Archive for September, 2009

“You know what would be awesome….?”

Sunday, September 20th, 2009

On an almost daily basis, I find myself completely in awe of the fact that my husband and I found each other. We have both have completely warped, twisted senses of humor, and the frequency with which we come up with weird ideas in line with each other.. always amuses me. He is the Butthead to my Beavis.

Till now, any of our weird cake / wedding industry thoughts & ideas have pretty much been left between us. I think it’s time for that to change, and this blog provides us with an excellent vector for sharing such insanity with the world!

The catalyst involved here was an ironically appropriate one – we were watching the first disk of Quantum Leap, season 1. Can you believe it’s been 20 years since the show debuted? Crazy. Makes me feel old, but I digress.

Anyway, I had this idea in my head. You know what would be awesome? Showing up to a bridal consultation, and answering every question with “Ziggy says…” or “Well, according to Ziggy, there is an X% chance that….”

Of course, I don’t have the fortitude to do that and be able to keep a straight face, but.. the thought tickles me. THAT’S what would be awesome… and that inspired this new category for the blog! Expect strange ideas and general weirdness from anything posted under this category in the future

Lynchburg Lemonade Cupcakes

Thursday, September 10th, 2009

As promised, here is much more “guy friendly” cupcake recipe – a great counterpart to our Pink Grapefruit Daiquiri Cakes!.

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Sugar Lilies, and Photography

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009

I came across a gorgeous detail shot of some of my custom, handpainted sugar lilies this morning, and thought I would share:




The nice thing about being married to a photographer is that I have an insane amount of photos of everything I’ve ever made.  The not-as-nice thing about that is that there are many, many gorgeous photos that never make it to the site!

The 3 basic types of photos I choose from are:

“Straightforward” – These are the photos that you see in my galleries, and in my print portfolio. Straightforward shots of the entire cake, everything in focus.

“Artsy” – You see these sort of photos on the other pages of my site. It may be a partial view, it may feature a low depth of field (background looks fuzzy), etc. As I have only a finite amount of “other” pages, and each of those only has a certain amount of text to accent, I don’t get the opportunity to use many of these photos. They sure are pretty to look at, though!

“Detail” – These are some of the coolest to look at… but unfortunately I have the least amount of actual use for them. Photos of a very small part of a cake, really highlighting the beauty of a specific technique or design element.

I think it’s about time that some of these photos get their time in the spotlight!

As always, all photos on this site are courtesy of Happenstance Photography. If you need any product or food photography done, be sure to shoot him an email!

Jalapeno-Beer Peanut Brittle

Monday, September 7th, 2009

I’ve been promising my husband a beer-based brittle for a very long time. After letting the idea stew for awhile, I finally came up with a recipe for his new treat! Using roasted, salted peanuts along with a dark, flavorful beer and jalapenos makes this a very “guy friendly” snack.

The way the jalapenos cook in the syrup gives the brittle an even, “low, slow burn”, not so in-your-face with the jalapeno kick. Very tasty, even though I can’t stand beer!

Enjoy cooking with booze? Be sure to check out my cookbook, “The Spirited Baker“!

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