1st All Fondant Cake

So as some of you know, I'm in course 3 of my Wilton cake decorating. It is the course on Fondant and Tiered cakes! So on Tuesday our instructor had us bring a cake so we could learn how to cover and decorate with fondant.

Let me just tell you, I LOVE IT! It was so fun. Last week when I was sitting in class and she told us what we were going to be doing I thought "I'm never going to be able to make that." Well class went awesome! It was actually really easy. Working with fondant is so much nicer than working with buttercream. It is easier to clean up and it looks A LOT better. Fondant just gives a cake an all around clean, smooth look.

I'll definitely be working with fondant LOTS more :o)

Justin plays softball every Tuesday night. So after class I called him and he said he won his game, so i said we have to have a celebration party at our house so we can eat my cake. It was lots of fun!

Lemon cake, with lemon cream filling. Not my favorite, but still good!

Awe :o)

Byron was so intrigued by it:

I am so excited that i learned how to cover and decorate a cake with fondant! In another week we will be doing a tiered cake! Yipee!!

This is a Trifle I did for a BBQ on Labor Day:

YOU DID WHAT??

Well another one bites the dust...

Just ONE week after I cut my finger with a knife and had to get 5 stitches I get a phone call from Justin on Friday at about 11:00 am... Here's how our telephone conversation went:

Me: Hello?

Justin: Hi, what is our insurance policy number?

Me: (as my heart drops) Oh no, what did you do?!?

J: I shot a nail in my hand with a nail gun, I'm on my way to the InstaCare...

Me: YOU DID WHAT?!? Oh you've got to be kidding me....

J: Nope...

What our luck right?? I guess he was framing at a job site and was nailing a couple boards and was holding the board and the nail ricocheted off of something in the wood and went right into his hand, on the top side, right by his thumb.

**DON'T READ THIS NEXT PART IF YOU GET SICK BY TALKING ABOUT WOUNDS**

He said that he shook his hand when it happened and the nail flew out and then immediately blood started SPURTING out of the wound. He said there was blood EVERYWHERE! A line of blood walking to the truck, and while his boss was getting the first aid kit out he stood there and had a puddle of blood in his other hand, then his boss got his blood all over him while he was wrapping it. CRAZY!!

**OK ENOUGH WITH THE BLOOD**

Luckily, all of this will be on workers compensation! I am so glad his work is going to provide that for him. They are so good to us!

So he got to the InstaCare and they did an x-ray to make sure he didn't do any bone damage. The results came back and they said that he hit an artery and that is why the blood was literally spurting out of the cut. But NO bone damage. YIPPEE!! I guess if you damage or chip a bone they get really scared and monitor you like a hawk. Bone damage is very likely to get infected and if you get infection in your bones, you will most likely be in the hospital on drip lines (This is what Justin's boss's wife told me, she is in nursing school right now) Bone infection can result in amputation.

So they cleaned him up and put 6 stitches in his cuts. He had one big one where the nail initially went in and then 2 small ones probably from the nail just going in. So they are basically just skin tares. But his hand was SO swollen! Because he tore and damaged all the muscles where the nail went in plus it was bleeding under the skin.

So they gave him a prescription for any infection that might occur and also a prescription for Tylenol #3 with Codeine (sp?).

I ended up leaving work at about 11:20 and meeting him at the InstaCare. Good thing I did because he didn't have a ride. Plus he was pretty loopy from taking the Tylenol #3 because it makes you really tired. So we went to his boss's house and gave them the workers compensation information and then went home. He ended up sleeping from 2pm until 6pm. He was pretty wiped out! Not to mention in pain. He said it hurt pretty bad. It hurt to put pressure on his fingers Friday and Saturday but today he says it feels fine.

(Look how swollen it is!! Sorry if this grosses people out...)

The doctor who helped him wanted him to come back in 2 days for a re-check of the stitches just to make sure there was no infection. So we went back yesterday. It was a huge mess! The girls up front at the check in desk were new and were trying to make us make co-pays, and they were trying to get us to fill out new workers comp paperwork. But they didn't understand that we were just back for a check-up.

So they said the stitches looked REALLY good and should be ready to come out in 10 days. His hand is still really swollen but it should go down if he elevates it and doesn't use it a whole lot.

(He made me do it!! He thought it was so funny!)

He went back to work yesterday! So he's doing good!

My mom took my stitches out on Saturday. All went well, they hurt a little because the cut is still pretty tender, ESPECIALLY if i accidentally hit it. That hurts! The cut was still slightly open where it was cut the deepest so I am just going to keep some Butterfly closures on it for a couple of days. But it's going to be a pretty cool scare! That's for sure!

So here we are, the accident prone couple... Hopefully nothing comes next! Let's stay away from the accidents for now!

Baseball Cake & A Trip to the ER

Well... Here's one for the books!

Last week my good friend Lindsay asked me to make a birthday cake for her husbands birthday which was yesterday. We came up with the idea to do a baseball themed cake, and they wanted a devils food cake with oreo filling. So Monday night I baked the cakes, Tuesday I made the filling and the buttercream icing and last night I got off work an hour early so I could come home and put it all together.

Everything started out great I got the layers put together and sculpted the base of the cake with a knife that we got for our wedding 2 years ago but that I used for the first time last night. I shaped it to look like home plate. Then I iced it with an Ivory/Tan colored buttercream.

Then I placed the half baseball on, which was also chocolate cake just baked in a glass bowl to form the shape. I iced the baseball with white buttercream then put the bead border on in red buttercream.

Next I needed to write "Happy Birthday Justin" and put the laces on the baseball... Well here's where things went wrong....

It was 7:15pm and we were suppose to meet at Texas Roadhouse for Justin's birthday dinner at 7:00. We were already 15 minutes late so as you can imagine I was in a hurry and needed a tip that was in one of my piping bags. So on the table was that same knife I used to sculpt the cake and so I thought "Oh i could use this knife to cut the tip out of this bag" Well there I stood holding the piping bag in my left hand, picked up the knife and quickly cut the tip out of the piping bag without even thinking first. Well knives are sharp, they CUT, duh right??? So I ended up cutting right into my left middle finger. STUPID I KNOW!!

I knew immediately, I didn't even have to pause and look at the wound before I knew I needed stitches. So i grabbed a paper towel wrapped it around my finger and ran into the other room. I had to wake Justin up from his nap by frantically yelling "Justin I cut my finger, we need to go to the hospital NOW!" Justin was up within seconds ans took a look at the cut and said "Yep, let's go." So within less than 5 minutes we were at the ER in Lakeview hospital.

Luckily our insurance started with my work YESTERDAY... Lucky, Lucky, Lucky!

Let me just tell you how bad the pain was when the nurse put the numbing shot directly into the wound! I think I cut off the circulation in my husbands hand... It burned SO bad. But after the numbing medicine was in, I couldn't feel a thing. So 5 stitches later I was headed home to write happy birthday and put the laces on the baseball so I could take this cake over to the party.

It was not easy piping with a gimpy hand... Luckily it is my left hand, but it is still a challenge. You can tell the letters aren't that great

So in the end, the cake got MOSTLY done (I wanted to do more decorations and stuff) and we made it to the party, but missed dinner (which is the part I was looking forward to the most). I was pleased with the cake considering my injury.

I'm glad Lindsay asked me to make this cake! It was fun making the cake... but not so much the stitches part :o) But the doctor and nurse that helped me we very nice and very funny! The nurse has only been a nurse for 1 month!! Crazy, but he did a good job and was very kind. He is also a part time firefighter/paramedic (so it didn't make me nervous).

I think I might take a small break from making cakes... don't worry, not long though! I can only type with my pinky and ring finger on my left hand since my middle and pointer fingers are bandaged together right now. It's very interesting so if there are spelling errors, I do apologize!

Well until our next cake! See you then!