Decorating Cupcakes is So Fun!

Last night was my third class in the first course of cake decorating by Wilton. The theme for this class was learning how to fill cupcakes with filling, how to ice cupcakes, and how to make a few flowers. We used many new tips and colors of icing. The two hour class passes by so quickly! No matter how well prepared I think I am for class it is just never enough. I always feel like I am rushing to catch up or to finish something.  Let me tell you, cake decorating cakes is hard business! No wonder homemade decorated baked goods are so expensive! I really enjoy baking and decorating goodies. I would one day really like to open my own bakery or business selling decorated cakes, cupcakes, muffins, etc.

For this class I baked red velvet cupcakes and filled them with vanilla pudding. Yumm...!!! I decorated 6 cupcakes with homemade buttercream icing dyed using gel food coloring. Here are a few pictures of the cupcakes I decorated.

This flower design is called a pompom.

This flower design is called a shaggy mum.

This flower design is just a daisy or something with an elongated dot. Sorry about the blurry pictures.

This flower design is called rosette. I made three rosettes and a few leaves. Sorry about the blurry pictures.

Here is a picture of the daisy flower cupcake and the rosettes side by side.

I am going to start selling decorated cakes and cupcakes also! Please e-mail me if you are interested in purchasing something. I can bake any flavor of cake and use any color(s) icing.

Acrylics

Learning how to paint is something I have always wanted to do since I was a child. One of my first experiences with painting was watching Bob Ross on PBS during the summer. I was so amazed at how he could create such beautiful images with just a few brushes, oil paints, and a palette knife. Since I didn't take summer courses and pretty much worked all summer I had time to finally try painting out. My media of choice is acrylics due to their versatility. Acrylics are easy to work with and their consistency can be varied with water. The paint can be diluted to mimic water colors if more water is added or mimic oil paints if the acrylic paint is very thick.

I have painted canvases so far: two abstract, one floral, and one landscape. 


This is my first painting. It is three sunflowers on a background and a sun.

These are my abstract paintings. They both have names and are more than just a lot of unorganized colors. They are both pictures of something.

This one is called "Broken Dancer." It is supposed to represent a tired and worn out dancer wearing a full skirt (like a ballerina). The yellow circle on the top left is the dancer's head. The green on top of the yellow circle is her hair. Her arms the magenta and green lines below her head are detached, and her skirt the pink/white triangle like shape below is her skirt.

This one is called "Man's Best Friend." It is a person and his dog walking in the park. There are hills, trees, a pond, and mountains in the background. The reddish-orange shape on the bottom left is a person and the magenta shape just to the right of that is the dog. There is a tree on the bottom right along with a pond. There are many other features I could point out to you, but the picture is a little too small to appreciate the detail.
 


This painting is similar to Monet's style called Impression. It incorporates elements of an abstract painting. This one is of wildflowers growing up a hill. I put a lot of time and detail into painting the flowers. It took such a long time to paint all of them. It is my personal favorite

Baking Fun!

Summer of 2011 was the first summer since I started college in August of 2007 that I didn't take any summer classes. Each summer I would typically take 1-3 classes to try and get ahead to lessen my course load for the following fall semester. Most summer classes offered at UH are freshman or sophomore level courses, so they don't offer anything I need to take anymore. With that being said, it freed up a lot of my time allowing me to do things that I actually want to do. I picked up a few hobbies this summer particularly cake decorating. I am taking the first cake decorating course, Cake Decorating Basics, at Michaels in Webster. This class is held once a week every Thursday for about four weeks. I am taking this class with two friends Veronica and Jaclyn. Veronica is a friend that I met late last year and Jaclyn is a new friend that I met through Veronica.

Today is our third class and I am so excited! We are going to learn how to decorate cupcakes and how to make flowers. I will make sure to post pictures of my end products. The classes are very informative and easy to understand for someone just starting out. The instructor Holly is also very sweet and patient. I definitely want to continue on and take courses two and three.

For our first class we decorated plain flat cookies with stars. You can make all kinds of shapes and designs just using a star tip. I decorated more than just two cookies, but these were the ones I decorated for my husband Matt and the only ones I took a picture of. By the way these were peanut butter cookies with homemade buttercream icing.

For our second class we decorated a cake with homemade icing and a design. I  baked a strawberry cake and decorated the cake with vanilla icing which I colored myself. I chose to decorate a cake with a fish because my husband loves his pet fish! We have two aquariums with various types of fish.

First we practiced pipetting  our design on the practice board until we were able to get it right.

Then we iced our cake. I chose blue to represent water. Icing a cake is not as easy at it looks. This was a strawberry cake with dyed buttercream icing.

Finally the finished product!

First Week of My Last Year of College

Today completes my first week of my last year of college. Well, that is for my undergraduate career. I finish off this week with mixed feelings. I feel very happy that I am nearing the end of a stressful life filled with studying, homework, exams, and commuting. In a way it feels very surreal. College life like it will go on forever, but when I look back at it, it all went by so quickly. This is my fifth year of college (not by choice), but it seems like just yesterday I was sitting in freshman orientation. UH has been a huge part of my life and in a way I feel a bit sad that this lifestyle is going to end soon. I am so used to going to class and having to spend my free time preparing and studying for classes.

Soon I will have to step out into the real world, with a real degree, and have to find a real job. Not one of these in between jobs I have had since I was in high school. For some reason that scares me. Above all I am worried about not being able to find a job, and not being qualified enough for the position I apply for. Not only is the economy bad, but it is not like Biomedical Engineering jobs are posted in the Houston Chronicle. You kinda have to know somebody who knows somebody that knows of a biomedical company. Truthfully, I don't really think I know anyone with that type of connection. The Biomedical Engineering industry is also so diverse that companies are usually only looking for employees that are extremely specialized in one area. This mean that they are not usually looking for someone with a bachelor's degree, but for someone with a graduate degree. When I think about all of this and try to put it into perspective, I feel a bit hopeless.

I would love to go to grad school one day, but continuing on to grad school once I graduate in May is not an option for me. My family can't afford to pay for 2-5 more years of education. I would also like to be able to relieve the financial burden on my husband so that he may have the chance to go to college soon. We both feel that a life spent working out in the chemical plants is not the best thing for him. He is also capable of achieving so much more in this life than he gives himself credit for. I am very proud of him for considering college and getting some sort of education.

This year is going to be tough. I can just imagine how difficult my courses are going to be. I am taking all engineering classes this semester and I have a feeling that I am in for a lot of late study nights. I have to remember to keep my eyes on the end result, the light at the end of the tunnel, graduating with both of my degrees in May! I can't believe that this is just 9 months away :D

 

Cullen College of Engineering. One of the engineering buildings at UH.