages whenever I can!  I'm about a third of the way in and loving it just as much as Pocketful of Pinecones!  I will be sure to let you all know what I think when I am finished!

Thank you so much Karen for such a lovely gift!  I appreciate your generosity and extravagance more than you can know!

Now for a little Thankful Thursday...

#21.  Generous authors who go above and beyond

#22.  MOPS- a lovely break yesterday

#23.  MOPPETS Volunteers- who deal with even the fussiest of kiddos

#24.  friends who offer support and encouragement

#25.  friends who allow you to return the favor and get the attention off yourself

#26.  Kay Arthur podcasts

#27.  cool fall days

#28.  little boys who say and do the funniest things I've ever heard and seen

#29.  second (and third, and fourth, and infinity) chances

#30.  creative inspiration

Be sure to visit my sponsor- Marmee's Bread Market- for recipes and everything else you need to easily make fresh baked goods for your family!

Buttermilk Oat Bread!

Could my little bread-making land seriously get any better?!  The deliciousness emanating from my house on a weekly basis is so extravagant I hardly know what to do with myself!  It thrills me beyond belief that we have had exclusively homemade bread for almost two whole months now (thanks to my BOSCH Universal Plus Mixer from Marmee's Bread Market!).

Tonight I tried out Marmee's recipe for Buttermilk Oat Bread- brilliant!  So yummy!  This bread is seriously yummy enough that you could even eat it without butter (but, who am I kidding, why would you want to?!)!  I can't wait to send my husband to work with a couple of sandwiches on it tomorrow morning because I know he is just going to love it!  True to form, I did substitute some of the unbleached bread flour for my fresh-milled whole wheat and still had wonderful results. I have yet to try one of Marmee's recipes that we don't absolutely adore (and devour in short order!).

Have I mentioned one of my favorite things about owning a BOSCH?  It has allowed me to be giving in a time when I ordinarily would not have anything to give.  We have been so broke that we could hardly see straight but having my BOSCH at my side has allowed me to bless other families with some homemade goodness on a regular basis, which in return has been a blessing to me.  It is good for the soul to be able to give!  I have been able to share at least one loaf from every batch of bread I have made and it is incredibly satisfying- just fills me up!

I do seem to be running into one snafoo though that I am hoping it will work itself out when my husband looks at my machine, but last week I was baking a cake for a friend and made an attempt at homemade fondant that went incredibly wrong.  Apparently the stiffness of the fondant was just too much for my cookie paddles to handle and the plastic gears on the bowl and the paddles began to grind on each other, something terrible.  As soon as the horrible sound began to emit from my machine and I realized what was going on, I turned it off, but a small amount of damage had already been done to the plastic- nothing that inhibited the machine from working once the malicious fondant was removed (not to readers- don't bother trying to make it- just buy it!).

Today, however, when I was making my bread, a clunking sound kept coming from the bowl on my machine.  My husband listened to it and thinks it is something with the gears- great.  I am trying not to let devastation set in quite yet and just need to have him look at it more and find my warranty info.  How upsetting!  I can't bear to think of being without my machine!  :-( Hopefully we will get it worked out quickly and relatively painlessly!

Be sure to visit my sponsor- Marmee's Bread Market- for recipes and everything else you need to easily make fresh baked goods for your family!