Really Duff?

I have been on Team Duff for as long as I can remember. I've watched every episode of his show and own an autographed copy of his book. As fans go, I'm one of the biggest one can be without stalking the poor man.

That being said, I was super stoked when I found out he was coming out with his own line of cake decorating products. There's everything from pans, cutters, and every color of fondant you can imagine.



When I saw it at Michael's the other day I let out a silent squeal of delight. That is, until I saw the price of the fondant. A 2-pound tub (which is no bigger than a can of soup) will set you back $25.

25 DOLLARS?!? Good lord that's a lot of money (I'm channeling Chris Rock right now)!!

I make all of my fondant from scratch, and by my best calculations it costs me around $5 to make a 5 pound batch. And honestly, fondant isn't that hard to make if you have a little time and patience. So let's see, make it myself and pay $5 or buy the same amount of Duff's for over $60? I think you see what I'm getting at.

Sadly most of his other products were fairly overpriced as well, and so I left Michael's without anything bearing the Duff logo. While I'm sure Duff himself isn't responsible for coming up with the pricing, I hope he realizes that I (and plenty of other baking enthusiasts I'm sure) will not pay through the nose just to get a softball sized piece of fondant that may or may not be as tasty as homemade. My love for Duff is still in tact, but for now it will not be partaking in any of his retail items.

Setting the Record Straight (I Hope)

A couple of months ago I signed up to make some cookies for church. They were for a reception for the third graders who were receiving their first Bibles. I made little sheep sugar cookies with butter cream wool and fondant heads featured below:



Cute right? So I go deliver the cookies to church on a Friday afternoon and make my way to the kitchen along with some other women doing the same thing. Some of them were dressed in business suits and carrying in store-bought cookies. As I'm placing my cookies on the counter, one of the women in the suit takes one look at me and says, "Wow, what great cookies. Looks like someone has a lot of time on their hands!"

Now, I'm not even sure she said that to be mean (I'm betting that she didn't), but I definitely took it as a band-handed compliment. For one thing, I do NOT have a lot of time on my hands, it's very much the opposite. For another, why does making cute cookies suddenly mean that I need to get a life?

If you can't already tell, I have had this happen to me before. I've heard everything from, "Oh, I wish I could show off like you." to "Well, my Oreos seem pretty lame now." I've even sat and watched a group of women stand around something I've made and rolled their eyes. For some reason whenever I (or anyone else for that matter) decide to make something creative, or even from (gasp) scratch, suddenly the passive-aggressive claws come out.

So I just want to say right here, right now, that I do not bake anything to start a fight, or make anyone else feel inferior just because they may work outside the home and don't have the time or energy to do anything but swing by the bakery at the grocery store. I also don't do it to rub it in the faces of others who might not have the same artistic talents or tendencies. I do it because I love it. Baking is my hobby and my escape. Some people read or jog. I make cookies and cake in the shape of sheep, poodles, cowboy hats, and armadillos. If that makes me weird, so be it, but please don't feel threatened by it. I come in peace.

Hello?? Anyone Still Reading??

Oh brother, has it really been 4 months? I'm so sorry!

In the event that anyone even reads my blog anymore, let me do an uber-quick catch up: Yes, I am still alive. Yes, I am still a vegetarian. And YES, I still love to make cakes! Although, I'm pretty sure I *think* about making them far, far more than I actually do these days. Wrangling 2 little ones has eaten up the majority of my time, along with trips to Iowa and Australia (which we just got back from on Tuesday--and the jetlag has just about worn off thankfully).

Alrighty then, back to business. As I stated, you haven't missed much cake-wise, but here is the ONE cake I have managed to do recently:


My baby brother Drew graduated from high school (which explains the trip to Iowa). So of course I made his cake. One thing Drew is known for is his "catch phrase", which consists of him pointing into the air and saying, "Very nice!". I did my best to re-create this, making a gumpaste Drew popping out of the middle of a sheet cake.

Here is Gumpaste Drew closeup:

He turned out looking sort of Peanuts/Charles Schultz-like, and I was cool with that.

Until next time, and hopefully the next time will be sooner rather than later!

A New Path.

So here's the scoop: I have decided once and for all to give vegetarianism a real go (the lacto-ovo kind--I will still eat dairy products). I have been going back and forth on this issue in my head for a while now, but now I believe I am finally ready to embrace my inner-herbivore.

Why now Lauren?
As many of you may know, Richard is a vegetarian and has been for over 20 years now. But he has not, I repeat NOT, pushed me into this in any way. In fact, he was probably the most shocked about this out of everyone I've told so far! He doesn't eat meat because he is somewhat of a picky eater and just doesn't like it.

I, on the other hand really like the taste of meat, but have been feeling increasing guilty about liking it. I blame this mostly on 2 things--watching Food, Inc. (A great documentary...if you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it, though I don't recommend eating right before watching it!), and those "stop animal cruelty" commercials on TV. Suddenly I feel like a big hypocrite--I love animals, yet I've had no problem stuffing my face with them for the past 31 years.

Also, and probably worth noting, I'm in the process of trying to shed my baby weight. I've noticed that the less meat I eat, the more fruits & veggies I eat, thus making the weight loss happen more consistantly.

Is this going to be hard for you?
Honestly, I don't think so. I was already living as a vegetarian about 90% of the time, thanks to having a vegetarian husband. I hardly have enough time to cook one type of meal as it is, so meals at our house have always been meat-free (unless it's been something I can just add chicken to easily, although usually I don't mess with it.) The only time I really eat a lot of meat is when we eat out, so that will be my biggest hurdle. That and Thanksgiving...saying no to the turkey might be difficult.

Will this affect your love of cake?
NO! I am still a cake-head and will continue to be so. The only thing I will need to tweak for a cake I am eating is the fondant, which contains gelatin (which, in case you didn't know, contains ground up hooves...ew.). Happily, I have already found a vegetarian gelatin (yay Whole Foods!) that will hopefully work just as well and won't change the consistancy of the fondant. I'll be making a batch in the next week, so keep your fingers crossed for me.

So there you go. I'm not going to promise that this will go 100% smoothly. But I want to give it a legitimate shot and see how I do.

What? I Made a Cake??

Yeah, so my blogging for 2010 has had a very slow start. I really need to clone myself so I can do everything that I need/want to do in a day!

Anyhoo, after something like 10 months since my last big cake project, I am happy to share this:

We held a very belated holiday party with Richard's team, and so I grabbed the opportunity to get creative. My execution wasn't as clean as I know it could have been, and I blame that on a lack of time and me being a bit rusty. But that's the great thing about whimsical cakes like this--no one but me can see all the little flaws. So now that I have a recent cake under my belt, I can prep for Olivia's birthday coming up in 1 month.

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We've been keeping busy here. We had a snowstorm on Thursday that broke the previous snowfall record for a 24-hour period in Dallas. It was the heavy, slushy snow that is perfect for building snowmen, and so I helped Olivia build one which we dubbed "Cowboy Frosty".

(Because really, how can you build a snowman in Texas and not put a cowboy hat on him?)

Ruby continues to be a very mellow baby. She loves to be carried around so she can look around at everything, which up until about a week ago was just fine. But now that she's at least 15 pounds, it's taking a toll on Mommy's back!



What can I say, I'm a great chef I guess. This little chunker loves her some breastmilk!

2009 (aka Best Year Ever!)

This has been hands-down the busiest & best year of my life. I would summarize, but I'll just let you go back through my posts at your leisure :)

But the biggest event of the year happened a little over a month ago (and also explains my huge lack of posting lately). Everyone, meet the newest little love of my life, Ruby Elizabeth:



Ruby decided to make her debut 18 days early, but everything with the birth went flawlessly (except maybe the part where my mom had to drop everything and drive down here more than a week earlier than she expected). And after having one baby with an epidural(Ruby) and one without(Olivia), I highly recommend the method WITH one!

Other than my expected lack of sleep, Ruby is a very good baby. She only cries when she's hungry, and even sleeps in her crib at night (a feat that her big sis Olivia didn't accomplish until she was about a year old). She's already 6 weeks old and starting to grin and smile, which makes all the sleepless nights more than worthwhile. Olivia adores her, and can't wait until Ruby is bigger and does more than eat and sleep all day!

We had a wonderful Christmas at home, and in very un-Texas like fashion, we ended up with snow on the ground Christmas Day!


My baking was kept to a minimum (I plan to make up for that next year!), but I did manage to whip up some festive sugar cookies:


I used homemade fondant, royal icing, and sugar sprinkles. Very tasty if I do say so myself, but now that I'm back on WW I will have to watch myself around my baked goods once again. I'm actually pretty excited about getting the baby weight off though, since I was only 2 pounds away from my goal before I got pregnant. I will achieve lifetime membership if it's the last thing I do!

I think that about does it for 2009. It will be a hard year to beat for sure! My only resolution this year is to take time and enjoy life (and to maybe keep up the blog a bit better than I have lately) :)

Happy New Year to One and All!

This About Sums it Up!