Cake Walk!

Here are some pictures of the cakes I made for Wilton Course 1 and 2. You have already seen my very first cake - which was the Teddy Bear character cake. I made that cake twice within such a short period that I had so much of brown icing left, so I made another cake to use it up. I just thought up a random idea using the drop flower technique and taught myself the shell border to finish this cinnamon swirl cake.

Then I made the Clown cake for the second class. I use cake mixes to make my cakes and French Vanilla is my favorite flavor. The flavor is mild enough to necessitate the need for icing. But for some reason all my friends love the Cinnamon Swirl cakes I make. I somehow feel that Cinnamon Swirl is too sweet to need any additional icing! I usually gobble up the pieces left over after leveling the cake!!

For the last cake in the course 1, I made the Rose Bouquet Cake, sans the lettering, the bow and stems. I placed them in the center and did a shell border interspersed with sweet peas. I used the wrong plate that anyone can ever use to place a cake on!!

The Wilton course 2 was really trying for me. The royal icing I made turned out really runny, and even though I had followed the recipe to the 'T'. I kept adding more and more icing sugar but it did not help my case. One thing I learnt about royal icing, is that it takes colors very well, so a little bit of color goes a long way. We used a different technique for making the daisies and we all liked it better than the Wilton one. I have to say that I had a really patient and good instructor. So here is my Basket Full of Flowers cake.

Planet Earth

Tomorrow on Oprah, she is going to be discussing her new obsession. I think I know what it is. I am pretty sure that she is going to be talking about the BBC show Planet Earth. This show, is THE BEST nature show EVER!! Seriously, it has amazing visuals (check out some pictures and a 14-minute video on Amazon) and you learn quite a lot about the ecology and especially about the animals. This show just recently premiered here in the U.S. on Discovery channel.

Even if you are not a nature enthusiast, and don't like documentaries, even if you have resolved to watch only one documentary in your entire life, this should be the one. It will not feel like a documentary, but in each frame, you will learn something new about the world we live in. I have to thank Mr. PT for introducing me to this show. He is always trying to entertain me with great stuff.

Just a word of caution, even though I am a grown woman, I felt a little uneasy watching the hunting scenes. They film the predatory animals hunting their prey in the natural habitat. Since the people are just observers, they will not stop to help any animal, because that will eventually harm the ecosystem. I hated those scenes, simply because I wanted and willed every helpless, hunted animal to escape the clutches of its enemy! So those of you who have kids, might want to direct their attention away from the screen at such times.

But all said and done, this show is the ultimate, there are no words to describe it. Watch it and you will know!

Bits & Bytes

Millions of shark are caught every year, their fins are cut off when they are still alive and the mutilated shark are thrown back into the sea to die a tragic death. Shark meat is not as saleable as the fins, which are worth a lot in places like Hong Kong, hence this heinous act!

My fair LadyE!

" There she weaves by night and day
A magic web with colours gay.
She has heard a whisper say,
A curse is on her if she stay
To look down to Camelot.
She knows not what the curse may be,
And so she weaveth steadily,
And little other care hath she,
The Lady of Shalott." - Alfred Tennyson

This is my Lady Eleanor Stole from Scarfstyle knit with Patons SWS in Natural Plum. I thought the above verse from Lady Shalott fits my lady perfectly. I love the colors and I knit this stole night and day, obsessively for about 2 weeks until my hands could take it no more. Well, the truth is, that my hands were under a lot of pressure because of a great combination of activities I was involved in at that time. Unfortunately this was 4 months ago and my hands are still coping, so even though I have only a little way to go with my Lady E, I keep putting her off. Perhaps she has a curse on her?? Nah don't think so. She is just a patient lady waiting for me to pick her up again.

On another note - for those of you who love cats and dogs, here are some cute pet pictures I saw today. Enjoy!!

The Namesake

What makes a good book? Is it the suspense? The drama? The comic situations? To me a good book is one that has interesting protagonists, its always about the people in the book. If there is a common thread of connection between who I am and a character in the book, even better!!
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri is a good book to read. It is like an extension of the last story(The Third and Final Continent) in her first book- The Interpreter of Maladies. For those of us who are not familiar with immigrant life in the U.S.A, this book gives you a small glimpse of it. For all those who have experienced the immigrant life, this book will bring back memories - memories of leaving your kith and kin for a foreign land, of the first windy fall and the first clock change and the first snow!!
The book is like a flashback of events that have happened in my life and the lives of people I know and so I like this book. I do not agree with everything in the book. But I do believe that Jhumpa gives us quite a nice picture of the life of Indian immigrants and the dilemma that the first generation of American Indians face as they are sandwiched between the culture of their parents and the culture of their peers.
I do believe that no matter who we are , what we do and who we marry, it is up to us to keep ourselves satisfied. Joy is a gift from God that comes with the assurance of His love and salvation. There is nothing in this world that can equal that.
So anyway, I read the Namesake last year and I will go see the movie. I hope it is as good as the book.

'Tis Spring!!

Zechariah 10:1
Ask the LORD for rain in the springtime; it is the LORD who makes the storm clouds. He gives showers of rain to men, and plants of the field to everyone.

Bake Decorate Celebrate??

Watching PBS Create! is a hobby of mine(that is if you can ever call any form of watching TV, a hobby!) I love the cooking shows, makes my mouth water all the time and makes me hungry even after I've just had my lunch. I love to watch Daisy cook. Even though some of her dishes may not be stuff that I would eat because of cultural differences, it always intrigues me to watch her cook with all that energy and vitality. I have tried some of her dishes and they taste real good. Looking at her, no one can even guess that she is the mother of 2 kids and one of them is already in college!! I mean seriously!! I remember reading in a recent survey that Puerto Ricans have the highest life expectancy. I absolutely believe it when I see Daisy cook. The Puerto Rican cuisine plays a major role in their long life. So take a hint everyone!

Other cooking shows I love are Lidia's Family Table, Simply Ming and Everyday Food. Simply Ming is by far my favorite because being an Indian I can relate more to Asian food and actually try out some of the dishes. For simple cooking its Everyday food all the way. This is one show where Martha Stewart has bet/invested right. Another show that has become quite a favorite is Jacques Pepin. He is an interesting man with some useful tips and ideas.

Of course I travel the world with the travel shows and enjoy the sights and sounds of beautiful countries. I LOVE Bob Ross' Painting. I just love that show. I know the man is long dead and these shows are old tapings but hey, I am sure glad that they are still telecasting it.
Does this post sound like a marketing pitch for PBS Create? Well it just might be, you never know :))

Anyway the point of my post today was to talk about a show called Bake Decorate Celebrate on PBS. So as is my usual routine especially on quiet weekends, when I have a splitting headache, to watch all the different PBS channels, I was flipping the channels when I caught two ladies making some Wilton style decorations on Create. I was soooooooo excited. I didn't move. I just sat in one place and watched the show. When the program ended I looked to see what was next and imagine my surprise when I realized that they were running only this show on this particular day from morning to night!!!

Mr. PT came to the sad realization that I was pretty much going to hog the television that day and thanks to the commercial-free format of PBS, he didn't have a hope of getting his f(oot)inger in on the remote. Ha Ha ! I begged him to make this huge selfless sacrifice and I thank God that he obliged. Mr. PT is a generous man.

So I made myself comfortable on the couch, got myself a few refreshments and painkillers on standby, trusting that Mr. PT would provide the rest if I happened to run out! I watched and I watched for 3.30 hours and taped another hour:))

I watched - two women, being a little tense with each other. One of them didn't know anything about decorating and the other obviously is not a seasoned TV host. The tensions did run high, but I just loved to see them actually demonstrate the stuff that I had personally learned at Wilton cake courses.

Then I went to the website and saw all the experienced cake decoraters bashing the women on their forum!! Most of the women who do cake decorating for a living take it very seriously and boy can you see it reflected in their work!! But to their credit I think the women have at least made an effort to try to teach us something on the show and I am sure(hope) they will improve as time goes by, ESPECIALLY the cake decorating part really does need to improve.

These shows seemed geared to give an introduction to decorating, but my advice to viewers would be to learn the decorating part from somewhere else because the deco.'s are not done properly on the show. The other thing was the fact that they did not have very many new ideas. almost all of the cakes they did were already in the Wilton course books and their other publications. Maybe I am expecting too much??

I found a few things amusing- the ladies usually sneaked up a look while they are decorating to probably check the timing or something and they are not aware that the other cameras are still focussed on them. There is definitely a lack of communication between the cameramen and the women. The women need to be able to identify which camera is focussed on them in order to maintain their decorum and the cameramen need to know when to focus on which part of the cake, to get a shot of the method being taught. So that is possibly an area for improvement.

But overall I have to give the ladies the benefit of the doubt. I don't know how my body language will be if someone was filming me for a local show which had the possibilities of becoming a national show.When we decorate we do so in the privacy of our homes and have the opportunity to redo stuff and we certainly do not have someone standing over our shoulders telling us we still needed to shoot 4 more shows!! Even though most of us might love to hear that said to us, I don't think its an easy thing to do. So good luck to the ladies and I hope they try harder and do a better job.

So after all this talk of cakes here is my first cake from Wilton Course 1. I made a character cake and I was really impressed with myself, when I got done. I did not in the least expect it to turnout the way it did. For beginners, well defined character cakes are the easiest to do, in my opinion. Look for character pans that do not need anything too fancy and you will be surprised at how nice the cake will look just with a star tip and a few color changes!!

On Blogging

Although my profile might indicate that I have been a blogger since 2005, my blog will clearly show you that I do not have much to show for the past few years. Except of course I spend most of my free time reading blogs. Mr. PT registered me for blogger, but I was reluctant to air my views on such a vast portal of communication. I put up a couple of posts and then didn't bother. But finally thanks to the encouragement of Mr. PT and my R- friend I have recently started posting my work, here.
So I was really intrigued by this news article that I came across about blogging.
I feel awed that I have actually joined a rather talented community of writers.

Marissa Marissa...

Here is the very first top I knit for myself. I wanted something to wear in the summer, so I picked Marissa from Hot Knits I felt it will be good and simple knit and it was. Very straightforward and fast. I had some trouble with getting the right gauge so I frogged at least 5 times as far as I can remember! I wanted my first knit to be perfect. After all that frogging for 2 weeks I finished the pieces in 2 weeks and then it took me a lot of motivation to pick up the pieces and seam it up. Then the weather changed so I figured I didn't really need to weave in the ends until spring :) Am I lazy or what!!
I have to add that the picture doesnt do my Marissa any justice. YES I am lazy to take another picture but when I do I promise to update this post.
Pattern: Marissa from Hotknits by Melissa Leapman
Yarn: SRK Butterfly Super 10 Mercerized Cotton in Green - a leeetle over 3 skeins
Needles: US #5 & 6

I am...........

Take the Quiz here!

I took the poll and I was smart enough to rig it in such a way that I ended up as Liz Bennet :) Haa there you go....
Just kidding, but I am glad that I am my favorite Jane Austen heroine. I love Elizabeth Bennet.