Category: Blog

2021 Year In Review / 2022 Word of the Year

Posted on by C.L. Alden

Happy New Year!

I have really struggled this year in writing this post, not because I had trouble with choosing a word – this year that was the easiest part of this process.  The difficult part is writing a post that recaps last year without underpinning it with the politics and the continued divisiveness of this country which has managed to seep into just about every aspect of our daily lives, including the staggering loss of life from a pandemic that unfortunately and wrongly has also been politicized.  I don’t want to give any more oxygen to the negative churn that grips us and continues to divide us. I’m tired. I’m frustrated. I’m sad. I’m angry.

My purpose for having a word of the year is that it serves as a touchstone, a talisman or guiding light for the new year.   It’s meant to promote positive qualities such as growth, learning, healing, strength, courage and hope.  As I read these last words back, I realize that the scope of this exercise has changed and expanded over the years.  In 2015 when I began choosing a yearly word to guide me, my goals were simple and much more personal. My first word, EMERGENT was chosen to help guide me as I began a journey of growth both personally and in my writing. RESILIENT, DEVELOPMENT, BALANCE were all chosen to continue and sustain that journey as well as to provide new goals to work towards.

The words that I have chosen for the last couple of years have expanded beyond that original intention and encompassed what was directly happening in my life as well as the world around me.

CULMINATE was a reminder of the nature of most things we encounter in life – to recognize a high point, there must be a lower point. To have a crescendo there must be a quieter time. Understanding and accepting the ups and downs and up again and down and so on, knowing that each event will have a beginning and an ending. This is the flow to most things in life.

RENEWAL was an ambitious choice for last year. It was hopeful, and I realize now a bit unrealistic. I chose it because at the time I felt battered and bruised by the events in my personal life as well as in the world around me.  My hope was that 2021 would bring rejuvenation, and a restoration back to some sense of normalcy. On some levels it has. My mistake was underestimating the time involved to complete such monumental changes. When I think of renewal in terms of some of its synonyms – restoration, recharging, replenish, rejuvenating, revival, rebirth, I realize that these are all processes that take time, work, patience, diligence and sometimes pain as we strip away the old layers to expose the new growth beneath. Progress is slow and the changes hard to see from a day-to-day perspective. It’s only when I stop and look back at where we began, that I can see change and growth and that is encouraging. I can see that my own healing has begun too.

So, like the previous words BALANCE, RESILIENT, PERSISTENT that I have carried forward through the years, I will carry RENEWAL with me into this new year as well, and continue to work towards it.  I will shore it up with the word and talisman I have chosen for 2022.  My hope is that this word is also taken up by anyone that needs its strength.  My WORD of the YEAR for 2022 is FORTITUDE.  May it serve us well!

2020 Year In Review / 2021 Word of the Year

Posted on by C.L. Alden

Once again a year has come and gone at a pace that seems to increase the older I get. For 2020 though, there were plenty of reasons; and many of them were not good. My intention to choose a word of the year for 2020 was lost in the churn.   

An inevitable journey we will all one day make, set its course for my mom during the summer of 2019 and came to its natural end in March just as a worldwide pandemic was gaining strength. My 2019 word, Persistent, aided me throughout the year in several areas, pushing me forward through tough days that increased in number and speed through the end of the year and well into the next. The lessons that I have learned in my continuous effort to master 2018’s word, Balance, came in handy on numerous occasions, as I struggled to juggle my personal and professional life while maintaining households in two states.

For 2020, the best word to describe the year for me and most likely many others is not something that could’ve been foretold. It’s not one that envelops a guiding power, but one that contains a life lesson that we all will participate in, most likely, in one form or another, many times during the course of our lives.  It is one that is clearly seen in hindsight and embodies so many aspects of life in general, but especially so for me in 2020.  My 2020 word of the year is CULMINATE.  

It is a reminder to me of the natural rhythm of things – the ebb and flow, peaks and valleys, beginnings and endings of all journeys we take in life. It serves as an opportunity to reflect, or refresh before continuing on, hopefully more mindful that nothing stays forever so we must live in the moment, use our time wisely and appreciate the here and now, because it’s all we have.

2020 drastically changed life as we all knew it when the COVID-19 pandemic gained a grip on the world and did not let go.  Here in the US, we are still struggling, more than most, to regain some control, and return to life that more closely resembles life before the pandemic. We find ourselves deeply divided as a country, trying to find a way to hold ourselves back from the edge of ruin, dangerously disagreeing about the course our country should take, and reeling from the staggering loss of life in one year, that has now surpassed the US loss of life in the entire time span of the Vietnam war or World War I. 

The outlook was bleak then, as it has been for a while. But I have hope. 2020 has left me exhausted, bruised, and battered, but I believe that better days are coming. I choose to believe that 2020 was the culmination of many systemic, and underlying issues that were left to fester, untreated too long.  Many of these issues have been exposed now and can no longer be ignored. We must begin the work to address them and help them heal. My hope is that 2021 will be a year for new hope and healing. My 2021 Word of the Year is RENEWAL.

2018 Year In Review / 2019 Word of the Year

Posted on by C.L. Alden

Happy New Year!  As has become a tradition for me, I am closing chapter 2018 with a review of how my word of the year turned out, and choosing a word for the new year.  For those of you that don’t know, back in 2015, at the beginning of a journey that would change my life, I came across a blog post from my friend Melissa Dell that talked about the concept of choosing a word to guide you through the new year. The word is supposed to be a touchstone, or something to help focus or keep you moving towards a goal, dream, or path. My word that year was EMERGENT, and the year proved to be the beginning of  letting myself emerge; shedding layers I’d built up over the years to conform, to protect, to hide “me” and to start building the life and me that I wanted. The words that followed were RESILIENT, DEVELOPMENT and last year’s word, BALANCE. All those words served me well in their respective years and continue to teach me new lessons.  Balance has been the most challenging word for me so far.

2018 was chock full of action. It was the first full year of the New England Speculative Writers group (NESW) that I co-founded with fellow author Jeremy Flagg. Our little group grew from an idea and a Facebook page to a full-fledged organization that managed to produce its first anthology of New England spec fiction which is coming out next month, as well as planning our first conference which happens in April. I also continued marketing The Empire, my first novel, and began developing and writing the first books of a spinoff series. I checked a couple items off my bucket list too with a trip to a dude ranch in June and a trip in October with some of my family for a reunion with lifetime military friends that had the added bonus of being in Hawaii.  In between all that I managed my full time job, as well as the work I do with a realtor.

Lots of action, lots of things happening at the same time and I managed it. Somehow.  However, if I were to grade my success in balancing all things in my life last year, I would have to give myself, at best, a C minus.  I made it through to the other side, but that’s not to say it was always smooth progress.  There was a lot of stress, a lot of stops and starts and deadlines I made just under the wire.  I didn’t like the feeling of being overwhelmed and a lot of times feeling like I was always in a rush from one event, project, chore, etc to the next.  I didn’t like the feeling that I was struggling, that I wasn’t succeeding.  My old internal voice, would chalk that up to failure – that I am a failure, but I don’t use negative words like that about myself anymore. I know now that it’s self-defeating and unproductive. Instead I try to find the lesson, so that I can do better next time and move on.

Don’t get me wrong, there was a lot of time spent feeling frustrated and sometimes even anger about all that had to be done, until I remembered that I had done it to myself.  These weren’t things that I had no control over, that were happening to me, these were things I chose, in one way or another, to do.  Perspective.  I had no one to blame but myself for whatever cluster I found myself in. Changing my perspective from feeling put upon, to taking responsibility  changed my attitude and in some instances reminded me to make better choices or use the word NO more readily. 

Striving towards balance, as I mentioned earlier, has been the toughest word challenge yet. I chose it because, like most people, my life has a lot of moving parts, and I have struggled to keep everything on an even keel, and moving forward. I used to operate my life on a system of priority, but as my list of priorities has grown, the ability to keep everything moving forward has become ineffective and is more like running from priority to priority putting out fires. It’s exhausting and usually ends up being counterproductive. I did not master BALANCE in 2018, but I understand it better.  It will remain an active goal in my life and hopefully this year I’ll be more successful.

Now onto 2019 and my new word. I chose this year’s word for many reasons. I love the life I have begun to build, and I have many more dreams and goals I want to reach. With all the moving parts to balance and more to come, I decided this year I needed a word that embodies strength and steadfastness to keep me focused and pushing forward towards my goals, as well as help me continue to work towards attaining balance. To me, this word represents determination and strength.

My word for 2019 is PERSISTENT. May it guide me well.

2018 WORD of the YEAR

Posted on by C.L. Alden

Happy New Year! It has become a tradition for me that, as we start another trip around the sun, I choose a word to guide me through the coming year. I started this back in 2015 with the word Emergent, and then Resilient in 2016.  Both proved to be prophetic. 2015 was the year that I really started coming into my own. I stopped trying to fit or judge myself by conventional standards and just let myself be. I kept my eyes and heart open and let the universe guide me. I was not led astray.

In 2016 I continued pushing forward, learning more about myself and continuing to shed layers of preconceived notions and insecurities that I had heaped upon myself.  I focused on developing and harnessing my creativity towards a goal.  I stayed the course and wrote a book.

The whirlwind that started in 2016, picked up speed at the beginning of 2017 with the launch of The Empire on January 6th, and continued gaining strength throughout most of the year with a brand new learning curve of  marketing campaigns, book signings and sales. Picking a word for 2017 got lost in that storm, but if I would have, I would say that the word Development would have defined the year.

This year, I will continue to use the words I’ve picked so far and add BALANCE. One of the challenges last year was finding a way to keep everything moving forward. I learned that writing a book is not necessarily the hardest part of being an author. As an indie published author, I also had to learn how to market and sell a book. That’s a whole new skillset and a continual learning process. I also found out that it can be very time consuming. Most of the time, it felt like I could only successfully focus on one aspect at a time – either writing or marketing.

Balance, throughout all parts of my life, will be my goal for 2018.

Wishing you a happy, balanced and successful year!

Happy New Year!

Posted on by C.L. Alden

As I sit here in the last hours of 2016, I look back on a year that continued in the arc that was started in 2015.  I continued to nurture and grow my creativity. I finished my first novel, The Empire, that will be published next week, and had one of the happiest and fulfilling years ever. I feel really lucky. For me, 2016 was a fantastic year!

When I started thinking about my Word for 2017, it occurred to me that I’d forgotten what my 2016 word was. 2015 was Emergent, and it fit perfectly with the year I had in 2015 and really 2016. I’ve continued to learn and grow.  After searching this site and then my entire computer, I found a post I never published. My word for 2016 was RESILIENT and once again it proved to be prophetic. Being resilient has served me well this year, when I started to doubt myself and my path. Staying my course, believing in myself, giving myself the chance to find what makes me happy has paid off.

Below is my lost 2016 Word of the Year post.  Happy New Year! May 2017 bring you lots of love, laughter and happiness!!

My 2016 word of the year is RESILIENT  I picked this word for many reasons, as a reminder, a touchstone, a charm.  After the progress of my emergent year, a year that pushed me, stretched my creative and personal development and began the process of molding me and developing me creatively, and on other levels as well – all the change, progress and growth that I created for myself has in many ways strengthened me but has also left me tender and exposed. I am still emerging. That process will continue on for awhile I hope. I have learned so much about myself, about my creative process, about who I am and who I want to be, that I can’t see that journey, that lesson, ending anytime soon. I am still discovering who I am, where I’m going, what I want.

The word resilient will remind me to stand tough when I feel the sting of rejection, disapproval or doubt about what I am doing, what I am creating, what I am putting out there.

2015 – Emergent – A Year In Review

Posted on by C.L. Alden

 

2015 was a very productive year for me, personally and creatively. The word “emergent” proved to be an accurate choice.  As I had promised myself, I kept my eyes and self open, and let the universe chart my course. I was not disappointed. There were challenges and lessons to be learned, and also a lot of wonderful adventures and opportunities. I pushed myself in directions that were not always comfortable, but usually fulfilling.

I don’t know if it makes sense or not, but I tried very hard to allow myself to just be. I made an effort to strip away the conceived ideas I’ve put upon myself,  or allowed others to put upon me over the years. I worked at sloughing off layers of self-doubt, self-imposed beliefs and conformance so that I could really see just me, and whatever raw potential there might be.

I am a work in progress.  Chipping away at the protective layers is a long process. They weren’t added quickly, and shedding them isn’t a quick task either. What I am learning is that the more I pull myself out of those layers and let go of them, the stronger and more confident I feel.  It’s not always easy or comfortable exposing your true, unguarded self to the world.  Fear and self-doubt always seem to be lurking right there in the shadows, but I have found that the reward of allowing my true self to be seen, even if it sometimes stings a bit, is worth it. It has given me the freedom and space to begin to explore who I am, what the world has to offer and what I have to offer the world.

In the midst of all this self-discovery, or perhaps because of it, my creative side has begun to flourish as well. 2015 was chock full of creative projects. Some are featured on this site as recipes, photo galleries and how-to posts. I’m also in the middle of writing a series of paranormal fiction books centered around a somewhat fictional small New England town. I also realized this year just how much I enjoy photography. I’m still a beginner, but I have loved the experience of exploring the world through the lens of a camera.  Some of what I’ve photographed is on this site, and some I post to Instagram – as @ByCLAlden.

I have emerged in other ways by pushing myself to live in the present, the here and now, not just waiting or planning for some future event. I have made a point to take time out from daily life to have some fun, whether it’s working on a fun project, taking a quick walk outside, meeting a friend for a drink, or by taking day trips to explore the world around my neighborhood.  I have also emerged back into the dating scene by dipping my toes back into the dating pool via online dating sites, but that’s a story for another post! 🙂

I’ll conclude this post by saying that I’m enjoying my new perspective of me, the world, and all that it offers. I’m not finished emerging yet. I’m not sure when I will be, and that’s okay.

 

 

Pavlova Nests With Raspberries and Dark Chocolate

Posted on by C.L. Alden

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Pavlova. I wasn’t entirely sure what it was when a friend suggested it as a way to use up some of the bumper crop of raspberries I had posted a picture of.  I had heard of it, but never had it. I vaguely knew what it looked like, but had no idea how to make it. I was intrigued. So, off to do one of my favorite things, research recipes!

Pavlova, is a meringue based dessert, covered in fresh fruit, topped with whipped cream. Some recipes I found also included a lemon curd layer and / or a syrup made from fruit reduction.  The trickiest part of making Pavlova is baking the meringue. The perfect Pavlova has a meringue that is pale in color, with a dry, crisp outer shell and a somewhat gooey, marshmallowy center.

It’s a perfect summer dessert. Elegant looking, decadent, in a light and refreshing way, and pretty easy to master once you understand the potential challenges. It’s the type of dessert that will make you look like a baking superstar!

Lessons Learned:

As I mentioned earlier, the most challenging thing about making Pavlova is perfecting the meringue. It took me three tries. Avoid some of the pitfalls I encounterd by reading my lessons learned.

Oven temperature. This is critical. This is what my first round of meringues looked like.

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 Not overly brown, but far too crunchy. There was not a marshmallowy fluff in sight. They tasted good, but did not fit the bill of a Pavlova meringue. The problem was that my oven temp was too high. Meringues bake low and slow. Even though my oven was only at 250°F, it was too hot.  If your oven runs hot, you may have to adjust the temperature during the baking time.

Tip: Don’t open the oven too often.

Use your oven light to check on the progress. Opening the oven causes a change in temperature that will activate the preheat mode, to bring the oven back up to the correct temperature, which could affect your meringue.

 

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My second attemp looked like a SUCCESS! I preheated my oven to 275°F and then turned it down to 250°F when I put the meringues in. I checked them about 7 or 8 minutes in and they looked like they were getting a little golden on the top, so I lowered the temp closer to  225°F.

Time is another factor. Baking time for the recipes I researched all said between 50 and 60 minutes. I was a bit skeptical about that. It seemed way too long.  I learned it does take that long.  I tested them about 35 minutes in, and they were beginning to feel like they were forming a crisp crust, but they were still a bit sticky to the touch.  A done meringue will feel dry to the touch, but still have a spring. Keep in mind that they will crisp up further as they start to cool.

 

 What I didn’t take into account when baking these was the weather. Humidity is not a friend of the meringue! I baked these earlier in the day with the intention of finishing the dessert right before serving them. It was cool in the house, so I thought they’d be fine. I went out to run some errands, and when I came back and checked on them I found that they no longer felt dry and crispy.

I didn’t have time to make a new batch, so I decided to try and salvage them. Right before dinner, I put them back in the oven at 225°F for a few minutes. When they started to feel dry again, I turned off the oven, opened the door a bit and let them sit in there. After dinner I took them out for assembly. They still looked great, but they had dried out too much. Some of them still had a little marshmallow texture in the middle, but based on the research I’d done, I knew they were overbaked. I served them anyway! Sometimes, in a pinch, you gotta just go with the flow. My family, having never had Pavlova either, loved them. A great dessert, but not really Pavlova. In hindsight, to counterbalance the crispiness, I might have added a fruit sauce – crushing some of the fruit in a small pot, adding a little sugar and water and cooking it down  until it thickened. I would then cool it down quickly in an ice bath before serving.

Me, being me, I couldn’t let this project go without getting it right. I needed to make a correct Pavlova. It had become my mission! The next day, I took what I had learned so far, and tried again. Thinking about perfecting that marshmallow center, I decided my chances for success would be greater if the nests were thicker. I was right!

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This time the meringues had a beautiful, light and springy, marshmallowy center.

 

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It was worth the work and wait!

A little foreknowledge makes mastering the Pavlova easy!

Get creative! Go ahead, and give it a try. The results will be delicious!

You can use a variety of different berries or soft fruits. Try adding a lemon curd or a fruit sauce. Even a custard might be nice.

Impress your family and friends!

Or better yet, indulge and impress YOURSELF! You can do this!

Happy Baking!

 

Pavlova Nests With Raspberries and Dark Chocolate

Makes 4 – 4 inch desserts

3 – egg whites

1/2 c. granulated sugar

1 T. cornstarch

pinch of salt

1 1/2 t. white vinegar

1 1/2 t. vanilla extract

1 pint of fresh berries or equivalent (approx 2 c.) of soft fruit (like kiwi, peach, mango)

1/2 c. dark chocolate chips (I used Ghiradelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet chips)

 

Whipped Cream

1 pint of whipping cream

1 1/2 t. vanilla

1/2 c. granulated sugar (or to your taste)

 

Preheat oven to 275°F

In a small bowl, combine sugar and cornstarch. Set aside. Combine vinegar and vanilla and set aside. In a large mixing bowl, add egg whites and salt. MAKE sure there is NO YOLK in your egg whites, or they will not whip up correctly. If you are using a stand mixer, use the whisk attachment. Beaters on a standard hand held electric mixer work just as well. Whisk on medium until egg whites start to turn white and look very foamy. Gradually start adding the sugar mixture and increase the speed to medium high. Continue to whisk until all sugar is added and you can no longer feel the sugar granules. Increase speed to high and slowly add the vinegar / vanilla mixture. Continue to be beat until stiff peaks form.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Using a can or cup, draw 4 – 4″ circles on the parchment. Using an icing bag (or snip the end off a gallon sized plastic bag), pipe, or spoon a meringue nest within each circle, making sure there is a well in the middle of each nest.  Place baking sheet in the oven and reduce the temperature to 250°F. Set timer for 50 minutes. After about 7 or 8 minutes check on meringues. DO NOT open the oven if you can help it. If it looks like the meringues are starting to get golden, reduce the temperature to 225°F and check again after 7 or 8 minutes. At the 35 to 40 minute mark, test the meringues by touching one. If they feel dry, kind of like styrofoam, but still springy, they are done. Remove them from the oven to a cooling rack, or if not using right away,  turn off oven and leave it open, leaving the meringues in there to cool. If they are still a little sticky, continue baking until they feel dry to the touch. DO NOT OVERBAKE. Meringues will get crisper as they cool.

While the meringues are baking, prepare fruit and Whipped Cream, and refrigerate till ready to use.

To Make Whipped cream:

(For best results, make sure the whipping cream is kept very cold. I usually place the bowl I’m going to use and the beaters or whisk attachment in the freezer for a few minutes before I start whipping the cream. The colder the better.)

In a large bowl add whipping cream and vanilla. Beat on medium until it gets foamy and begins to thicken. Gradually add sugar and continue whipping. Increase speed to medium-high / high and whip until thickened and peaks form. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Constructing desserts:

Melt chocolate chips in a bowl placed over hot water. If the chocolate is too thick to drizzle, try adding a couple drops of vegetable oil and stir.

Pipe or spoon a layer of whipped cream into the center of each nest. Add berries / fruit.  Add another layer of whipped cream, and then more berries. Drizzle melted chocolate over dessert and serve.

Suggestions:

If you are planning this for a dinner party, have the fruit (and sauce if applicable)  pre-prepared. About 15 minutes before you are ready to plate the food or sit down to dinner, make the whipped cream, and put the meringues in.  Keep the whipped cream in the refrigerator while the meringues are baking. Check the meringues after 7 or 8 minutes and adjust the oven temp if needed.

Once they are done, turn off the oven, and leave the door open so they can cool, or if serving immediately, take them out of the oven, and cool on a rack. Cool completely before assembling.

If meringues get too crisp, try adding a layer of curd / custard or make a sauce by crushing some of the fruit, adding a little water and sugar and cooking over heat until thickened. You can cool the sauce off quickly by placing the pot in an ice water bath. In a pinch, melt a little jam to use as an alternate for sauce.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lessons Learned: Tips and Tricks for Constructing and Decorating a Cake When You’re Not a Cake Boss

Posted on by C.L. Alden
My creativity continues to emerge  this year, and I’m enjoying every moment of it! I have found that my perspective – keeping my eyes, ears and heart open to new possibilities, and opportunities has determined my outlook, and I have not been disappointed. Life is full of exciting and fun adventures if you choose to look at it that way. Perspective is everything.  My latest creative adventure begins with preparing for a wedding and a trip to Tucson, Arizona.

 

 

I was honored and privileged with the request and opportunity to make a wedding cake for two very dear friends of mine, who were getting married in Tucson.

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Although the task seemed rather daunting, I was excited and accepted the challenge.  It has been many years since I attempted a cake of that size and level of detail, and I was sure that my mostly self-taught decorating skills would be very rusty.

I first became interested in cake decorating in my teens when my Girls Scout Leader in Owls Head, Maine gave the troop a demonstration in basic cake decorating and taught us a recipe for decorating icing. I began to experiment, and during my years living in Tucson I honed my skills, decorating many cakes for birthdays and other occasions. You can see some of my work in the slideshow at the end of this post. That was many years ago, however, during college and my first real job after I graduated. As I got older, like with a lot of things, cake decorating was pushed to the side as my career and life responsibilities increased.

As the title of this post suggests, I believe anyone can bake and decorate a beautiful cake. You don’t need a ton of experience, fancy tools or equipment. Using items you probably already have at home or can be bought at the dollar store, plus a very small investment in a few of the basic decorating icing tips, you will have everything you need. Success relies upon a little knowledge, time, patience, and skills that, in this day and age, can be learned through YouTube videos.

So you’ve read this far… Have you decided that you’re going to do this? That you CAN do this? If your answer is yes, GREAT!  Now what? There are a lot of things to consider. Planning and organization are your best allies to make this a successful project. In this post, I’m going to walk you through the steps and thought processes I used to create this cake.

Jon and Rachel Wedding Cake

Here we go!

Steps:

  • Design
  • Evaluate
  • Plan 
  • Execute
Design:

Regardless of the occasion, one of the first things to consider is what you want the cake to look like. I would suggest doing some research and finding pictures of cakes you like. Next, review the pictures for the specific design elements you like and make note of them. Here are some basic questions to get you started:

  • Will it be a tiered cake? Or a cake with columns?
  • Is there a special form pan involved or will you be designing and building the cake in a more freestyle manner?
  • For the cake itself:
    • What flavor will the cake be?
    • Will you be using a cake mix or making a homemade cake?
    • Will you have a special filling in the middle of the layers such as lemon or raspberry?
    • What type of icing?
  • What colors do you want to use?
  • If using flowers, will you be using icing, silk or fresh flowers?

For the Tucson wedding cake, the bride and groom had decided upon a tiered hexagonal cake, and bought a kit that contained four different sized pans. During our discussions, I asked the bride to send me pictures of cakes she liked and to tell me what she liked about them. They wanted a tiered cake, with no columns. They decided on a yellow cake with no special filling. I decided to make homemade cakes. Tiered cakes are heavier than you think they’ll be. In my experience, homemade cakes tend to be a little denser than cakes made with a cake mix, and I wanted  the security of that denseness to help ensure that the bottom tiers of the cake could withstand the weight of the upper tiers. Both the bride and groom preferred buttercream to fondant, which is good, since I have no experience with fondant. The wedding colors were navy blue and white. The bride and I discussed silk flowers, but in the end she decided on a simpler design in which I incorporated the large roses that you see on the bottom tier.

Evaluate:

This is where the rubber meets the road. If you’re like me, you can sometimes get caught up in the excitement, and end up biting off more than you can realistically chew. This is the time to test whether or not you’ve done that. Now that you have your design, or at the very least you have a basic idea of what you want it to look like, it’s time to evaluate if you have the skill level to successfully achieve the look you want, and logistically what it’s going to take to create.

Analyze & Research!

As I mentioned earlier, there are YouTube videos for everything!  If you are a beginner, or someone like me that has some skills but may need a refresher course, there are videos that will help you. Anything from how to bake a cake to specific icing designs can be found.  Mentally walk through the process of cake construction and determine what skills you already have, and those that you need to learn. Make a list. As I started watching videos, new things would occur to me like, is there an easy way to level a cake layer, so that each tier is flat and even? And yes there are videos out there for this, and later in this blog I’ll tell you how I did it.

Tip: Practice while you’re researching. Once you decide on some of the design work, make a small batch of icing to practice what you’ve learned. The experts make it look easier sometimes than it actually is.   Use a piece of parchment or wax paper to pipe your designs out and then scrape them off to use the icing again. 

Below are some some logistical things to consider when baking a cake, as well as some specific considerations for a multi-tiered cake:

Tip: To ensure you cover all bases, think of baking, constructing and decorating your cake from the inside out.

  • If making a cake from scratch, do you have a good recipe?  If you’re looking for a really good yellow cake recipe, click HERE for the recipe I used.
  • If making a multi-tiered cake, you may want to consider some sort of inner support.
  • What type of icing will you be using? Two of the most popular are buttercream and fondant. There are different techniques for applying each of these. If you are using buttercream, HERE is the recipe that I used that proved to be very reliable.
  • Will you have to transport the cake?
    • If so, how will you transport it?
    • Will you transport in one piece, or multiple pieces and assemble at destination?
    • What will you transport it in? (note: there are instructions available online on how to construct your own cake box for a multi-tiered cake)
  • Environmental conditions – Will the cake be stored / served in a cool place. Temperature is important when considering the type of icing to use.
  • Decorating techniques – how to create icing flowers, borders, and other decorations
Plan:

Okay, so the research is done. You’ve figured out your design and how to achieve it, now it’s down to the nitty gritty. What do you need? At this point, it would be a good idea to do an inventory of what you have and what you need. Some logistical things to consider and plan for:

  • Ingredients. How much flour, sugar, butter, powdered sugar etc… are you going to need?

In order to do this, you’ll have to know how many batches of batter / icing you’ll need. For instance, when I was making the wedding cake and cupcakes, I found out that the one batch of batter would make 22 jumbo cupcakes, or 2 – 9″ cakes. So, break that information out and apply that to the number and size cakes you are making and then calculate the number of cups of flour, sugar, etc then convert to pounds. One of the things I learned is that the number of cups per pound varies depending on what you’re measuring.

For example:

  • 1 lb of all purpose flour = approx. 3 1/3 cup
  • 1 lb of granulated sugar = approx 2 1/4 cups
  • 1 lb of powdered sugar = approx 4 cups  

To give you some idea of the amounts we’re talking about in constructing large cakes, I used 14 lbs each of butter and  powdered sugar in the baking and construction of the wedding cake – the tiers were 9″, 12″, 15″ plus an additional 100 jumbo cupcakes.

  • How much time is it going to take to bake the cake(s)?
  • Where / how  will you store it?
  • Where will you construct it?
  • Do you have all the necessary tools to make and decorate it?
Execute:

It’s GO time! You’ve got your recipes, your supplies. You’ve learned or honed the skills you need through videos, and maybe some practice. Now it’s time to put your skills to the test. To give you a practical idea of time and lessons learned, I’ll walk you through my experience.

It always takes longer than you think it’s going to. 

A tiered cake isn’t built in a day…

At least not when I’m constructing it.  Having made a few tiered cakes before, I knew that it was going to take me a few days to complete. As I mentioned before, I made a three-tiered wedding cake – the base cake was 15″ in diameter, then 12″ and the top cake was 9″. In addition I was baking 100 jumbo cupcakes. I arrived in Tucson on Tuesday night. Wednesday morning my friends and I went shopping for supplies and ran some other wedding errands. Thursday was all about baking. I started out with the cupcakes which took most of the day. It doesn’t sound like it should, but consider the following: each batch of batter only made 22 cupcakes, so add the time to make the batter from scratch, fill the pans, bake the cupcakes which took about 20 minutes per batch,  wash the equipment – measuring cups, bowls, beaters, etc and repeat the process 4 more times. That’s pushing close to five hours in cupcakes alone. Because of their size, the cakes take longer to bake. The shortest time was for the 2 – 9″ cakes which was 25 to 30 minutes. The larger cakes took closer to 40 minutes to an hour each and unless you have two of each pan, you are only baking one at a time. and 100 jumbo cupcakes and from start to finish it took me 3 solid days of baking and decorating to complete.

I’ll walk you through the basic process and add the lessons, tips and tricks that I learned in preparing for and building this cake. We’ll start out with the tools I used, and what I used them for.

 

Cake Construction Tools

 

 

  1. Ruler – This turned out to be a crucial tool. I watched several videos to see if there was an easier way, but in my case, there was not. The easiest way to level a cake would be if your cake ended up being higher than the top of the baking pan. If that were the case, you could simply remove the cake from the pan to let it cool, then place it back in the pan and and then laying the blade of a long knife across the top of the pan, simply cut across, always keeping the blade flat. Unfortunately, my cakes were not that tall, so I used the ruler to measure the lowest point on the cake and then, with a small pointy knife, I continued around the cake, holding the small blade flat and making small deep cuts at the corrected height. Once the all the cuts, I switched to a long serrated knife.
  2. Long serrated knife – For the smaller cakes, using the small cuts previously made, I could make one continuous cut across the cake turning it as I went to make sure I was at the correct level. For the larger cakes, I made a cut through several of the previous cuts and then cleared that cake away. I did that all the way around the cake, taking off pieces as I went. When I got all the way around, there was only a small area in the middle that I still had to cut. Keeping my blade flat on the leveled cake I could easily level the center, going around using smaller cuts if the blade was not long enough.

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Tip: You’re in this for the long haul. Be sure you’re comfortable. It was much easier for me to be accurate measuring and cutting the cake if it was higher up. You don’t need a lot of fancy equipment. Don’t be afraid to “MacGyver” solutions using items that you have available. Is it pretty? No. But it did work? Perfectly.

3. & 4.  Large icing bag & #789 cake icer tip – This was the first time I had used the Wilton Cake Icer tip #789. It was a HUGE success, and saved me a lot of time!  You will need to use a large icing bag or you will find yourself refilling the bag a lot. I used a 16″ disposable bag.  There are video tutorials out there that are very helpful. The pluses that I found using the tip were: less time consuming, easier to achieve an even layer of icing, easier to get a smooth finish. I highly recommend watching a tutorial and giving it a try.

5. & 6.  Pastry scraper & flat spatula – Both are very handy in achieving a smooth finish. I bought the pastry scraper at one of the big discount dollar stores for about $4.00. Make sure you get one that has a handle that is flush with the scraper part. The scraper was very handy for easily smoothing the sides of the cake, but I found the spatula easier to use on the top of the cake.

Tip: For easier icing spreading and smoothing, be sure to keep your scraper or spatula clean. Each time you take it off the cake, clean excess icing off, dip it in very hot water, shake off excess water and continue smoothing the icing.  

IMG_20150418_161117

 

Tip: If you’re having trouble getting your icing super smooth, let it dry until it’s not sticky to the touch. Take a piece of copier paper, or even tissue wrapping paper, lay it flat on the top of the cake, or flush against the side, and very gently, using the flat of your hand, smooth it out like you would if you were trying to smooth out wrinkles. Gently lift off the paper and move it as necessary.

7.  Wooden dowels – These can be found in the cake decorating section of a craft store in packages of 12. The idea of using the dowels is that it’s a way to take to pressure off the bottom cakes. Most of the weight of each tier will be supported  by the dowels, not the cake. Be sure to use cardboard circles cut to the size of the cake under each tier. Measure the height of the cake and then cut the dowel so that when pushed in, it will be flush, or slightly below the top of the icing. For example, to support the 9″ cake, I used six cut dowels. I placed them in a circular pattern a couple inches smaller than the 9″ tier, and put one dowel in the middle. The larger the cake being supported, the more dowels you will need.

8.  Disposable Icing bag – This is a 12″ icing bag. It’s a good size for icing used in decorating. The key I’ve found is not to put too much icing in at a time for a couple of reasons – 1) It’s harder to hold the bag and apply an even,  steady pressure when the bag is too full, 2) The icing gets warm and doesn’t hold it’s shape as well.

9. Coupler and ring set – To use or not to use? You don’t have to use a coupler set with your decorating tips. You can simply place the tip in your disposable bag, and cut an opening in the bag that allows about a third to a a half of the tip to come through. The only time I use a coupler and ring is if I’m going to use more than one type of tip per icing color. When you use a coupler, the coupler goes on the inside of the bag. Cut the bag so that about a third of the coupler comes through. Don’t worry if the threads of the coupler are still covered. You’ll place the tip on the coupler on the outside of the bag and secure it with the ring. Changing tips is as easy as removing the ring and replacing the tip.

10. Decorating tips –  For the wedding cake, I used several open and closed star tips and a round tip. For the large rose design on the cupcakes I used Wilton tip #2D which is a large closed star tip seen in the picture (see figure #4) on the end.

IMG_20150418_102109

11. Icing gel – I would suggest using icing gels such as those made by Wilton instead of food coloring. A little icing gel goes a long way and produces a vibrant color that does not change the consistency of your icing. To get your desired color, start adding gel a little at a time. I found that using a toothpick worked well for me. You dip it in the gel once, touch it to your icing and throw it away. That way your gel doesn’t get contaminated with icing.

Tip: Who knew that Navy Blue icing gel would be impossible to find? Turns out that Royal Blue and Black icing gel make navy blue!  Learn something new every day!

12. Decorating press sets – These make it very easy to create consistent designs. You don’t necessarily have to buy a set. Look around, get creative. You might have something already that you can use to create a design, or try creating your own.

13. Non-Slip Shelf liner – This was very handy in two different applications. I used it  between the cake and the decorative plywood  board it was placed on. I also used it under the cake when transporting it, and it worked perfectly.

Tip: As I mentioned before, tiered cakes can get very heavy. Think about how and what you’re going to place the cake on for transport and serving. I used three cardboard rounds taped together under the base tier, and glued on navy blue ribbon to cover the edges.  Once I began putting the tiers together for decorating, I constructed the cakes on top of a plywood board covered in fabric that ultimately the cake would be served on. To avoid getting the fabric dirty during decorating, I simply covered the fabric with paper towels. I put a square of the non-slip shelf liner on top of the covered board and then constructed the tiers on top of that. I was then able to very easily move the cake without worrying about it sliding.

IMG_2486

That’s it folks! With a little planning and preparation ahead of time, my wedding cake / cupcake project was virtually stress-free, and turned out to be a huge success!  I had my design.  I knew what I needed. I had my recipes and tools, and I gave myself plenty of time to get it done. Now it’s your turn. Get out there and start creating! Best wishes to you on your cake decorating adventures!

 

 

A long time ago…Examples of cakes I baked back in the day, and some recent ones too.

2015 Word of the Year

Posted on by C.L. Alden
I read a wonderful blog entry from my friend Melissa of MelissaDell.com about the idea of having a word of the year. The word being chosen would be a running theme or framework for the year. I had no idea this was a thing. I know the media keeps track of popular and trending words, but apparently defining one’s individual word, as well as exploring and incorporating it in daily life, is a very popular concept in the blogging world. It also fits right in with what I’m doing in this blog as well. In essence, this isn’t really new to me, I have been doing this for years in my personal journals.
If we are talking about trends and statistics, I would say from a personal point of view that over the last ten years the word “CHANGE” would be the most popular and reoccurring word, followed by “LESSONS”, and finally “GROWTH”. All of the actions behind these words are still ongoing in my life and I hope that never changes. Life would get pretty boring without change and learning new things. Last year my word would have been “TRANSITION”. Change, growth and lessons were definitely components of the year as well, but transition would encapsulate the entire year. I spent a good portion of 2014 looking for a job. I was burned out, and disenchanted. As much as I hated the last job, which was nothing short of a soul sucking, bottomless pit of despair, once I was out, I had no idea what to do. When it came to work, I had spent so many years with the attitude of  “the devil you know is better than the one you don’t”, that once I was free, I felt a little adrift, no strike that, I felt straight up directionless. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t shed one tear the day I got laid off. In fact, I couldn’t stop smiling, I was so relieved and happy. Sooner or later, however, that feeling of relief is replaced with the oh crap, what am I gonna do now feeling. I didn’t panic. It wasn’t like I hadn’t been down this road a few times before, but this time felt a little different. In spite of that, I spent the next several months looking for and applying to jobs I didn’t want, simply because I knew that was what I was supposed to be doing. I had a life to pay for; a mortgage, a car, credit card debt…my options seemed very limited.Surprisingly though, those months weren’t all doom and gloom. I used some of that time to start being creative again.  In November of 2013 I participated and completed the NaNo – National Novel Writing challenge, which is to write a 50k word novel in a month. That got the creative juices flowing, and I continued writing and started adding some other creative projects like #100happydays which involves posting a picture every day for 100 days, of something that made you happy that day. Not an easy task some days, but SO worth the effort. It forces you to live in the moment. To stop and look around and think about how you are spending your time. It was very illuminating for me and healing in a way.I didn’t realize it until after I’d stopped working for awhile, how battered and bruised my soul felt. I know that may sound a little melodramatic, but it’s true. I had been so unhappy for so long that I didn’t even realize it. It had become my normal.  My job search continued, and I continued to ignore that sense of dread I felt every time I thought about going back to the life I had before.  I looked forward to the time when I could work on my projects. When I would be creating something.

At some point late Spring, early Summer, I still had no job, my unemployment had run out… I was really feeling like something had to change soon. I knew what some of the grim realities were if things didn’t change, but I refused to focus on them. I had faith that things would work out if I didn’t panic. I knew I had to find MY OWN way this time. I was finally beginning to realize why I was where I was, and I why I had been so unhappy for so long. I had spent years trying to conform. To fit me, a body and soul with wild, misshapen, messy, uncharted, unbound edges into the well delineated bounds of society. It was never a comfortable fit, but I didn’t know there was any other way. I did what I thought I was supposed to, like so many others do, but somehow it never quite worked out for me. Trying to be like everyone else, doing what I thought was expected,  following rules that I placed on myself because I thought that’s the way it was supposed to be had crippled me in many ways.

One day in early Summer, I had an epiphany of sorts. I  stopped ignoring the gnawing feeling in my gut, and the clawing at my heart that told me that life was, and should be, more than what I had and the way I had been living it. Why did I have to go back to that life? The thought instantly made me feel lighter, happier. Why hadn’t I thought of that sooner? Whose life was it anyway? Those questions opened the door to so many more, and started me on my next adventure. I started to really think about the life I wanted.

The first thought was that the life I wanted, had nothing to do with the life I had at that moment. I was living in a town I had no connections to, in a house that had been part of another dream. I decided it was time to sell the house. I spent most of the summer working on house projects to get it ready for market, and continued trying to shape my new life. By this time I had started an episodic “Sci-Fi Lite” blog called The Adventures of Catriona Allorn. I also started to learn more about social media and how I could use it. I started Instagram and Twitter accounts.

Bit by bit, I’m putting the pieces in place and building the foundation for the life I want, for the “me” I want. As I mentioned in my first post, my best laid plans never go quite as expected. The house has not sold, and for the time being is off the market. Looking for a job has become a priority once again, These are not unscalable barriers, just stumbling blocks that I will move past. Right now, I’m a fluid spirit, not yet formed. I’m letting the universe chart my course. I’m an undiscovered species, soon to be found, a clean slate ready for a new story. My word for 2015, is EMERGENT.

2015 New Year, New Adventures

Posted on by C.L. Alden
2015
New Year, New Adventures
 

Out with the old. I stalled and sputtered with this blog last year…I guess I just wasn’t ready.  2014 was a busy year. It was full of discovery, loss, heartache, joy, restoration, evolution and many creative adventures that have now begun to fill me up. I began pushing out all the negativity, stress, unhappiness, and soul sucking day to day living that had left me feeling like an empty shell. I struggled with finding a direction for this blog. I got too caught up in trying to structure and define it. The outcome of this blog last year is a good reflection of what my life has been like for a long time – trying to make my life fit into an acceptable format for public consumption, instead of focusing on creating a life I want.  That’s all in the past.

A bit battered, but still moving forward.


In with the new.

New adventures. 2015 will be about development. I’m not going to make hard and fast plans, or set a defined direction, because it seems that every time I do, I end up being redirected anyway. So one of my goals this year is to be more fluid. Accept what the universe has to offer. Flow like a river, adjusting my direction as obstacles arise; flowing over the ones I can, and around the ones I can’t. I’m not sure what my destination will be, and I’m okay with that. I’m learning to live and enjoy the present, taking each day as it comes. I’ve opened up my eyes, ears and heart to the universe, and set myself afloat. I’m looking forward to seeing how my river flows.