Sugared Productions Blog

Bow Loop Dryer

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Hello Sugar Friends!

Hope your weekend is starting off right. I have tons to do this weekend, and don’t know where to start. I kinda feel a hamster on a wheel. No, hamsters look too much like little possums. Scratch that analogy.

 

Anywho, I have gotten hundreds, no thousands, no billions (OK, a handful) of emails asking where I got the bow loop dryer I use in my Boxes and Bows DVD, and how can they get one? Well: 1) it’s not mine, and 2) you can’t get one. Bummer.

The rack I use in the DVD actually belongs to Wendy and her hubby made it for her. I don’t have a picture of it to post here, so you have to watch the DVD to see it. (Ain’t I slick?)

 

But , have no fear. I have found another great rack that you can actually obtain! A gal on Cake Central posted this one that her hubby made from PVC piping.

 

 

 

 

All the arms swivel to any position you want. You can use it for drying flowers, bow loops, tails and more. You can also slide fatter pipes over the arms to make more open loops. I bought one from her, used it and loved it. Worked great and holds a lot too.

JaimeAnn of Cakes by JaimeAnn and her hubby are making these and selling them. I think the price is $35 plus shipping. You can contact her for more info and to order one: CakesbyJaimeAnn@bak.rr.com

Disclaimer: SugarEd is not affiliated with JaimeAnn nor her husband in any way, nor do we get monetary benefit from the sales of these racks. I do not know JaimeAnn nor her husband. Heck, I do not know if they even really exist. They could be androids, or aliens, or Disney animatronics for all I know. So once you leave this blog, I am out of the loop.

 
Have fun!
 
 
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CALLING ALL CAKE PHOTOS!
 
If you have a cake you are of proud of that you made after using techniques taught in our DVDs, then send them on in! I will post them in the blog to show off all you great cakers! Send a little description with the photo and a website link if you would like me to include that. Please send photos to sugaredinfo@aol.com and enter “Blog pic” as the title.
 
 
 
Have a great weekend. I am off now to try to get my head together and get some stuff accomplished!
 
Happy caking!
Sharon
www.sugaredproductions.com
 
 
 
 
 

Easter Special… FREE DVD!

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HAPPY EASTER!
 
 
 
Buy any 2 Instructional DVDs and
receive a copy of our
Design Gallery DVD for FREE!
 

Instructional DVDs include Perfecting the Art of Buttercream,
Flawless Fondant, Successful Stacking
and Boxes and Bows.

The free DVD will not show up in your shopping cart at checkout, but you will receive a confirmation email that you have qualified for the free gift.

 

Offer expires April 12, 2009

 

 

Daring Bakers: Lasagna!

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WHAT THE HAY?
 
Daring Bakers want Sharon to cook?
As in food?
As in gather ingredients, chop up stuff;
take the pans out and do something with all that to create…….
a meal??
 
Do they know me at all?
Sharon does not cook much. At all. OK, never.
Sharon does not care for cooking.
Sharon gave that up decades ago when the obnoxiously
picky eaters she lives with proved it to be a futile effort.
 
 
 


And to add insult to injury they want me to make lasagna? Do they not know I am married to a 100% pure blooded Sicilian who will eat no other Italian food besides his mamma’s? Did I do something to piss off the Daring Bakers?

Well, being the stubborn me that I am, I did not let these obstacles deter me from my challenge. I expected to either throw it away cuz it would totally suck, or end up eating it myself for a whole week until it was all gone.

 

 

 

The March 2009 challenge was hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge. If you want the recipes, click on the hosts’ sites above.

For this challenge we had to make our own homemade spinach pasta, and use a recipe for bechamel sauce and a meat ragu. Alrighty then! The only thing I have used my pasta machine for is fondant and gumpaste. But make the pasta I did. I totally screwed up the recipe and had to add about 3 more eggs to make it kneadable and non brick-like. I knew this was gunna be bad from the get go.

 

 

I made mine as rolls, rather than the traditional layered casserole because, well, that’s how I roll. HAHA. I crack myself up sometimes.

 

 

 

 

 

J saw the green pasta and asked what the heck was that? I told him I was making lasagna (which he does like) and that it was broccoli pasta and he would love it. I told him it was broccoli because he loves broccoli and if he knew it was spinach he might not even try it.

Well, later that evening as the lasagna is baking he comes into my office and says,

J: Mom, that stuff has spinach in it?
Me: Getting nervous and pretending I did not lie earlier: Yeah, it does.
J: You said it was broccoli. I saw a package in the garbage can that said spinach.
Me: (Busted!) I did? Oh, I just said the wrong thing. It tastes just like broccoli. You won’t even taste it in the lasagna. Trust me, you will like it.
J: Yeah, whatever.

 

OK, so I know for sure he’s gunna hate it.

And hubby hates all things white sauce and not made by his mom Gina. But, I must forge on as any true Daring Baker would do. I will get my photo shots for the blog, get credit for the challenge, and move on with my miserable lie filled life.

 

 

OK. At least he agreed to try it. He looks miserable. But he does that a lot when I take pictures.

 

 

What do you think J-Man? He gave it a thumbs up, but in a cool teenager kinda way. (See the one little thumb up?)
 
 
 
 
 
 
He likes it! Hey Mikey!
 
 
 
 
And guess what else. Sit down. P-Daddy liked it too! I nearly fainted. I did not tell him it had white sauce in it. God, I am such a dishonest person. I need to go to confession.
 
SO, for the first time in about 20 years, 3 people in my household liked and ate the same thing on the same night! Check the Book of Revelations cuz the end of the world must be coming soon. Or Hell is frozen over. Something freaky is going on for sure!
 
 
So does this success mean Sharon is going to start cooking on a regular basis?
 
 
When pigs fly!
 
 
 

How to Make Baby Booties

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Who doesn’t love a cute little baby bootie? No, I don’t mean their butts, but those are dern cute too!

 

I’m talkin‘ bout those cute baby shoes you can use for toppers on your baby cakes!

 

 

Here is a step by step tutorial on how I make them using the cutter set you can find HERE:


I use gumpaste for mine, and I highly recommend the Nic Lodge recipe. But some folks do use fondant with success. Cut out 2 soles. There is no left and right foot. Cut them the thickness of the cutter itself. I let those dry one day before I proceed.

 

 

Then cut out the toe flap. Don’t go too thin or you will have “toe issues” when you apply it to the sole.
 
 
 
 
 
I thin the edges slightly.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Then I fold up that flap that I thinned.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Paint with water for glue.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Then I apply the sole (the sole cutter is marked as to which end is the toe). That wet flap is going to go under the bottom of the sole itself.
 
 
 
 
 
 
See how that flap is wrapped under the sole? Many people do not do it this way. They do not thin it, and just wet the to flap and attach it right along the outside edge of the sole. That does not work too well for me, but many people do it that way. So try both ways and see what works best for you. I stuff the inside of the toe with a little cotton to get a nice shape. If your toe flap is rolled too thin, the sole will break through, or you just will not get a good clean look. I let this dry a while before moving on to the next step.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Cut out the back flap piece.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Clean the holes out with a round piping tip.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Thin the edges a bit.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Bend up that flap and wet it with water.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Attach the back flap starting in the middle and then wrapping the 2 sides forward.
 
 
 
I had to prop the shoe up here to take the picture, so I could not actually show you doing it with my hands. These photos were taken many years ago before I even knew how to turn a camera on, so I apologize for the poor quality.
 
 
 
Stuff the shoe to help it hold its shape and let it dry a full day. Then you can go back and add the laces. Do not try to thread and tie the shoe laces like a real shoe. Make them like a dress bow. One loop on one side, one on the other, and a faux knot in the middle. I use my clay gun , using the smallest round disc, to make the laces. (See first pic above.)
 
 
 
 
 
 
Ain‘t that cuuuute? You can learn how to make this package cake and bows HERE.
 
 
 
 
 
 
These make a nice keepsake for the mom to be. They will last indefinitely.
 
 
 
 
 
Customers go nuts over these little things. You will be a superstar cake decorator when they see these!!
 
 
 
 
Give them a try. They are really fun to make. You can also get creative and modify them a little to make sneakers and Mary Janes.
 
 
Love your cakes.
You made them.
God made you,
And God don’t make junk.
So you don’t either!
 
 
Happy Bootie Making!
Sharon
 
 
 
 

 

A Day at the Zoo

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Hi Ya’ll! Hope you are having a nice weekend. This post has nothing to do with cake whatsoever. So if you stop reading now I will not be offended. I can’t be offended because I have no way of knowing if you stop reading or not. But if I did know you stopped reading, my feelings would be hurt, so please keep reading. I think you will enjoy the pictures.(Click on them to enlarge, because some of them are pretty good if I may say so myself!)

My hubby P, my youngest son J, and I took advantage of the arrival of some beautiful spring weather and spent the day at the Audubon Zoo. Apparently so did the other 2 million people that live in the Greater New Orleans area. It was packed. Despite the crowds, we had a wonderful day at our nationally highly ranked facility. ( Which I am very proud of because when I was a kid, the place was a total dump. They did a major improvement project about 25 years ago or so and it is a world of difference.)

 

 

We are fortunate enough to be one of only a few zoos in the nation with white Bengal tigers.

 

 

So sweet and peaceful.
 
 
 
 
 
 
I though this little fellow was cute.
Some kind of bear walking right towards us.
 
 
 
 

 

                  Oh, a little to the left. No, a smidgen to the right.

                     Ah, yes, that’s the spot.

 

 

 

Watching the apes is one of my favorite things at the zoo. They don’t do much, but their mannerisms and facial expressions are so human like, it fascinates me.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Yeah, he scared me a little.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Here are my 2 apes. They are very uncooperative with picture taking. This photo is out of focus because my camera focused on those 2 guys in between them (pro photog I am not.) But I am blown away by the exact same facial expressions they have here.

 

 

 

Now that is better. I had to threaten them with cooking dinner to get some nice smiles out of them.
 
 
 
 
 
 
The zoo has a brand new exhibit about dinosaurs. They are life sized robotic things, kind of like you see at Disneyworld. They move and roar and stuff. Not sure what kind this is.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
This is the dreaded T Rex.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
And my little monster in front of a smaller one. He really loves the Jurassic Park movies, and enjoyed this exhibit a lot.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
A nice shot of rhino butt for your enjoyment. This was taken just moments after he sprayed his territory about 4 times in a row. That was lovely to watch.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Looks like a decoy, doesn’t it? He was gorgeous.
 
 
 
 
 
 
What ya’ll lookin‘ at?
 
 
 
 
 
 
A black bear walking in the swamp water. Nasty.
 
 
 
 
 
 
J-Man and P-Daddy on the climbing thing. J makes Dad do everything with him. He is at that age where he is separating from me and all about his dad. Sniff. Sniff.
 
 
 
 
 
 
OK. The giraffes were my absolute favorite yesterday. They were out and walking all around, very close to the viewing area. They were very interactive with each other and I was just mesmerized by them. This is the baby who kept just walking in this big circle.
 
 
 
 
 

Close up of the baby. I named him Lagniappe. Get it? Cuz lagniappe is a little something extra thrown in ?

 

 

 

Two adults who stayed side by side the whole time. I think one was courting the other. See the little tongue sticking out? Cute! There were 2 other adults out and about also.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Love this shot for some reason. Aren’t they magnificent creatures?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Here is the lovey dovey couple literally “necking.” Right after this pic was taken, one of them did something really disgusting. The whole crowd went “EEEWWE!” My trance was broken. Time to move on to another animal.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
J-Man was really into the raccoons for some reason so I had to take some pics for him.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Here is one foraging with his front paws. They would not stay still long enough for me to get any good shots.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Big ole swamp alligator with algae growing on him. He was huge. That’s good eatin‘ in these parts! (But not me. I don’t like alligator; too chewy.)
 
 
I saved some room on my photo card hoping the elephants would come outside and they never did. So I didn’t get any pictures of my all time favorite zoo animal. Next time!
 
 
 
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It did my spirit a lot of good to get out in the fresh air, do some walking, and spend some time with my 2 guys. It would have been totally perfect if my other son had been there, but alas, he is away learning crap in college that he may or may not use later in life.
I hope you enjoyed the photos. Support your local zoo. The animals need you and it will do your heart good.
 
 
Sharon
 
 
 
 
 

Roller Jammers

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I have to share with you something my friend Barb (not be confused with my sister Barb) sent me after reading yesterday’s blog post:
 
 
 

 
Barb is a graphic artist with way too much time on her hands, and probably the funniest person I know.
 
Thanks Barb for making me spew Diet Coke out my nose. It burns.
 
 
 
 

Kentucky Class Photos

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I have finally gotten a chance to sit down and post pictures of the Flowers and Fancies class that Jen Dontzand I teach together all over this great land. We arrived in KY one week after they had a historically bad ice storm. Something like 20,000 power lines were out and many homes had tree damage. Donna, pictured below, just got her power restored a few days before we arrived.

 
 
 
 
Me (looking haggard after 2 days of teaching), Donna, and Jen.
 
 
 
Donna is a great friend of mine, a cake bud from way back when in the early days. We met on Ladycakes and became fast friends. We have gone on many cake related trips together over the years, to various classes, DOS and the like. I like to room with her. She brings me hot coffee in bed every morning. Well, let me tell you that Donna saved the day with this class, which was originally to be held in Evansville, IN. But when our hostess pulled out a few weeks before the class, Donna stepped up to the plate and found a classroom for us in Owensboro, allowed Jen and I to stay in her beautiful home with her wonderful family, and volunteered to assist us at the 2 day class. Just cuz she is that nice. We could not have done it without her. Thank you Donna, love you.
 
 
 
 
Jen and I co-teach the class. We make a 2 tier fully decorated cake and 2 large gumpaste flowers. I teach the cake part and Jen teaches the flowers. And she rocks at gumpaste flowers. The “big” names have got nothing on her.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Here I am showing the gals how to put a tiny pearl edging on the sides of bow loops. What was I thinking picking that raggedy T shirt to wear? Make up stain on the sleeve and all. I need to stop getting dressed in the dark.

 

 

 

On the left you see Sheet Cake County Susan, who is trying to introduce new techniques and ideas to her clientele. On the right is Jennifer, who has a dessert shop/bakery and is expanding to custom cakes. I want to chop off her hair and transplant it onto my head. Think she will notice?
 
 
 
 
 
 
Left is Kentucky Megan (Mee-gan, not Meg-an). She is a doll and a cake making machine. You should see the wonderful cakes she cranks out every week. On the right is Jode. She is gorgeous, and has a daughter who is a Radio City Rockette. How cool is that? And guess what; Jode taught her how to high kick! Love it.
 
 
 
 
 

This is Lisa LaMablahblahblah. Her last name was too hard to pronounce so we called her that. She is so quiet and timid, loves cats, but can curse like a sailor and kick yer ass too if she needs to.
 
 
 
 
 
Susan: Please don’t hurt me with that thing.

Jen: It’s just a big clay gun.
Susan: Please put it away. It is scaring me.
 
 
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Let me tell you a little story of something that happened. On the first day, Jen starts teaching the gumpaste flowers. She calls all the kids to the back of the room, and shows them how to use the electric pasta roller to roll out their paste for the flowers. She makes a special note on cleaning it, and gives them a very clear warning not to try to clean the machine with a paper towel while the rollers are moving. It can very easily get sucked into the rollers, jam it, and break the pin on the inside. It happened the last time we taught the class. It was still under warranty and Kitchen Aid was kind enough to replace it. She wanted to make sure they were all especially careful not to have that happen again.
 
 
So she goes back up to the front of the class, the kids go back to their tables to work, and Donna and I are assigned to stay in the back and roll out all the pieces of gumpaste the kids will need to cut out their flower parts. So Donna and I get our groove going, a little assembly line, and we are kicking gumpaste butt. The pasta roller starts to get a little gunky from all the use. Donna turns it off, starts to wipe it down. There was still some residue hanging behind. I go wet a paper towel and the rest is a blur to me. Somehow that machine turned itself on, and the wet paper towel jumped out my hand right onto the top of the moving rollers. Before I could blink, the towel is jammed in there tight; the machine comes to a groaning halt, and is jammed.
 
 
Sharon in a panicked whisper: Shit!
Donna: What?
Sharon: Shit shit shiiiiiiiiiiit!
Donna: What happened?
Sharon: I jammed the damn machine. OMG she is going to kill me.
 
 
Then Donna and I circle the wagons around the machine so Jen won’t notice what we are doing. We try frantically to get the paper towel out of there with brushes, spatulas, wires. It ain’t budging. I drop a few F bombs under my breath, sweating bullets in fear and panic, while Donna and I try furiously to un-jam the thing. Of course a few stressed giggles leak out too, and we are certain Jen is going to call us out from the front of the class. But thankfully she just keeps teaching on.
 
After a few more unsuccessful minutes, I detach the roller from the KA machine, cover it with something lame I cannot remember, and casually take it into the enclosed kitchen attached to the classroom. Sharon thinks running hot water over the towel will help it disintegrate and come out of the rollers. Any idiot knows that water makes paper towels swell and expand, so guess what? That brilliant idea did not work. I am scraping and shaving minuscule pieces of paper out of the microscopic space between the 2 rollers for about 6 hours, with no success. Right at this time, a big burly plumber man comes into the kitchen. (We were in a pipe fitters’ hall). I immediately turn to the poor unsuspecting bloke who came in to refill his coffee cup and beg him to help me get this out or my friend is going to have my head. Since pipe fitter guys are so historically nice, he of course took over. He worked that thing over like nobody’s business. He scraped at it with a knife for about 20 minutes and slowly got tiny piece by piece out. He is doing this in the metal sink, and proceeds to make huge clunking and metal banging noises as the pasta roller hits the sink over and over again. A couple of times Jen calls in to me: “Hey, what the heck is going on in there?” I ignored her as sweat soaked my ratty, make up stained T shirt.
 
Soon it becomes evident, that even if Pipe Man gets the stuff out, the rollers are terribly scratched and I will have to replace the machine. No big deal. I will get her a new one. Just as long as we can still use this one for the next 2 days of class, all will be well. After about a millennium, the nice man gets all the paper towel out. The rollers are forever scratched, but I figure I can tell Jen about this later on and just buy her a new one. I give the man a big piece of pumpkin cake (that Jen made for lunch) and thank him profusely. I wanted to jump on his burly neck and hug him but I refrained.
 
I quietly sneak back into the back of the classroom and reattach the rollers to the KA mixer. Donna and I try to use it and… and….and…. noooooooooooooooooooooo. The rollers will not turn. The KA is working but the rollers on the machine will not turn. The internal pin must be broken. Shit. Shit. Shiiiiiiiiiiiit!! OK Sharon, the jig is up. I do not want to interrupt Jen’s teaching, so I just told Donna I will tell Jen at a break, I will buy her a new one, and we will just use the manual rollers we have for the rest of the class. It will slow us down, but it will do.
 
Just as I formulated my plan and accepted my fate, big Pipe Man swings the door open, entering the classroom, and looks at me way in the back. Jen at the front of the class says to him, “Hi! Looking for cake?” He says, “I’m just checking to see if that thing is working or not.”

Dead Silence.

Thud. My jaw hits the floor. I swallow hardly and deeply.
Jen: “What thing?” looking at me.
Me: Sheepishly, barely over a whisper: “Your pasta roller I just broke?”
Hysterical laughter breaks out in the class. Poor Pipe Man has no idea what is going on. Jen says “What did you do?” I said, “I do not know, that paper towel jumped right out of my hands and into the turning rollers.” (I am shitting a brick by this point.) Jen just laughed it off, said something about how she just told us not to do that; said not to worry about it, and class moved on. I felt terrible for the next 2 days. She would not allow me to pay for the new one, she called it a class expense, and wanted to split it 50/50. Now that’s a class act. I still feel bad about that.
 
 
 
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 Here is Jen at the “dusting” table with some students, applying dust to their flower parts.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Flower parts.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Beautiful expecting mom Starr with her beautiful peony.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Starr’s beautiful mom, Patty, who better have raised her prices by now. Or else!
 
 
 
 
 
 
Here is the cake I made while teaching the class. See that black dot on top of the round tier? It is driving me batty I tell you. I keep trying to wipe it off the monitor screen, but it won’t budge.
 
 
 
 
 

Jen and I chatting while the kids work quietly.
 
 
Jen: I can’t believe you broke my pasta roller.
Me: I told you not to let me near complicated electrical equipment.
Jen: It’s just a simple pasta roller!
Me: Whatever. It’s your fault really.
Jen: My fault??
Me: Yes, you made me use it.
Jen: Sharon, stop it.
Me: Make me.
Jen : Donnaaaaaaa!!
 

 

 
And here we all are with the students’ beautiful creations. The only person you have not met yet is Rebecca, on the far left. She is a librarian. You know how anal librarians are. Rebecca invented the word anal. The reason she is not in any of the pics is because she was busy either transcribing notes in real time into her laptop or redoing something on her cake for the 5th time. All joking aside, she is a good pal of mine, and an impeccable decorator. Love ya, Reb!
 
 
 
Well, despite all the complications and it being sub zero temps while we were there, we had a great time and I have 7 new life time cake pals.
 
 
 
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Love your cakes. They come from you, therefore they are wonderful.
 
 
 
Sharon,
 
 
 
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PS. Please pray for Jen’s hubby. He is battling a very serious illness and they can use all the prayers, thoughts and well wishes you can spare. Love you, Jen.
 
 
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SugarEd in Texas!

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Yee Haw!
 
 

I will be In Pearland, Texas May 3,4 and 5, 2009. The Pearland Cake Society will be having a Day of Sharing on May 3. I will be doing a demo on a name brand knock off purse with champagne bottle inside. Other demonstrators will be Ruth Rickey, Dena Bryngleson, Kim Wilson, Jacque Benson, and Carolyn Mangold. And let me tell you, these ladies kick cake a$$!

Then there will be two days of classes on May 4-5. On the 4th I will be teaching a one day class. We will make a fully decorated 2 tier wedding cake using fondant and gumpaste. On the 5th, I will be teaching 2 mini classes: a 2D carved fish and a stack of 2 books cake. There are other classes available too. It is going to be so much fun it will border on being illegal.

 

Go here to get all the scoop and sign up!

Clicky to come see me.

You can also email lopezclarissa2@aol.com for more info.

 
 
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Congratulations to the winner of the SugarEd hat by random drawing:
 
 
Vicki!
“I think your blog is great and fabulous and amazing and wonderful despite your hate of cute little possums! Janice’s contribution was great because it reminds me of how much we stress over our creations and usually they end up just fine (or other don’t notice the imperfections.)Vicki :)”
 
Please email me at sugaredinfo@aol.com to claim your prize.
 
 
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I will check in later this week some more uber interesting stuff to share with you all.
 
 
Happy caking!
 
Sharon
 
 
 
 

Sugar Free Celebration Cake

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Today we have a guest blog entry by my other big sister Janice. You have met my other sister, Barbara, already. Janice is 7 years older than me, and Barb just 1-2 older than her. Since there was such a gap in our ages, they were not really my playmates when I was a kid. In fact, I think I was their play-thing, but that is a whole therapy session in and of itself. Once we reached adulthood, that gap in years has faded away and we three have become very close. Don’t get me wrong; they still take care of me and look out for me and spoil me. Some things just should not change in life.
Janice is the adventurer of us three. She rides Harley’s with her boyfriend, and has para sailed with my dear hubby as Barb and I fried on the beach watching. She has traveled the country and has a bucket list of things to do that scares the bejeesus out of me and Barb. This was her bright idea:

Janice is a crackerjack legal secretary, and my secretary as well. ( I call her CJ.) One day when I can start paying her, she is going to leave that huge corporate law firm down in the city that she works for. She takes care of all my invoicing and PO’s for wholesale orders, and keeps me in line with business law issues. She also comes on cake trips with me and Barb to help me vendor. And let me tell you; that girl could sell ice to an Eskimo. That girl has a gift for sales! She is beautiful, skinny, funny, and just damn near perfect. Another overachieving sister, sheesh. Hard to keep up with those two! But I love them both so.
So without further adieu, I present to you Janice……
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Since I am a diabetic and several other members of my family adhere to a sugar-free diet, I am always responsible for providing a sugar-free dessert at all of our family gatherings. Thanks to the invention of Splenda, I’ve come up with some pretty good ones over the years.
A few months back, my sister Sharon, the professional cake baker/decorator, sent me an email with a recipe for a knock-your-socks off sugar-free cake, and asked me to make it for the holidays. It looked just beautiful in the picture – much more elegant than anything I had made in the past. Since I am not one to shy away from a challenge, I said I would give it a try.
 
As Christmas got closer, I started to stress out over it. I wanted it to be perfect. That’s just the German in me. I decided that I needed to take the whole day off on Christmas Eve to work on this cake so that I could take my time and not be rushed. Good thing I did that because as it turns out, it took me all day to make it and I finished it at 9:00 p.m. that night. Of course, I did take a break to run a few miles that morning, and to go to church that evening.
Because cake layers baked with Splenda don’t rise very much like cakes with regular sugar, I decided that I wanted to double the recipe to make the cake taller. But I only had two cake pans, so I had to bake the layers in two batches. That took a little extra time, and as it turned out, when I started to construct the cake, I only used three layers, instead of four. Four would have been too tall.
 

 

 

Mascarpone cheese was a challenge to find, but my daughter-in-law, the health nut vegetarian, found it for me at the Whole Foods Market. I let the cream cheese sit out at room temperature to soften it, but I actually think it was a little too soft. Next time, I think I would not leave it out as long because when I went to spread the filling, it was a little drippy over the sides. I think it would go on better if it were a little bit firmer. When you add the vermouth, that softens it too. But the best part was that since it was sugar-free, I got to sample it as I was making it! And since I had the vermouth out anyway, I decided to make myself a little martini. What the heck, it’s Christmas Eve, right?

I splurged on organic strawberries, also bought at the Whole Food Market. Expensive, but I figured if you’re going to create something special, you should buy only the best ingredients.

 

 

Chopped hazelnuts are not easy to find either. I went to three different stores before I found them at a Winn Dixie. I thought they needed to be a little bit finer, so I put them in a food processor just to chop them up a bit more.

 

 

 

I could not find a paper doily with a design that was open enough to use as a stencil for the powdered cocoa. So my sister, Sharon, found some snowflake coloring pages online and emailed them to me. I printed one of those and cut it out with a razor knife, and used that as the stencil.

 

 

 

The whole strawberries on the top of the cake are dipped in sugar-free chocolate melting wafers that my sister ordered for me from one of her suppliers.

 

 

Here’s what went into the filling:

1 tub (something like 250grams) mascarpone cheese
1/2 tub (about 100grams) light cream cheese
About 5 tablespoons Red Martini (sweet red vermouth)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup Splenda
About 2 cups small strawberries, cleaned and halved

 

 

First cake layer.
 

First cake layer with sugar free strawberry jam on top.

Add some mascarpone filling.

Add fresh strawberry slices and repeat with each layer.

I used the sugar-free Cool Whip for the frosting.

Chopped nuts were pressed onto outside and design stenciled on top with cocoa.
 
The finished cake!

When the cake was finally done, I was exhausted, but I was happy with the end result. I put the whole thing in the refrigerator to firm up overnight. But as I flopped down on the sofa and sipped on my dirty martini, I immediately started stressing over how I was going to transport this masterpiece the next day from my house in Kenner to my sister’s house in Mandeville – about a 50 minute trip.

The next morning, I had to pick up my 95-year old aunt who lives nearby in an assisted living home. She’s in a wheelchair and it takes a while to get her situated in the car. I wanted my confectionery creation to be off the ice for as little time as possible, so I loaded up my car with all my gifts, but left the cake in my refrigerator, went and picked up my aunt, and then went back home to get the cake. I put a towel on the backseat to level it (center seat, of course – that’s the safest seat, right?), strapped it in with the seat belt, gave it a little kiss and jumped into the car and headed out. I figured I would speed just a little bit and the most my cake would be off the ice was 45 minutes.
So here I am, zipping along, with my old aunt in the front seat, and my award-worthy culinary delicacy in the back seat. Can’t wait to get to Sharon’s house so everybody can see it. (The cake, I mean, not my aunt. They see her all the time.)
Well, how could I have foreseen that when I turned onto Causeway Boulevard, it would be a freaking parking lot! Fog on the bridge! What?! Fog on Lake Pontchartrain. It’s a warm day, 1:00 o’clock in the afternoon, how can there be fog on the bridge? I could not believe it. Traffic was limited to one-lane, speed limits were greatly reduced, and that 50 minute trip turned into a three-hour trip. It took me three hours to get to my sister’s house in Mandeville! I was so upset because I had spent all day making this cake and I just knew it was in the backseat melting! And I also knew that my 95-year old aunt was going to have to use the bathroom very soon, and boy, was I going to be in trouble!
When I finally got to my sister’s house, I had to have my nephew, Daniel, open the lid and look at the cake. I couldn’t bear to do it. He said it looked fine, but I said, “Put the damn thing in the refrigerator and get me a martini!” He said, “Okay, but it won’t do much good because the power is out.” The power was out! It’s a conspiracy, I thought. There are terrorists working behind the scenes here to assure that my delectable piece of culinary craftsmanship would turn into a melted mess of vermouth-laced drippy cheese, strawberry juice and Cool-Whip. This cake baking stuff is not my thing! Sharon, I don’t know how you do it. This is too stressful! I am a legal assistant. Someone give me a brief to type! That I can do.
Well, the power came back on shortly, the cake was still firm and beautiful, and tasted delicious when we served it. It’s a good recipe and I highly recommend it.

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Sharon here again. Whew, I am stressed out just reading that! Now I want a martini too. That was a crazy Christmas Day. Our 3PM lunch did not get served until 6:30 due to the power outage and late guests. In perfectly fine weather too!
Well, I think Janice did a fabulous job on her cake, and it did taste wonderful too. Thank you for the entry sis, and helping me out on my blog.
Speaking of blogs, if you guys like mine, just leave me a note in the comment section below, and you will be entered into a drawing to win this fabulous prize! :

Isn’t it great?! There are only 2 hats like this in existence, and I own the other one. So if you want a little piece of SugarEd to call your very own, let me know how great and fabulous and amazing and wonderful my blog is! Oh yeah, you can also leave a comment about Janice’s great post too, yadda yadda yadda.
I will announce the winner by random drawing sometime next week, when the spirit moves me. Gotta keep you guys on your toes, don’t I?
Happy Sugar Free Caking!
Sharon the baby sister Zambito

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