Week two: Thursdays with Cake Crumb Girl

                  Hello everybody! Today is my second Thursday of  cake decorating with my Nana.

The cake's in the oven. I split the batter in half again, just like I did last week.

Now it's time for me to go ahead and make some icing. As I was going through one of my Nana's books I came across a stiff consistency icing. It's worth a shot. I still haven't found a good icing recipe for roses yet, but as I said in my last post, it's also being affected by the warm, Summer heat.

I made two batches of Nana's icing again and one batch of the stiff consistency. Funny thing...

I ran out of crisco! So I had to call Nana to ask if she could bring me a cup when she came. Note to self: Always check on your supply of ingredients before starting. ;)

Nana has an excellent practice sheet set. Last week I did odds and ends of them, this week I planned a bit, so I'll be doing each sheet for lesson one (4 sheets)

Sheet one: Row one was a bit tricky, that was the only one I did absolutely terrible on.

Me, working on sheet number two.

Sheet two: I was really happy with this one. (Simply because, at the beginning of the day, I couldn't do stars at all! Now look where I am!)

Sheet three: Getting better at curves!

Sheet four: I'm really liking the lettering. ;)

I went ahead and put mine and Nana's frosting bags in the fridge while we ate lunch.

I used the stiff consistency for roses today and sticking them in the fridge every once and a while helped a lot. Especially since we didn't have the AC on today.

Me and Nana working on our weekly mini cakes. :)

Nana's end result.

Close up of Nana's cake.

My end result.

Close up of my cake.

I still have a long way to go with roses, but this is defiantly an improvement since last Thursday!

Have a great week!

-Cake Crumb Girl

Week one: Thursdays with Cake Crumb Girl

Welcome to Summer! The buttercream melting season.

      My Nana and I are starting to get together on Thursdays from noon to 4pm. The goal is to be playing around with  techniques and playing with icing. My Nana used to work at a bakery when my Uncle, Aunt and Mom were still in school. She would practice through out the week and they would have a cake every Sunday. It's been awhile since she's picked up a piping bag and some couplers, but simply playing around is bringing some things back.
My mom remembers odds and ends that my Nana used to do, such as dipping the spatula in water  before icing the cake to keep the icing extra smooth, and putting a damp towel over icing bowls to keep them from drying.
     I have thoroughly enjoyed looking through books, lessons and practice sheets that Nana has let me borrow. And her set of tips has been way to much fun going through.
I've requested just about all the books on cake decorating that the library has to offer.I just need to get my nose out of the books and start working with the flour.

This is one of my first roses. The icing I'm using is my Nana's recipe. It's not stiff enough for roses, but how it's holding is also effected by the hot weather, even with the AC on.

I split a batter in half. One mini cake for me, one mini cake for Nana.

Nana's end result. Absoultely love her borders. She did great with the lettering as well!

My end result.

Hope you all are having a great Summer!

-Cake Crumb Girl