Love and Lots of Sugar

I have been without internet (except on my phone) for almost a...

Thu, 23 May 2013 14:54:58 +0900

I have been without internet (except on my phone) for almost a week. Because of a gerbil.

I was going to put a small cake with the Nemo & anemone...

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 08:13:56 +0900

I was going to put a small cake with the Nemo & anemone topper, on top of the cupcake tower, but then I didn’t. I was too busy making frushi and four dozen seagull heads.

Boo Yankees, etc etc etc.

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 20:03:51 +0900

Boo Yankees, etc etc etc.

This man just smacked my child’s leg on a train in Tokyo. Anyone...

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 17:33:00 +0900

This man just smacked my child’s leg on a train in Tokyo. Anyone know any Japanese I can use to tell him off?

Don't ever hesitate. Reblog this. TUMBLR RULE. When you see it, REBLOG IT.

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 09:33:55 +0900

The original post only has US helplines. I've added UK helplines underneath. It would be great if people could add numbers from everywhere in the world.

Depression Hotline: 1-630-482-9696

Suicide Hotline: 1-800-784-8433

LifeLine: 1-800-273-8255

Trevor Project: 1-866-488-7386

Sexuality Support: 1-800-246-7743

Eating Disorders Hotline: 1-847-831-3438

Rape and Sexual Assault: 1-800-656-4673
Grief Support: 1-650-321-5272

Runaway: 1-800-843-5200, 1-800-843-5678, 1-800-621-4000

Exhale: After Abortion Hotline/Pro-Voice: 1-866-4394253

Child Abuse: 1-800-422-4453
UK Helplines:

Samaritans (for any problem): 08457909090 e-mail jo@samaritans.org

Childline (for anyone under 18 with any problem): 08001111

Mind infoline (mental health information): 0300 123 3393 e-mail: info@mind.org.uk

Mind legal advice (for people who need mental-health related legal advice): 0300 466 6463 legal@mind.org.uk

b-eat eating disorder support: 0845 634 14 14 (only open Mon-Fri 10.30am-8.30pm and Saturday 1pm-4.30pm) e-mail: help@b-eat.co.uk

b-eat youthline (for under 25's with eating disorders): 08456347650 (open Mon-Fri 4.30pm - 8.30pm, Saturday 1pm-4.30pm)

Cruse Bereavement Care: 08444779400 e-mail: helpline@cruse.org.uk

Frank (information and advice on drugs): 0800776600

Drinkline: 0800 9178282

Rape Crisis England & Wales: 0808 802 9999 1(open 2 - 2.30pm 7 - 9.30pm) e-mail info@rapecrisis.org.uk

Rape Crisis Scotland: 08088 01 03 02 every day, 6pm to midnight

India Self Harm Hotline: 00 08001006614

India Suicide Helpline: 022-27546669

Kids Help Phone (Canada): 1-800-668-6868, Free and available 24/7

Wedding cake #2. I delivered this one to a bar.

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 13:20:18 +0900

Wedding cake #2. I delivered this one to a bar.

This 6” round cake had half a bottle of rum in it (between...

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 14:40:42 +0900

This 6” round cake had half a bottle of rum in it (between the frosting and the rum-caramel syrup that the cake is soaked in). My 7-year-old asked if he could eat some of the leftover frosting. I had to answer with an emphatic “Oh GOD no.”

My take on the “tree” cupcake-cake that’s all...

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 13:20:38 +0900

My take on the “tree” cupcake-cake that’s all over Pinterest right now. (I’m doing this one again later this month, with leaves instead of blossoms.)

So, I was up until 2:15 last night. (Which I realize...

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 19:15:00 +0900

So, I was up until 2:15 last night. (Which I realize isn’t unusual for the average Tumblr user - I have been there! - but I have children after all.) I had a cake and a batch of cupcakes scheduled for today, and a wedding cake scheduled for tomorrow, but the wedding somehow ended up changing days at the last minute, and I all of a sudden had to have a wedding cake ready 24 hours sooner than originally anticipated. I had planned on baking it today and finishing it up tomorrow morning; I ended up doing it all last night. It took around 4 hours just to BAKE it. You can probably tell from this photo that the layers slid apart a bit because I didn’t wait long enough for them to cool before assembling them…what can I say, it was 1am. Stuff like that happens when things are rushed.

So, I poured some rum into a pot to make syrup to pour over a...

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 13:49:37 +0900

So, I poured some rum into a pot to make syrup to pour over a cake. Then I thought, NO, I should caramelize the sugar first! So I poured the rum back out of the pot, but didn’t rinse it before I attempted to caramelize the sugar.
Um, that may have been a mistake.

fancysomedisneymagic: The new Tangled themed restrooms that...

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 14:21:19 +0900

fancysomedisneymagic:

The new Tangled themed restrooms that just opened in Magic Kingdom. I have never been this excited over toilets before.

You guys, I never reblog stuff here and you know that, but these pictures made me so excited that tears came to my eyes. That usually only happens for previews of new movie musicals.

Gumpaste Anemones

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 18:57:00 +0900

When I made the flowers for the wedding cake, I consulted my books, YouTube, and the internet at large - and then I merged and modified all of the methods I found to kind of do it my own way. Here’s how I made the purple anemones.

Here are the tools I used: a silicone mat (I have several of varying price points, but my favorite for small jobs like this was actually 100 yen at The Daiso); the thin pink foam that came with the (old) Wilton Gumpaste flower set (you can get it separately now); the large rose cutter that comes with the (new) Wilton Gumpaste flower set; the ball tool that comes with the Wilton Gumpaste Tool Set, the thin stick tool (from the same set), the Wilton Flower Impression Mat Set, a small rolling pin, a glass and some Press ‘N’ Seal to keep the gumpaste fresh, some gum glue and a paintbrush. (Confession: I couldn’t get Tylose powder in time for this cake so I used Fixodent. So the “gum glue” is actually Fixodent powder dissolved in water.)

The first step is to roll out some gumpaste and cut out a Large Rose shape.

After moving it to the foam, I used the veiner mat as a stamp to get some texture on there. I later realized that I could just roll the gumpaste directly onto the veiner mat and cut it there. Hurr durrr.

Next up, use the ball tool to thin/ruffle the edges. Anemones aren’t all that ruffly, but you do need to thin them a bit.

Move the piece to a former; in my case I used aluminum foil to make molds of a small glass prep bowl I have. (This set is great, it has a wonderful variety of sizes.)

Do the whole thing again, then paint the center of the first flower with some gum glue, and place the second one on top of it.

Now use the small stick to poke a hole through both layers and the foil.

At this point I left them to dry for several days. Somewhere during that time I painted them with petal dust and thinned out Americolor gel paste.

When I was ready to make the centers, I started by making a ball out of black gumpaste, and inserting a looped (fairly thick - I think it was 16 gauge) wire that had been dipped in the gum glue.

I pressed this into one of the flower center molds on the veining mat set.

Then I brushed the center of the flower with gum glue and threaded the wire through the hole.

I forgot to make an impression in the center of this one before I took these pictures - but now is a good time to gently press the larger end of the ball tool into the middle of the center. Then start inserting stamens - anemones have A LOT. Again, I was operating on a limited timeframe and wasn’t able to order any stamens, so I made some. Most people use black stamens for anemones, but upon closer inspection of a purple anemone at the garden center, I noticed that the stamen itself is actually a similar color to the flower (but lighter), and the pollen is black. So since I had a pack of blue craft wire laying around, that’s what I used.

Et voila! I stuck the wires in styrofoam (with the aluminum foil formers still attached) until I was ready to assemble the floral sprays for the cake.

(ps, I took a home study course in floral design long before I ever got into cake decorating.)

The reason why I’ve been too busy to post lately.

Sun, 03 Mar 2013 21:18:00 +0900

The reason why I’ve been too busy to post lately.

Another “psssssshhhhht, I could make that” moment of...

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 21:42:00 +0900

Another “psssssshhhhht, I could make that” moment of success. Rose gold-wrapped chalcedony.

Whenever I start feeling a little burnt out on caking, I like to do some other kind of creative thing. Around the end of last summer, I was so burnt out that I bought a bench block and a soldering torch. There’s something very appealing about the idea of making something that isn’t going to be eaten (or thrown in the trash, as I’m sure the gumpaste flowers I’ve been slaving over this week will be).

114 down; 206 to go. This time next year, I’ll be back in...

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 22:23:54 +0900

114 down; 206 to go.
This time next year, I’ll be back in the States and able to walk into a craft store and buy a couple of packs of $&#% flower stamens like a normal person.

These took a lot longer than I thought they would. Or to be...

Sat, 09 Feb 2013 21:52:08 +0900

These took a lot longer than I thought they would. Or to be more accurate, I never actually thought about how long they would take when I offered to make them (around 3-4 hours, not counting baking, making buttercream, or piping & placing). Totally worth it.
(If it wasn’t for my massive collection of teeny-tiny cutters intended for making tiny shapes for bento boxes, I could never have pulled this off. Thank you, 100yen store!)

I just realized that I never posted a picture of the finished...

Sat, 09 Feb 2013 21:45:00 +0900

I just realized that I never posted a picture of the finished Tinkerbell cake!
I should be posting more often from now on; somebody mentioned me on a local forum and I got an huge influx of cake requests. I was having a hard time pulling myself up out of my “sabbatical”, so fate did it for me.

I don’t know how I ended up specializing in frozen...

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 16:34:09 +0900

I don’t know how I ended up specializing in frozen buttercream transfers, but now I’m tracing Tinkerbell and her sister (huh?) with a size 0 tip. My hands shake like crazy and I have very little patience or tolerance for tedious tasks - how did I end up being good at this??

It has been agreed: at our next permanent duty station, we will get a Yorkshire Terrier. If it is a...

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 09:22:55 +0900

It has been agreed: at our next permanent duty station, we will get a Yorkshire Terrier. If it is a girl: Cosette. If it is a boy: Rusty Shackleford.

The difference between men and women

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 15:51:10 +0900

When I discovered Etsy, I started buying things like this for our home:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/56278990/dandelion-blowing-in-the-wind-wall-decal

When my husband discovered Etsy, he started buying things like this:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/93425044/president-abraham-lincoln-riding-a