Happy Holidays!!!!

I have relocated back to b-town for the Christmas break. You might be thinking that must be nice....a whole two weeks to be pampered by your parents, relax, watch TV, and do whatever your little heart desires!


Let me just tell you now...that would be my break in a parallel universe perhaps...but around here? N to the NO.

I still have all my grad apps to get in. My parents' list of chores and cleaning duties is longer than Santa's naughty list. The only way I'm going to get time to watch TV is if they extend the day to 27 hours instead of 24. And all my little heart desires is a bed and a warm shower....I'm low maintenance like that.

So I guess this is just another long wordy poor excuse as to why I won't be baking this Christmas :(

You hate me don't you? I just know it!

Unfortunately, my schedule is pretty much gridlocked until January 22nd 2012, when I can wrap up my last interview and my last app will be stamped, addressed, and in the mail.

After that, I promise to bake up a storm!!! Occasionally I will be doing some reviews so if you're into that kind of stuff, stay tuned :)

Have a great holiday and a happy new year. Eat something sweet, do something nice, and snuggle a lot with loved ones!

Happy Baking!

Guest Blogging at Frosting for the Cause

I recently had the pleasure of putting together a post for Frosting for the Cause; an inspiring and wonderful online project to raise funds and awareness about breast cancer as well as being a tribute to all the brave women who have fought and are still fighting all forms of cancer. Every day is a new recipe and an inspiring story. Take a look through the blog and maybe you could sign up to be part of it? Pretty please? You won't regret it, I promise :)

I dedicated the post to my grandmother and my music teacher. Both these ladies have been huge influential figures in my life. The life lessons I have learned from them are invaluable. It still feels somewhat surreal that they are not physically here with us anymore but we all know they are still here with us in our thoughts and memories. I often have a hard time expressing myself about certain things because some emotions I like to keep to myself. Frosting for the Cause was a much needed outlet for these feelings and I was able to pour all my love into the making of these cupcakes. This may sound weird, but I guess these cupcakes are an expression of my love and gratitude to my grandma and my teacher.

I had initially wanted to put together a fundraiser as part of my posting responsibility. Unfortunately, due to time constraints and a lot of picky rules about food safety things got pushed back. I am still planning to have a bake sale but as of right now, its in the planning stages.

Take time this holiday to hang out with your family and friends. I know I definitely haven't been spending as much time as I would like to because crazy life gets in the way. Appreciate the people in your life, enjoy the present moment, and laugh as much as you can...everything else will fall into place.

Monkeying Around

Okay guys its time to get serious. Theres no time for monkeying around and tomfoolery (where the hell did I hear that word and why am I using it?)

I recently received a request for some cute little monkey toppers for 2 year old baby twins. These were a complete joy to work on because they totally distracted me from the rest of the cray cray that is my life. I'm going to start using more hip words like cray cray and oh em gee because apparently I'm getting old and thus feel the need to connect with the inner youth in me. BOO YEAH! Wait do they still say that?

I used chocolate fondant for the bodies and skin coloured fondant for the rest of the bodily features.

I followed this tutorial and I think they came out cute as a button. I absolutely hated the skin colour fondant I was using. It smelled gross and was so much harder to work with than the fondant I use regularly. It was also overpriced and came with very little in the packaging. Overall, a very bad product.

But this post is about monkeys and not fondant.

I wanted the girl monkey to be wearing a tutu but when I tried to wrap it around her, since she was sitting down, it just ended up looking like a frilly weird skirt. So nixed that idea and gave her a blanket instead.

I wish I could have made the whole cake so that I could tie in the theme of the cake to these monkeys. I also made a few letter blocks out of fondant but didn't manage to get a good picture other than with my phone and lets face it, with my crackberry, it may as well not be a picture at all.

I hope the twin babies and their mommy liked them!!

Happy Baking!