Baking and Decorating Goodies

I have been decorating cookies and cakes since I can remember. Mom used to have one of those confounded decorating tools with a plunger and a messy cylinder to put the icing in. Even with that, she always managed to decorate a cake for every one of our birthdays! Sometimes she would let us help decorate the Christmas cookies with it. I remember making huge blobs of icing all over the gingerbread men because then I could get all the icing I wanted on my cookie. I loved icing!

When I was 8 or 9 I guess, Mom was introduced to a real cake decorating kit by our neighbor. Mom decided to buy one and give it a try. That's when Carol and I got really interested in it too. We actually learned how to use the decorating bag before mom did because we wouldn't let her try it! (I think she used it as a good reason why WE should decorate all the cakes from then on.) Over the years, I've decorated many many cakes and cookies. Here are my favorites.

The Wedding Cake

This was my older sister's wedding cake. It took 15 hours to decorate! The bottom layer must have been 18 inches wide! I made hundreds of roses and rosebuds and froze them so I could pick them up to place them, oh so carefully, on this piece. I had to make so many because I wanted them to be similar in shape and size.

The bottom layer was separated from the top two layers by inverted wine glasses. Each glass was covering a large rose. There were rosebuds and vines decorating the sides of the top and bottom layers of the cake. Small white icing balls in swooping patterns adorned the sides of the middle layer. The same white balls surrounded the top and bottom edges of every layer. The cake was topped with a porcelain figurine from a Hallmark gift store. After 15 hours of decorating, I decided I would not likely decorate another wedding cake again!

The Gingerbread Mansion

This is just one of the many gingerbread houses I have made over the years. This mansion was designed in one day and baked and decorated the next day. It is a design out of my head. I looked at a few Home and Garden magazines for ideas.

The mansion features a roof shingled in red and green M&M's and a chimney made out of two Ovation chocolates. The front of the house sports a veranda held up with candy cane pillars. A set of double doors is the main entrance into the house from the front veranda. The conical tower juts out from the house, revealing an attractive bay of windows on two levels. Note the balcony off the second level at the right. It contains a window walk of candy canes and hardened icing. The back side of the house is two flat pieces adorned with windows and a door. Finally note the peppermint patio stones leading away from the veranda.

Gingerbread house making has become a tradition of mine. I started making Gingerbread houses back when I was in grade 10, I think. I have made one every year since. I even made one the year that I only got home on the night before Christmas eve. I needed to see a Christmas Gingerbread house! I cheated and made it out of Graham crackers. It was only 3 inches high!

I have made several other houses over the years, and have gotten fancy a few times. Among my more interesting creations were my "Gingerbread Nativity Scene" and my "Gingerbread Dairy Farm". Return here in a few weeks as I plan to get pictures of these beauties too.

This is me, cutting up apples for an Apple Crisp. Greg took the picture so that's why I'm smiling like a loonie.

I love to bake all sorts of goodies. My mother taught me how to bake before I can remember. Mom usually started the baking day by mixing at least one batch of bread. She got me hooked on homemade baking and I still do lots of it myself.

A big favorite of mine is Cheesecake. I have one recipe for a Chocolate Mousse Cheesecake which I especially love. It is a chocolate crust and a cheesecake top made with cheesecake, whipped cream and chocolate. It is better than any cake named "Death by Chocolate". I fed it to Greg as one of the first few things I made for him and he almost asked me to marry him right then and there!

I also bake bread. I rarely eat the stuff from the store. When you grow up eating homemade bread, it is really tough to change. I make a 25% whole wheat bread from scratch by hand. (That is, without a breadmaker.) Mine never turns out as light and nice as mom's but it's getting there.

What else do I bake? Hmmm...

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