        
Archive for the ‘News & Events’ Category
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010
If you follow us on Twitter, you’ve come to know a few things in the past 24 hours:
1. We’re nominated for an ISES Star award! (Events industry, a BIG deal!)
2. Not only that, the nomination is based on our 4′ long Klingon Bird of Prey cake, which we made back in November for Commedia Beauregard Theatre’s production of A Klingon Christmas Carol.
3. Given that having the opportunity to make such a cake was so ridiculously epic.. actually getting nominated for a big fancy MAINSTREAM industry award for it is completely once-in-a-lifetime!
4. This is a fancypants red carpet kind of event, which means it needs.. Klingons.
Yes, we’ve always been the types of people to live life to it’s absolute fullest, and the idea of having a Klingon entourage at such an event went from “wouldn’t it be awesome if..” to “We HAVE to make this happen!” in a very short amount of time. We don’t have any spare budget for the $300 in tickets that this would require, so we put out a plea to our friends, fans, and followers. To anyone who finds this idea to be full of win, who would be willing to chip in a few bucks to make it so.
The nerd/geek/gaming community has been awesome, and – to date – we’ve raised enough money to buy 2 of the 4 tickets! Thank you SO much to Commedia Beauregard, Kris A Spiesz, Damon Johnson, Margaret Cooper, Shannon Bergeron, & Nik Wachter for their donations! We truly appreciate your generosity, and it tickles us to no end that there are other people out there that agree – this is a great idea!
Well, I’ve got friends in AWESOME places… and I am SO excited to announce that our friends over at the most RIDICULOUSLY awesome company ever (IMHO!*), Thinkgeek.com have offered to lend their support to our quest!
EVERYONE WHO DONATES TO OUR “SPONSOR A KLINGON” EFFORT WILL BE ENTERED IN A RAFFLE FOR ONE OF TWO 2 $75 GIFT CERTIFICATES TO THINKGEEK.COM
Yes, all caps are obnoxious.. but I really think that statement required it. I am BLOWN AWAY by the generosity! Thinkgeek.. man I love you guys. BIG box of goodies coming your way as soon as I have some time to concoct some funky new experiments for ya!
Those who have already donated will also be entered in the draw. Donations must be received prior to March 22, 2010 – OR before we reach our $300 goal, whichever comes first. Click here to visit our sponsor page, which has all of the details, and a link to donate.
Thank you, everyone, so very much for your support! We were thrilled to be nominated in the first place, and now that it looks like we really will be able to have an entourage of Klingons with us.. just wow. I’m blown away by the generosity and support of the community! As a nerd (me!) and a geek (my husband/Chief Engineering Officer), we are thrilled, honored, and humbled. Represent!!
* I’m not being biased. Although ThinkGeek has been a ton of fun not only to shop from and work with, with regards to our Brownie Mix… they also put THIS video out recently. So completely full of win that there really isn’t anything I can – or need to – say about it! Although I will say, it kinda makes me wanna drop everything, drive out east, and show up on their doorstep, begging for a job with them!
Posted in "You know what would be awesome..?", Interesting, News & Events, Random | No Comments »
Sunday, February 21st, 2010
So, we survived day 1 of the Food & Wine Experience at the Minneapolis Convention Center. We didn’t win the Czar of Cakes Challenge, but it was an honorable loss – as predicted, Gateaux won, hands down, no contest!
I’ll post more about the cake end of things tonight or tomorrow, but I wanted to post some “head’s up” type messages on products that *really* stood out to us from yesterday’s show. If you’re going, make *sure* to stop by these booths. If you’re not, by all means, check out their websites, because they’re truly fabulous!
Driving Force Energy Co. is based in Woodbury, and makes really amazing energy bars. Almost like a granola bar, but soft and SO ridiculously good. Particularly loved the PB & J flavor. Nom! Also, they had some interesting caramel popcorn – including peanut butter caramel, and sweet jalapeno caramel popcorn. Wow! Both truly amazing. Hubby asked if they sell it by the garbage bag, and I honestly don’t think they realized that he was serious.
Kayak Kitchens in Stillwater was showcasing their “Haute Habanero Paste”. I’m looking at the sheet of recipes they provided for their paste, and already thinking of the ways I’d love to use and abuse it. It’s a gorgeous orange paste with a flavor and fruityness that is *not* overpowered by heat. Really good!
Annona Gourmet was a booth that Robin from Gateaux kinda strongarmed us into visiting. Not that we hadn’t planned to check everything out, but in her opinion, we were NOT to leave without checking them out. They were hawking olive oils and balsamic vinegars. While Robin was completely sold on the traditional 18 year aged balsamic (which really was terrific!), my husband and I both immediately fell in love with their “sweet peach” balsamic. Completely over the top fabulous.
Passport Beverage was on hand to sample their Dry Soda & Q Tonic waters. I am NOT a huge fan of carbonated waters, and really, truly hate tonic water – it always tastes like baking soda to me. It blew me away that not only did I tolerate their Q Tonic, but fell in love with it. None of that horrible baking soda taste, it was light and refreshing and had a really nice flavor to it. I could see drinking it straight. Additionally, their Dry Soda was really nice. We did not get a chance to try the lavender flavor (which sounded really interesting!), but the Rhubarb, Kumquat, and Cucumber flavors were all winners with us.
Uncle Pete’s Mustard was a big surprise to us. I’m a mustard nerd, and 90% of what’s out there is really bland, boring, and/or unbalanced tasting to me. They only offer 1 flavor, a sweet & hot mustard… god was it ever good. BIG thumbs up from me!
Thousand Hills Cattle Company featured some of the most delicious grass fed ground beef I’ve ever had (and I’m a big carnivore!). Also of note was their summer sausage, which was amazing.
I should probably get ready to head out, but definitely wanted to post these not only for all you guys, but for my own scatterbrainedness. Good to have the favs all in one place! More to come!
Posted in Interesting, News & Events, Vendors | No Comments »
Thursday, February 18th, 2010
So here it is! Tonight, we delivered our entry for the Minnesota Monthly Food & Wine Experience – the Czar of Cakes Challenge.
Bit of a spoiler – it’s not getting judged till Saturday, but I’m confident in declaring that we’re all getting our asses handed to us by Gateaux. Seriously. I’d recently heard a rumor that Robin from Gateaux had sold her soul to the devil. DEFINITELY starting to believe that one. (Though, when I asked her about it, she did tell me that the devil actually sold HIS soul to HER… that may explain MORE!).
Anyway, I HAVE to post photos! It’s been killing me to keep my theme and pics all hush-hush before the competition.
So, here’s the deal. In the course of our brainstorming: “What are our favorite foods?” “What would make a kick ass cake?” “What would be funny/different?”, etc.. we got slightly off track and thought maybe to look to other media for inspiration, rather than just restaurants and grocery stores. Any songs that feature a food theme? How about movies?
Well, at the suggestion of food related movies, one of us popped off a quote about Liver, fava beans, and a nice Chianti (there may have been alcohol involved in this brainstorming session).. and AWAY WE WERE. An idea that we were virtually GUARANTEED that no one else would think of, much less actually use: A Silence of the Lambs Cake
Like I mentioned in my latest blog entry, I honestly did float a few other ideas by a WHOLE BUNCH of people, a little part of me thinking I should probably be talked down from this idea. Nope. Bunch of enablers! Love em!
So, I set about working on all the fussy little details.. a bottle of Chianti (in the traditional style bottle!).. sugar “death’s head” moths, painted in cocoa… liver & fava beans out of fondant.. a fondant “radish rose” and sugarpaste sprig of basil for garnish… a fondant plate, gumpaste cutlery (all airbrushed with edible metallic silver luster!).. Hannibal Lecter’s mask.. and a brain. Muahaha!
(Editted to add – Been asked about the size a few times. The “man” is actually life sized, everything else is also “real” sized. The moths are about 5″ across, the cutlery all proper sized.. it was a monster of a cake!)
I will shut up and post photos now!
Obviously not a traditional interpretation of a “Food and Wine” themed cake, but hey.. Looking forward to seeing what the audience and judges’ reactions will be!
Posted in Cakes, Commentary, News & Events, Random | 3 Comments »
Thursday, February 18th, 2010
Back in my figure skating days, I learned an important lesson: “When you’re going into a competition where you know you have no chance of winning/placing, just be yourself, have a bunch of fun, maybe do something crazy.. and no matter where you place, you lose nothing”.
It was that kind of thinking that was behind my Tremors themed wedding cake, for the Chocolate Show competition. The theme was animals, I’d been looking for an excuse to make a Tremors cake… grabboids are animals, right? 
Anyway, if you follow me on twitter or are friends/fans on Facebook, you know that I’ve been preparing for the “Czar of Cakes” Challenge at the Minnesota Monthly Food & Wine Experience. The competition involves 6 local cake companies: Celebration Generation, Muddy Paws, Gateaux, Jessica’s Cakes, Queen of Cakes, and .. that other one. Only real rule is that the cakes have to be food / wine themed.
It took me well over 3 weeks to settle on a theme! We started with an initial brainstorming session, which produced 3 reasonably great ideas, and one “spectacular.. but has NO chance of winning, may get us escorted out, and probably will prevent us from ever getting invited back!” idea.
I tried to get into my competitors heads, when it came to weeding through the ideas. One theme was one that I could see Jessica doing, for instance. Another was one that I could see Gateaux doing. The 3rd was a really sweet idea that I definitely couldn’t see anyone else doing.. but I got really attached to the “spectacular but crazy” idea. Didn’t help much that the vast majority of my friends – in several different circles – are also kinda crazy and weird, and are enablers. LOL. Crazy idea it is!
I just put the finishing touches on the cake, and I’m really excited now! We’ll be posting photos on Saturday, can’t wait!
Posted in Cakes, Commentary, News & Events, Random | 1 Comment »
Monday, November 30th, 2009
I should start this off by a bit of background, maybe a disclaimer: I’ve never considered myself a Trekkie at all. Hell, until this past summer, I think I’d only seen 2 of the movies, and a few episodes of TNG. When hubby and I attended a big nerd convention in July, we found it weird that neither of us really fit a particular flavor of nerd/geek.. we weren’t Trekkies, we weren’t gamers.. etc. Just generic Nerds.
After this past Friday, I think we both became Trekkies. Well, maybe pre-Trekkies. Trekkies with training wheels. Yes!
Back at that convention, there was a Klingon wedding. We were totally kicking ourselves over not knowing that was gonna happen – I would have cut a steep discount for the opportunity to make a Klingon wedding cake! The ideas – “Wouldn’t it be cool if…” flew, and built on each other. Anyway, ever since then, I’ve been itching for the opportunity to make an epic Klingon cake.
At that same convention, we picked up a sparkly gold flyer for “A Klingon Christmas Carol”. Trekkies or not, it just sounded ridiculously cool to us. We’re big fans of people who get into something – anything – and just run with it. We love crazy ideas… and we ADORE crazy ideas seen through to fruition! So, we stuck the flyer on our fridge, and awaited the play’s opening.
If you haven’t heard of this – and we certainly hadn’t, before picking up that flyer – let me explain.
A Klingon Christmas Carol is a theater production put on by Commedia Beauregard. Their mission is to perform plays that are translated – from one language to another, or from one form into another. In the case of the Klingon Christmas Carol, they took a story from a book – “translated” it into a play.. tweaked it to have a Klingon theme (Scrooge has no honor!), and then translated it into Klingon. It’s performed in full Klingon garb, with English subtitles projected onto a screen on the stage. Awesome!
On a lark, I decided to get ahold of the Powers that Be at CB theatre.. one thing led to another, and we were on board for one hell of an epic cake! (Yes, this would be the same cake that we haven’t shut up about for the past two weeks, if you follow us on Twitter, or have me friended on Facebook!)
And we’ve come to the point where a fit of fangirl overtakes me, and I have no idea which direction to go with the rest of this blog entry. There is just SO much to say! Let me be lame and bullet-point it!
- The People. My husband and I had the opportunity to meet the cast and crew of Klingon Christmas Carol a couple of times before the event. Once was a rehearsal (and yes, the fanboy/fangirl in both of us came out BIGTIME as we watched them practice fight scenes, complete with Bat’leths!), and once was a meet and greet – featuring a viewing of “The Making of A Klingon Christmas Carol” – a documentary filmed the year before. It was all very exciting.. especially because everyone involved was *awesome*.
It was really interesting to watch their prep work for the show, and we have mad respect for them as a result of what we saw. I have NO idea how they managed to learn/memorize all of that Klingon. At the rehearsal, we followed along on the teleprompter.. wow, what a difficult looking language! Weird capitalization, very few vowels, and VERY interesting syntax.
We later had an opportunity to learn a couple words, when their Klingon language expert – and translator – taught us how to say “take the chocolate!” in Klingon. The idea was to have something to say as we served the cake. I never did master just the 2 words involved that Laura taught us (thanks again Laura!), but in the end, it didn’t matter. Serving the cake was such a crazy event, I didn’t have time to THINK, much less say anything!
- The Show. OH MY GOD. Where to start? The costumes are amazing! The makeup is amazing – everything looked straight out of an actual Star Trek movie – very convincing, very high quality. There is an Orion Slave Girl bellydancer! (Holly, who’s a total sweetie!). They do a cool “transporter” effect when taking Scrooge back in time! There’s a Vulcan character as the narrator.. and SHE is awesome too!
If you haven’t gone, you totally should – we’re going to see it a few times, and wouldn’t miss it for the world! Definitely a year (and career!) highlight for us!
- The Cake. Ah, the cake. We looked forward to this from the moment that our involvement was confirmed! Now that it’s all over, it’s sorta sad that we no longer have anything that insanely epic on our horizon!
The cake started out with looking for existing information on Bird of Prey ships. Luckily for us, Trekkies are thorough in their obsession, and we were easily able to find blueprint type views of the ship from various views. Score! Scaled the blueprints to fit our needs, and we were almost good to go!
Next, we had to build a custom cake board for it. With measurements in hand, I had to make a special trip to the theater to measure all doors, stairs, etc… to make sure that this was actually a logistical possibility. It was – but only very BARELY! The cake board ended up being just short of 4′ long, and just short of 3′ wide! What a monster!
My husband is in charge of all non-edible builds related to my cakes, and has now earned the title of “Chief Engineering Officer” here at Celebration Generation Cakes. Tee Hee. I swear I’m going to make him a CEO shirt to wear to events we do! Anyway, not only did he cut and finish the cake board, he built the structure of the wings – no small feat! I married well.
The our edible Bird of Prey ship made it’s maiden voyage – to the theatre – in fine form, with no problems at all. Though we had to tilt the board at a fairly severe angle to get it in the door (Though I’d measured the frame, I had neglected to take into account the door edge itself, the hinge placement, etc!), it made it to it’s table with no problem.
- The Whirlwind! The few hours between us arriving (prior to the show), and serving the cake (immediately after the show) were a whirlwind of fan activity. The warbird was definitely our most photographed cake ever, with streams of camera phones clicking away at any time. Little did we know, one of those camera phones ended up tweeting photos of the cake to Cake Wrecks, who ended up tweeting about the cake to their Over 1 MILLION followers! Thanks again, Cake Wrecks!
The insanity continued when we brought the cake up on stage after the show. All of the flashes going off were blinding! Very “paparazzi”!
- Serving the Cake! This should win for “Best Cake Cutting EVER!”. Seriously. Picture a gaggle of Klingons surrounding the cake, as Scrooge cuts the cake with his Bat’leth! Ah, no need to picture it, we have photos!
Awesome. Seriously, just… awesome. The whole thing. The memories of Friday night are going to make my husband and I grin for a very long time. They’ve got shows playing right through till December 13th, tickets are available online at http://www.cbtheatre.org.
My husband with a Vulcan, an Orion Slave Girl, and another Klingon enjoying Red Velvet cake!
More photos are available on our facebook gallery, http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=10955&id=100000056868269&l=3928cc8bf1
Posted in Cakes, Interesting, News & Events | 1 Comment »
Thursday, November 19th, 2009
Well, it’s that time of year again – we have reopened our online store for holiday ordering!
This year, we have an exciting new option available: in addition to “a la carte” ordering, and our traditional mixed treat boxes.. there is now an option to order a mixed box of CAFFEINATED goodies! Treat your local guild or programmers right.. or just use the boost to help you party all night. Either way, it is a most delicious way to abuse stimulants this holiday season!
As always, our most popular favorites are back this year, from chewy chip cookies, to nanaimo bars. Check out the full selection, complete with photos: http://celebrationgeneration.com/holidaygoodies.html.
Orders may be shipped, delivered, or picked up, but all orders must be received by December 14th.
Posted in Announcements, News & Events, Our Products | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
Back in July, hubby and I were attending a local event, checking out a table of information, when a shiny gold piece of paper caught my eye. Ever the human magpie, I had to check it out.
It was a flyer for a production called “A Klingon Christmas Carol”. It sounded so freakishly awesome that it has been displayed on our fridge at home ever since, as we awaited the season.
“What is it?”, you may ask. A theater company got together, tweaked the traditional “Christmas Carol” story to be Klingon themed, TRANSLATED it into Klingon, and perform it – in full costume – with English subtitles projected onto the stage. I’m not even a Trekkie, and that just sounds so over-the-top AWESOME, I can’t even stand it!
Flash forward a few months. A strong desire to make an epic Klingon cake, a few emails.. and I’m now in possession of a sponsorship contract with Commedia Beauregard, the geniuses in charge of this brilliance!
More on my contribution to their efforts in the coming week or two… in the meantime.. I have tickets to give away!
I will have 2 giveaways, one through this blog, one through twitter. If you don’t follow us, you SHOULD. Details for the twitter giveaway will be announced on Monday.
In the meantime, here’s how you can win a set of 2 tickets* to A Klingon Christmas Carol:
It’s easy, really. Entertain me! This is a really free form ticket giveaway, mostly due to my indecision about how to run it!
What that means is that your entry can be whatever you want it to be. Tell me a joke, draw me a picture, tell me why you want to – or deserve to! – go see this show. Tell me the nerdiest thing you’ve ever said or done. Anything really – most entertaining/creative entry wins 2 tickets.
Entries will be accepted by Email (cakes@celebrationgeneration.com), or by mail (P.O. Box 41844, Plymouth MN 55441).
Entries must be received by 12pm CST, Wednesday November 25. Winner will be announced on Friday November 27!
* Tickets are not valid for either Opening Night or Closing Night.
Posted in Announcements, Interesting, News & Events | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009
We’ve had an exciting thing going on here for the past few weeks, and I’ve been dying to spill the news. Well, everything is all in place, so here goes!
THINKGEEK.COM IS NOW CARRYING OUR JACKED UP JAVA BROWNIE MIXES!!!111!!!!1!!ONE!
YES! Hubby and I have always been big fans of Think Geek, so this has been an extra-difficult secret to keep. We are feeling so l337, it hurts!
Thinkgeek has always been my one-stop shop when it comes to gifts for my geek of a husband, and we both love perusing their print catalog *as soon as it arrives* at our house, scanning their website for cool new items, and figuring out cool uses for some of their unique offerings.
In fact, ThinkGeek was exactly what I had in mind as I developed my Jacked Up Java mixes! I’d already created one cake mix – and several cookie mixes. That was well enough on it’s own I guess, but we got into some evil megalomaniac brainstorming. “What can we create… that we could potentially get sold on ThinkGeek?”. THAT was the genesis of the Jacked up Java line, and it thrills me to no end that it was ThinkGeek themselves who eventually became our first wholesale client for the Jacked up Java line!
It’s been an interesting, surreal handful of weeks since I first heard back from their Caffeine Guru. (and I quote: “I need to buy mix right away. BECAUSE IT’S AWESOME. I am so wired from one of your “magic” brownies.”) Since that email, we’ve:
- Made an epic grocery run, picking up more than 900 lbs in dry goods. Definitely a record for us – I usually buy my ingredients on an as-needed basis, weekly!
- Individually labelled 400 pouches, by hand, front and back. My fingernails hate me – that was a lot of sticker-peeling!
- Processed that 900 lbs of dry goods into 400 mixes. In ~40 lb batches.
- Inhaled unhealthy amounts of cocoa and caffeine during the process.
- Bagged, sealed, crated, and hauled 920lbs worth of freight.
- Yes, FREIGHT! Had to take the lot of it to Blaine to ship as freight, something we’ve never had to do before. SO exciting! The 16 boxes were put onto a pallet and wrapped, while we took photos and giggled like schoolgirls as they drove it off on a forklift. See below!:
I cannot tell you what a huge relief it was to be done all that mixing, bagging, packing, and hauling.. and to see it be taken away! We shipped it as we were on our way to our a couple weeks ago, so the time off was doubly welcome. Especially the jacuzzi – hauling that much mix really does a number on the back!
On that note, I really should give a big affectionate shout out to my husband, who has been AMAZING throughout this whole process. From hauling the goods to the kitchen to spending LATE hours there with me, doing all of the weighing and bagging.. to hauling boxes, providing shoulder rubs when I need it, and more.. he’s just been wonderful. I married well!
So, that’s about it. They’re starting off with the brownie mix, but may end up picking up the cookie mix later. FYI ThinkGeek: our Jacked up Java cookies have a famous handful of fans : the Aces of Cakes themselves, the freaks over at Charm City Cakes in Baltimore. You know, just to name drop a little I had sent a couple batches of the buzzworthy cookies to Mary Alice, as a thank you for a recent referral.. and got the coolest email comment ever:
“Oh my GOD. Everyone LOVED them. They made us go coocoo – in a good way. Those things are LOADED! We loved them thank you thank you thank you! You’re the sweetest! – Mary Alice Y.”
Just sayin, that’s all.
Anyway, I think I’ll cut this short before I go into full out ThinkGeek fangirling…
Check out our Jacked up Java Brownie Mix on the ThinkGeek site here: ThinkGeek.com – Jacked Up Java Brownie Mixes @ ThinkGeek .
Check out the rest of our mixes (including the Jacked up Java cookie & Brownie mixes!) Here.
No matter which site you buy them from, enjoy responsibly! They make awesome gifts, too!
Posted in Announcements, Compliments, Gift Ideas, News & Events, Our Products | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
I’ve been chomping at the bit to get this little tidbit out, and I can’t handle the wait anymore!
Recently, I increased my involvement with Twin Cities Pride Festival.. and I’m so thrilled to announce that I’m the new Commitment Ceremony Coordinator for the event!
The Twin Cities Pride Festival has been a yearly highlight for both my husband and I, and we’ve been involved in various sponsor/volunteer/vendor ways the past 3 years. It’s such a great event – and there are SO many wonderful people involved – I’m ridiculously excited about the whole thing!
This past weekend was an event planning retreat up north, and it also marked my official start in my new position. A lot of fun was had, and a LOT was accomplished as far as the planning goes… now it’s time to roll up my sleeves and get this party started!
I will be making announcements (and calls for minions.. er.. volunteers..) here periodically between now and the event, but want to get some basic info out there now.
First and foremost, this will be a much, much bigger event this year. There will be a lot more events involved, both at the festival itself, and in the time leading up to the event. It will feature much more of a wedding *experience*. Bachelor/Bachelorette parties, a marriage retreat/session(s), and a RECEPTION!
If you’re part of a GLBT couple who’s looking to take the plunge next summer, get ahold of me, and ask to be added to our event contact list. This will be the best way to ensure that you’ll be notified of upcoming events as they are planned.
If you’re a fellow GLBT-friendly wedding vendor, are a lot of fun to work with, and would like to get involved, shoot me an email! We are looking to partner with businesses in all aspects of the wedding industry, from photographers to stationery design, decor, and more. If you think you’ve got something great to bring to the table, I’d love to hear from you.
I can tell you that we have got an amazing team started, and the possibilities are endless. This is going to be an insane amount of fun, very meaningful for all involved, and is a great opportunity for the right vendors.
For now, please contact me via the contact page on this site. As soon as the next round of web updates happens, I’ll have a pride-specific email on the contact page at Twin City Pride’s website.
With such a great canvas to work with, and so many awesome people involved with Twin Cities Pride.. I just can’t wait for next summer. This will be epic!
Posted in Announcements, News & Events, Twin Cities Pride Festival | No Comments »
Monday, May 11th, 2009
Things have been insane around here, with all of our evil plotting and the new mix launch later this week.. so I’m a bit behind on blogging.
I do want to give a shout out to the “Our Special Angels” group, though.
Our Special Angels is a volunteer organization which sets up learning and social opportunities for disabled youth.
Every weekend, the girls get together and learn (or hone) another new crafting skill: knitting, crocheting, and now cake decorating. To quote the organization: “Angels participate in fun activities while developing skills leading to greater independence such as leadership, organization, budgeting, socialization, and self care.”
The group began with just two young adults wanting to learn how to crochet. They invited some friends.. who invited some friends.. their parents noticed them becoming more relaxed and happy.. and Our Special Angels was born!
A few weeks ago (and a couple of weeks before that!), I had the pleasure of teaching some basics of cake decorating to a great group of girls.
I must admit – I was very, very nervous going in! I’ve never been good with crowds of people, I don’t consider myself a people person, and I tend to shoot my mouth off – none of which seemed like a great package for doing this!
My first day there, I planned to arrive very early. Figured I’d get my bearings, get set up, and have a few minutes to get comfortable. No such luck! They were all there, reading and excited to get started. Augh! Luckily, I had thought ahead and brought cake. When doubting one’s ability to handle a situation.. cake distraction usually works. LOL!
Everyone was so nice and friendly, and my lack of ease with the whole situation went away pretty quickly. The girls were so much fun, and so eager to learn! That first day, we mixed frosting colors, loaded our bags, and piped words, stars, and rosettes on cardboard. It was actually over way quicker than I expected.
I was looking forward to the next time (I had volunteered to do 2 sessions), and decided to surprise the girls by giving them actual cakes to work on. 15 small, individually boxed cakes were baked, frosted, and packed along with the practice boards. We started the second class with a little review, then learned how to pipe shell borders.
As I started handing out the cake boxes, it was awesome to see faces light up. I’ll never forget it.
It happened to be one of the mother’s birthdays that day, so I helped her daughter Laura “surprise” her by suggesting that Deb (the mother) go help others. I loved watching Laura put so much love into her cake, and then announce the birthday to the room as she presented the cake to her mother. Made my week!
(Laura Gives her mom Deb a Birthday Cake)
I had a blast, and have already signed up to teach another class next spring! Looking forward to it!
If you’re interested in getting involved with (or donating to!) Our Special Angels, their volunteer coordinator can be reached at ourspecialangels@comcast.net
Posted in News & Events | No Comments »
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Clarice – have the lambs stopped screaming?
Thursday, February 18th, 2010So here it is! Tonight, we delivered our entry for the Minnesota Monthly Food & Wine Experience – the Czar of Cakes Challenge.
Bit of a spoiler – it’s not getting judged till Saturday, but I’m confident in declaring that we’re all getting our asses handed to us by Gateaux. Seriously. I’d recently heard a rumor that Robin from Gateaux had sold her soul to the devil. DEFINITELY starting to believe that one. (Though, when I asked her about it, she did tell me that the devil actually sold HIS soul to HER… that may explain MORE!).
Anyway, I HAVE to post photos! It’s been killing me to keep my theme and pics all hush-hush before the competition.
So, here’s the deal. In the course of our brainstorming: “What are our favorite foods?” “What would make a kick ass cake?” “What would be funny/different?”, etc.. we got slightly off track and thought maybe to look to other media for inspiration, rather than just restaurants and grocery stores. Any songs that feature a food theme? How about movies?
Well, at the suggestion of food related movies, one of us popped off a quote about Liver, fava beans, and a nice Chianti (there may have been alcohol involved in this brainstorming session).. and AWAY WE WERE. An idea that we were virtually GUARANTEED that no one else would think of, much less actually use: A Silence of the Lambs Cake
Like I mentioned in my latest blog entry, I honestly did float a few other ideas by a WHOLE BUNCH of people, a little part of me thinking I should probably be talked down from this idea. Nope. Bunch of enablers! Love em!
So, I set about working on all the fussy little details.. a bottle of Chianti (in the traditional style bottle!).. sugar “death’s head” moths, painted in cocoa… liver & fava beans out of fondant.. a fondant “radish rose” and sugarpaste sprig of basil for garnish… a fondant plate, gumpaste cutlery (all airbrushed with edible metallic silver luster!).. Hannibal Lecter’s mask.. and a brain. Muahaha!
(Editted to add – Been asked about the size a few times. The “man” is actually life sized, everything else is also “real” sized. The moths are about 5″ across, the cutlery all proper sized.. it was a monster of a cake!)
I will shut up and post photos now!
Obviously not a traditional interpretation of a “Food and Wine” themed cake, but hey.. Looking forward to seeing what the audience and judges’ reactions will be!
Posted in Cakes, Commentary, News & Events, Random | 3 Comments »