This week I am working on cleaning and organizing my work area. Not the most glamorous part of the job, but it’s necessary and it gives me time to think. As I have been working, I have been noticing the size of my space. It looks to me like my kitchen is shrinking. I’m sure all of this stuff fit in here before but it’s just a little crammed. I can definitely see the need for a larger work area. For some reason, it has gotten me thinking back to my high school days.

When I was in high school, I was in band. Yes, I was the epitome of a band nerd and I wear that label with pride. I love the arts and I hope that they stay strong for the future generations. Getting back to my point. I played one of those cheap student model clarinets for all of my music career. A clarinet that definitely has it’s limits. I had always dreamed of a nice Buffet Crampon R13 Professional model clarinet with the finest grenadilla wood and beautiful nickel keys. But I didn’t sit around and wait for it. I kept playing my cheap Yamaha. I practiced hard to overcompensate for the limitations of my clarinet. My band teacher even told me that he was amazed at the sound that I was able to create from such an instrument and he could only imagine what I could do with a professional clarinet.

I think back on that, and at the time, I thought it was such a handicap to not have the best instrument. But now I can see that it was ok and maybe even an advantage. I had to work hard for what I accomplished. It wasn’t just handed to me in the form of a beautiful clarinet. I think that that little student model Yamaha may just have been more valuable to my success in life than any professional clarinet ever could have been.

So, I’ll keep dreaming of the day when I can have my extra large kitchen with my five Hobart mixers, and my professional ovens, and walk-in feezer. . . . and my flower room, and photo studio, and consultation room. But in the mean time, I’ll be here, working extra hard to make the most amazing wedding cakes and event cakes that Utah (and the world) has ever seen.  And a friendly word of advice to my fellow budding cake artists. It may be a long hard road, but don’t give up. Limitations are artificial and self-inflicting. Work extra hard and you’ll be better for it.

I heard the news this morning about a very prominent cake decorating company in Chicago. Mary and Brenda Maher, the owners of Cake Girls, lost their business in a fire last night. If you watch Food Network Challenge or We’s Amazing Wedding Cakes, you probably know who these talented sisters are. They have made a big name for themselves and have run a very successful business.

Even though I don’t know them personally, I feel so bad for their loss. A fire would have to be such a devastating thing. Being a family business, I’m sure they have lost so many valuable things. The tools and building that were lost are replaceable, but I’m sure there is a lot of book keeping and information that they have lost that won’t be recoverable. It is a good reminder for small businesses to keep copies of their information off site. For me, this is definitely a place for improvement.

From what I hear, the building that burned down was not only their business. It was also a home for several residents. My heart goes out to all of those that have been affected by this disaster and I hope that everyone can have the things that they need to get back on their feet.

Last night my wonderful husband very kindly reminded me that my Ultimate Cake Off competition was not really my first live competition. So, after coming out of my terrible flashback, I decided it would make a fun story for my blog. I don’t know why I am torturing myself. I guess it’s to show that everyone has their down days. Nobody is perfect and I’m the first to admit that.

First Live Competition

by Amelia Carbine

Once upon a time there was a cake artist who entered a cake in the Oklahoma State Sugar Art Show. 2008 to be exact. She did so well that she went back the next year to defend her title. A few months before the competition, she was asked to participate in a live competition. She was assured that it was a small competition, meant to be for fun and entertainment. The cake artist anxiously agreed because being chosen by the Grand Master Sugar Artist (Kerry Vincent) as one of four competitors was such an honor. What the cake artist failed to take into consideration, was that she had just recently had a beautiful baby boy who (while being an extremely good baby) required much attention.

The day came when the cake artist set off on her journey of 24 hours to the land of Tulsa with her wonderful and super supportive sister and her tiny 4 month old baby. She was behind in her work and knew that it would be a push to complete her entry into the Grand National Wedding Cake Competition. The journey went amazingly well and they arrived in good time. So the cake artist set to work to finish her masterpiece QUICKLY so she could have time to prepare for her upcoming live competition.

The cake artist worked long into the night. She was still working when the sun began to peak through her hotel window. At that moment, she knew that she had run out of time. A choice had to be made. Should she sacrifice the quality of work on her masterpiece or go into battle (live competition) unprepared? It was a hard decision to make, but she knew that the reason that she was there was to have an amazing wedding cake entry, so she chose to continue her work on the wedding cake.

After finishing her masterpiece, the cake artist hurriedly made a futile attempt to prepare for her live competition. However, the time of the competition had arrived. The cake artist sized up her fierce competitors with their amazing weapons of filled cakes and gumpaste sculptures. Then she looked at her measly weapons. Cakes- not filled, her gumpaste- untouched in it’s packaging. It would be a long, hard two hour battle.

Time started and the cake artist bravely, but solemnly, began her battle. Head down and not willing to give up, she filled and covered her cakes while the other competitors around her placed neatly made ornaments on their cakes. It was pure torture for two long hours, but finally the time was up. She had completed her cake as well as time would allow.  The cake artist was relieved that it was over and walked away from the competition knowing that she had failed miserably. And on top of the embarrassment, she forgot to gather her consolation prize of a very nice three tiered cake stand.

But she learned from her mistakes and got a small taste of what live competitions are all about which helped her in competing in a much bigger battle where she faired quite a bit better.

And she lived Happily Ever After!

THE END

So, this isn’t really cake related, but everybody at my Ultimate Cake Off viewing party loved the little wrap bites that I made and wanted me to share my recipe. So, here it is.

Mexican Wrap

8 oz garden vegetable cream cheese

juice from 1 lime

1/4 cup cilantro

1/4 cup green onions, chopped

4 oz can diced green chiles

Mix all of the ingredients until well combined. Spread mix over a tortilla and add fillings of your choice. Wrap tortillas tightly and then serve whole or slice into bite size pieces.

The fillings I use are:

ham, turkey, sliced tomato, lettuce, sliced avocado

This will be very short since I just posted. I just noticed that the Meet the Teams page on the Ultimate Cake Off website has been updated. There is a great picture of me and my amazing team on there. Go check it out!

We did it! Our show aired last night. I was so anxious and nervous before it aired. All day long I played the competition out in my head and thought about everything that happened and everything that was said. I was so curious to find out what parts were included in the final cut.

The show turned out amazingly well! I am so happy about the way we were portrayed. Out of 9 hours, I’m sure there were plenty of goof-ups and silly things that we did. I’m sure that the final show could have been much less flattering. But as it was, I felt like they showed the real events of the competition and emphasized the things that really were as they were. Great Job TLC and whoever it was that edited the show.

Ok. Enough about the editing… lets talk competition! A lot happens in 9 hours! And that’s not even including the preparation before or the aftermath. Here are some behind the scenes things that weren’t shown that might be interesting to read about.

• I got a phone call 2 weeks before the competition and was asked if I could compete. Normally, contestants are given a bit more notice… not the case here. When all of the deciding and traveling was added into the picture, we had pretty much one week to prepare for this extreme competition. When we got there, we were met by everyone telling us how brave we were to take on something so huge in so little time. I think we were a little crazy to take it on, but how do you say no to such a huge opportunity?

• With us being so pressed for time, we actually didn’t bring all of our own cake. We ordered it through a company in California. I won’t say much because my mother taught me to be nice… but the cake was terrible and it was very difficult to work with. We struggled a lot with that awful cake which put us back on the clock quite a bit. But, being the skilled decorators that we are, we were able to work through that fiasco.

• When it was time for the piping skills test I was nervous. I was going up against years of experience. If you watch the show and look closely at each of my tiers, I tried to tie the borders together by using a star tip and round tip alternately throughout the tiers. It was not just a test to see how many borders we could think of but having an overall pleasing look. After the test was complete and I saw the work of the others compared to mine, I knew I had won that test.

• About the wires! My husband was the man behind the wires and in his defense, the wires were long enough. We just made the fatal mistake of pulling the wire too far through the bottom end of the cake and then we taped it to the shaft. The structure worked perfectly. Just one small oversight… and hundreds of cake pounds later, it was a catastrophe.

• You may think that showing the final minutes as rushing to the finish is just silly and drama. Well, it may be for some, but for us I think they mellowed it out. At about an hour left in the competition, we didn’t even have half of our tiers stacked. After the issue with our wiring, we had to just kick it into high gear and get about 6 tiers of cake stacked, finish piping the details that we didn’t get put on before like we had planned, put on all of the flowers, pipe all the borders…. what else? It was a circus act in the last 10 minutes. We were climbing over each other on the ladders, running circles around the cake… we were everywhere. But we did it!

So now that you know a little more, here is a picture of our sketch along with a picture of the final cake. I think it turned out so amazingly beautiful. My team was amazing and I am so proud of us for pulling it together.

So I don’t think that I will make a habit of posting on weekends. I like to get a break. But I guess when there’s something fun to write about, why not?

First, I just wanted to say thanks for all of you wonderful students that made my class so fun. I had a great time and I hope you all had fun too. It was nice to see some familiar faces as well as a lot of new ones. I just love what I do. I get to play with sugar and hang out with really cool people. Who wouldn’t like that?

Also, I was informed that the write-up for my Ultimate Cake Off Episode has been posted on the TLC website. It’s a pretty fun write-up and I am SO excited to be able to watch the show in TWO DAYS! Go check out the write-up and be sure to tune in on Monday (March 22nd). It will be “the most intense Ultimate Cake Off ever!”

To read about my episode, scroll to the bottom to Episode 8!

I don’t have the dates set yet, but I’m really excited about a class series that I will be teaching in Salt Lake City, Utah somewhere between the end of May or beginning of June. I will teach a two day beginning class and a two day advanced class.  Here’s the lineup.

Beginning Class

Day 1- Baking and Building

Day 2- Designing and Decorating

Advanced Class

Day 1- Structure and Sculpting

Day 2- Flowers and Figures

I will have more details as soon as I get a date figured out. I just am so excited about these classes that I had to share. If anyone out there is interested in these classes and wants to give input or make requests, I would love to hear from you.

I tested some recipe combinations for my Decadent Gourmet Cupcake Class this Saturday. I am really loving these cupcakes. It’s a good thing I don’t have these around my house every day. Self control is something I don’t have much of, especially when it involves things like mascarpone buttercream or coconuts and macadamias. Yum!