Category Archives: Learning
Constructive Failures
This weekend presented me with a low-pressure opportunity to try some creative things that were new to me. Some were spectacular, visual failures, and others turned out relatively acceptable. I did learn a lot of things along the way, though, … Continue reading
Kitchen Hacks for Winter
We live in an old house. It’s lovely. It’s charming. …and it can be soul-crushingly cold in the Winter. I may be unfairly biased, since my first Winter here coincided with the first trimester of pregnancy with my second child. … Continue reading
Wild Grapes
Thanks to a guided nature walk the tot and I took with the Cub Scouts, we noticed some of the vines in our yard are wild grapes. Not ones to let a foraging opportunity slip by, we spent a sunny, … Continue reading
I Made a Little Cake
I got to experiment with using modeling chocolate to cover a cake! It wasn’t perfect (at all), but I learned a lot and will keep at it. Chiefly: It really, really does not stretch like fondant. Really. (I.e, It will … Continue reading
Yummy Failure
The Best of Intentions I’ve discovered that it’s even tougher keeping on top of baking and blogging with an infant to care for than it was being a heavily pregnant zombie, even if I do have more energy again (Shhh!). … Continue reading
Pie Decorating Shortcut
I love grabbing a paring knife and free-handing patterns into the tops of pies, but sometimes I want either a more refined drawing, a quicker turnaround, or both, so I grab my cookie cutters… My Secret Weapon Maybe it’s all … Continue reading
Modeling Chocolate – Early Lessons
I was tired of fondant. There’s not much excuse, really: mainly, I think I must just be fickle. For a big project that also had to use a lot of brown in the decoration, I eventually landed on modeling chocolate … Continue reading
Zucchini Pasta Trial
I’m the only one in my house who likes zucchini. I have to hide it *really well* for the guys to tolerate it, and – quite frankly – I don’t have a lot of the time and willpower for properly … Continue reading
Teacher Appreciation Cake
A quick, relatively simple project for teacher appreciation. I added the white fondant coating mostly because I had some extra sitting around and because I wanted to use the new butter cream frosting recipe I came upon recently, which can’t … Continue reading
My New Favorite Butter Cream
Eureka! I’ve had a serious longing to switch from the American-style butter creams which invariably involved some form of fat (butter) and copious amounts of confectioner’s sugar (along with some milk or cream to keep the texture workable). The egg-based … Continue reading
Jen's Confectionary 