It Was a Moo-ving Experience.

It was an utterly wonderful experience, and there is no bull about it. I have a bunch of these, so I apologize now, it came from a story I did on Cow Patty Bingo, however I digress. This is the moo-ving tale of a livestock agent, a surprise, and a cow cake (great elements right?).

I was having an e-mail discussion with a group I work with about a meeting. In the midst of all the details it came up that one of our livestock agents was having a birthday the day of our meeting. From there were chewed on the information and determined a cake was in order. The only issue was how would the cake get there because I was not going to be able to go. So my counterpart who was coming over to drop stuff off offered to pick up the cake and get it there. In the back of my head I was milking the information, trying to determine how she would get the cake over there without the livestock agent seeing it since they were riding together, but what the hey? I knew she could handle it.

There was a quick decision about the cake. A livestock agent meant animals could be used, especially pigs, goats, lambs, and cows. After a little more thought we determined the cow would be the most appropriate and I some how milked the situation to create a diary cow, instead of a beef cow which is what she really works with. My colleague picked up the cake from me the night before and disguised it in a trash bag in the back of the van for ride over to the meeting. When asked by the intended receipt what it was she said casually, "oh just some supplies" which was accepted without hesitation.

After making the trip across three counties, and having lunch the meeting was getting ready to commence. For those like myself who could not attend, we were hooking up via computer conference to the meetings. The twist here is that the birthday woman was also the technical person. So, as the story was told to me, as she is working at getting it all set up and having technical difficulties they brought the cake in, candles, singing and all and red faced about the difficulties I believe she told me her thoughts were, " are you kidding? Thanks, but right now."

In the end the technical difficulties were grazed over, the cake was cut, and chocolate seemed to so the the tension and add a special sugar high to the meeting. I told you it was a moo-ving story.

A Party for Baby Boy Shooter

I love where I work because we are like a great big family. When one member of our family is celebrating we all celebrate. Recently our livestock agent, let's call her Michelle, found out she and her husband were expecting. Being avid outdoors people they were even more thrilled to find out that the baby was to be a boy.

So as part of our office celebration there was a baby shower complete with gifts, food and of course a cake. We have a committee that designates how such events are handled and when they came to me to do the cake I was excited. I knew I had the baby carriage and was thinking about an N. C. State theme. However I was later informed that the room had a jungle theme and I needed to include that theme with the cake. So I did what does not come naturally to me and decorated the cake in Carolina Blue....I mean baby boy blue. However to go with the jungle theme I add vines to the design and added a welcome baby Shooter to the cake. I must say this was not the only cake at this party. Two of my creative co-workers created two diaper cakes (tiered cake creations made of diapers-not edible but highly useful in the future), one that matched the cake, the other with an N.C. State theme. All in all it was a wonderful event.

The best part of this story however is that I can announce that Jackson, arrived a few days early and very healthy at 8 lbs 11 oz. Mom, Dad and baby are doing great and I just want to bake another cake to celebrate.

Oh Oh...Oreo?????

I have ever told you how much I enjoy the people I work with? This cake is thanks in part to them. For Christmas my mother ordered a sandwich cookie cake pan. The neat thing about this pan is that it is very detailed on the top and bottom cookies and then the icing goes in the middle. Takes no time to decorate. The present was back ordered and arrived after Christmas at my office. So I could not help but share my good fortune with my co-workers who suggested maybe I should start testing cakes with them. After all I would not want to sell a bogus cake (see how selfless my co-workers are?). So over the weekend I baked the cake which was a dense chocolate cake with butter cream icing in the center. How bad can it be for you, after all the entire project involved three sticks of butter. I consider it health because I used unsalted butter for this one. I believe one of my testers said she was going to spend the evening in a diabetic coma after eating a slice. A few testers from the health department came by to get sodas and I offered them some. They seemed quite taken with it. I think the official cookie cake will now be part of the cake menu.

Oh Deer Christmas is Over?

Every once in awhile I have to bake a cake just to bake it or give it to someone or someones very special. A very special family so deserved a cake, so I baked this one for them the day before Christmas. Delivery was not via the Santa express which made it very difficult to get it to them so I delayed on the decorating and keep the cake fresh with a little bakers secret...I kept it in the freezer until I decorated it today.

The family I made it for, in essence, has adopted me and I am in training as a plumbers child. I have already fixed toilets in three states and another country. Not to mention that their daughter, who used to be one of my co-workers, and is currently one of my volunteers (once you get into 4-H you never want to leave) is one of my best friends. When dad and little brother came and helped bail me out of the lake that had formed in my kitchen...the least I could do is bake a cake for them.

The cake is a butter cake and is supposed to be Rudy the Reindeer. I am guessing this is Wilton's way of making a Rudolph the Reindeer cake pan without infringing on copyrights or trademarks. I thought about stringing lights from the antlers to make it more holiday like but since it is the beginning of the year I decided against it. One of the designs shows the deer with a hat and making it a hunting deer which could be a great idea for an avid hunter in need of a cake. Just a few neat ideas to help round off celebrating the holiday.

It's Beginning to Feel a lot like Christmas....

In case you haven't figured it out it is very rare for me to say no to cake. Not just because I have issues in trying to please everyone but also because I love to bake cakes. So when one of my co-workers, let's call her Aggie, asked me to bake a cake for a church function how could I resist? Last year, you may remember, I made a cake to celebrate Jesus's birthday. This year we did something a little more in the holiday spirit but still with a religious story (or should I say fable) surrounding it, and made a candy cane cake.

The fable of the candy cane talks about an Indiana candy maker who wanted to make something special to honor Christ's Birthday and made this candy white for his purity, red drops (or strips) stand for the blood he shed, and it is in the shape of a J to represent his name. Although historians have proven the story to be inaccurate, it is Christmas so why not believe?

So in the spirit of the holiday and having faith and believing, I set out to make this cake. It is a yellow butter cake, actually two to make sure we had enough to feed everyone at the church. The candy cane cake is on top of a sheet cake. They candy cane is traditional with red and white strips and if you smell hard enough you would even swear you can smell the peppermint flavoring traditional with all candy canes. When I delivered the cake everyone seemed please and ready for the annual church celebration. I must say the decor was festive with Santa's from Aggie's personal collection scattered everywhere. I know they had a great time and those children left full of faith and belief in the real meaning of the holiday.

It's a Fancy Nancy Christmas

Christmas time is one of my favorite times of the year. So when my the children's librarian asked if I could make a cake for the Fancy Nancy Christmas Party I was honored and confused. I must admit I am not up on my children's literature (actually if it is Winnie the Pooh I can fill you in on the details). Fancy Nancy, I found out thanks to a quick Internet search, is one of the hottest characters around. She is the main character for a series of books and everything she comes into contact with suddenly much fancier. When I got to the library (later than planed...thanks to a lake detour in my kitchen-fixed thanks to my talented adopted McLean family) there were still about 30 very fancy children with crowns, necklaces, and other fancy accessories. So I brought in the Christmas Tree Cake. Instead of a star on top I made a crown-just to make it fancy. I also replaced red ornaments with pink, because it seemed to be a fundamental necessity for a Fancy Nancy cake. It took mere moments to cut the cake and divide up among the fanciest of guests. As a special reward I was given the opportunity to pull the ticket for a Fancy Nancy basket. It seems as if it was a sweet day for all involved.

How Many Times Can You Celebrate One Birthday?

The answer to that question is based on your age. When you turn one hundred you can celebrate for at least three years and have as many cakes as you want. That's right we celebrated the North Carolina 4-H Centennial again. This time it was as part of the annual 4-H Youth Achievement Night in Robeson County.

The cake was actually three sheet cakes. I carved them into a one and two zeros. Each cake was also a different flavor. The one was a butter cake, one of the zero's was devil's food cake while the other was a marble cake. All were iced in white icing with green border, and confetti sprinkles across the top of each.

As part of the event the 4-H staff, State Senator Michael Walters, County Commissioner Hubert Sealey and County Extension Director Everett Davis took part in the cake cutting. The audience of 120 sang happy birthday, twice. To see photos from the special evening and learn more about the night check out the 4-H blog.

The cake seemed to go over well. When we cleaned up from the evening...there was less than one cake left, and people taking cake home with them. Congratulations 4-H!