fuzzykitty

When I saw the photo and corresponding recipe for Rootbeer Float Cupcakes, with rootbeer glaze and vanilla bean buttercream topped with hard candy rootbeer barrel, I knew I had to have one. The cupcakes call for rootbeer schnapps so I went to the local liquor store and asked if they could help me find some for my cupcakes, I also told the guy (Doug) I would bring him a cupcake if it lead to locating the liquor. Well, they didn’t have any but took my name and number so they could call me the next day when the owner was in to see if they could order it. When I got home someone was leaving a message on our answering machine… about cupcakes! When I played the entire message back I found out that it was my friend Doug from the liquor store, he and his manager Tiffany had called another liquor store and confirmed that they had rootbeer schnapps and that they wanted their cupcakes.

Well, yesterday I finally made the cupcakes. My only regret is that I followed the reassuring advice to in the recipe and overfilled my liners If you make these please follow your own gut when filling!

I think Darrell’s co-workers will be happy to have a break from the steady stream of fondant covered cakes they have been eating and enjoy these tasty cupcakes today.

I made another cake last night in my Wilton Course 3 final class. This is my second time taking the class. This time I used a different recipe for fondant and had a much better result! I am excited to start the Wilton Course 4 on Monday.

During class last night a woman and her husband came in to our classroom and were amazed that this kind of class was offered at Michael’s. The woman said she was tired of her job repairing circuit boards and that it was putting stress on her body so she was going to open a bakery in the area soon. She was also looking for someone to make wedding cakes because she was asked about it a lot and did not want to make them. My instructor is interested in making wedding cakes so it was good that they found each other. I was in awe of how someone could be sick of their job and just want to quit it and open a place of their own like it’s no big thing. To have the guts to quit a sure thing and steady income and to start something like that from scratch seems incredibly difficult and stressful to me. I guess thats why I am not selling cupcakes out of my car!

It’s been a whole week since I had my Lasik procedure at Dr. Maida’s office and I can see great during the day! At night lights are fuzzy but not too bad. This should clear up. Today is the last day I have to take my eye drops; one of them has a terrible taste after putting them in my eyes and also makes my stomach upset.

On Wednesday we participated in a local dining event called “Eat Up Downtown” which gives diners a chance to try a choice of three course meals for $25 at downtown restaurants. We went to The Wine Cellar and had a very nice meal. We are also going to try Simon’s Wine Bar on Saturday before the event ends on Sunday.
Today Darrell and I have an appointment with our builder’s design center to pick the colors and stuff for the house we may build. I have mixed feelings about doing this because I am still not crazy about the house or the builder but maybe this meeting will get me more excited.

I have been feeling really antsy to travel somewhere so I asked Darrell if he wanted to go to Las Vegas for Labor Day weekend… he said if I wanted to give up my granite counter tops he would love to go! So we might just go to the local beach some time during the holiday weekend. I did buy my plane tickets to Seattle for Thanksgiving with our airline miles so that I could visit my Mom. That is one long trip from Florida to Washington, luckily we had enough miles for first class round trip!

Happy Friday!

Yay! Currently, I can see a blurry 20/20. My pupils are still dilated from the Lasik procedure I had on Friday so life without sunglasses is painful.  Looking at the screen and typing will have to wait a little longer.

At work we take the Gallup Strengths Finder assessment which somehow ranks our strengths so we can better understand each other or something, well when I took my test empathy was in my top five (which is kind of rare for where I work because we mainly have a bunch of “achievers”. Darrell also has an odd strength of “harmony” which is another rarity). I also yawn a lot.

I just read an article about yawning. This interested me because I seem to yawn every time Darrell even thinks about yawning, in fact I yawned while I read the story and searched for pictures of yawns! Anyway it said that empathy and yawning could be tied together. No wonder I yawn so much.

My instructor is letting me sit in on Course 3 again because she knows I don’t have anything better to do. Last night I made this present cake but didn’t have time to perfect my bow or finish it. I think the best thing about working with fondant is that you get to play with it… kinda like play dough. Too bad fondant, even home made marshmallow fondant, isn’t very tasty or appealing especially after being handled so much. It sure makes a pretty cake covering though!

Here is the new location where we might build a house. Yeah, it looks similar to the one I posted a couple of weeks ago but this one is located across the river 20 miles away, on the other side of town. I am not as excited about the layout of this house but am happy that we will be living in a small community with 65 houses in our subdivision, will be close to the community pool and will still have lots of trees in our back yard. I am also glad that the area has more potential for growth than Middleburg/Fleming Island (were weare currently) seem to have. Darrell has also been very good about accommodating for the areas within the house I am not thrilled about and is letting me keep my granite counter tops and stainless steel appliances. The house also comes with a kitchen island which I have always secretly wanted to hang my pots over.

Darrell’s company had a Hangar Hoot this week which was a lot of fun. I got to meet several of his coworkers (who call him ‘cupcake’), their wives, and see the helicopter Darrell has been working on and flying on so much, I also got to eat lunch in a real hangar.

Last night Darrell started screaming in his sleep and scared the crap out of me. It took me a long time to wake him up but once I did I was happy to hear him tell me that he was ok. I wonder what causes that. I don’t think I have ever woke up screaming… have you?

I am equally nervous and excited about my upcoming Lasik procedure with Dr. Maida and his office of blonde, tanned, nice women. I guess the actual procedure doesn’t scare me as much as the healing process and if my vision will be restored to 20/20 as I hope it will.

Last night I completed Wilton course 3 and made this beautiful cake!  I have more pictures from class and of my cake here.  In course three you learn how to work with fondant, you also learn that Wilton fondant doesn’t taste good.  The Satin Ice brand does taste better and is equally costly.  To be different I made my own marshmallow fondant for a fraction of the price of the pre-made product.  I made one batch of chocolate fondant and one of vanilla for a total of about 5lbs of fondant.  After covering the cakes with buttercreme I started to marble the fondant by mixing the two flavors haphazardly.  In Wilton Course 3 you also learn how to make more royal icing flowers including the petunia.  I really liked the look of the petunia so I decided to make about 20 of them for this cake in peach and glue them on with buttercreme.  I think my cake turned out pretty well.  I sent it to work with Darrell to feed his mechanic co-workers.

I will be taking the Wilton Fondant & Gum Paste Course in September which should give me plenty of time to heal after having Lasik in a couple of weeks!