SIMPLY ELEGANT

I like simple things.  Sometimes simple things are better than the big and fancy.   I also like cake - it happens to be one of my favorite desserts.  Not just any cake, but cake decorated with a sweet icing - wedding cake is my particular favorite - perhaps because it is a happy occasion and the icing is always so pure and white.  Perhaps it is because they cut such small pieces and leave me wanting

more. . . .

Anyway, I enjoy eating cake and I also enjoy decorating cakes.  It seems something I must have inherited from mom - she took a pretty intensive cake decorating course when I was young and I remember her bringing her "projects" home for us to enjoy.  The flowers and basket weave designs were so pretty!  So, I guess I enjoyed the memories so much, I took to decorating cakes myself.  I just took a simple class at Joann Fabric Store one summer.  It was just to learn how to do simple things for my boys' birthdays.  A nice decorated cake at that time was costing about $10-$15, I could do that much cheaper, plus it would add a personal, loving touch to their birthday. Somehow, though, I ended up baking and decorating cakes for a lot of people.  I had my own little business for a few years and enjoyed every minute of it - plus my house always smelled so good.   I did many designs - Tigger, Pooh, Mickey Mouse, Rugrats, Star Wars, dinosaurs, deer, and once I even made one with a Rottweiler copied from a photograph (sound familiar to anyone reading this, Holly?).  My favorite cakes were the flower designs - roses and drop flowers were my specialty.   There's just something about eating a huge gob of icing in the shape of a rose!  (Any wonder why I can't reach my ideal weight?).

I only make cakes now for my immediate family - I've gone into retirement early.  I usually end up doing baseball, football, hunting or golfing cakes.  All boys things.  That's okay - I would not trade my boys for anything!  But, sometimes I miss doing the flowers.  Well, now that Ty is dating, I have a girl I can decorate a cake for!  Emily's birthday was this past week - she is 19 now.  She is here in WI for the holiday and my son is walking on Cloud 9. 

  I made Sunday lunch for us all, and decided we would celebrate Emily's birthday too.   

I saw this idea in a Wilton book once and have been wanting to do this ever since.  It is so cute and simple, yet the effect is adorable!  I'm not great at making daisies out of icing - it is a lot of work and to be honest, I've not practiced enough for a good-looking daisy.  However, these daisies are just made out of mini marshmallows flattened with my thumb. 

I then took a pair of sharp kitchen scissors and made little slits all around to form the "petals".  Then I piped yellow icing in the middle to form the center.  They are so cute, I could eat them up - and actually, we did!

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:  99% of failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.