Joyful Joyful

"I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a savior, who is Christ the Lord." Luke 2:10-11

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Being so early on in our life with littles, we're still working on establishing our own special traditions.  Christmas is probably my most favorite holiday, and we like to do it right. ;-) In addition to holiday pj's, Charlie Brown Christmas music, Elf,  gingerbread cookies and more, this year we added our first family advent calendar. While I really enjoyed it, I have to say I'm looking forward to the future when Evan is a bit older and A)can sit still and listen for longer and B)isn't more interested in the advent candy. I also did Jesus' birthday cake again, and it was scrum-didley-umptious! Otherwise, we're still looking for our Scott family "Christmas Groove" as we tend to do things a degree differently every year depending on family plans and traveling. This year Chris' mom and family came down to NC while my family spent the big day in Florida.

Grandma and Aunt Paige on Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve we had a big present opening, honey baked holiday turkey eating time with Chris' family, preceded of course by quality grandma time and a trip or two to Raleigh for some last minute shopping. On Christmas day we opened our presents, just the three of us, before heading out for a morning of worship with Christ Baptist-as an aside, it was so special to share Christmas and Sunday morning this year, how appropriate! Later we enjoyed a laid back afternoon complete with naps, new toys and an early dinner at Denny's since our beloved Olive Garden(and everything else in Wilson) was closed. Next Saturday we will be celebrating with my side of the family-by golly that's three Christmases! :-)

And now, more pictures...
Where better to begin than with Jesus' birthday cake?

And from the Iphone...

   

 Good luck getting this kiddo to stand still!

Last but certainly not least, the following is a video clip of Evan's first glimpse of Christmas. Notice our rookie parent mistake-leaving out the big present for him to see first! This little guy was so enamored with his new "race along Chuck" truck and had very little interest in opening anything else after seeing it. That, a drawing pad and his new stuffed "Lightning Mcqueen" took the awards for favorites of the morning.

So thankful for our many good gifts this Christmas, and not just the ones under the tree. :-)

First place best taste!

Last night our church held its first ever dessert contest, and I won for “best taste!” Whooo hooooo! There were several amazing desserts there-from yummy cookie cakes, home spun apple pies and petite peanut butter cheesecakes-all of them looked like wonderful, mouthwatering works of art! My winning treat was a “Cookies N Cream” cake garnished with decadent white chocolate butter cream icing and delicious Oreo cookies. Chris also made our oatmeal cranberry white chocolate chunk cookies to bring and they turned out great too!

I was so happy that my dessert was a prized crowd pleaser, considering this cake and I had a rocky afternoon. The first time I tried transferring cake to plate, half of it stuck to the pan and no amount of plastic surgery could save it. And thus I took a breath, cleaned up my mess and headed back out to the grocery store to buy all new ingredients. Thank goodness for an extra measure of patience and persistence because I’m confident that the cake turned out much better the second time around(not to mention I very much enjoyed the second round of extra cake batter licking)! The next obstacle I faced was perfecting the white chocolate icing, which was another first. Who knew there was such a delicate balance to be met when heating chocolate-it feels like it’s never quite melted enough, and yet how could you miss the bold “do not overheat” instructions! The texture was a bit harder to work with once mixed in with the butter cream, but I was up for the challenge! In the end, the long and sweet afternoon was all worth it and the cake was mmmmmm mmmmmm good! I'm already looking forward to next years!

Cake Challenge!

Last week Chris & I attended Wake Tech's annual "Cake Challenge" at the Convention Center in Downtown Raleigh. As in Food Network type cake challenge you ask? Exactly. The theme was North Carolina monuments/places of interest. While Chris and I unanimously agreed that the zoo cake should take first, grand prize went to 63 year old grandmother Norma Miller for her model of the NC coast. Wow, I hope I have this much talent at 63!(Note: The first 5 pics are the challenge entries)
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Even though we arrived a little late, and the center was a lot crowded, it was fun to see the different decoraters prepare their cakes live(in the professional chef hat no less!), and then do the ceremonial "move" for judging. There were also a lot of pre-made exhibition cakes, as well as tons of food from local restaurants. All in all, a delicious experience!

A Life Quilted By God

After a busy weekend, we were pleasantly surprised to wake up to yet ANOTHER winter wonderland. Our area in Raleigh was a blanket of snow and ice, mostly due to the rain all day on Sunday-so I got a SNOW DAY off of work! As exciting as that sounds though, I am so ready for Spring. I wish the weather would make up it's mind and bring some sunny skies to stay.

Thankfully, the snow allowed me some unexpected and ample time to work on the cake I was making for a baby shower at our monthly CBC Grace Group. I saw this idea online and just loved it.."A Life Quilted by God." These past two months have been "baby crazy" for me with friends, co-workers, and new church family all experiencing the blessing of pregnancy and children. I'm so thankful for all of the new babies that God is bringing into the world around me, and am excited to meet them, watch them grow and hear their stories. :)

Cake Notes:
As I'm still at the very front of my journey in cakes and cake decorating, every new cake is a learning experience. This was a great cake for me because it gave me a ton of good practice with basic icing techniques and different tips. I had only done the "shell" a few times prior, but after this I fee like a pro! Of course there is always room for improvement :)

With this cake, I learned to plan for the unexpected. Always have an abundance of powdered sugar on hand should you need more icing. And again, a little extra planning time goes a long way! I hadn't thought out the color ratios too much, so I ended up wasting a lot of icing because I made WAYY too much of one color, and not enough for another. This cake was also very trying on my patience, because my mixer died about halfway through my first batch of icing...can we say CRISIS! In all fairness, this was not the best mixer and had lived a much longer life than expected considering I use it for everything. I just wish it had better timing :/ In any case, I was determined to press on and am happy to say that while far from ideal, it IS possible to hand mix buttercream icing. Plus, I sure did appreciate this cake much more when it was all said and done! And there's nothing wrong with a little elbow grease every once in a while...though I'll be keeping to that "once" part as long as I can avoid it!

All in all, I was really happy with this cake, and even happier to make it for a friend's shower. Most importantly, it was mmm mmm good!

SNOW day!

A Tuesday morning winter wonderland. We came ... We saw ... We conquered....well, not quite. The snow was too powdery for a snowman, but I did manage a few nicely packed snowballs and a beautiful snow angel. Here is Chris with our would be snowman. Piper had a blast, despite his freezing jacket of snow.
After our adventures outside, we made chocolate chip cookies, mmmmm! And I read my book at the island, waiting for the stove timer to ring, basking in the lovely smell of cookie dough rising.

Piper was sneaky, and ate about half of our wonderful cookies. What will we do with him?

And then I made this cake!

Thankfully, with a little pinch of patience and a lot of powdered sugar, it turned out alright(I'll skip the part where I over estimated the pink food coloring and came out with a batch of hideous hot pink, retro, barbie colored icing). I can't wait to eat this thing :)

After my adventures in cake decorating, Chris and I lazed about on the couch with a good movie and a little Ceasers pizza-a consequence of crockpotting gone horribly wrong. A story for another snow day no doubt.

Thank God for snow and snowdays :)

A Few Of My Favorite Things...

Oh how I love cupcake castles, and sprinkles, and aprons, and making a mess in the kitchen. I made these deliciously green cupcakes for Chris' New Years party with Kidstunes. Along with the always dreaded White Elephant exchange, there was also a fun awards ceremony, where Chris was aptly awarded the title of "Guitar Hero." While very true, I must say that Chris is much more than a guitar hero these days, spending more time with his new set of electric drums and sharpening his piano skills.
Oh, and I haven't forgotten my nod to Martha...sans the silver sprinkled tree branch. Without further ado, my mom's lovely New Year's table...

A beautifully set table, anxiously awaiting food and drink, laughter, family, full bellies and dessert-another one of my favorite things :)

A 24th B-day and a Guitar Cake

Yesterday we celebrated Chris' 24th birthday :) In true Chris fashion, I made him a guitar cake, a breedlove guitar at that! I was so happy that it did in fact, resemble a guitar AND tasted super delicious! It was alot of work, but I had a ton of fun baking and decorating, and I was so happy to be able to make the perfect cake for my hubby on his special day. It was the perfect "icing" on an amazing dinner at Kanki-unfortunately we were soo stuffed we hardly had enough room in our bellies for cake-that's okay though, I don't think it's going anywhere anytime soon. Happy Birthday baby!
Piper-My faithful kitchen helper, always by my side, counting on my messy baking and frequent crumblings of icing and batter. He is quite the unbiased taste tester. :)

Adventures in Cupcake Decorating...

My final cake decorating class at Micheal's was last night, and I am now-drumroll please-Wilton certified(class 1 anyways)! Because I made my dad an ocean themed cake for his birthday this past weekend(pictures to come), I decided to go simple for this last class and decorate some delicious cupcakes.


Seven things I learned from cake class:
1. Consistency counts! There are three types of consistency in cake decorating-thin, medium, and thick(or stiff). And believe me, it makes a difference.
2. One batch of icing is rarely enough. When it comes to preparing icing, better safe then sorry-make more than you need!
3. Let icing dry and crust before you try to wash it out, especially if your using decorating tips-much less mess this way.
4. The rotating cake stand is a must have, totally worth it, small investment. It makes icing much easier, and prevents the constant turning and awkward bending while icing.
5. A "crumb layer" is a neccesity-it's a thin layer of icing that goes on first to essentially "glue" the crumbs to the cake.
6. Patience perfects.
7. In China, babies are potty trained from birth-no messy diapers for them. I learned this from a very talented cake decorator beside me who, with her family, is an IMB missionary to China and is in the US for the next year while her husband is in school at Southeastern. Please pray for them as they enjoy their time stateside with family and prepare to go back to China in 09'.

Adventures in Cake Decorating

I am not naturally good at this; it is hard, delicious work.

Adventures in Cupcakes...

"A Learning Experience" would be the perfect summary to my first time baking and making icing from scratch. Suffice it to say that my past baking experiences have been aided by the expertise of Betty Crocker, Duncan Heines, and the like. I've love to bake, and am lately finding much joy and satisfaction from being creative in the kitchen.
To the seasoned baker, these tips will sound very comical I'm sure. However, if your a beginner like me, you might find this helpful!

Attention amateur baker, these tips are for you!

1. Soften butter does not mean "melt" butter....after thorough investigation, I think this was my biggest culprit.
2. "Sift" is not a word one should read over lightly...get a sifter!(Herein lied my consistency issue)
3. Generally, wet and dry ingredients are best when mixed separately.
4. Cake flour is indeed different than regular flour.
5. Similarly, there is a difference in regular food coloring and cake food coloring.
6. "Overbeating" is an easy trap to fall into...resist the temptation.
6. Practice makes perfect!

I look forward to learning from my mistakes here and meeting my next cake with success!

Fourth Festivities

Chris and I had a great fourth of July weekend! On Thursday night, the third, we spent time with my parents watching the fireworks at Seymore Johnson Air Force base. On my list of most favorite things in the world, fireworks competes for top five(somewhere near cupcakes, between girl scout cookies and strawberries). Then on Friday and Saterday we had a great time with Chris' mom and family for some more fourth of July festivities, rolls and barbecue chicken included. Between my dad's yummy hamburgers and Chris' aunts lunch, we had our fill of good American food this weekend! I also enjoyed making a very simple yet delicious patriotic flag cake.