I apologize profusely for not updating more recently. Spring break and stuff has taken over. You would think I would have had more time/motivation to write over spring break, but it just did not happen.
Okay, so let's start with QCLX! I had decided since I couldn't come up with any grand ideas that I just wouldn't make anything. However, once our wonderful hosts found out that I baked, I had to! So I was sort of in a pinch, and just went with something I had done before- sunflowers. Sam helped as well :) They turned out alright. I was really in a hurry so I didn't have much time to pay attention to detail, but I think they look decent, don't you?

They went over really well. Sam and I actually ended up staying an extra day in Charlotte because I had spring break and he had a furlough day on Monday. On Sunday, we left the afternoon dance a little early because we were so tired. So we decided since he loves coffee and we both love baked goods, that he needed to find a coffee shop and I needed to find a bakery. We just searched the GPS, so all we had to go on were names. There were about 10 bakeries, and the one that sounded best to me was Amelie's French Bakery, and it was only a few miles away. So we went. At first we couldn't find it, and I was about to give up on it, but Sam insisted that if we drove down the street again it would be there. And sure enough, it was. We walked in and I'm pretty sure I gasped audibly. It was gorgeous. They have a huge corner space in a shopping center, and they decorated it with French antiques and a lot of do-it-yourself type items. They made some lamps from old busts, and honestly, I would decorate my house like that. It was perfect. And they had 4 cases full of tasty treats! One thing I really liked was they had miniature versions of many of their desserts so you could sample a few things. I didn't do this though because I noticed they had a chocolate mousse cup with a chocolate covered strawberry on top. Chocolate mousse is my favorite, so I had to try it. It was heavenly. The strawberry was one of the best I have ever tasted. Sam ordered a Napoleon, which has layers of moist wafers and some sort of sweet cream. It was topped with melted white chocolate with a dark chocolate drizzle. At first I was hesitant to try it, as I thought the filling was cream cheese and I hate cream cheese. But Sam assured me it wasn't, so I gave it a taste and it was delicious as well! We were both so happy. And while we were eating, I picked up one of their old French books they had on the coffee table and started reading it. I could not have been happier. It was glorious.
Since we ended up staying an extra day, we decided to go back to Amelie's for lunch the next day. Sam got a roast beef sandwich and I got un sandwich jambon avec fromage. He also got some coffee and I got some hot chocolate with salted caramel. Delicious. And of course, we got dessert. He got a salted caramel brownie, which was really crumbly, delicious, and light. I got two little things: a little lemon tart with a raspberry on it, and a chocolate peanut butter petit four. Both were yummmm. It was so heavenly. We sat at a little table by the window and played Set and ate our delicious treats. When we were leaving I bought some spreadable cheese that they make there. It was roasted garlic and feta and I got some bread to go with it. I've been putting it on sandwiches and it has been really good. I also got a San Pellegrino lemon soda that was really good too. So yeah,
Amelie's was a huge success.
Anyway, now back to what I have been baking! Last week was my friend Brandon's birthday, so I made him a cake. I used Paula Deen's Savannah Chocolate Cake, Alton Brown's cocoa whipped cream, and Emeril Lagasse's chocolate ganache. It turned out really light and yummy. And pretty :) The writing is white chocolate, by the way.

In fact, it was so yummy that my friends requested more, so I made two smaller cakes the other day:


And THEN this week, we had three girls with birthdays at swing night, so I made a cake for them too! For sake of getting this blog post up, I will post pictures of it later. It's a lemon cake with raspberry filling frosted with lemon whipped cream.
The recipe for the lemon cake I used is technically a lemon bar recipe, but every other time I've made it it came out more cake-like than bar-like. Of course, as life would have it, this time when I tried to make it as cake, it came out really dense...like a bar. It was still alright though. It wasn't quite as lemon-y as I wanted either. I think next time I'll just find an actual lemon cake recipe.
Up next: lemon tart. I've been thinking about that one I had at Amelie's ever since we went there, and I want to see if I can recreate the deliciousness. Swung is going up to stay at a cabin in Blue Ridge this weekend, so perhaps I will attempt it then.
As far as the business/job side of things goes, still no word from anyone. I made a
fan page on facebook and I've gotten a pretty good number of fans for it just being up for a few days. About 95% of them are people I know, but hey, it gets the word out. I also made a temporary logo and am in the process of getting a friend to make a permanent one for me. Here's the temporary one:

After I have the permanent logo I'm going to make some business cards to put next to my cakes when I take them places. Hopefully all of this will be done by next Friday because that's ATLX (Atlanta Lindy Exchange) and I'm making a cake for that. There will be a lot of people there so it would be great to have my cards out then.
Also, I think I have officially decided that I want to do this for my career. I realized that a lot of my hobbies and talents from my childhood up until now have prepared me for this. Even when I was a little kid I loved creating things. My mom can attest to the fact that I was always working on some project or another. I made all kinds of things. I also loved cooking and baking, and even made my own little "restaurant" one time, entitled "Le Petit Cafe." No wonder I loved Amelie's...it was Le Petit Cafe all grown up! I am still going to finish school, at least my undergraduate degree, and we'll see what happens from there. I won't even be finished with that until May of 2012, so I could be making wonderful cakes by then and making enough money for it to be my only job. That would be ideal. If that's not the case, and I don't have money to open a small bakery, then I will do my extra one year to get my master's. Then I could do counseling while I really try and get my business going.
I do have one "real" job lined up: I'm making the groom's cake for a wedding I'm in this summer. It's going to be a Georgia Tech cake (yuck!), but hey, it's a job.
I toyed with the idea of taking the Wilton Cake Decorating classes at Michael's, but honestly I just can't afford it. It's $90 for course one, plus the book and supplies. And I would need to take all of the courses I can. They have at least three right now, and there is no way I can even come close to affording it. Plus, I seem to be doing alright just teaching myself, but even that is getting expensive. Supply costs are beginning to add up. Also, I need to bake stuff to practice, but I really don't want to bake a whole bunch of stuff and let it just sit at the house. It would either get wasted, or we would eat it, which we don't need to do. I lost a lot of weight last semester, but recently I have gained a few pounds back and I want to prevent that from continuing as much as possible, so unless I'm baking for an event, I'm trying not to bake. But doing that is curbing my progress. So, I'm sort of at a catch-22. It's a little discouraging, but if I have to, I could just buy some styrofoam and practice my icing skills on that. I'd rather not, but I could. It seems like a waste of food, which I hate.
Well, this has officially been the longest blog post ever. Sorry about that. I'll try and update more often so it's not quite so much at once.
Side note: my new friend
Sarah made a wonderful plum buckle and sent some to me (via Sam). It was delicious. I'm glad to have someone to trade food with. :) (P.S. If you click on her name, you will be taken to her cooking blog!)
I think that's all for now.
'Till next time,
The Flower-Haired Girl