Nobody likes you when you're 23

I have not one, but three friends whose birthday fell on the same day. So I had to double up on the cake decorating! They're both French vanilla cakes with Italian Meringue Buttercream...

I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but that IMBC has the potential to give me a heartattack. I always think I've ruined it! (and to be fair, I did ruin one batch by not mixing the egg whites long enough and overcooking the sugar...) But in the end, if you just walk away from the mixer, then 9 times out of 10 (or at least 2 times out of three this week), when you come back in 15 minutes, your icing will be perfect.

Also! Add lots of flavoring! That's the secret! I learned that this go-round. At least a tablespoon, maybe two, and definitely more than you think you need. :)

Anyway, here are some close ups!

An attempt at Lambeth. (with buttercream, not royal icing)

I might have butchered the lyrics, but you get the point!

Lambeth

One of the best things I did all summer was to take Kathleen Lange's Lambeth 101 class. It was such an amazing class.

First of all, I love the style of Lambeth cakes. I think I always have, for as long as I've known what it was. And while I did try to teach myself a little of the basics, especially after listening to Kathleen's interview on Cake Fu, I knew I was going to need to take her class for myself.

I drove nine hours to New Orleans-- during hurricane season, no less-- to take the first two days of her four day class (my mom was with me too, and she couldn't be out of town long enough for me to take the four day class), but for only two days, Kathleen packed so much information into them! She was full of stories and history and helpful hints and encouragement. Did I mention it was an amazing class?

I was pretty nervous at first, but by the end of the class, I was really getting into the swing of this piping thing. I need to keep practicing, of course, and hopefully one day I'll get to move on to to her 201 class, and then the 301 and 401 classes. I thought I'd get the chance to take the 201 class because it was originally cancelled when Hurricane Isaac came through NOLA, but unfortunately, due to my (over)work(ed) schedule, I wasn't able to make it. But I still have my sights set on taking the rest of Kathleen's classes in the future. She's an amazing teacher, and there's so much more for me to learn!

Experimenting with Royal Icing

So my goal today was to work on my business plan for entrepreneurship class and write my elevator pitch which is due Monday. But when I started looking up prices for bakeries (which is totally confusing and a lot of work), I got distracted by pretty cake pictures.

After looking at like a billion wedding cakes on Martha Stewart's website, I had to stop looking, and starting doing...something. Anything! I needed to be creative. I considered baking something, but there wasn't enough instant gratification in that, so I whipped up a small batch of royal icing and decided to tackle the Lambeth technique, Oriental string work, and bridgework, and whatever else I could do with royal icing.

Guess what? It was surprisingly a lot easier than I though it would be, but still a) time consuming and b)  I wasn't really shooting for perfection anyway, I just wanted to grasp the basic concepts. If I was trying to be perfect, then I would've been super frustrated. First of all, I can't get my loops to all be consistent sizes. So that's the first thing I'm going to work on. Also, when I make scrolls, it's so hard to go over the lines exactly. And then I kept breaking everything with my clumsy hands. Oh, and I think my icing consistency wasn't stiff enough, since my bridgework was droopy. :(

Anyway, here's some visual evidence of what I did tonight instead of homework:

This is some form of Oriental Stringwork. Thank you to Mel for your tutorial to get me started! (And random C-scrolls!)

Droopy bridgework :(

More stringwork! I love this effect. Gravity defying!

Just fooling around with some icing. Some kind of attempt at Lambeth, I think. I wish I had his book! My inspiration here.

 ...And yes, I realize that I need to dig up my camera and charge the battery because these webcam & camera phone pics just aren't cutting it!