Learning from Wilton

Through the month of August I took a Wilton cake decorating class on base.  I figured I loved to bake - and I love being creative with my cards and scrapbooking... so why not?

What I discovered was that scrapbooking and card making may be creative, but not necessarily artistic.  My artistic talent is little to nonexistent. 

We started learning what each of the icing tips did, and what shapes they made.  I decorated some sugar cookies, but they were so pathetic I didn't even think to take pictures.  The cookies looked better without icing!  The next class we were told to bring a cake, and she would show us how to layer it, fill it, and ice it.  If their was time we would learn "3 dimensional icing"

So the cake turned out well, filling it and layering it was easy... but covering it was a pain, and my 3D artwork on top inspired this coversation:

Kristen: "Check out the cake I finished in class today"
Travis:  "Looks great"
Kristen: "Do you know what that is on top?"
Travis: "uhhhhhh....."
Kristen: "Take a guess, I know it sucks - what is it?"
Travis: "It looks like the mushroom from Super Mario??"
Kristen: *laughs* "It's suppose to be a cupcake, but that is awesome!"

...we referred to it as the mushroom until the cake was gone.  I personally thought it looked like spaghetti worms in a cup, so the mushrooms from super mario was definitely a step up!

It was a tasty cake though!  Don't judge a book by it's cover!  Chocolate fudge two layer 8" cake.  Filled with Almond mousse, and covered in chocolate icing.

The next class we were learning how to make icing flowers, and decorate cupcakes.  I improved ten-fold over the 3 dimensional icing lesson that I failed so miserably.

First a large spiral of white icing.  (let it be noted that this is where Travis and I later determined that I should have stopped.)

Then I piped on some leaves - I think the leaves turned out fairly well actually!

And then.... I practiced the flowers on top of the cupcakes.  Destroying them, and making them look ridiculous!

When it was all said and done though, I got the practice I needed, and they still tasted fine.  Even if they did look like a cross between a bad 80's wedding and something from Cakewrecks.com!

Vanilla bean cupcakes filled with strawberry preserves, topped with an almond flavoured icing.

For the last class we brought a cake and were allowed to decorate it in any way that we wanted, utilizing the lessons we had learned from our instructor.

I'm actually fairly proud of this cake.  The icing was completely smooth until I had to drive home with it in the passenger seat.  Seriously, how do professionals do that???  It was a dense vanilla bean 4 layer cake with kahlua cream filling.  It was iced with chocolate icing, and the polka dots are flavoured vanilla, chocolate, and kahlua.  I avoided drawing any pictures and stuck to basic shapes - a move that I think made me look like I was more talented that I actually am.

It was a fun class, and I may take level two in October... we'll see!  (I passed level one and they told me I could - I have a certificate to prove it!)

The Misawa End of Summer Festival

Their is nothing better than celebrating the end of summer than a giant festival that includes floats, drums, costumes, and entertainment.

 The day began with a parade.  Most of Misawa came out to watch the parade.  The people performing in the parade danced down the streets in traditional Kimono's, shoes, and hats to music being piped in from speakers that were installed up and down the street.

 In the evening their was a float competition.  I never did fully learn what was going on - but from what I gathered the best looking float that could go up and down, and spin around faster than all of the other floats was going to be the winner.

 This float was done by the United Nations club that gathers here in Misawa.  Made up of mostly Americans and Japanese they work on learning the cultures of others - and teaching their own culture to the rest of the club.

 Thse guys were my favorites!

 After the floats were finished this Japanese drum club came in to perform.  They had drummers as young as about 8 years old. 

Homemade

As many of you know, I scrapbook quite a lot - I love being creative with my pictures, and being able to relive memories and moments as I put them together in a book. 

Recently I've started to branch out into greeting cards.  It is something that I've done a little bit of using up scrapbooking scraps over the years, but never with a whole bunch of seriousness to it.  However a few weeks ago I found out that the base was holding a flea market.  Anyone could sign up to have a table, and you could sell whatever you want.  I thought about it, and realized that I could (possibly) sell these cards.  They would be cheaper than the Hallmark section in the bookstore, and more personal.

I opened a table in the flea market at 8:00 and had a little bit of success.  I made money - but not an awful lot.  However, I met lots of people, and got a few great ideas from many of them.  I plan on tweaking my prices a little, and adjusting how I sell the cards.  (In bunches as well as individually, etc.)  For my first time I was fairly pleased with myself!  The flea market opens once a month, and I'll be there with my revised marketing strategy on August 27th.  I'll let you know if business improves.