This sort of gives you an idea of my personality, no? I've always been an ideas person, not always the one to carry things through. I have reasons though, I swear. I had school. And not just any school, but nursing school. One study showed that nursing students, of all health-related educational programs, have it the hardest. Yup, even harder than the medical students have it. Surprised? I'm not. It was hell for two years. I learned a lot though. And in my 14 months of absence, a lot has happened.
I've finished my studies, written the certification exam, got a job, and I'm now working part-time (almost full-time) on a medicine and stroke unit at a hospital close to home. I really can't complain. But I'm here again because something else happened over the past 14 months too. My cousin Lily said I could make her wedding cake.
I know, right? I've never made a wedding cake. I made fondant once and marzipan 2 or 3 times. I don't have fancy cake stands, equipment, or any experience really. My kitchen needs renovating. There's no counter space. Her wedding will be 120 people and she wants a two-tier cake and enough cupcakes to feed everyone. Of course I said yes. The excitement at the prospect of making something grand, beautiful, and delicious for my cousin was too enticing a venture to decline.
There are problems though. Like I said, I'm that ideas person. I'm a thinker, preparer, ponderer, dreamer ... not the doer, go-getter, Nike "Just Do It" campaign spokesperson. My cousin's chosen the wedding date and it's in 9 months. My deadline is July 7th. I must carry this through. After all, you can't promise someone a cake for their wedding and show up with something from Costco. 9 months is not long for someone like me. I honestly don't know what I'm doing and I might just be in over my head. This is why I'm going to blog about it. I will be setting out my goals, experiences, discoveries, and exploring my ideas here.
To start, I'm going to give you an idea of where I am.
This is the one cake stand I have (yes, there are cookies in it. My sister made them for thanksgiving. I ate half of them, and no I'm not exaggerating):
This is the kitchen I will be working in:
A mish-mash of equipment:
My other kitchen with more counter space I may just do my decorating in:
And... the bible:
As you can see, this is totally a grassroots operation. No fancy cameras, just the family PowerShot SD1000. The book is borrowed from the local library. Let's see how many times I'll be able to renew it, after which, how much I will be accumulating in fines.
Here's "The Plan":
1. Cake, cake and lots of cake! Lots of sampling of different recipes and flavours.
2. Icing. Can't do cake without icing. Gotta find ones that are the right consistency and work with the cake
3. Decorating techniques.
4. Designs. Whatever the couple wants, the couple gets!
So ... here goes. There's going to be lots of butter, sugar, cake flour, eggs, spices, and icing sugar on here over the next couple months. The plan is to try out at least 1 cake and one frosting a week, starting today. Then ... we will work from there. There's just under 9 months to go. So, really, this cake is like my baby.
Oh, and here's me:
I'm ready to go. Wish me luck!
