Analog Blogging
Special thanks to my scanner, laptop and digital camera for making this post digital friendly.
A hazy Sunday afternoon in Central Park
In regards to the hurricane, cameras, and food.
I’m sitting here at the end of what has turned into a five day weekend, and something strange has come over me…I think I want to go back to work. Crazy right? As the blueberry-raspberry pie in the oven wafts its sweet scent into the air – allow me to recap. Hurricane Irene, which we’ve all heard way too much about and which has faded into meteorological history, gave me the weekend off of work. Well, her and that fact that the governor of New York shut down the MTA on Saturday, thus making it impossible for me to go to work. Saturday night the storm blew in, all day Sunday the storm blew out. In its path it did some damage to the Metro-North line, and I was forced to stay home again on Monday.
That would be the Long Island Sound encroaching on my front yard. Now as a young lady raised in the south, I don’t particularly like hurricanes. After living through the category 5 hurricane Hugo that everyone in Charleston, SC would fondly like to forget, they’ve made me a bit squeamish. Since then I’ve lived through my fair share of Category 1′s, 2′s, and tropical storms and have generally not enjoyed them.
So after 3 days off for lack of transportation, followed by my usual Tuesday & Wednesday off, I have reached the end of what most people would classify as a vacation. Although to tell you the truth, I haven’t really done anything. Okay, that’s not entirely true. I’ve watched FOUR costume dramas. I’ve also been religiously blogging over at my new food blog A Little Flaky.
I can’t help it. I’m just so dang excited about it. I wanted a way to blog constantly about food without letting it take over this, more personal and highly volatile blog.To give me an extra boost of excitement, my family and Greg gave me my birthday present a month early and I haven’t really been able to put it down. A new Canon Rebel T3 DSLR!!!
I’m smitten. I’ve been researching DSLRs for many months now and have been dying to give my little point and shoot Nikon S5 a break. The major choice was between this camera and a similar Nikon. In the end the Nikon was more expensive with fewer features, and while it’s a Nikon and will always be amazing, I’m already comfortable with the Canon Rebel series (my old Rebel 2000 curses the rise of digital photography). And let’s face it – cameras are expensive and there’s no reason to break the bank if you don’t have to. A hundred thousand thank-yous to my parents and boyfriend for such an amazing gift!!!
So I guess that about brings us up to date. I’m gearing up for a real vacation starting September 10th which I’ll fill you in on next time. The timer just went off for my pie and I’m going to have to try not to take a spoon to it before it’s cool and set.
DIY Wednesday! Natural Dessert & Cake Stand
For the wedding party I was able to cook for last month I had to figure out how to get 130ish cupcakes all on one table with a little bit of flair and seamlessly match the upscale natural decor. The bride suggested wooden stands, and intrigued by the idea I knew there had to be a way to make them. While these aren’t exactly “cheap” to make, they’re certainly one of a kind and perfect for outdoor parties, weddings, and your own coffee table. Here’s what you need:
All of these supplies can be found at your local craft store (Michael’s or Joann’s)
3 Wood stump slices – look for slices in 2 or 3 sizes so stand can get a little smaller on the top tiers. $10 each – $30
2 short wooden candlesticks. $3 each – $6
Small bottle of Gorilla Glue. $8
Small can of Minwax WoodFinish in your desired color. $8
Old dishwashing gloves
Needle nose pliers
Foam brushes
Rags
Newspaper
Ruler
Pencil
Q-tips
Step 1: With your pliers, tear off or fold down metal piece on the inside of the candle stick. You want the top the the candle stick to be flat for the wooden piece sitting on top of it. It doesn’t have to be pretty, just as long as it’s out of the way. Take care not to cut or poke yourself with the sharp metal edges!
Step 2: Lay out your newspaper, strap on your gloves, pop open the wood finish and grab a foam brush! Getting messy is always the best part, and this can get pretty messy. Give each candlestick a healthy coating of stain, making sure to get into all of the little nooks and crannies. Don’t forget the bottoms and tops!
Step 3: While the candle sticks are drying (about 15-20 minutes), use your ruler and pencil to find the approximate center of your bottom wooden piece. measure from top to bottom, and left and right, marking the rough center each way. After the candlesticks look like they’ve soaked up all of the stain, take your old rag and rub it down a little bit. I was going to an antique used look to match the natural finish of the wooden tiers. At this point the sticks aren’t “dry”, but you can handle them without getting too much stain on your hands.
Moving right along…isn’t this easy?
Step 4: This is perhaps the trickiest part, but a little bit of patience is all you really need. Open your Gorilla glue and apply a small amount of glue to the bottom of your candlestick. This stuff really does expand, so a little goes a long way. Place your stick as close to your center markings as you can get it, eyeing it as you go to see what looks best. Glue will inevitably come out around the bottom of the stick, so have your Q-tips handy to clean it up before it dries. If there’s a pretty big glue spot, fear not, you can sand it off when it dries. Put a small amount of glue on the top of your candlestick and carefully center the next wooden circle on top of it.
Place a couple of heavy books evenly on top of your stand and let it dry for at least one hour. Balancing the books on top will help you see if your stand is centered, so don’t be alarmed if you need to inch your top round a little bit for perfect balance.
Step 5: After your first level has dried for an hour, remove the heavy books and find your second candlestick. By eye, center the second candlestick over the first, making sure to look at the stand from all angles. Lightly mark the spot for reference, the glue the stick as before and put it on. Glue the top of the candlestick and position the last wooden round the same way as the second. Balance the books on top again and let your stand dry overnight.
And just like that you’ve got a natural looking garden party cake & dessert stand! Just watch out for those miniature cupcake stealing garden gnomes 
And one more thing: If those little cupcakes are whetting your appetite, head on over to A Little Flaky for the recipe!
Inspired by: Herriott Grace
Do you know how sometimes you see something and think, “I’ve just gotta make/do/have/see that!”? A couple of weeks ago I was doing my regular blog readings and was swept away by the beautifully piped swirls frosting a cake featured on DesignSponge created by Herriott Grace. I had to bookmark the photo immediately and filed it in my “cake designs to try” pile.
Not only is the piping work elegant, delicate and beautiful, but the photography and styling work is really lovely as well. All around I’m a big fan of everything happening here. And just like that, I had to make it! Now I’m guessing at most this is a 6″ cake, but I had an 8″ cake on hand so I figured I’d just use that. I had also been lucky enough to purchase a sweet new 9″ Jadeite cake stand from the Bountiful shop in Venice, California, so I thought the pink & sea foam color scheme would be cool. Two batches of strawberry buttercream later I had a cake inspired by Herriott Grace’s.
Just incase you’re starting to get inspired, I’ve got one tip for you: make double the frosting you think you’re going to need. Those lovely rosette swirls are thick! I also chose to swirl on top of the cake as well as the sides which I’m sure added to the extreme amount of frosting used, but it’s supposed to look decadent! Next time (and there will be a next time) I’ll definitely use a smaller cake (4″ to 6″) and a smaller piping tip for tighter and more spirals.
As an “adult” I know I’m supposed to cut myself a reasonable slice of cake after dinner and eat with a fork, but how can you resist the urge to scoop frosting off a cake like that with your finger? Forget napkins!
A little taste…
A little taste of what’s to come next week (it’s going to be sweet!). Have a lovely weekend!
Julia & Mike’s Wedding
A little over a month ago I sat down with Julia & Mike for their Wedding Cupcake Tasting, and was delighted to put it all together this past Saturday for the big event! First I started with making the gum paste flower (which was sort of a peony, but with its own unique coloring) piece by piece early in the week:
Making the flower took almost as long as making the rest of the cupcakes & cake. I got up at the usual time on Saturday morning (5am) and started baking. 8 hours later all of the cupcakes were baked and frosted, and I was centering the flower on top of the 8 inch cake. I can’t wait till I have air conditioning AND a dedicated large enough refrigerator in my life to put all of these cakes in one day! I had to nearly empty out the entire fridge to keep everything cool for a couple of hours before heading to the wedding. But it all worked out just right, and at 4pm I buttoned up my chef’s coat, packed all 10 dozen cupcakes, 1 cake, 4 cake stands and 2 platters into the car with the boyfriend and a change of wedding clothes and headed to the beautiful Stamford Nature Center. I really should have taken more photos, but it was such a great and peaceful setting, and the bride and groom were luminous!
~ The lovely reception ~
~ Lemon Cupcakes & Honey Green Tea Cupcakes ~
~ Chocolate cupcakes on the handmade wooden dessert stand ~
~ The gluten-free lemon cake ~
~ Mike & Julia cutting the cake ~
I was glad to be able to cook for AND attend this wedding, since it’s always nice to hear people’s reactions to the final products and of course eat a cupcake myself. I also had so much fun making the wooden cake stands that I’m preparing a little DIY blog on how to make them yourself! Congrats again Julia & Mike!
The Final Flight.
Today at 11:26 am the Atlantis space shuttle will, weather permitting make the 135th and final American trip into space. I’m not normally one to blog about current events, unless pastry related, but I’ll make a special exception for this. Space has always fascinated me – the National Air & Space museum has always been one of my favorites, growing up I went to every spacey movie to hit theaters (Apollo 13 & Contact were brilliant, why did I bother with Armageddon?), I even have a giant telescope that I’ll never part with. When I was 10 I was sure I wanted to be an astronaut or astronomer. I remember sitting around the tv on the 4th of July, 14 years ago watching the Mars rover land and the first glimpses from the surface of the Red Planet transmitted right to my eyeballs! I even remember when Pluto was a planet!!!
So of course, my heart is breaking with the last space shuttle making its final flight. There’s so much more SPACE left! Sure, we can explore the crazy stuff that we probably can’t even imagine at the bottom of our own oceans; but how are we going to learn to live on Saturn or have Intergalactic Empires? How are we going to teach our children the wonder of space and exploration if they never get to see a lift-off live? I can’t even bring myself to think about the privatization of space travel and the possible implications that might have for everyone’s futures.
I hope that the Russians continue their space explorations and the international space station stays vital and productive. In the mean time I’ll continue to be enthralled with the images & discoveries the Hubble Space Telescope continues to provide us with (did you know it just made its 1 millionth observation?). I’ll also look forward to discoveries made by non-human operated spacecrafts, and look forward to the time when we’re able to travel in newly developed shuttles to Mars and other places in our own Solar System!
It’s all just too big to sit around and wait for it to come to us.
One more thing: you can get tweets from astronauts in space! Follow them HERE.
My New Instant Camera…Phone App!
I’ll admit that from time to time I have a little bit of iPhone envy, even though my Droid 2 is awesome (after all, I’m blogging this on my phone on the train commute home). Most of this envy stems from the list of apps iPhone users enjoy that Droid users are left to hope will be released for us eventually, although I’ll also admit that I haven’t spent all that much time exploring the market. But come on – Cartolina? Instagram? Pinterest? I’d gladly fork over the greenbacks for your programming genius!
Luckily, the camera junkies over at photojojo are looking out for the androids of the world and gathered a list of the coolest photography apps available on our platform. On the list is the app Vignette, which has changed my life. No more will I admire digital uploads from my friends that look like classic Polaroids or long for vintage tinted images on blogs from people on the go. No, I’ve got Vignette.
When you think about it, the cell phone camera really is the new instant camera anyway. You can immediately view and share your images with anyone. The me of 1989 is still enamoured. The list of frames, lens options, and color filters is more indepth than I ever imagined a cell phone camera could ever have, and I’m still figuring it all out.
So here, at last – straight from my camera snaps of my daily life =D
The Norwalk Maritime Aquarium
Even though I’ve lived in Norwalk for about 5 months now, I’m still getting around to checking the place out. With the boyfriend’s family in town we decided to take a trip to the Norwalk Maritime Aquarium, which I’ve been really excited to finally see! The wait was totally worth it, and I was really impressed, especially with their coral laboratory. At the aquarium they actually grow their own corals, taking small pieces from larger corals that they already have. From there they transplant the corals into new tanks for some amazing arrangements.
It amuses me how these corals so often resemble otherworldly formations or alien creatures. The electric colors and translucent gradients are so cool! I took hundreds of photos, so enough chit-chat and more photos please!
In addition to the corals and beautiful tank arrangements, the critters were really beautiful too. I mean, just look at this guy:
And their giant Jellies tank was almost magical!
I’d highly recommend this aquarium to anyone passing through or living closeby. In July I’m hoping their IMAX theater has Harry Potter 7.2, which will pretty much make it the best place in the whole town. Each of the photos above is linked to the original size of the image for your viewing pleasure. Feel free to check them out, but please don’t snatch them. =)
