Jane's Folly Blog

Adventures in Cake part 1

Divarat is my guest blogger- she’s taking classes in cake decorating in anticipation of making a cake for her friend’s wedding. She promises pictures are forthcoming. – Jane

Do not inhale the frosting…

Last night i made the cake. Today I will make both buttercream frosting for the cake and royal icing for the flowers. I’m starting with royal icing as the slightest hint of oil in your bowl when working with meringue can ruin the process. Royal icing is, essentially, a form of meringue, made from nothing but powdered sugar, powdered egg whites and water in this ratio:

3 level tbsp meringue powder
1lb confectioners sugar
5-6 tbsp water

The key, again, is the grease free bowl. to be sure you’re working on a grease free surface, wet a paper towel with distilled white vinegar and white out your bowl and then

Cake

Newbies vs. N00bs

Everyone was a newbie once.

The coolest, most talented, innovative and put-together people in the world didn’t start that way. When starting out on a new creative endeavor, the natural tendency is to pick someone’s perfect piece to compare it to. You want to learn rock carving, so you hammer away at your first slab of rock and then despair because it doesn’t look like Michaelangelo’s David. Was that the first thing he ever made? I don’t think so! But no one wants to be a noob.

Articles

Writer’s Digest List of Blogs for Writers

Not Bob from Writer’s Digest lists blogs for and by writers to check out I’m going to look over this list to get ideas about writing and great blogs. At…

writing

Going up a level

Upgrading my blog I have transferred my blog from wordpress.com to my own domain name, hosting and using wordpress.org. I also fiddled around with a new theme and I’m learning…

Random

Rewriting Process

<whine> Rewriting is haaaaarrrd! </end whine>

For me, rewriting is the hardest part of the writing process. This is why I have so many first drafts and very few finished products! When I’m writing, I’m not judging or worrying about being published, especially when I’m doing the NaNoWriMo challenge. It’s all about creating and letting my imagination loose. Rewriting, on the other hand, is about looking over what I’ve created and trying to make it publishable. I am finding a lot of resistance to the process, I think my subconscious thinks that if I never finish, I will never be rejected. I’m fighting low self esteem, fear of failure, despair, frustration and self-sabotage. No wonder I keep finding myself procrastinating and distracted during my writing time!

Articles

Out of the box

We made a cardboard box train for my son’s birthday party. My daughter eagerly helped, and even pushed the train around the house with three small passengers inside. I think…

Creativity show Random

Ravelry review

This week I investigated Ravelry. This is an online social network for knitters and crocheters (is that a word? it doesn’t look right- people who crochet, let me know what…

Reviews

Music is for Muses, strangely enough

A lot of people use music as a way of setting mood, sparking imagination, and helping them create. Gamers play movie soundtracks while they run tabletop roleplaying adventures. Artists, crafters…

Articles

Creativity planning

Every January I get out my notebook and write out my goals. I keep most of my notebooks and flipping back through them for years upon years, it was the…

Articles

Graham Cracker Houses

If you want to do something like gingerbread houses for a large group of kids, or just your own, a graham cracker house skips all the baking and gets to…

Random

Jane's Folly Posts

Do not inhale the frosting…

Everyone was a newbie once.