Blogathon Begins

Ha! Just seeing if you're paying attention with that last entry.

As of 9:00 this morning Blogathon has officially begun. I'll be watching my friends Bunni, who has horror movie trivia (and a prize you can win!.. I say 'you' because I haven't seen enough new horror movies to qualify for the prize) and Bakerina, who seems to be racing about New York in search of Internet access so she CAN blog... the poor dear. Perhaps Bakerina will entice interest in the Blogathon with her antics, only time will tell.

I hope that you will check them out while I am on my way to stuff my princess with ice creamy goodness at the grand re-opening of the local ice cream shop.

It

Time For Timer

What could be better than a public service announcement for cheese? Nothing I tell you!

There's Still Time - Blogathon 2006

You still have time to get those pledges in for Blogathon 2006... occuring this weekend. I'll be checking out the early action of some of those crazy enough to blog for 24 hours straight, no guarantees about staying up for the late night action though I need to get enough rest so I can drink my face off in lovely Annapolis with a few folks from work. It should be a terrific time and if I'm lucid enough to take photos I'll bring in a few to share.

Watermelon!

What could possibly be more refreshing than watermelon on a hot day? When it's hot outside and every woman is agonizing over how her thighs look in last year's shorts, it's sometimes tough to get people to buy cakes on impulse. I created this design with that in mind and people jump at this cake as soon as it goes in the case.
Evil plot to fatten America even further? No.
Clever marketing strategy? Absolutely!

Two cake layers are assembled with whatever filling seems refreshing that day. Then the cake is frozen for several hours, mostly because the temperature of the bakery is hovering in the high 90's. The cake is then iced with sweet buttercream (a mixture of super sweet shortening-based icing and vanilla buttercream) as opposed to our heavier, more butter-laden vanilla buttercream. The sweet buttercream is lighter in color than our Vanilla BC, easier to whip when the temps are high and doesn't turn to liquid butter at the mention of turning on the ovens.

The trick to this decorating technique is to have a steady hand and a little patience. The bands of color around the sides are applied heavily at first and then carefully shaved off while spinning the cake turntable continuously. The more gently the spatula is held against the side of the cake, the more fluid the resulting color blend. This does take some practice and this cake design is certainly not one I would try as my first attempt at the color blending technique. It will be somewhat forgiving in that you can always re-apply the bands of color and try again.

Happy Summering.


And finally, to the person from Iowa who found my blog by googling 'impossible to swallow 1 tsp. ground cinnammon'... that is just wrong Wrong WRONG!

Thank you and good night.

Blogathon 2006

On July 29, hundreds of bloggers from around the world will put their endurance to the test for charity, blogging every 30 minutes for 24 hours straight. This is the Sixth Annual International Blogathon, an event that creates a worldwide community for a day, serves up fascinating content, and most importantly, raises tens of thousands of dollars for dozens of charities. Bloggers choose the charity and collect sponsorships. At the end of the event, those sponsors fulfill their pledges directly with the charity.

It's not too late to sign up if you'd like to blog! You can also help by sponsoring a blogger, just check out the List of Bloggers at the site. Stay up late, make a difference.