I have now made homemade piping gel, homemade apricot glaze, and MMF for the first time! Definitely feel like a mad scientist , and my kitchen is a disaster area, but I feel like I've accomplished a lot. I also baked a cake and decorated it, using my very first fondant stars, I put most of it in the refrigerator to "age" but had to play with some of it. You can see the photo in my album...taken after the cover I put over the cake stuck to my thinned-down, too sticky (leftover) chocolate icing. I think the cake looks a little like a cruise ship!

The piping gel looks good (recipe from Karen's Kitchen from prior posting), the apricot glaze (recipe from Squirrelly) is good and works, and the MMF was fun to make if very messy (I'm messy it seems no matter what I'm making!) I made a little fondant bear, but he got left out of the photo, not to worry, you wouldn't have recognized him anyway! Janice

I admire you tackling all these new recipes. I am still wanting to try the MMF but everytime I plan on doing that, something comes up that gets priority attention......I better hurry and get it done though because last night my 11 year old tried to eat my marshmallows, if I don't get a move on I'll be making another trip to the store to get more marshmallows.

I'm picturing you laughing insanely with a beaker of homemade piping gel in your hand--LOL! I loved the shape of the cake you made and the mod design. Very nice

Lisa, the picture in your head was pretty much the way I felt! This was spread over Sunday and Monday, but was still quite a lot to do. I even have another cake in the freezer (hopefully will be my Mother's Day cake), but when I get on a roll I have to take advantage of it!

Cindy, I don't have anybody in the house with me, and I bought 3 bags of marshmallows, just in case.
You do need some time to do this, and be sure you follow the directions closely. I divided mine into three containers, since I don't have a large project planned, mainly to try to make sequins.

Thanks Lisa! Those pans definitely are a different shape and I thought they would make a very interesting tiered cake. They are also a different metal (I got the 4 piece set eBay), they said they were hand made, the cake supply store has a set, but don't know if they are exactly the same, I only used the two smaller pans. They are 3" deep, but I didn't actually fill them that much. When the cakes were almost finished baking there was a strange smell from them, and some steam/smoke as well. Does anybody have any theories on this? Janice

If they were the kind of pans where the metal is folded, maybe some grease/water was trapped in the folds.

Thanks Lisa, yes they are folded. There is one seam, and the top edges are rolled over to the outside. The bottom is one piece and rolls up, and it is quite possible that there was moisture in there, I had just washed them! Whew, I'm glad there is a reasonable explanation! The lady I got them from said they were made in her town (USA) but after using them I got worried maybe they had some lead in them, something like that! When I go back to the cake store I will check out theirs a little more closely, see if they are the same. Thanks again!
Janice

Don't worry about the smoke/steam thing. My large wilton pans do the same thing. It is actually just that with larger/deeper pans they are in the oven longer, so once your cake starts pulling away from the sides as it cooks, it is your cake release cooking. It won't harm your oven, it won't harm you, but most importantly, it won't harm your cake!!!!

Oh! And good for you for getting all of those recipes done! I know what you mean about getting on a roll (and about the kitchen paying the price!).

Crystal

I'm glad to know that a lot of it was the larger, deeper pans, and that they are safe to use! This was the first time I'd used a 3" deep pan, and it took quite a bit longer for the cakes to start browning, and the cake release has to cook too.
Thanks! Janice