is called to order.
Who's up?
Whatcha workin' on?

I baked about 8 dozen cookies today for an event tomorrow. I'm pooped!!

Julie

cookies for me too..... chocolate chip, chocolate brownie cookies, snickerdoodle and custom sugar cookies for an event.
Having trouble with consistancy of the choc chip....not 'puffy' - they keep flattening out...ughh

Leahs what are you working on?

I'm working on a baby shower cake and a purse cake, both for tomorrow. The purse cake was giving me problems, but I think I've got it figured out now! I'll be up late tonight ....

So, let me tell you about my day. Came home from a morning meeting, finished up a cake that was being picked up at noon, decorated a birthday cake that's being picked up tomorrow. Wasted about an hour doing next to nothing, then thought that I'd better check my paperwork for the wedding cake for tomorrow.

It's 2:24 p.m.

I look at my worksheet and notice the date. The cake is to be delivered on 4.23.10, with a tentative delivery time off 4.

You see the problem.

Fortunately I had prepped the cake.
Unfortunately it was four tiers, I had not made icing yet, it needed fondant ribbon and and gumpaste flowers needed to be painted and wires attached. Even more unfortunately I broke my airbrush a couple of days ago.

I throw everything into high gear. While the icing is mixing, start painting the flowers with a color + vodka mix so it will dry fast.

The icing comes out perfect, goes on quickly. By4pm all four tiers were iced and the pearls were on. I put in the SPS system, stacked three tiers, rolled out the fondant, cut ribbons and applied them. Fortunately I'm pretty good at keeping precolored fondant on hand. Put the cake in the ginormous delivery box.

At this point I checked the flowers and they're not drying fast enough. I few minutes with the hair dryer pointed at them and they're dry enough. Then using a really thick gum glue I put blobs of fondant on the underside of the gerber daisies and gum glued the wire in. Yeah, yeah I stick fabric covered wires into cakes.

Then since I knew hubby would be home from work any minute so that we could deliver, I started cleaning the kitchen.

Well, since I hadn't mentioned to DH that we had a delivery, he decided to work late. I called, "Are you close?" Him, "No, I'm still at the studio." Me, "Whaaat? Come home now!"

He makes it home in record time, we put everything into the truck and off we go. The venue is only 4 minutes away. When we get there at 5pm, the family is still decorating and the cake table has just been set up. (It was a 6:45 wedding.)

We set everything up, the family makes many happy comments and no one's the wiser.

Alls well that ends well.

KKristy,
have you got butter in the cchocolate chip cookie?

I'm exhausted just reading that Leah!

Finished the last of the birthday cakes today, now working on the largest wedding cake I have ever done. Fondant ripped, pullled it off 2 times, after pulling my hair the second time I decided to scratch that fondant and get out some new lol. Finally have it covered, now waiting for my eggplant purple fondant to do all the changing it's going to do before I start putting ribbon around the bottom and making roses to go on the top. Eggplant.........?????.... yuck! Now I have purple hands

Leah - Wow!

Working on a 4 tier wedding cake with 2 kitchen cakes on the side and 6" round present cake for the flower girl who's birthday is tomorrow.

Yeah, once the adrenaline rush was over, I was pooped.

leah_s, i'm exhausted after reading that post! good for you and your DH!

i actually took the weekend off! my husband is running his 6th marathon this weekend, so we are out of town. and wouldn't you all know it that i had 8 requests for cakes this weekend!!! had to turn them all down. and the girl i love to refer customers to was all booked up this weekend too. so i referred them to a local bakery, but made them promise to come back to me for their next cake, as i know mine taste better

it feels really odd to be up on a friday night, not glued to my kitchen!!!

see you ladies next friday though...i need to make up for this weekend off

Leah, just reading about your ordeal wears me out! I couldn't have pulled that off, even if I wanted to.
I hope you get to rest tonight at least, you deserve it!

So when do we get to see you on one of the competition shows, sounds like you are more than qualified?

Leah_s
I was worn out just by reading what YOU did today ! Good thing you checked that paperwork and were ready to kick into high gear!

and yes there is butter in this recipe (12 tablespoons melted)....the cookies are good ( not great) and flatter than I want...back to the drawing board, I think...

I went to the theater with daughter tonight, and came home to chat with you lovelies. I do plan on getting some sleep tonight though!

I've been asked to do a baby shower cake for a diabetic mom-to-be so I've just been researching recipes. Any suggestions or helpful hints?

Just starting baking for my final order for tomorrow, a two tier baby shower cake. Fondant has to be tinted and decorated once cakes are cool and ready! Gonna be a long night!

I'm about halfway done with a skateboard cake due tomorrow. I am just too worn out to stay up late to finish it.
That's all I've got for this weekend!

Leah, so glad that everything worked out for you today . Good thing that you looked over that paperwork.

I'm resting tonight. It's been a busy week and I just finished a three tiered birthday cake for my niece and a small wedding cake for a friend. The birthday cake kicked my butt. The humidity is so high here right now that nothing would dry. Made a georgeous bow that still isn't dry so my neice's cake didn't have a topper. Oh well the cake was really cute.

Hope you all have a great weekend.

KKristy, just sub veg shortening for the butter. Veg shortening has a higher melting point and will keep the cookies taller. Butter is petty much a guarantee of a flat crispy cookie.

Leah_s

Thanks for the input....I figured it was probably the butter (but it tastes so good, lol!)

...almost done with the brownie cookies...moving on to the snickerdoodle

Well then, try half butter and half veg shortening.

wow Leah!!
I just finished work!! Yay! It was a rough day in the bakery. Busy busy!

2 wedding consults

huge crazy lunch hour

And my clipboard contained. 2 2 tiered 1st birthday cakes. 6 sheet cakes, and a 3 tiered wedding cake.

I thought I would never get out of there.

Have fun tonight!!

I just got done baking everything for this weekends orders. I will head in early tomorrow to do a Mystery Machine, then a little girl's decorating birthday party, then a "woman's upper torso area" cake for a guys birthday

heavenlys - wow you had a busy day too ! crazy lunch hour, huh ?

WoooHooo!!!
First time ever done at a reasonable time 8:00 pm on a Friday night (unheard of for me). Most of the time I'm working on the cake as it is walking out the door. Feel good tonight.

Good evening ladies.

I'm working on a baseball theme cake for my sister's grandson.
But my baseball glove looks hideous I am thinking of leaving i out.

I still need to add white stitching but it does not convince me.

Wow Leah, I would've paid good money to have been a bug on your wall watching you in action! You amaze me, girlfriend!

KKristy, I use butter only for my chocolate chip cookies and they never turn out flat. I make sure my butter isn't too soft but soft enough that it will indent when I touch the sides but not "squishy." After I roll the dough in balls, I also refrigerate them until they're cold.

I'm working on a full sheet cake for Sunday; just doing the baking tonight. Tomorrow I'm going to a Beth Moore simulcast (she's an amazing Bible Study teacher for women) and then coming home to figure out how to decorate the cake. It's flower themed - and butterflies for a multiple birthday - a 21 year-old and an 80 year-old. The 21-year-old is severely handicapped and not cognitively aware of anything and is on tube feedings. She wasn't supposed to live past several years old. The cake is for the birthday people's church on Sunday.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

As i'm checking and rechecking my ganache (and patting myself on the back for actually making it so that it can sit overnight to set up to use under fondant tomorrow), it just doesn't look right. Not until i take a break back at the computer and see 2:1 chocolate to cream, does it dawn on me that i measured out 24 oz of cream to 24 oz of chocolate. So i scramble around trying to find 24 MORE oz of chocolate to melt (dark chips, milk chips, and a dark fancy bar from trader joes). Thankfully a 50% micro and whisking it in and it looks normal again. I have a lot of ganache!

and i did a WASC extender on a chocolate cake, and for some reason thought that a 'milk' chocolate BC would be okay if i added some extra cocoa to the dry ingredients. The tester cake was just blah. No way i could use that. So now i have to get out early to get more sour cream, more cake boards and bake off the chocolate layers. (i'm doing a chocolate layer and a white layer on a 10"/6" birthday cake for 5 YO twins.) thankfully the cake isn't needed until Sunday morning, so i still have a little bit of breathing room.

I just finished a "crab" cake for a friend's famly birthday tomorrow.

And laughed my butt off while another friend complained a for the last 6 hours about how difficult cookeis are to do and next time she will just have me do a cake. She wanted cookie pops, for her son's b-day on Sunday, in the shape of Legos. No problem, I will bake the cookies and then you can come over and decorate them.

LMAO~she wined the whole time, couldn't believe how much work went into such simple cookies. I didn't help her at all, in fact took a break while she bagged and tied all 40 of them and arranged them in a basket.

I told her, the next time you hear someone complain about cake or cookie prices, tell them ALL about the work involved. I also reminded her that she didn't have to bake the cookies or make the frosting.

melchas,

I know what you mean...but great idea of having her come over and decorate-now she really knows how much time it takes and how difficult it can be!
I love the elmo cookies in your pics...too cute! What kind of icing are you using on your cookies? Doesn't look like royal...is it rolled bc or fondant ? Either way...nice cookies !